The Chinese phone manufactures have made giant leaps forward in the mobile industry. Now, most of their phones are compared with the top end smartphones with an excellent specification / price ratio. Basically, those looking for a terminal with a sheet of high-end, but at an affordable price, more and gives a look at the Chinese shop and at the moment offers because on balance they make good business.
Geotel is a new Asian company and they are trying to make a name for themselves in Europe. Geotel started its activities in 2011 as a manufacturer OEM / ODM, in the service of big brands in North America, Africa, Asia and Europe, with a presence in over ten markets and about 30 local brands. At the end of 2016, however Geotel decided to work for itself, she has launched its brand and also its first smartphone Geotel A1 , a semi-rugged model with Android 7.0 Nougat. And some days there’s another one.
GEOTEL has given us a Unit in Gold color for review and the first impression just take it out of its box and turn it on is very good, with a very careful design, despite being made of plastic. We miss aspects we already take for granted in almost all the terminals, such as the absence of a fingerprint.
Special mention to those 3GB RAM, the bet by the possibility of being able to have two SIM and a micro-sd that tends to be abandoned by many manufacturers in their models.
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Unboxing
Inside the box we can find the following:
1x GEOTEL NOTE
1x screen protector (already in place)
1x USB 2.0 cable
1x Charger
1x Hard plastic case
1x Warranty
1x Quick guide
Design and Build Quality
The first thing that stands out when viewing the terminal is its very careful and elegant design, with the edges profiled giving an effect of greater thinness, with only 4.13mm at its finest point. It is a very comfortable model in the hand and is not heavy (147g), with an ergonomic design that grabs perfectly , even on occasions where I have grabbed it with less force, does not give the feeling that it will fall out of hand. The hard and compact plastic gives the feeling of being metal and it is thanks to that treatment that the own brand denominates Metalprint and that confers that metallic aspect to him, that as it gives the light would change his reflection. GEOTEL has chosen two pretty colors – Gold and Blue – for this phone, and we have tested the model in gold color, as you can see in the photographs. As I have seen the blue color is very cool, I do not know if another brand has such a shade of blue so elegant.
In its front part, protected by a typical film, we did not find anything that stands out and we have not seen already in other terminals of this range. Front camera, sensor, green-red notification LED (not configurable) and speaker. The buttons are located on the screen (this will tastes, I like more silkscreen in the terminal and backlit). In the new update OTA 14032017 have included the option to change the order of these buttons and that the first version of the ROM did not include. On the right side we find the only physical buttons of the terminal : one to turn the mobile phone on and off and two to raise and lower the volume. They work perfectly, the pressure of the buttons is perfect and comfortable. Particularly I find it much more comfortable that all the buttons are on the right side, this prevents accidental touches when we hold the phone. The left side is totally free, since not being a unibody we did not find the typical tray. At their top have opted for the option of placing the Jack 3.5 and classic USB 2.0 connection, I find it more comfortable, but it is true that there will be those who do not share it. At the bottom we will simply find the microphone. Rear that includes camera of 8mpx (interpolated to 13mpx), double flash led and loudspeaker that is heard perfectly. You will notice that we do not have a fingerprint sensor, which would have been great for this terminal.
Display
GEOTEL has incorporated in the NOTE an IPS panel of 5.5 “HD resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The crystal has a slightly curved 2.5D finish , which is very attractive to the eye and pleasant to the touch.
GEOTEL has not specified if the screen has any kind of protection type Gorilla glass , so we should assume that it is not. Capacitive, multi-touch 5 points with a depth of 24 bit and 16,777,216 colors, somewhat standard in terminals of this segment. NOTE brings on the screen a technology called Truview TM that provides an NTSC color range of 85% as well as 150% deeper black colors than those provided by conventional TFT displays, which translates into more vivid colors and A sharper picture quality, with an improvement in the quality of your screen. Personally I think they saturate too much, they do not look natural, too loud, but it really looks great.
Hardware and Performance
This GEOTEL NOTE despite its low cost of just $90, is very solvent thanks to its 3GB of RAM , more accustomed to seeing it on larger phones. It is a phone that works perfectly in day to day, understanding that all phones are for day to day, of course, I mean for a user looking to make calls without mishaps, take a few pictures, surf the internet, whatsapp, Facebook music, Instagram and even play most games with no problems. It has a well-established MediaTek processor MTK6737M with four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.3GHz accompanied by a Mali-T720MP GPU. These specifications should be sufficient for most users. Those users who want to use demanding applications or intensive 3D games should not have problems in the performance of this phone thanks to its 3GB of RAM that would bring greater overall performance to the device. These specifications should be sufficient for most users.
