OUKITEL C13 Pro Review: Single Task Smartphone

OUKITEL C13 Pro is one of the most affordable Android smartphones. In the Ukrainian brand online store Oukitel it costs

2415 UAH, or 89 USD, and download it from Aliexpresscan and does for $ 72. Is it really possible to purchase a modern smartphone for this money, which you don’t want to smash against the wall on the first day of use? (Spoiler: the test phone is safe and sound).

Appearance, design, ergonomics OUKITEL C13 Pro

Externally, the C13 Pro is very similar to the recently visitedwe have on the Oukitel U23 test: the same arrangement of cameras and a finger scanner, a display with the same wide “mono-brow”, but instead of USB-C is an outdated Micro USB, on the upper edge of the case is an audio connector, and instead of a trendy gradient on the back panel - 2 , 5D glass Asahi (same as on the front side).

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In a bright small box, in addition to the phone,a charger and a cable, a silicone case is supplied, and a thin protective glass (or film?) is already glued to the display, which the finger constantly clings to when gesturing from the edges of the screen.

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Equipment OUKITEL C13 Pro

I wonder what meaning marketers put intoindex “Pro” in the name of this model? Perhaps it meant the more or less modern MTK MT6739 chipset used here - 4-core, 64-bit, with support for dual-band Wi-Fi a / b / g / n. I found nothing more “professional” in the C13 Pro. But one microphone and the absence of a light indicator fully correspond to the price category of the smartphone.

Display immediately seemed to me somehow “not so”, and soonI understood what was going on - on my favorite sites there was less information in the screen. I rarely study the subject of testing in advance, so the display resolution was a surprise to me. It's not even HD, but only 480p (996 × 480) with a diagonal of 6.2 ″! However, the display does not look grainy, the picture is smooth. There are complaints about the quality of the matrix. First, with a slight deviation of the angle of view from the perpendicular, the apparent brightness of the image is quite strongly reduced, and secondly, at certain angles (fortunately, far from the commonly used ones), the image is inverted. The maximum brightness of the backlight is still somehow enough to read the text in sunlight, while watching a video or viewing the subject of photography is difficult. The colorimeter readings give a typical picture for low-cost displays - a very high color temperature and a low maximum brightness (349.563 cd / m2). At the same time, the static contrast is high (1921: 1) due to the low brightness (0.182 cd / m2).

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But not everything is so bad - if you really want, you can adjust the colors to your taste, as in the older model U23:

The capacitive sensor detects up to 5 simultaneous touches, which is quite enough for any application.

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Telephone functions okay, the interlocutor's voice sounds clear andloud. I was also heard well, but along with all the surrounding sounds - there is only one microphone here, there is no noise reduction. The application for calls is standard, with Cyrillic in T9 and the ability to record conversations. If you use two SIM cards, the memory expansion will not be available.

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Cameras correspond to the price category of the smartphone. The main 8-megapixel camera is rather “dark” - its optical aperture is only 1: 2.8, and the matrix is so-so. “Due to” not enough bright display to shoot in sunlight is uncomfortable - it is not always visible whether the camera is focused or not. Even with good illumination, the image is noticeably “noisy”, and at dusk or with artificial (not studio) light in the room, there is a lot of noise. Night mode “pulls” the shadows at the cost of increased noise:

Auto white balance often gives “warm”a reddish picture resembling pictures from old cameras with CCD matrices, and the manual selection of white balance from 8 presets is already hidden in the third level of the camera settings menu. One-touch adjustment of exposure, ISO and white balance is available, there are no advanced features. The exposure is measured, it seems, by the point method - its level changes dramatically when choosing a measuring point. Contrast autofocus is slow and not always correct.

Camera control is simplified to the limit. The horizontal gesture switches only two modes of shooting - photo and video, the other modes are hidden in the menu, and the settings - even one level deeper. In Professional mode, the basic settings are available with one touch, but this mode does not provide any truly advanced features.

The camera does not know how to shoot panoramas and HDR, if youThis is necessary - you have to install a third-party application. Of the useful additional features, you can note the ZSD function - shooting without delay, which does not allow the object to leave or leave the frame while you are pressing the trigger. True, when shooting fast moving objects, they are distorted (skewed) due to the “rolling shutter” effect characteristic of cameras with an electronic shutter, that is, without a mechanical shutter.

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Bokeh mode turned out to be an ordinary software imitation, it’s not quite clear then why we need a second camera. Beauty mode is able to smooth the skin, enlarge the eyes and make the face more thin.

In general, the quality of the photo - just barely a C grade on a five-point scale. Sharpness is mediocre, pale colors, a lot of noise. In general, see for yourself how the camera of the Oukitel C13 Pro shoots:

Gallery with full-size images

The front 5-megapixel camera is a little less noisy, but the colors in the pictures are pale.

