Vernee Apollo Lite - Specifications. Smartphone Vernee Apollo Extended review Vernee appollo lite 4g reviews
Hello. This is extended recall to Vernee Apollo smartphone, who likes such a format please under cat, others please pass. Thank you.
And so I'll start as usual about how long the package went. And she walked 24 days, that is, 4 weeks. Finnish Post. 
I didn’t take pictures of the parcel itself, but I recorded it on video, if anyone is interested, the video of the unpacking itself will be at the end of the review.
Let's move on to box smartphone. She is big enough. Made of high quality corrugated black cardboard, it looks presentable. Above is the model, below are brief technical specifications.
Equipment
In addition to the standard set in the form of a paper clip, usb type-c cable, charger (12V 1.5A, 5-7-9V 2A) and waste paper, VR glasses are included.
There is nothing special to write about VR glasses, they are made soundly, the reach and the width between the eyes are adjustable. At the moment there is no interesting content for VR, so in my opinion this is a toy for 1 hour, then you will forget about them.
Let's go to the smartphone. It is made in an all-metal case. Made really high quality, in the hand it is felt that the thing is solid.
Characteristics:
5.5 inch 2560*1440 (QuadHD)
Dot density - 538 ppi
CPU 10-core Helio X25
RAM 4 GB
ROM 64GB
Cameras: 21MP main camera with Sony IMX230 sensor and 8MP front camera with 84° wide angle, ideal for selfies
Video recording in 4K
All-metal housing
USB Type-C connector
fast charging
Digital music via USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack also retained
Comes with VR goggles!
Brightness 500 nits
Contrast 1500:1
Large capacity 3180mAh lithium-polymer battery with twice the service life
OTG supported
The fingerprint sensor has a matrix of 112 * 96
VoLTE
WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz)
Case elements:
There is a protective glass on the front panel, it is rounded, but very small. The oleophobic coating is very weak, fingerprints are hard to wipe off. There is an LED indicator of missed events. It is multi-colored, located in the upper left corner. If a notification has arrived, flashes blue, if the battery is low, flashes red, if put on charging, it also flashes red up to 15% charge, then flashes green. Naturally, there is a speaker, front camera and sensors. A protective film was pasted from the factory, it was very thick and because of it the image was not very clear.
Rear: Main camera, dual dual tone LED flash, fingerprint scanner. By the way, I did not find a second microphone for noise reduction.
Left: 2 trays. In the first one, you can install either a nano SIM card or a memory card. In the second, you can only install a micro SIM card. Trays sit very tightly and do not rattle. Both slots support 4G.
Right: power button and volume control.
Top: headset jack
Bottom: Microphone, USB type-c connector, speaker.
Screen
Regarding the resolution 2k. If you compare any picture head-on with a FullHD screen, then the difference in detail is really visible. But separately, if you look at the screen, then there are no “wows”. In general, the screen is good, the backlight is uniform, there are no flashes. But I would like the minimum brightness to be smaller, and the maximum to be more. At angles, the picture is also perfectly visible, the colors are not inverted or distorted.
The fingerprint scanner works instantly, it is really very fast. But it happens that he either thinks, or does not work at all.
Performance and heating
The smartphone has an almost top-end processor from MediaTek Helio X25 10-core, 20 nm manufacturing process, with a maximum clock frequency of 2.5 Hz, 4Gb LPDDR3 RAM, Mali T880 graphics. The performance disappointed me. In everyday tasks, the smartphone, in principle, works quickly, but there are still some slowdowns, and with games it’s generally a disaster. But more on that later. The trotting of the smartphone is not great. After 20 minutes of running Epic citadel, the results are as follows. At high settings, performance dropped by 12%, at low settings by 7%
Benchmark results
In everyday tasks (browsing, social networks, YouTube), the smartphone practically does not heat up. If you load it with heavy games or other heavy tasks, then after a while the smartphone body heats up to 42 degrees.
Battery set to 3180 mAh. This is not a large volume anyway, but here is a 2k screen, a powerful percentage, so the smartphone does not live long. In the stress test, the smartphone lived for 3 hours. This is running Epic citadel on maximum graphics settings, maximum screen brightness, all wireless modules enabled. The battery discharge graph is even, there are no breaks and recessions, which indicates that the battery is of high quality.
Well, at least the smartphone supports fast charging. In 30 minutes, the smartphone is charged by 42%. Up to 100% charged in 1 hour 20 minutes.
