freotech
The majority of their phones can be found for under a hundred dollars. Many of them try to imitate more expensive products. However, to reach that low price they had to cut corners somewhere and oftentimes, that includes many of their products, only have 3g connectivity and, of course, with the 4g lte migration here in the united states. That means a lot of these phones will simply no longer function with t mobile and at t just cutting off support. Xcodys response to that is bringing out more devices now with 4g lte support which, to be honest, isnt anything revolutionary or exciting, but at least it means these phones, at least will continue to function in terms of making calls theyre still rock bottom in terms of pricing And specs, so this particular model that were taking a look at today is their newest xcodi v40, and it sells for under 85 bucks design wise. This is a much more grounded appearance than many of the earlier phones gone is all the flashy gradient colored finishes. We have a matte surface, it doesnt really shine or catch your eye as much. I would definitely much prefer a more utilitarian design if it means that the experience is better. It still is using a quad core processor from mediatek, pretty entry level clocked at 1.33 gigahertz. It is at least optimized to run on android go edition, so apps are a little lighter. Well, talk about the performance later on in this video comes in two colors and does charge using usb type c and theres a 3 000 milliamp hour capacity battery inside which is non replaceable on this particular model.
Now areas where the specs are still again definitely super entry level would include ram where this model only has two gigabytes. That is extremely low, but keeping in mind that a lot of android go edition. Phones require just one gig, at least it still functions, but its another area, where i really think even budget phones should get you at least three gigs, if not four, increasingly since more and more apps as well as android, is getting just more resource intensive. So aside from the phone itself, you also get a another film screen protector. One is already factory pre applied theres. Also, a third tempered glass screen protector, so its a very nice accessory that they give you to protect the screen along with a free, tpu soft carrying case, along with the quick user guide, sim ejector tool, usb type c charging and data cable, along with a wall. Adapter, so it is a little bit funny that again, these ultra budget phones seem to give you so much more than on flagship phones, which you dont even get a charger in the box these days, starting with the pros, i would say, design and overall the way That a phone feels is good, i wouldnt say its going to be the most luxurious thing in the world, but it definitely feels better than just an 80 phone in the sense that, even though its not as glittery and shimmery as their previous attempts with the fancy Gradient effect now, instead of using this plastic, i think theyre actually using a thin layer of metal.
Now it is very thin and at first i thought it was actually plastic, but if you put your hand over it, the texture, as well as the fact that its cold to the touch makes me suspect it is a thin layer of aluminum, so that metal build Is going to be a little bit more resistant to wear and tear it, doesnt show fingerprints as easily and it makes the phone just feel a little more solid as youre gripping it. With that being said, the frame of the phone is still made out of plastic, so only the back here is metal. One unfortunate habit that xcody has retained, though, is still using this camera cluster. That makes the phone look like an expensive flagship from afar, but in reality only the primary camera is a real lens rated at five megapixels. The other two are just for decorative purposes. They at least are honest about that in their ads, but from a design perspective. I honestly would have preferred to save the cost from the material into putting an extra gig of ram. I think it would be even better anyways on the spine of the phone. We do have access to a volume rocker. There is a power key and on the very bottom here that type c port for charging and data, along with a loudspeaker with that being said, it doesnt really support quick charging so to fully top up this 3 000 milliamp hour capacity back from zero took me Around three hours to fully juice up, but it is what it is.
You can also use a power bank, of course, while you still operate the phone anyways on the side. Here we have the sim ejector slot. It is a dual sim phone, so you can pop in two cards again supporting 4g lte or the second one is also a hybrid slot that can dub as a micro, sd card reader and thats. Really the likely use scenario of that second slot, because the phone comes with just 16 gigs of built in storage as default, which really isnt a lot. Even though android go edition is light. If you want to take some photos, install some applications, thats going to fill up quite fast, so thankfully you do get that memory, expansion and the top here does house the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, so anyways coming back to the phone itself on the front, we can See there is a six inch ips display, which has a 18 by nine or two by one aspect: ratio and its not as flashy looking as having a hole, punch display or even a teardrop notch that many of exqes previous phones tried to do which yes does Make it look a little bit more modern and get you a better screen to body ratio, but, like i said, this phone is all about them, stripping some of those glitz and glamour, but giving you a more practical phone at the end of the day and a Full version of android go edition, unlike on some of their other phones, where they try to actually power it using a super outdated version of android, something like android, 4.
4 and just slap a launcher on top of it to make it look newer and really didnt. Do any optimization from the software perspective, this at least really is a more up to date, version of the os theyre focusing more on what actually matters for a budget phone, so anyways going back to this display, even though we do have a little bit larger of A chin at the top and bottom, i still think it looks quite good theres no protrusions from the camera, which, by the way, is located at the very top and whats. Also a little bit of a treat is there is a front facing kind of selfie flash. So it can illuminate you when youre taking photos or videos in darker environments is ips. So that means you are getting some decent viewing angles, unlike some tn panels that you often would see on other super low cost phones from a lot of prepaid brands. So if youre tilting the screen at least colors dont really wash out and its not really shifting, blue or black or anything, even at extreme angles, which is good. However, this is a non laminated panel, which means that there is still a little bit of a gap between the glass and the actual lcd underneath which you can kind of tell if youre pointing at it from the light. So it could still be, of course, improved, but at the very least, colors look quite good and even the brightness levels i think, are acceptable for a budget phone.