Video is recorded with monaural sound and at a resolution of maximum 1080p from the main camera and 720p from the front one. An example of FullHD video from the main camera:

WITH resPmaking music smartphone copes well, like a speaker,and in headphones, the sound is clear. Claims are only to work with a Bluetooth-headset. If the mobile Internet is turned off - the headset works fine up to 7 meters away through two interior partitions in the apartment. But it is necessary to turn on the data transfer - and right there the transfer of stereo sound via Bluetooth begins to be interrupted, the music “stumbles” up to a complete stop, even when the distance between devices is less than half a meter. That is to listen to streaming audio or video through 4G in Bluetooth-headphones is simply unrealistic. Yes, I understand that most of the buyers of such a phone will not buy a wireless headset, which means that they will not notice this drawback, but there is one.

Navigation using google maps worked well withStrava fitness tracker also had no problems. The GPS receiver sees about 20 satellites in the open area and uses 12-14 of them, ensuring accuracy up to 2-3 meters.

Software

The smartphone runs on a slightly modified OS.Android 9.0 Pie. There is no application menu - all icons, widgets and folders are located just on the desktop. Swipe to the right on the home screen opens the Google application (this option can be disabled). I am glad that there are no pre-installed additional services, test and advertising applications, alternative markets, etc., in most cases they just take up space on the screen and in memory (which is already a bit). All the necessary applications — mail, photo gallery, file manager, maps — from the Google Apps suite; additionally, only a simple audio player (not linked to Play Music) and a voice recorder are installed.

A wide “mono-brow”, like the older model U23,It leaves little room for notification icons, and the full status bar can be seen only by fully opening the switch panel with two gestures. With a large number of notifications from different applications, this is inconvenient.

The chip of this model is face control, that isunlock by scanning the user's face. This function does not work very quickly, but surprisingly clearly, you only need to adjust to keep the smartphone at the desired distance and correctly direct the camera to the face. Failures, of course, happen, but in general, face control works better than you might expect.

Performance and autonomy

In normal daily work, the C13 Pro does not shineperformance, he is very thoughtful when running applications, and when switching between them, and switching the language on the keyboard takes up to a second. In performance tests, the smartphone loses to the five-year-old LG Nexus 5:

Even a small display resolution did not help.Smartphone get good marks in 3D tests. Yes, and 16 GB of internal flash memory does not have to create a game store on the phone - after installing only the applications used daily, without downloading music and video to the phone, after 2 weeks of use only 2 GB of free space remains.

As for me, use on such a gland with twogigabytes of RAM most modern version of the OS in full - not the best idea. Running lightweight Android Go, this smartphone would obviously feel much better and respond faster to user actions. For example, General Mobile GM8 Go, even with one gigabyte of RAM, was much faster and more responsive. Alternatively, you can install Go-versions of applications instead of full-size, at the same time saving some space on the built-in drive. Nevertheless, it is worth noting the stable operation of the smartphone - all applications from my Masthev set started up normally, worked without glitches and freezes. Including fairly resource-intensive Skype and Messenger. You can allow only selected applications to work in the background, which saves both processor resources and traffic.

On one battery charge with my modelUsing (up to 10 short calls, social network messengers at any free minute, surfing the web, a few photos, up to 1 hour of online navigation), the smartphone lives safely from morning to late evening, but no more. If you plan more intensive use (a long trip with a navigator or GPS tracker like Strava, long video viewing, reading or games), then it would not be superfluous to bring along a charge or a power bank.

In the dry residue

The smartphone turned out, frankly, not reallyinteresting. It is quite suitable for calls, simple games, navigation and listening to music. Thanks to the most simplified interface, it would be a good first smartphone for a child or an elderly person. But this is in the absence of alternatives. And they are in the price range of 2000-2500 UAH - a great many, the search gives out more than a hundred smartphones with the same amount of RAM and about a dozen options with 3 GB, and all with HD displays, including several models of Xiaomi, TP-Link and Lenovo. True, the models of more well-known manufacturers, as a rule, are cheaper in terms of age, with the 7th or even the 6th version of Android, and here is a fresh “nine”.

1 reason to buy Oukitel C13 Pro

You need a simple and inexpensive smartphone with the current version of Android.

2 reasons not to buy Oukitel C13 Pro

you need a smartphone with a good camera;
You are planning to listen to music from your smartphone through wireless headphones.

Specifications Oukitel C13 Pro

Display
IPS LCD 6.18 ″, 996 × 480, 179 ppi

Dimensions
155,5x76x8,3 mm

CPU
Mediatek MTK 6739 (4 core Cortex A53, 300 MHz ... 1.5 GHz), graphics IMG 8XE 1PPC 420 MHz

Memory
2 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM + microSD up to 256 GB (hybrid connector)

Camera

Main: 8 Mp, f / 2.8, + 2 Mp

Front: 5 megapixel

Interface
microUSB

Wireless technology
Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n (2.4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.0

Battery
fixed, lithium-polymer, 3000 mAh

operating system
Android 9.0 (Pie)

SIM card
2 x nanoSIM

The fingerprint scanner
on the back

OUKITEL C13 Pro

Smartphone with the latest version of Android for minimal money

Of course, no one imposes any specialhopes for a smartphone with such an unpretentious price tag. The advantages of it - a pleasant appearance: a thin frame and a large screen. Someone may be important appearance, vaguely reminiscent of the iPhone X. Of the shortcomings - almost everything else: a primitive camera, low productivity (there is no smell of multi-tasking) and modest autonomy.