Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAmazing Value for Midrange Phone
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
I got this phone on sale for $400 (Black Friday 2023). So far, it's been very good for the price. The chipset is simply blazing fast. Everything feels snappy on this phone. Opening and closing apps are quick. Animation is smooth and does not stutter. The build quality is amazing and feels good to touch. So good that I did not use case until I first dropped it (more on this later).
One drawback this phone has is battery life. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor is power hungry. The battery, while theoretically big, is quickly depleted. I mostly use my phone for navigation (Android Auto wireless), YouTube video playback, browsing on Edge, or social media chatting. My Screen on Time (SoT) life is expected to be 7 hours when fully charged according to AccuBattery Pro app I installed since day one of owning this phone. That is my usage without gaming ever. Expect the battery life to go down to around 4 hours or even less if you game because gaming is extremely taxing on your phone. It also heats up quite quickly, probably because it's drawing a bit too much power than it should have (inefficient CPU / GPU). One solution I have working for me is by activating Light performance profile under Device Care settings. This decrease the performance unless you're gaming. For my use case, it's perfect because it doesn't overheat anymore. That 7 hours SoT figure is with this profile turned on. Expect it to be around 5.5 to 6 hours SoT without this on.
So about me dropping the phone, it was when I was changing my car's tires. I was crouching, so when it fell, it was about 12 inches high. The floor was concrete, and it was not clean. This is the worst combination because dust and debris are really abrasive and can easily put lots of dents and scratches on phone. Surprisingly, other than two scratches (one big, and one small), there's really no other damage. I was using matte screen protector at that time, so when it ended up falling screen down, it did crack the screen protector, but the screen remains flawless to this day. I assumed it fell by its side frame (charging port side), then it fell face down. I did attach the photo so you can judge the amount of damage done by this accident.