With games Smartphone does just that. in principle, all games run, but not all games run smoothly at maximum speeds. And so, in tanks at high settings, the smartphone gives out an average of 15% FPS, that is, a slideshow. If you set the average, then there will be an average of 30-40 fps with drawdowns of up to 20. And at low settings you can already play normally, it will be stable at 30-40 fps. In Asphalt8 at maximum speed it gives out 30fps, and interestingly, if you put low settings, it will still be 30fps. I do not know what it is connected with.
cameras
21MP main camera, 8MP front camera. Unfortunately, it was not possible to test the camera in good light, as it has been overcast for the past few days. But even in bad weather, quite well-detailed pictures are obtained. But in fact, I expected a little more from the cameras, at least manual settings, which are not. I also did not like the fact that the video does not have autofocus. The video writes as much as possible in 4k, By the way, for some reason the video saves in 3gp format.
Sound
The smartphone pleased with a very loud and fairly high-quality main speaker. This is the loudest smartphone ever. The speaker is normal, the interlocutor is heard well. I'm not a sound specialist, so I write in my own words. I also liked the sound in the headphones, the sound is clear, the volume reserve is enough with the head. Tested with Xiaomi Mi In-Ear Pro headphones.
Communications and GPS
The smartphone supports 2,3,4G. 4G works at frequencies 800\1800\2100\2600. Wifi operates at frequencies 2.4: 802.11 b, g, n and 5 Hz: 802.11 a, n. Bluetooth 4.0. GPS, A-GPS, Glonass.
The connection of the smartphone is stable. satellites connect quickly, while moving, the location does not lose. But WIfi is a little worse than on my Mi5. Smartphones are in one place, Mi5 has a full antenna, Vernee apollo has half.
System
The smartphone has Android 6.0 installed. He is practically naked. Just a few features added: Ota updates. Downloading in Turbo mode (if you download a large file, more than 20 MB, you can simultaneously download it via Wifi and a mobile network. And setting up on-screen buttons. You can swap places, you can add a button that will raise and lower the curtain. And you can also add a function hiding these buttons.You can reveal them later by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.
Thank you for your attention!!)) I plan to buy +2 Add to favorites Liked the review 0
Heaven never ceases to amaze. For a small price these days, you get not only a ten-core SoC, but also 4 GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel Sony camera, a fingerprint sensor, and a 64-gigabyte flash drive, which can also be expanded. It remains only to study this matter thoroughly.
Appearance Vernee Apollo X
Outwardly, the device does not stand out much from the "gray mass" of modern smartphones made in the monoblock form factor. The frames around the screen cannot be called minimal, but they are close to it. The main camera protrudes a little, but this shortcoming can be corrected with a case. At the same time, the thickness of the device is 9.5 mm, which is currently the norm, and the productive filling with a capacious battery cannot be discounted. Not without a full-fledged 3.5 mm "jack" - another factor in the direction of increasing the thickness. At the same time, the case cannot be called budgetary. This is a solid "monolith" without backlash and squeaks, which lies perfectly in the hand and is made of anodized aluminum with special polishing.
If we talk about design, then we get slightly rounded corners and decorative metal inserts. In addition, there is no hint of Apple products in it, yes, parallels with HTC and LG can be drawn, but there are no obvious borrowings. To be honest, unification is now characteristic not only of gadgets, but also of cars. In fairness, it should be noted that in this case it is done great. The smartphone looks much more expensive than it costs. By the way, you can choose not only a matte dark body color, but also silver.
Function keys and sensors are in the usual places. The fingerprint sensor is medium in size and is located on the back side below the “eye” of the camera. Not a very good location, since at first you will wipe the optics with your finger. Maybe that's why the camera protrudes a little so that it can be tactilely distinguished, because no one bothers to drown the optical sensor into the case, since its thickness allows. You can guess as much as you like, sometimes the logic of the Chinese is difficult to understand.
Vernee Apollo X dimensions: 151x75x9.5 mm, weight - 179 grams. In general, the hand will not particularly pull, but all thanks to the material of the shell.
Vernee Apollo X screen
Apollo X is equipped with a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels - an ideal indicator for such a diagonal. Moreover, an IGZO matrix manufactured by Sharp is used, and this is a 95 percent coverage of the NTSC color space, a brightness of 450 nits and a contrast ratio of 1000: 1. It is even surprising to see this technology in Full HD, since IGZO is the prerogative of 2K and 4K displays, but the fact remains. The top of the screen is covered with tempered glass Corning Gorilla Glass, but for some reason the third generation, oh yes, we have a mid-budget device.
As a result, we get wide viewing angles, a juicy picture and an image readable in the sun. It is also worth noting the oleophobic coating, the quality of which will show only long-term operation. Electronic pen support is not implemented.
