Zopo Speed 8

The Zopo Speed 8 is the world's first smartphone to feature MediaTek's flagship Helio X20 SoC. In case you're not familiar with this beast - it's the first with a deca-core processor (yes, that's 10 CPU cores).

But first things first. The Zopo Speed 8 has a 5.5" IPS 1080p display and rocks a 21MP Sony IMX230 camera with phase-detection AF and a dual-tone flash. There is an 8MP selfie shooter with a front LED flash too. The inbuilt storage is 32GB, expandable of course, while the battery is the beefy 3,600mAh.

The Speed 8 has a USB Type-C connectivity port, supports fast charging and LTE connectivity.

We stopped by at Zopo's booth and grabbed a Speed 8 for a quick hands-on.



ZOPO Speed 8

The Zopo Speed 8 is made of matte plastic, which is very nice to the touch and immune to fingerprints. It feels very sturdy too. The glossy silver frame, on the other hand looks like it might start chipping and showing other signs of wear and tear very quickly. It may look like a metal frame at first, but it's a plastic lookalike.

We like the silver accents around the earpiece, the rear camera, and the fingerprint scanner on the back. The biometric sensor is placed perfectly there, right at your index fingertip.



Zopo Speed 8

The phone isn't the thinnest there is, but it hits a good spot when it comes to weight. It feels right in the hand, not too light and not too heavy, and offers a nice grip thanks to the matte finish. We liked its clean design and handling.



ZOPO Speed 8

The Zopo Speed 8 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with little to no customizations, and the experience is very close to the pure Android we are used to in the Nexus line of smartphones. The OS was snappy and ran without hiccups although we didn't actually test how it will handle heavy apps.



ZOPO Speed 8

And now, the Helio X20 chipset. It has a 10-core 3-cluster processor - 2x Cortex-A72 @ 2.5GH + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.4GHz. The GPU is Mali-T880 MP4, and there are 4GB of RAM. The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge utilize the same GPU in their Exynos models, but it's Mali-T880 MP12, which means three times as many cores as the Helio X20's GPU.

We ran a few benchmarks on the Zopo Speed 8. The single-core performance meets the expectations but the multi-core performance falls somewhat short. We suspect GeekBench 3 isn't reading all three clusters of CPU cores and will need an update.

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

Xiaomi Mi 5

2320

Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge

2108

Zopo Speed 8

1625

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

1490

Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)

1466

Huawei Nexus 6P

1363

Lenovo Vibe X3

1266

Meizu m1 metal

883

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge

6395

Xiaomi Mi 5

5422

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

5158

Meizu MX5

5110

Meizu m1 metal

4825

Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)

4759

Huawei Nexus 6P

4539

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

4537

Zopo Speed 8

4128

Lenovo Vibe X3

3644

HTC One A9

3209

Oppo R7s

3206

We can't be sure whether the rest of the benchmarks were properly gauging the 10-core processor either.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge

114250

Huawei Nexus 6P

89345

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

83167

Zopo Speed 8

68654

Lenovo Vibe X3

66762

Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)

64591

HTC One A9

60324

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

45474

Oppo R7s

35959

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

Huawei Nexus 6P

2040

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

1789

Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)

1529

Zopo Speed 8

1471

Lenovo Vibe X3

1413

Meizu MX5

1252

Meizu m1 metal

1039

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

1018

HTC One A9

944

Oppo R7s

930

The GPU test Basemark X shows the quad-core Mali-T880 isn't the best performer out there, but it should perfectly handle everything on its 1080p display, even the heaviest of games.

Basemark X

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

26333

Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge

24862

Huawei Nexus 6P

22825

Lenovo Vibe X3

15599

Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)

15290

Meizu MX5

10403

Zopo Speed 8

9311

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

8540

Meizu m1 metal

8526

HTC One A9

6617

Oppo R7s

5302

You should note this is a pre-production unit, and the performance will improve when it's finalized. Those benchmark apps most probably need an update to support the new chipset too.

Finally, we weren't able to test the camera performance. On a positive note, you can use the fingerprint scanner as a hardware shutter when taking selfies.

Zopo Speed 8 will be available for purchase globally this April from Zopo's online shop.