In the game-based , in general, the android games I have tried run smoothly … the Asphalt 8 racing game in high quality mode and the Into the Dead with a satisfying gaming experience. It is a very efficient solution for multitasking activities that consists of an optimized energy consumption. This the available space with the newly formatted terminal and a capture of the average use the memory. We have 16GB of internal storage expandable by MicroSd card up to 32 Gb . On the subject of sensors, this Phone is quite limited, has only 3 basic sensors for lighting, proximity and accelero meter , this will limit its use for Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality apps.
Android 6.0 OS
The phone runs Android 6.0 and I do not know if it will ever be updated. GEOTEL has simply given you a slight layer of customization and has not made major changes or contributions on pure Android . We will have application drawer, something that is usually omitted in most Chinese phones. The Rom it brings is multi-language and has OTA updates.
Camera
If we talk about taking photos on a normal day in daylight or even cloudy, we will not have any problems, The photos will look pretty good thanks to its 8MPX, although they interpolate to 13PX and f / 2.0 aperture. The quality of the camera is good as it is able to capture colorful and sharp photographs, especially in good light situations. The 8MP front camera offers a pretty good quality , and produces a fairly clear image for what we are accustomed in this type of cameras. GEOTEL is committed to give a remarkable importance to this camera with an angle of 84º (the camera only has a large aperture in vertical, horizontally cover almost the same distance) and above average quality. This as I have already told you will surely delight self-lovers and more if they are in a group. The interface is pretty bland, as it does not include filters or settings beyond beauty, gesture capture and HDR.
Camera Sample
Connectivity
This Section, being able to choose slot 1 for a classic Sim, slot 2 for a micro Sim, having to choose which of the cards will have data network. Add another third slot for a Micro Sd up to 32GB. It has the necessary bands for the perfect operation in our country. The calls are loud and clear both the ones made by me and the ones received. The connection with the 4G has been excellent, without loss of coverage and some very good data of rise and fall. WiFi 2.4 / 5G double, this behaves excellent, as expected.Bluetooth 4.2 , tested both for sending and receiving files and fulfills its function correctly. Bluetooth 4.2 Paired with gadgets like MGCOOL Band 2, No.1 D5+ Smartwatch, portable FM receiver, BT speaker, etc., and its operation has been perfect. if you thought to use a USB flash or a peripheral, this NOTE does not support OTG.
Battery
Despite the price, the terminal has a battery of 3200mAh that will hold us a full day without difficulties. In certain cases, and depending on the use you give, maybe you can stretch even the day and air. I think the battery life is enough for a normal day and that with some typical battery saving tip (turn off wifi, use 3G instead of 4G, turn off data when we do not need it, do not use applications like Facebook that consume a lot Battery in the background, set the mobile to turn it off at night, etc.) we can have a day and even get to the second day of battery as most mobile phones have a similar capacity.
Conclusion
Even without knowing the final price of the product, if it falls within the $90 (more or less) and I think that is where you want to target the final price range, I think it is a device to be considered by those looking for an updated terminal , Especially for its 3GB RAM, and do not want to leave much money, or also for other users who are making their leap to smartphones, and that come from old terminals (that exist, and that in my environment there are a few) And that because of laziness or ignorance have not wanted to change their old SIM full size (giant), find in this terminal a good alternative.
A Main terminal, very fine and elegant, and with enough RAM for the system to run smoothly, along with what I hope is a tight price are the interesting points to consider of this terminal that, personally, I think it will be interesting mainly to the people who make the transition from old terminal to a smartphone, by price, features and by their slot for a full size SIM.
Geotel Note – smartphone for those who are used to consume content on the big screen from the comfort, but not willing to pay for an average or flagship-level device. The device provides the basic functionality of the smart phone, allows you to access high-speed data transmission. The housing has a good build and bright appearance, quite pleasant ergonomics for the diagonal of 5.5 inches, and is also light in weight due to the lack of metal in construction. Obvious plus Geotel Note also – good quality display, a significant drawback.
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