Interfaces Vernee Apollo X
Thanks to the Chinese for equipping their creation with a universal USB Type-C, which charges faster and transfers files more efficiently, you can connect headphones to it, but there are known problems with backward compatibility. In addition, there is a 360-degree Touch ID that works at any angle and unlocks the device in 0.1 seconds. Also, the sensor can be used to block applications, if such an option is provided in the software.
Of the other interfaces - 2-band Wi-Fi, sorry without the ac protocol, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, as well as a 4G module. You won’t surprise anyone with this set now, but still. It would not hurt to integrate the technology of fast data transfer - HotKnot, but you can understand the developers, this solution is not widely used outside the Celestial Empire. There was also a slot for microSD cards up to 128 GB, which is very good, but in this case you have to sacrifice a nanoSIM card. The second slot is for a full-sized microSIM. Other features include USB OTG support, that is, you can connect an external drive.
Vernee Apollo X Firmware
Apollo X is running proprietary firmware VOS, built on the basis of the sixth version of Android. It should be noted that this is the first Vernee device that works on this shell, which means that it may well smell of “dampness”. In any case, we get a "clean" interface, high smoothness of work and, as a result, energy efficiency.
At the same time, there is no garbage Chinese software, there is a necessary minimum of programs, themes, the bootloader is unlocked at the factory, there are OTA updates. In short, everything for which we love the Chinese brand.
Stuffing Vernee Apollo X
Now about the most interesting. Under the hood of the novelty, SoC MediaTek Helio X20 is hiding - the world's first crystal with Tri-Cluster architecture and 10 cores. Moreover, each cluster is configured to perform a certain category of tasks as efficiently as possible, and the clock frequency of a 64-bit processor can reach 2.3 GHz.
Complements the picture of 4 GB of RAM operating in dual-channel mode at a frequency of up to 933 MHz. The video core is Mali-T880, 780 MHz - an excellent graphics accelerator for modern mobile games. 64 GB of flash memory is responsible for data storage, which is enough for everything. If you started to photograph and shoot everything in a row, then, as mentioned above, you can easily expand it.
Thus, we get balanced characteristics, a kind of workhorse standard for everyone, more precisely, for those who cannot afford a flagship, and an ultra-budget is not in status.
Vernee Apollo X test
The device in the benchmark is gaining 74563 "parrots" despite the assurances of the developer that the device deserves more than 100,000 points. However, this is a synthetic test, that is, it should be taken conditionally. In reality, the performance of the smartphone is enough for both resource-intensive games and multitasking, fortunately, Helio X20 is in the uncut version here.
Vernee Apollo X camera
The device received a 13-megapixel main camera based on the Sony IMX 258 optical sensor with an aperture equal to f / 2.0. There is a dual LED flash. Nothing special, but enough for everyday shooting. The photos are clear, but with a little graininess in low light. The Camera application is standard, without special chips, but no one bothers to install third-party software. Of the features - phase focusing. For selfies and video calls, you can use the front 5-megapixel module. The quality of this is mediocre, but there is autofocus, but no flash. In other words, mid-budget optics of a mid-budget device.
Autonomy Vernee Apollo X
Apollo X received a fast charging function that can provide 50% capacity in just 30 minutes. In this case, only 2A (9V) are supplied, so there are big doubts about the effectiveness of the solution. In any case, we get 3500 mAh, which is quite enough for talking and surfing the Internet during the working day. By the way, the battery here is lithium-polymer.
Cost and video review of Vernee Apollo X
The price of Vernee Apollo X in Russia is about 11,000 rubles.
Vernee Apollo X can be safely called the standard of a smartphone of the middle river with all the consequences. At the same time, the disadvantages here are more than compensated by the advantages, for example, a powerful processor overshadows the scarcity of wireless technologies, a universal slot for a SIM card and a memory card - a large storage, etc. You should not discount the latest generation USB.
The design of the device is concise, the characteristics are balanced, the shell is without unnecessary frills, and the cost is more than acceptable. There may be pitfalls associated primarily with the firmware, but they can only be found during long-term operation, which, for obvious reasons, no one has. Recall that the release of the device took place in early April this year.
Check out the video review below:
Vernee - a company with a six-month history, which during this time managed to bring two smartphones to the market. The first was the public Thor, with rather modest characteristics and low price, and the second was Apollo Lite, positioned in promotional materials as a competitor to the expensive . Such opposition, of course, causes only a slight smile, but if it comes to that, let's figure out what the Vernee Apollo Lite offers us for its $200.
Contents of delivery
The smartphone comes in a neat black box with a basic set of accessories. The display is pre-glued with a protective film.
The cable and power supply are not branded, similar accessories can be found in many smartphones from other Chinese brands.
