Smartisan U1 - the killer’s younger brother

    Chinese manufacturers are diligently outwardly copying the iPhone. From time to time, some flagships are claimed to be killers of the Apple smartphone, but it turns out like in the Golden Calf: “He (Ostap Bender) was killed - it was.” Nevertheless, there is some sense in these numerous attempts on murder - unusual, interesting and powerful smartphones appear on the market every now and then, gaining popularity and buyers. With another attempt to kill the iPhone, the story of the Smartisan brand began. Although no, it started a little earlier.



    Luo Yonghao is an odiously famous person in China. A little techno-blogger, a little entrepreneur who was engaged in the sale of services for preparing for the test for an international certificate in English. The man who received a huge ($ 29 million) "secret" investment and created a startup that produces smartphones.


    Not only smartphones seek to “mow” under Apple

    The first smartphone introduced to the market was the next iPhone killer - Smartisan T1, which was expensive and lost its balance in the search for value for money. Simply put, too expensive for its electronic nature. The launch of the smartphone went on a grand scale, serious budgets were poured into advertising and PR. After such an extravaganza, which made Luo Yonghao for some time almost a national hero and the second Steve Jobs, silence fell. The market was waiting for something new and no less shocking.

    Modest charm


    They were waiting for a new flagship, and a budget and very interesting smartphone came out - Smartisan U1 . Here we need to stop and tell that Smartisan is not only the name of the phone, but also the name of the shell (or as the manufacturers proudly call it, the operating system), based on the highly modified Android KitKat OS. This is a pretty nimble shell with a tiled design and large, nice icons. It is often asked whether Google services are preinstalled in Smartisan - no, they are not preinstalled, but it takes no more than five minutes to connect them together with the launch. So, the hero of the announcement Smartisan U1 just works with this proprietary firmware.


    Immediately worth mentioning the price - on JD.ru Smartisan U1 is available at a price of 109.99 USD (16 GB) or129.99 USD (32 GB) depending on the selected amount of internal memory. Both options will be subject to an additional discount on a coupon of 20 USD until January 31, 2016. However, if the elder brother T1 tends to be price-sensitive from the price / quality ratio, Smartisan U1 chooses not only quality, but also a remarkable design “not like everyone else”, and good hardware characteristics. Apparently because he does not want to kill anyone. The smartphone comes with cases in seven different colors for every taste.



    True, we still have on JD.ru universal light gray and black colors.


    The case is made of plastic, the back cover is made of corrugated plastic, pleasant to the touch. Thanks to the plastic case Smartisan U1 is quite lightweight, only 155 grams. And this despite the impressive 5.5-inch diagonal, and the dimensions are 76.9 x 152.9 x 9 mm. The background color of the desktop can be chosen to match the color of the case, it looks impressive and "not like everyone else".

    On the side edges of the smartphone are programmable buttons that can be configured for the right-handed person and for the left-handed person to control the volume and brightness of the screen. For example, you are left-handed and it’s inconvenient for you to adjust the volume during a conversation with the right rocker - in Smartisan U1 it’s enough to configure the left rocker key to control the sound. Speaking of buttons. On the front panel below are three touch virtual buttons, simply indicated by dots. So, the debate about the correct placement of the "Back" button on the right will not initially arise - the task will at least guess which button is responsible for what. Spoiler: in fact, everything, as in other smartphones.

    The performance characteristics


    Firmware: Russian-speaking and this is important. Initially, Smartisan U1 smartphones delivered firmware only in English and Chinese, however, Russian appeared on the Russian market. Among the shortcomings - some translations did not get into the menu bar for short Chinese characters, but this does not interfere with anything.
    Works in networks: GSM (2G), WCDMA (3G), FDD / TDD LTE (4G)
    Screen: 5.5 inches, FullHD, 1920 × 1080, IPS technology, Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
    Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, 64 bit, 4 Cores 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 + 4 cores 1.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A53
    GPU: 550MHz Adreno 405
    RAM: 2 GB.
    Storage: 16 or 32 GB.
    Camera:front - 5 megapixels and a resolution of 1920 x 1080 p, the main - 13 megapixels and a resolution of 4128 x 3096 px, LED flash, autofocus, geotagging, face detection, panorama mode, several shooting modes
    Battery: 2900 mAh, the battery is not removable.
    Technologies: two SIM-cards, support for NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n (2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
    Other features: proximity sensors, light, accelerometer.

    Important: it does not support OTG technology (connecting external flash memory and other peripherals), there is also no microSD slot - you cannot expand the memory. So if you need a phone for business or study, be prepared to store documents in the cloud.



    In general, a good set in combination with a battery is more than that of expensive competitors. The smartphone turned out to be universal, convenient and suitable for everyone: from schoolchildren (due to the low price) to adult business people who need a second phone or who want to stand out by the absence of one of their flagships.



    This is the second gift option for the upcoming February-March holidays. By the way, discounts on JD.ru will last until January 31 and during this time we will certainly have time to tell you about another smartphone, which is very unlike the first two.

    PS:In the comments we are reproached for not making detailed reviews of phones and other gadgets. A lot of new products are available on JD.ru that are available for purchase in Russia. We do not have time to get new gadgets for testing, so we release announcements of the most striking devices as far as discounts that may interest Geektimes readers. Our announcements are based on official documentation of devices and, of course, the subjective opinion of our operational "secret super-agents", who managed to twist gadgets in their hands. We really hope that someday we will get the opportunity to do reviews before the devices enter the market and discuss them from all sides. In turn, we are always waiting for your feedback and reviews!

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