Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series has been one of the most successful among budget smartphones. I have the cheapest version of the Redmi Note 5a that costs just about $120 but it offers a lot of features for the price. Learn more in the full Xiaomi Redmi Note  5a review.

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

The phone ships in a rather unusual for Xiaomi red box. Inside of it, you can find all the usual stuff, no extras included.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, the Redmi Note 5a is kind of plain looking and it is very similar to the Redmi 4a. The phone is made entirely of plastic and while it does not look or feel premium, the build quality is excellent.

The 5.5” display sports only 72op resolution but it is still quite sharp for everyday use.

We do have an IR blaster, a notification LED light and 5MP selfie shooter but the buttons are not backlit.

There is no fingerprint scanner on this phone whereas the Prime model has this feature.

As for the camera, we have a 13MP shooter with a single LED flash.

The sound quality via the headset jack is pretty good and the loudspeaker is not bad at all for the price of the phone.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The hardware configuration is not really impressive on the Redmi Note 5a but this is what you have to expect at this price point.

The phone has a Snapdragon 425 chip, just 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. What is awesome, is that there is a dedicated microSD card slot along with a dual-SIM card tray. I think this should become a standard feature on each phone.

The gaming performance is pretty good overall. However, you should expect some skipped frames in some of the 3D games if you play them on the highest graphics settings.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

My Redmi Note 5a shipped with the original Chinese ROM, meaning that I had to install Google Services myself but it takes just a minute to do that. MIUI 8.5 is based on Android 7.1 and if you used any Xiaomi phone before, you will feel right at home as nothing has really changed much. We have the same looks, features, customization options and little tweaks to make the phone look your own.

I’ve installed a lot of apps as usual and I found the phone to be snappy and responsive all the time and that’s the most important thing on any phone.

IMAGE QUALITY

The image quality is quite good considering the fact this is a $120 phone. However, even at this price point, I would love to see more detail and sharpness in the pictures.

The low-light camera performance is quite good but again, this is a budget phone camera after all.

The selfies look nice and clear, I don’t have many complaints here.

The 1080p video is above average as the footage could look sharper but that is the case with most of the phones in this price range.

The 1080p selfie video looks great. The sound recording quality could have been decent but there is a lot of background noise, which is caused by a poor implementation of noise reduction or other stuff.

Download full resolution camera samples

CONNECTIVITY

As far as connectivity goes, I have no complaints.  Everything, including Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS works fine. Also, the call quality and signal reception are decent.

BATTERY LIFE

A 3080mAh battery performs very well, like on most of the Xiaomi phones. Depending on how you use the phone, you should expect to achieve 8 or 9 hours of screen-on time. Well, these were my results.

The phone supports Qualcomm® Quick Charge 2.0 technology but it ships just with a regular charger. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the device.

CONCLUSIONS

The Redmi Note 5a is another budget phone made Xiaomi. Again, it offers quite a lot of value for the price but honestly, I don’t see any significant upgrades over the last generation models.

I would love to see a slightly better camera and a fingerprint scanner even at this price point but overall,  I still think that the Xiaomi Note Redmi 5a is a solid phone for the price but you can also check out the older Xiaomi phones, as they are very similar to this one.

What do you guys think about the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5a?

The post Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A Review – Revolution or More of the Same? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Geotel is relatively new smartphone company from China that produces cheap devices. The Amigo is one of their latest models and it actually offers quite a lot value for the price of just about $100. Learn more in the full Geotel Amigo review.

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXdZ-N7XXsc[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff, no extras included.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design, the Geotel Amigo is one of those rare compact phones that has 5.2” 720p display, which is actually great. It’s sharp and vibrant for both indoor and outdoor use.

The phone is made mostly of metal, except for the plastic top and bottom parts, the buttons do not rattle and in general, I don’t have any complaints about the build quality.

Just above the display, we have a 5MP shooter, which is coupled with the LED flash. Also, there is the LED notification light. On the bottom, there are on-screen navigation keys.

As for the camera, we have a 13MP shooter and dual LED flash. The fingerprint scanner may not be the fastest out there but it gets the job done and it unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode.

The loudspeaker is not going to impress you but it is decent for a $100 phone.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The phone sports pretty good specs for the price. The device ships with an octa-core MTK6753 chip (1.3GHz), 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

The gaming performance is pretty good if you play the 3D games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics. However, you should expect quite a few skipped frames if you switch the graphics settings to the max.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

The Geotel Amigo ships with a stock Android 7.0 out of the box.

There are a few added features like gesture and motion controls that work pretty well but what is the most important is that the phone is really fast, fluid and responsive all the time, even after installing quite a few apps.