Design, usability and fingerprint reader
Vernee Apollo Lite is available in two colors: white (" clean " aluminum) and black (anodized with a subtle purple tint). The back cover and control keys are made of metal, and plastic inserts on the ends are provided for the smooth passage of the wireless network signal.
For 2 weeks of relatively careful operation, several barely noticeable dots exposing the metal formed on the back cover. Also be prepared to periodically clean the joints between the plastic plugs and the main metal part, as dust clogs there.
The glass covering the main camera protrudes beyond the body (and this is with a smartphone thickness of 9.2 mm!) And is NOT recessed relative to the protective rim. In other words, a protective case is strictly prescribed for this smartphone, since the author’s copy, due to the constant contact of the protective glass of the camera with hard flat surfaces, has acquired several very deep scratches in the immediate vicinity of the lens (photos were taken during unpacking, therefore they do not reflect the current state ).
On the right side of the Apollo Lite are located: a micro SIM tray and a combo slot for a memory card or nanoSIM. The lack of a separate slot for microSD, given the dimensions of the smartphone, should be attributed to the shortcomings.
The keys on the left side slightly play in their niches, but there are no complaints about the tactile response.
The USB Type-C port is located on the bottom. Don't be fooled by the identical grilles on the sides of the connector, as there is only one multimedia speaker in the smartphone (left), and a microphone is hidden under another galaxy of holes.
The fingerprint scanner on the back of the smartphone works stably when one fingerprint is entered into several memory slots, of which 5 are available in total. Successful recognition occurs in 8 out of 10 cases, the response speed is at the level of state employees from Xiaomi (Redmi 3 Pro, Note 3).
The front panel, according to the manufacturer, is covered with third-generation Gorilla Glass protective glass. The surface has a slight rounding at the edges and is positioned as 2.5D. Like any other protective coating, the glass on the Vernee Apollo Lite, after several weeks of operation without additional protection, is covered with micro-scratches, which can be detected in the reflection of a bright light source. A pleasant surprise was the presence of a solid oleophobic coating.
The speaker and its covering grille are recessed relative to the glass. During operation, dust is clogged into the resulting hole and it will need to be cleaned periodically. To the left of the speaker: RGB indicator LED, front camera and proximity/light sensors. There are no dedicated touch keys under the smartphone display, so you have to be content with the on-screen ones.
In general, the build quality of the smartphone is good, but some design solutions (the protruding glass of the main camera, the speaker in the recess, the gap between the plastic inserts on the back) leave much to be desired.
Display
Apollo Lite has a high-quality IPS matrix with good viewing angles and color reproduction. The measured contrast ratio is 1:711, and the brightness adjustment range varies from 17 to 437 cd/m². The minimum threshold may seem too bright when interacting with a smartphone in the dark, but the upper value will be enough to use the device outdoors even on a bright sunny day.
By default, the color temperature of the display is somewhat overestimated, but in smartphones on Mediatek this parameter (like many others) can always be corrected thanks to MiraVision technology. To do this, go to Settings - Display - MiraVision and swipe from the left side of the display to call up the options menu.
Automatic brightness control in the smartphone does its job well. However, for a couple of years now, there have been no complaints about displays in devices that cost more than $100 and come from China.
Hardware platform
The hardware platform used is MT6797 (Helio X20) from MediaTek. The system-on-a-chip has 10 cores in three clusters (4+4+2) that work on big.LITTLE technology. In fact, the previous generation chip (Helio X10) with 8 Cortex-A53 cores (up to 2 GHz) was endowed with two high-performance Cortex-A72 cores (up to 2.3 GHz), and the maximum frequency of the Cortex-A53 cores was reduced to 1.4 GHz in order to save power. The specified frequencies correspond to the chip installed in the Vernee Apollo Lite and may vary in other smartphones.
Despite all the theoretical power of this solution, in practice, Helio X20 still competes with last year's flagship SoC from Qualcomm, and in terms of graphics accelerator, it hardly reaches the level of Snapdragon 801 (Adreno 330), released in 2014. And if there are no complaints about the chip when working with basic software, then in games the Mali-T880 MP4 can hardly cope with the average graphics settings. In the famous WoT: Blitz, full-fledged 60 frames per second can only be obtained at low settings, which indicates poor optimization of resource-intensive applications for the Mali GPU.
In addition to this, there wereproblems with scheduler (operates in clusters and activates cores according to load), which sends single-threaded workload execution to slow Cortex-A53 cores, instead of using a performance cluster based on two Cortex-A72 cores. This shortcoming is especially evident in the Google Octane browser test.
