Kata V6 Review - Slight Upgrade

Kata V6 is the latest offering from the smartphone company. It has the similar look with its predecessor the V5 last year but this time, it has a fingerprint sensor.

Meet the Kata V6

Kata V6 Specs

Display: 5.0-inch FWVGA IPS 854 x 480 resolution w/ 2.5D curved glass at 218 ppi

CPU: 1.3GHz MT6580 quad-core processor

GPU: Mali 400

RAM: 1GB

ROM: 8GB expandable via microSD card slot

Back Camera: 8MP f/2.4 w/ AF and LED flash

Selfie Camera: 5MP

Battery: 2,400mAh

OS: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, dual SIM

Sensors: Gravity, proximity, ambient light

Others: Fingerprint sensor, 6 ohm loud speaker, Colors: white gold, black

Dimensions: 135 x 67.5 x 8.9 mm 

Weight: 149 g

Price: PHP 3,399

Disclaimer: Kata Philippines seeded us the unit for our honest review.

Unboxing / Accessories

What's inside?

Inside the box of the Kata V6 are the phone, documentation, micro USB to USB cord and one battery unlike with its predecessor that has two batteries although it is no longer relevant in the market today.

Build Quality / Design

Kata V6 back

The build of the V6 is exactly similar with the V5. The predecessor's "special back button" now works as a fingerprint sensor for added security.

Good build quality!

Its backplate is made of plastic with the Kata logo branding next to the fingerprint sensor. V6 is still built with the usual textured metal frame.

3.5 mm headphone jack on top

Micro USB port on bottom

Volume and power buttons on the right side

This time, the micro USB port is placed on the bottom while leaving the headphone jack on the top.

The volume rockers are on the right side together with the power button just below it.

Overall build and design is decent, the phone is still handy to hold.

Display Quality

Kata V6 5-inch display

Kata V6 features a 5-inch IPS 854 x 480 resolution w/ 2.5D curved glass at 218 ppi. The display is outdated for 2018. There are phones with better screens at this price point.

But, the Kata V6 still has a decent display with just okay viewing angles. The colors have slightly improved as well.

Its predecessor has 5 points of touch but the V6 has surprisingly have only 2-point multi touch.

Audio Quality

The V6 has one single loudspeaker placed on its back. It makes a casual listening but doesn't make sounds that loud even if you crank it to the highest volume and expect crooked sounds.

The Kata V6 has no earphones inside the package upon purchase. I used my Sony MDR AS-200 earphones to test its audio headphone output. As expected, the V6 cannot perform HiFi level but it still produces clean and decent mids. Overall, its audio output performs above average that can accommodate to everyone’s liking.

However, we suggest that you stream music via Spotify or MP3 files since it can’t run huge 24 but and above lossless files.

Meanwhile, it's single microphone has a nice quality. But just like its predecessor, it does not support ambient noise cancellation that might make a problem when recording.

Battery Life

Better battery performance than V5

The Kata V6 is packed with 2,400mAh battery. It is higher than the 1,800mAh of the V5 and lasts longer, definitely.

Our battery test shows that the V6 can lasts long up to 7 hours and 34 minutes. It's an improvement for last year's 6 hours.

For our review, we used the V6 as our secondary phone for taking calls, SMS, playing games, and casual social media browsing; it lasted a whole day.

Charging time is around two hours.

Camera

The Kata V6 is equipped with 8MP f/2.4 rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash. It offers beautification, panorama, and HDR.

Its HDR mode require you to be steady because it take V6 two to three seconds to take the shot.

Surprisingly, the V6 exceeded my low expectations for its camera. It took nice shots under daylight but would require you to opt for flash when shooting on low-light.

Overall, the 8MP camera for ts price point is not that bad.

Rear Camera Samples 

Daylight

HDR 1

HDR 2

Indoor

Lowlight without flash

On the other hand, the selfie camera of the V6 is equipped with 5MP. It has a beautification mode but over-beautifies the subject.

It shoots an acceptable selfie but grainy. You can also notice that the selfie camera is like zoomed-in when you open it unlike the other common selfie camera.

Selfie Camera Samples

Well-lit selfie

Beautification

Low-lighted selfie

For the video recording, the V6 can write 1080p both on back and front camera but do not expect it to perform well.

Performance

Kata V6 benchmark results

The Kata V6 runs on the Android 6.0 Marshmallow with 1.3GHz MT6580 quad-core processor plus 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory expandable via microSD slot. 

The V6 experience was snappy for us, it barely lags but it is noticeably slowing down when there are lots of background apps running can be blamed to it 1GB RAM.

The NBA 2K18 and other heavy games will not run in this smartphone but can keep up with other games at low settings. If you've been playing for a while now, you can notice the heating up of the device.

The Kata UI is still using the outdated Android icons. It has several bloats as well.

The fingerprint sensor of the V6 works fine and snappy

Overall, the Kata V6 has a decent and acceptable performance. The WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS works well. The sensors are nice and did not give us any dropped calls.

It has no LTE connectivity though.

Pros - Good build, decent screen, fingerprint sensor, nice battery performance

Cons - Used the V5 design, only two points of touch, selfie camera performance

Verdict

The Kata V6 has a decent overall performance. We appreciated that the added a fingerprint reader and larger battery. 

But, it could have been better if they revamped the built and design instead of using an old one and improved its basic specs.

You can get the V6 at PHP 3,399

Build / Design - 3

Display - 3.5

Audio - 3.5

Battery - 3.5

Performance - 3.5

Average - 3.4 / 5