Telefunken 1013GIQA Review
Are tablets dead? Well the tech industry seems to think so, well they could be right and that's because most smartphones can do more than what tablets are capable of and another reason is they will never replace a personal computer. Well, let me tell you that they are not dead (for me that is).
Vivaldi Browser
I have been tasked to spread the word of a new internet browser called Vivaldi and to be honest I had never heard of it until I received an email telling me that they are going to have a major release of an updated version.
If you
know me you know one very big fact is that I love technology but within technology I'm crazy about smartphones, you
can safely say I live for smartphones. I research phones, I always wait for the latest release of phones, I always want the
latest software on my phone, I read and watch the latest news on phones (heck if there was a
news channel dedicated to just smartphones I would be on it like super glue).
Now what
brings me to this review is the experience I've had with smartphones recently
(not a good experience at all). I have always wanted to review a smartphone for
the longest time and now I have that opportunity but before we get to the phone
I'm reviewing let me just share with you how many phones I've had in the last
two years. Let me re-word that: this is how many phones I have LOST in the last
two years (or had stolen from me).
Now I've
had the opportunity to use some of the best smartphones and some not so much
out there. This brings me to the purpose of this review which is the use of a
budget phone as a daily driver. Now in the past 24 months I have lost two
iPhones (stolen) an iPhone 5s and 5c. I have lost a Xiaomi Mi4 (which brings me
to this review) at a bar (slipped out of my Chinos). After all of this I was pretty upset so I
decided to invest in a barebones, cheap, super budget smartphone just to get me
by which was the Vodacom Smart Kicka and I held on to this phone for months
because I was happy with it except for a
few other things which led to upgrading but I will cover that later. I then bought a Vodacom Smart Prime 7,
beautiful phone only was happy to own it for a month before I was smart mugged.
Oh I had a Windows Phone throughout this whole time a Lumia 1020 which I bought
in 2014 and I still have it (I guess
people aren't interested in a Windows Phone after all or they are so
uninteresting they don't loose themselves).
So this
all brings me to the Redmi 2 Pro and I've been interested in this phone ever
since I bought the Mi 4 because Xiaomi are very good at cramming the best
features and selling their phones at affordable prices for everyone. After
owning Xiaomi device before I was really anticipating how well they would
implement their trademark trait on a much more affordable smartphone and I'm
pretty much impressed.
Unboxing
So I
searched high and low for this phone considering that It was released a while
back
and it
was sold out at all the main retail stores that it's advertised to be selling,
so I put on my thinking boots and decided to search the interwebs. Thanks to
Hi-Online for helping me locate a store that was selling the phone.
Ok so
upon opening the box which is minimal in appearance (the box uses recycled
material a cost cutting measure). The contents of the box are the Redmi 2 Pro,
USB charger and as a bonus (thanks to Hi-Online) is a rubber cover with a nice
finish. The cover really compliments the phone, the phone is a beauty on its
own but with the cover it has a unified elegance. That's all that comes in the box you must
remember that Xiaomi is all about affordability so they had to cut back on the
extra accessories to focus on some more useful phone features.
The phone
A very
well built phone nicely designed especially for its price it's pretty solid in
all the materials that were chosen to make up the phone. Truly feels like all
it's worth went into it and it's pretty neat to have a phone that feels like
you should have paid much more for and that's what I like about the Xiaomi
company.