But with throttling, surprisingly, everything is fine. The drop in performance under continuous load barely reaches 10 percent, while in Xiaomi smartphones on a similar platform (Redmi Note 4 and Note Pro), throttling manifests itself much more significantly (up to 40%). The temperature of the back cover when performing resource-intensive tasks does not exceed 40-42 degrees Celsius.
Working with RAM, like most other Chinese smartphones, leaves much to be desired. Despite as much as 4 GB of RAM, resource-intensive applications are unloaded from memory after minimization. Why, even the tabs in the browser are reloaded. And use more than 2.5 GB"operators" For all the time I have been using a smartphone, I have not succeeded.
Of the 32 GB of internal memory, about 25 are allocated for the needs of the user, but by donating nanoSIM it can be expanded via microSD cards up to 128 gigabytes.
Communications and multimedia
Apollo Lite is equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 modules, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5 GHz) and GPS/GLONNAS. With active A-GPS, satellites are detected quickly enough, there are no complaints about positioning accuracy and signal stability. To simplify orientation in space, there is a digital compass.
From the point of view of telephone functionality, the smartphone works well: the speaker is loud and of high quality, the vibration signal is felt in the pockets of trousers, both the first and second SIM can work in the 3G / 4G network. The quality of speech transmission does not raise any questions, although I could not find a second microphone on the case (usually used for noise reduction).
The multimedia speaker is quiet, and the sound from it is completely devoid of low frequencies and any volume. The quality of music playback in headphones is comparable to other smartphones - the volume is sufficient, there are no extraneous noises. FM radio only works with connected headphones that act as an antenna.
autonomy
The smartphone received a built-in battery with a capacity of 3180 mAh and, judging by the results of synthetic tests, it should demonstrate the standard 3-4 hours of screen activity in a fairly intensive mode of use.
In fact, the Apollo Lite had to be charged every 12-13 hours, and the screen was active for barely two hours. The fact is that after installing the necessary set of software that the author uses with all Android smartphones without exception, Apollo Lite lost the ability to go to sleep when the screen is off. Unfortunately, it was not possible to identify the reason for this behavior even after obtaining root access rights and installing the necessary monitoring programs. The problem is not massive, but there are people on the forums who have already managed to sell their smartphone because of the similar behavior thereof.
For fast charging, MediaTek PE + technology is used, and the package contains an appropriate power supply capable of providing the device with a current of 2 Amperes at 5/7/9 Volts and 1.5 A at 12 V. From 0 to 100 percent, the smartphone gains charge in 65-70 minutes , while the body temperature over the entire surface reaches 45° C.
Software
The Apollo Lite software platform is based on Android version 6.0. So-called" clean " We can see Android, for example, in Google's Nexus smartphones, while Android Open Source Project (AOSP) appears in many Chinese devices.
This is a set of source codes, from which any person with sufficient knowledge can assemble a full-fledged firmware. The quality of the final software depends on the sufficiency of knowledge of this person (or team). It seems to me that this is one of the least expensive processes for Chinese smartphone manufacturers.
When you turn it on for the first time or after resetting the settings, Apollo Lite does not offer to perform the initial setup, where, starting from the sixth version of Android, you can install applications from a backup copy from a previous smartphone. Time and date, security settings - all this subsequently needs to be independently searched in the settings.
There are minor flaws throughout the system, such as the inability to set the display of the remaining battery charge as a percentage, and some applications breathe the spirit of Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
Fortunately, the manufacturer took care of the introduction of OTA updates, and in 2 weeks of operation, the smartphone has already been updated twice. Minor corrections, but no less pleasant.
If they continue in the same spirit, then all the bugs will be eradicated in a couple of months, but I would not have any special hopes about this. All is well with localization" from the box " , no additional manipulations are necessary.
cameras
In Apollo Lite, Vernee used photomatrices from Samsung. Used for front camera S5K5E8 at 5 MP, and for the main one - S5K3P3 at 16 MP. The f/stop of the main camera is f/2.2.
During the day, the smartphone takes pictures of tolerable quality, but in the evening or in low artificial light, it is better not to get the smartphone out of your pocket. Digital noise in the photo"eat" every possible detail.
Minuses: constructive nuances; performance in resource-intensive applications; problems with autonomy and software optimization; image quality from the main camera; quiet multimedia speaker.
Conclusion: in Chinese online stores, the price of Vernee Apollo Lite fluctuates around 200-230 dollars. Taking into account all the advantages and disadvantages, it is hard to call such a price justified. If you have been eyeing this smartphone and are familiar with the specifics of shopping in China, then it would be much more appropriate to spend these $ 200 on solutions from brands verified by many users, be it Xiaomi, Meizu or the growing LeEco. And if you think about increasing the budget by at least 50-60 dollars, then ZUK Z2, LeEco Le Max2 and Xiaomi Mi5 on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 flagship chip burst into the circle of contenders.
