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.