Specifications
These are
all the bells and whistles of this super capable phone:
| OPERATING SYSTEM | Android Kit Kat |
|---|---|
| SCREEN | 4.7” HD Display |
| CAMERA | 8 MP Rear camera, 5 MP Selfie Camera |
| VIDEO | Yes |
| MOBILE DATA | 4 G |
| WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY | WiFi / 802.11 b/g/n |
| CONNECTIVITY | 3.5 mm, microUSB |
| GPS | Yes |
| SENSORS | Gravity sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Light sensor |
| CPU | 1.2-GHz , Qualcomm Snapdragon |
| MEMORY | 16, 2 GB RAM, up to 32 GB expandable MicroSD memory |
| BATTERY | 2200 mAh lithium-ion polymer |
| WEIGHT | 149g |
| OTHER | FM Radio, Bluetooth |
| DIMENSIONS | 67.2 mm x 9.4 mm x 134 mm |
| WARRANTY | 24 months |
| MODEL | Redmi 2 Pro |
Now the
main features I was looking for in a budget phone were:
- Music
- Social media apps
- A good battery
Now this
was all fine and well it's just that I kept running into the same issue with
these budget(Vodacom Smart Kicka/Smart Prime 7) phones they had very low RAM (processing power). I understand that
the reason for it being low is why you have a budget phone. Another thing that
painfully makes budget phones a nightmare is the ridiculously low internal
storage and once this fills up (and this fills up quickly) it almost renders
your phone useless.
The Redmi
2 Pro solves this problem easily and with the above mentioned specs shows how really
good this phone is at the affordable price range it's selling for. The Redmi 2
Pro retails for R1999 but I must mention that about a day or two after purchasing this phone I found out that Xioami had an upgrade of the phone the Redmi 4A selling at the same price. I was little disappointed but I'm still very much happy about my purchase because it does what I want it to do, if you would like to make a comparison to both of the phones you are more than welcome as the phone retails at Incredible Connection (well that's the only store I know of so far).
Interface
Using the phone's interface (or software) is fluid and yes it's running Android (but a much older version) Xiaomi's own version of Android is also killer it packs so many features which makes your phone up to date and it makes your phone capable while also making your phone unified even with the flagship premium phones in the Mi line. The software used to run the Redmi 2 Pro is currently MIUI 8 and there is one thing you should know, this is Xiaomi's strongest attribute when it comes to making smartphones.
Camera
Sporting an 8 megapixel rear camera and a front facing 5 megapixel camera (selfie cam) this phone truly is a bargain in terms of what it can do especially when it comes to taking pictures. The back camera is so impressive so much so that I am comparing it to my lost/stolen iPhone 5s (that's how good the camera is) the front facing camera however or the so called 'selfie cam' is not so good but at least it's there but the MIUI 8 software puts a little bit of effort in enhancing the selfies you take. I have had this phone for a month and a few weeks (as of this post) I don't have that much pictures taken but with the ones that I did manage to snap you can see for yourself how good they are.
8MP Rear Cam Photos
5MP Front Facing Cam Photos
Conclusion
After owning this smartphone for a short amount of time can confidently say it's worth buying especially if you are on a tight budget and want a phone that can do a whole lot more than you paid for and it is the Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro! To finish off this review ( I have to keep it short there is so much to talk about when reviewing phones) I would like point out the key features that make me love this phone:
- amazing battery life (oh yeah)
- superb HD screen
- music playback (through phone speakers and through headsets)
- build quality
- using the phone is slick and fast, handles processes really well
This phone takes me back to when I owned the legendary Lumia 520 which quite interestingly was also priced the same but with much less features so believe me when I tell you you will be getting a bang for your buck. I have officially made this phone my favourite phone for now up until a certain one makes a comeback later this year (wink wink). If you are interested in the Xiaomi company and their Mi smartphone line go ahead a view their range on their website. These are some of the authorised re-sellers of Mi phones: Game, Incredible Connection, Dion Wired, Hi-Online, Takealot.com and many more.
Thanks for joining me for another review as always I have fun making these posts I hope you enjoy reading them too but I hope they are of good use to you, be sure to share this post and comment on this post tell me what you think I will appreciate any opinion given.
Mr Lunga
I love music, a lot and since we are living in such an advanced time having access to music is very important to me.
Having tried a few music services (streaming) most of which were free and came with ads I wasn't quite satisfied with how they brought about their services. I also wasn't so big on that download your songs and and keep it on your phone and having to delete them when they we're no longer interesting.