Specifications
| Built-in memory, GB | 32 |
| Expansion slot | microSD/SDHC (up to 128 GB) |
| SIM card type | Micro-SIM + Nano-SIM |
| Number of SIM cards | 2 (or 1 SIM card + memory card) |
| CPU | MediaTek Helio X20 |
| Number of Cores | 10 |
| Frequency, GHz | 2 |
| Accumulator battery | 3180 mAh (non-removable) |
| Operating time (manufacturer's data) | there is no data |
| Diagonal, inches | 5.5 |
| Permission | 1920x1080 |
| Matrix type | IPS |
| PPI | 401 |
| Brightness sensor | + |
| Other | Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 2.5D glass |
| Main camera, Mp | 16 (f/2.0) |
| Video filming | + |
| Flash | + |
| Front camera, Mp | 5 |
| High speed data transfer | GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA. LTE |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | 4.0 |
| GPS | + |
| IrDA | - |
| FM radio | - |
| Audio jack | + |
| NFC | - |
| interface connector | USB 2.0, Type-C |
| Dimensions, mm | 152x76.2x9.2 |
| Weight, g | 175 |
| Protection against dust and moisture | - |
| Type of shell | monoblock (non-separable) |
| Housing material | metal |
| Keyboard type | screen input |
Earlier this year, it announced its first smartphone, dubbed the Apollo. The device has a 1440p screen, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of flash memory and other high-end features at a price of $399.
Vernee Apollo has not yet been released, although it has been five months since the announcement. But during this time the company managed to release two other models. One of them was the budget Thor, the other was the mid-range device Apollo Lite, a simplified version of the Apollo. It will be discussed below.
Vernee Apollo Lite design
The Vernee Apollo Lite measures 152 x 76.2 x 9.2mm, so it's fairly thick by recent standards, but the battery isn't the biggest. The front of the device is quite clean, only with a distance sensor, a front camera and a speaker on top. To the left of the distance sensor is a bright, multi-colored notification light that's not visible when it's turned off. There is nothing under the 5.5-inch screen, only capacitive buttons, so the smartphone has a minimalist look.
On the left side are two trays that can be opened with a pin, where you can insert SIM cards or one SIM card and one microSD memory card. On the right is the volume control button and below it is the power button. At the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack, at the bottom is a USB type C connector for recharging and data transfer, as well as two speaker grilles.
On the back is a protruding camera with its own silver frame. To the left of it is a dual LED flash, under the camera is a fingerprint sensor. Below is the inscription Model: Apollo Lite under the Vernee logo. The device is curved on the sides, the thickest point falls on its middle.
The back cover and edges are made of three parts: the top and bottom are made of plastic, and the middle is made of zinc and titanium alloy (as the developers say). This combination of materials detracts from both the look and feel of the device, as the plastic parts don't match the metal parts. In addition to wear problems, the device also gets dirty easily and is difficult to clean due to joints between materials.
Available in two color options: Moonlight Silver and Space Grey. The latter has a black front and magenta back, while the silver is white on the front and gray on the back. The top and bottom of the silver variant are painted to match the color of the metal, which looks rather rustic. The 2.5D curved display has black bezels around the edges, which are particularly noticeable in a gray phone due to the contrast between the white front and the thick black screen bezels.
Screen
The Apollo Lite is a stripped-down version of the Apollo model, and the display suffered from this cut, not least. The Apollo will have a 1440p screen, while the Apollo Lite will have a regular Full HD (1080p). The quality of the panel is good - it's IGZO with excellent color reproduction and viewing angles, as well as low power consumption. This is one of the best 1080p smartphone screens, especially if we talk about not the most famous Chinese manufacturers.
Unfortunately, Vernee's engineers didn't optimize the display very well, so Vivid mode with MediaTek's MiraVision optimization technology results in extremely oversaturated colors. Without MiraVision's dynamic contrast adjustment, colors appear washed out. This is not a plus or minus, since the screen looks great without MiraVision, but if the company could not optimize the technology, then it was better to turn it off by default.
Vernee talks about the use of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which was tested by accidentally dropping the device. No cracks were found, but when carried in a pocket, scratches appear.
Vernee Apollo Lite Performance
Characteristics
Apollo Lite has a 10-core MediaTek Helio X20 processor with ARM big.LITTLE architecture. There are three blocks of cores, switched depending on the load. The four ARM Cortex-A53 cores are clocked at 1.4GHz and are designed for lightweight tasks. Four A53s are overclocked to 2 GHz (minimum 1.84 GHz), and even more powerful are two ARM Cortex-A72 2.3 GHz, which are needed in games and other graphics work.At least the device can work with one core A53 with a frequency of 221 MHz, which reduces power consumption, or all the cores can work at their maximum frequencies.