So, even if youre using this uh, where there is a little bit of sunlight around you, you should still be able to mostly make out what you are looking at and full google services are supported on here. So no issues in that department lets actually jump into the camera first. So cameras, i would say, has always been more of a weakness on budget phones and really in this regard, theres not too much that the v40 can do to escape, that comparing it with more expensive phones, its an area where youll see a much bigger gap. But you do have a few settings to play around with here, such as the self timer iso, and there are a few preset scenes on here, but they dont make the most dramatic difference in the world, especially since video recording is capped at 720p or just hd Resolution so you kind of expect what youre getting here its no match for a more expensive device. So again, if you are really a photography buff, you definitely should look elsewhere, probably at some of the budget, older generation pixels and as long as you dont have your expectations too high. At least you can still make out things like text and every once in a while in terms of outdoor shots. If you have good enough lighting, things can still turn out all right, but again its not going to do you any wonders, but again its functional. Now the front facing camera, i would say, even though its also 5 megapixels tends to be not quite as colorful, so you tend to have to be in a pretty well lit environment to get the best effect if youre doing selfies or video chats.
But once again its functional and nothing too surprising for a budget phone, which is to say it is acceptable, but nothing extraordinary now. Similarly, when it comes to making phone calls, it is a phone. At the end of the day, i would say its also passable. I tried it using t mobile here in the united states and i was able to get a decent connection at the very least, and at least the microphone and the speaker. Your piece all sounded pretty loud and clean, so when it comes to just talking to folks, they really didnt have too much problems in terms of hearing me and vice versa. Now, speaking of, if we are taking a look at some of that notification shade here again very stock, so you do have access to things like a dark mode out of the box. With that 16 gigabyte, you will get around 11 to 12 gigs free for you to install programs and apps, not a ton, but if youre conservative you can get by or again expanding the memory is probably going to be one of the things youll want to do With that micro sd card slot, otherwise, in terms of battery life, its been okay and it will get you through about a day sometimes a day and a half, if youre, using it more on standby. In terms of watching some videos making a few phone calls, which is again pretty average, it does support a form of face unlock and, as youve maybe noticed, there is no biometric uh fingerprint scanner on here.
So you cant use that to unlock the phone. Unlike a lot of other budget devices in this price range, so you have to use that front facing cam to authenticate or use a password. Android 10, of course, does technically support gestures, but android go edition at least on this phone seems to be restricting that. So, for instance, if i am searching up gestures, even though its in the source code, you dont get the option to change that yourself. Overall, navigation on the system level also is alright, but thats. This one area where again the two gigs of ram, coupled with the slightly aging mediatek processor, is just scraping by its kind of the theme of the entire phone, its a sufficient. But you just have to wait a split second longer for things to open and load. Youre not going to get the most buttery smooth of animations, but again for a budget device that should kind of be expected and its all right. If we jump into youtube, for instance, we can watch back some videos and over here lets also kind of hear what the speakers sound like crank, that up a bit Music Applause right. So overall takeaways being, i think the speaker can definitely be a little bit louder. But at the very least it doesnt sound too tinny, thankfully, so it is all right for just listening to some quick videos with or you can always use the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, always great to see the very least again that six inch display is large.
Enough has a modern enough aspect ratio that content feels comfortable, especially on a budget phone. You can pinch in to get a full screen view. You can kind of tell there that it takes a split second, sometimes for things to catch on. So, generally speaking, its gon na be okay in terms of just watching back some quick videos with heres a quick web browsing test using the verge as a benchmark again, reception quality using wi fi also seems to be fair. I was, for the most part, always connected to a network, and loading up this page here, which is pretty complex, will definitely take a few moments longer than on a newer device with faster internals, but for what it is, it definitely still gets the job done. I mean i can still scroll and things arent really locking up on me, but you can tell how theres still a lot of elements here that will take definitely longer for them to fully render. If you are trying to bounce back and forth between a ton of open tabs or have a lot of other programs in the background, it would be generally advisable to close out of things that youre not using to get you the best performance. If you want to do a google search or go into more advanced things like cards and news feeds, you actually have to tap on the search bar specifically to jump into the google app first, so theres, an extra step there, which tries to again use up a Little bit less data resources, as well as help out the phone from refreshing itself using too many animations so once were in here, were able to find our discover tab.
Basically, our news feed of articles that were interested in and also refresh details as we would like. Overall again, it will allow you to also access some web apps, which are essentially just links to the browser, and you dont have to necessarily download the official native app from the play store. And this will allow you to take up less memory and space because youre using just the web version of it and built in storage, is limited. The phone does have built in gps, so you can use it for turn by turn navigation, although it emits a nfc chip which is again pretty expected for a budget phone. When it comes to game play, i would say its also a area of relative weakness on budget phones in general, and this is really no exception. I mean the very simplest of games with more kind of 2d style. Animations will work. Just fine titles, like angry birds, really light games that were talking about now. It can still handle with that being said, anything more demanding and youre going to notice a lot more dropped frames, its just not going to be the most pleasant experience on the limited hardware. Thats present so again, if you are expecting more powerful performance, youll often have to definitely spend a little bit more for just a more powerful phone at the end of the day, but again, games like stack here, certainly do function. It does get a little bit warmer, primarily on the top right hand, section of the phone.
It gets a little bit more toasty, but i would say i havent really seen any hints of thermal throttling or anything crazy like that to speak of, but its not going to be quite as cool to the touch, if youre using it for basic tasks. So thats more or less it as far as our quick hands on review of the x goody v40, like i said for this company, which is all about the super low cost budget phones its. Actually, i think a step in the right direction. Instead of spending the extra cost on making the phone look more flashy than it really needs to be ended up cutting more corners, things like using a tn panel, or only putting 3g or even 2g in some cases on their older products. So now we finally have fixed some of those issues along with using actually a metal build, but as long as youre not expecting anything wild, it will still be serviceable. Things like making phone calls watching some quick videos and generally quick browsing the web. It can handle that without really any issues and for the most part i would say it definitely is looking still and feeling for the most part a bit better than you would expect for a super budget phone.