CAMERAS

The Geotel Amigo can take some good-looking pictures in good lighting conditions. There is a good amount of detail, the pictures look quite sharp and in general, these are decent results from a $100 phone.

However, the camera falls apart in low-light scenarios.

Selfie pictures look bad and you will find a hard time using it for social media.

The front-facing LED flash lets you take selfies at night. Don’t expect great image quality but you may find it useful from time to time.

The 1080p video quality is just mediocre like on most of the cheap phones. Selfie video quality is kind of terrible.

Download full resolution camera samples

CONNECTIVITY

When it comes to connectivity, the call quality is above average, the Wifi works fine and GPS is usable for navigation although it is not the most accurate out there.

BATTERY LIFE

The 3000mAh battery performs quite well. I was able to get over 5 hours of screen-on time, which is a good result considering the fact that I used the phone quite intensively.

CONCLUSIONS

The Geotel Amigo is actually a pretty good phone for less than $100 since it has a good build quality, decent specs and display and good overall performance. Also, the main camera can take decent images in daylight but it falls apart in low-light and the selfie camera is really bad.

If you don’t mind these shortcomings, the Geotel Amigo is a decent phone for the price considering the overall package you get for less than $100.

The post Geotel Amigo Review – A Good $100 Smartphone! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Vernee is known for its budget phones and the Thor E is one of their latest models. It offers some cool features like a black and white display that saves power, a huge 5200mAh battery and a lot more for less than $120. In fact, you can sometimes get the phone for as low as $99, which makes it a bargain. Learn more in the full Vernee Thor E review.

Thanks to Gearbest for sending the Vernee Thor E for a review.

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that includes a fast charger.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, the Vernee Thor E does not look exceptional by any means but it is well built, it uses a metal chassis, buttons and metal backplate, which is, however, prone to fingerprints like most of the glossy black surfaces.

What is surprising is that the phone is very light and thin considering its beefy 5200mAh battery. In fact, the Thor E measures at just 8.2mm of thickness.

Also, the phone is compact due to its 5” 720p display, which is definitely not the sharpest out there but it gets the job done for a cheap phone.

We have an interpolated 5MP selfie shooter and LED notification light but the capacitive keys are not backlit. However, you have an option to switch to on-screen keys and customize them.

One of the key selling points is a physical button that turns on the E-Ink power saving mode that switches a display to a monochrome mode and turns off some power hungry features. I think this is a really cool idea we haven’t seen on other cheap phones. More on this feature in the battery life section.

As for optics, we are looking at a 13MP interpolated camera that is coupled with a single LED flash. A fingerprint scanner is easily one of the best you can find on any cheap phone. It also unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode.

The loudspeaker quality is kind of poor and there are definitely some better cheap phones in this department.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

As for hardware, the Vernee Thor E has decent specs for the price that includes an octa-core MTK6753 CPU, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The phone handles 3D gaming very well. I was surprised that Asphalt 8 ran with no lag or stutter even on highest graphics, with just a few skipped frames.

BENCHMARKS

UI

I love that the phone ships with the stock Android 7 with just a few added features like gesture and motion controls that work quite well.

Also, I like that the phone is very fast on the daily basis even after installing quite a few apps.

IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera can take some decent looking images in good light but since we are talking about $120 phone, they are not ideal. The main issue that I found is that the colors look a bit washed out in some of the shots and there could definitely be more detail.

When it comes to the low-light shots, they look quite terrible. Also, the selfie pictures simply look bad.

Also, the selfie pictures simply look bad.

As for the video, it is just mediocre. Same can be said about the selfie video.

CONNECTIVITY

As for connectivity, I didn’t have any issues with this phone. Wifi, GPS, and Bluetooth works fine and call quality is decent.

BATTERY LIFE

Battery life is just amazing. I kept switching from a regular to the E-ink mode and honestly, I could get like 5 days of regular use of this phone or over 10 hours of screen on time thanks to a large 5200mAh battery that can be recharged in about 1.5h thanks to the supplied fast charger.

CONCLUSIONS

Vernee Thor E is a surprisingly good cheap smartphone that has a few features that make it stand out from the crowd.

The E-ink display feature is just awesome and it saves a lot of power. If you combine it with a huge battery, you will be able to use the phone for quite a bit of time.

Also, I like the form factor, even though the Vernee Thor E is kind of plain looking. Moreover, the phone is fast and it can even handle some 3D games quite well.

However, the cameras remain the weakest point of this device but if you don’t use the phone for taking lots of images in poor lighting, the Vernee Thor E is a pretty solid phone the price.

The post Vernee Thor E Review – Unique Smartphone for just $99! appeared first on Gizmochina.