Benchmarks
The Apollo Lite had mixed results in the benchmarks, performing well in the CPU tests and not so much in the graphics ones. This is to be expected for a MediaTek processor due to the lack of a powerful graphics chip that could compete with Qualcomm chips.
Vellamo
- Browser (Chrome): 5781
- Metal: 2829
- Multi-core: 3641
- CPU (single core): 1650
- CPU (multi-core): 4573
- Computing: 2720
Games
Games on this smartphone are going great, in Unkilled and there were no lags. The device handles 3D and 2D gaming, aided by only 1080p screen resolution and the Helio X20 SoC. The Helio X20 was designed with 1440p in mind, so 1080p is no problem.Android
The operating system works most often quickly and without hitches, but a few updates would not hurt. Among the problems are the overlay of notifications on the lock screen, where system menus protrude several pixels above them, camera and display performance deficiencies, as mentioned above. Wi-Fi and LTE work stably.
The smartphone uses an almost pure version of Android 6.0.1 with minor changes like MediaTek MiraVision, the addition of a Turbo Download mode (download files over Wi-Fi and cellular with speeds added together) and the ability to customize the on-screen buttons. Google Play services are installed on the international version of the device.
The device setup screen is missing, which should be displayed after a factory reset. This screen is the only place where you can use Google's new device setup option, which makes it easy to switch from an old smartphone to a new one. The elimination of this screen by the developers forces the device to be configured in hours instead of minutes.
GPS is almost useless here, as it is on many Chinese smartphones. The initial finding of the satellite takes a couple of seconds, but the signal is quickly lost and cannot be found. If you're using the Maps app, this might be a problem.
During testing, Vernee released three over-the-air updates. Whether they will continue to come out as regularly and further is unknown.
Camera
The rear camera can shine or be disappointing, easily managing photography in good light and producing low-quality photos in poor light. The camera lacks the optical image stabilization and functionality of more expensive smartphones. The S5K3P3 sensor has an aperture of f/2.0 and a resolution of 16 megapixels.With a lack of natural light, problems with white balance and contrast begin. With artificial lighting, the situation is aggravated, not to mention the absence of any lighting. But the shutter works with lightning speed, as soon as the finger pressed it. Focusing is also not slow, but inferior to the capabilities of, for example, the G5.
The front camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels and a Samsung S5K5E8 sensor with f / 2.0 aperture. Here the shutter is also fast and there are also problems with the white balance.
The camera is capable of shooting 4K video, but this option is not in the camera menu. At least at the time of testing, this option was not available programmatically.
Battery in Vernee Apollo Lite
Vernee Apollo Lite supports MediaTek Pump Express 3.0 fast charging technology, which is similar to Qualcomm. From 0 to 100%, it allows you to charge your smartphone in 1 hour and 10 minutes.The battery capacity is 3200 mAh, which should be enough for a day of work without any problems. The IGZO display consumes power quite economically, so with the screen on, the smartphone will work longer than its competitors - about 3-3.5 hours.
Accessories
Vernee includes a data cable and a charging adapter (18W, 9V, 2A). There are also cases and screen protectors for the Vernee Apollo Lite.Vernee sent a wooden stand with the test smartphone. It has the Vernee branding laser engraved on the front. The stand looks pretty durable, but it's still wood, so handle it with care.
There are four rubber feet for installation on any surface without slipping and damaging this surface. Stand sold separately.
Conclusion
The Vernee Apollo Lite seems like a good smartphone, at least on paper, but it also has its downsides. These include compromises in terms of build quality to reduce cost. Some parts of the operating system look unfinished, like the camera.For example, by hiding the soft navigation buttons, it is difficult in some parts of the system to bring them back (when watching a video or other full-screen content). If this fails, the device will have to be hard reset with the power button.
Need to work on GPS. It handles Twitter location or Google Now weather, but it's hard to use when navigating.
As a result, the smartphone gets a score of 6.5/10 at a price of less than $200. Recall that this is one of the first Vernee products, which should be corrected for.
Where to Buy Vernee Apollo Lite and Price
You can buy Vernee Apollo Lite from the official seller. The price of the smartphone is $199.99.Vernee are another new brand that invites us to get acquainted with such a smartphone as Vernee Apollo - Helio X25 processor and 21 MP main camera.
Initially, Vernee is a manufacturer of components for smartphones, but at the moment, apparently, they decided that they were able to make quality phones with a nice price tag. They already have three smartphones in their assets:
- budget Thor;
- the younger version of this model is Apollo Lite;
- flagship Apollo.
At the conference where the presentation of the two Helio X20 and X25 processors took place, the two above-mentioned Thor and Apollo smartphones were also noticed. In the photo below, one of the managers of Mediatek, Yenchi Lee (on the right), holds Vernee Thor in his hands, and on the left we can see just the Apollo model
Buy Vernee Apollo for $225.64 GearBest
Design
The first pictures of the front panel of the smartphone appeared on the network and the most interesting thing you can see on them is the size of the side frames. Only 2 mm is a fairly good indicator for a smartphone, moreover, the screen-to-body ratio of a smartphone is 80%.
This is the first smartphone in the world that has a 2 mm thick back cover and is made of titanium alloy. Thus, Vernee raised the quality of the all-metal smartphone to a new level.
But there is one feature - the Apollo back cover is about 2-3 times heavier than any other cover of a metal smartphone.
3D visualization of a smartphone, from the manufacturer
The design of the back cover of the Vernee Apollo will be slightly changed. The use of CNC machining and nano-inserts to mold the anodized metal backplate results in better resistance to corrosion and premature wear.
Last week, MediaTek attended the GITEX 2016 exhibition in Dubai. Apollo was also present here and received a lot of attention from the media and visitors.
The height of the smartphone is 152 mm, width 75.6 mm, thickness 9.3 mm. Weight - 188 grams.
Equipment:
- Charger;
- USB cable;
- user guide;
- a needle for removing the SIM card tray;
- glasses for virtual reality (VR Box).
OnePlus 3T and Vernee Apollo design comparison
Both models are very similar in terms of build quality and materials from which they were made. It has a 2.5D display on the front, an all-metal back, thin antenna lines, and a body that is 98% metal. In addition, both have 360-degree sandblasting during production, after which smartphones receive a unique matte texture. Among the differences, one can distinguish perhaps the more rounded corners of the OnePlus 3T smartphone.
Specifications Vernee Apollo
- 5.5-inch 2.5D display with 2K resolution, Fource Touch and 541 PPI pixel density;
- ten-core processor Mediatek Helio X25 with a clock frequency of 2.5 GHz;
- GPU Mali T880;
- 4 GB of RAM;
- 64 GB of internal memory, expandable with a memory card up to 128 GB;
- 21 MP main camera with Sony IMX230 sensor, PDAF, F/2.2 aperture, 4K video recording capability;
- 8 MP front camera with 84-degree wide-angle lens;
- two SIM cards micro SIM + nano SIM;
- Bluetooth 4.0, GPS+A-GPS, WIFI 802.11a/b/g/n/ac;
- USB Type C port, OTG support;
- rear fingerprint scanner;
- 3180 mAh battery with support for fast charging (30 minutes from 0 to 50% charge);
- OS Android 6.0.
Supported networks:
- 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz;
- 3G: WCDMA 900/2100 MHz;
- 4G: FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600 MHz.
Apollo is positioned as the first Mediatek-VR flagship. A high resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and a high pixel density of 541 PPI make the smartphone ideal for use with VR headsets. Other than that, it's possible that Vernee will release its own VR headset soon.
Tests
In Antutu, the smartphone scores just over 102,000 points
The fingerprint scanner
Vernee claims that the Apollo can be unlocked within 0.1 second and to confirm this result they recorded a video comparing Apollo and iPhone 7 Plus unlock speeds.
Comparison with OnePlus 3T
In terms of design, both flagships are very similar - an all-metal body, thin lines of antenna stripes and a rather angular design, these are the main points that you pay attention to when you first see smartphones. But in terms of characteristics, they have differences. Comparison table:
Processor comparison
Processors SD 821, MTK Helio X25 are quite productive and powerful. But as Vernee says, the Helio X25 has its advantages. It can easily run heavy 3D games and play 2K / 4K videos, thanks to the three-cluster basis, more efficient task distribution for optimal performance and longer battery life.
In any case, with standard everyday use, you do not need so much performance, so you simply will not feel much difference between Snapdragon 821 and Helio X25.
Display Comparison
Another important factor is the display. The OnePlus 3T has a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display and while standard 5.5-inch screens have a pixel density of 401 PPI, the OnePlus 3T has a pixel density of only 323 PPI due to PenTile alignment technology. When you look closely at the display, you can still see the "roughness" of the letters. The Vernee Apollo has a 2K resolution display that has standard RGB alignment, with a density of 541PPI.
Below you can watch a comparison video showing the superiority of IPS LCD over PenTile AMOLED display.
