HomTom HT 17: Our Review
HomTom is a rib of the better known Doogee, and from poco launched the new HT 17 model on the market, an entry level smartphone that can be purchased on Amazon a poco more than 70 euros.
Will it be a good deal or a disappointment? Let's find out if HomTom this time broke into our hearts in our review.
Materials, Hardware and Ergonomics
The HomTom HT 17 is a completely built-in smartphone with a design that is not properly anonymous, thanks to the "patch" style texture, already seen on the Samung Galaxy S5, which gives a touch of elegance and increases the grip.
Below the body we find 1Gb of RAM, Giga 8 of internal memory expandable by micro SD up to 32 Gb, and a processor Mediatek MTK 6737 Quad Core.
The 10 10 XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX is always inexpensive, even though it does not have a lightning fast release speed but can also be used to trigger a selfie.
Always on the back we find an 13 Mpx camera interpolated via software and the single-led flash. On the front we find the front camera from 5 Mpx interpolated via software, brightness sensor, proximity and notification LED which can also be disabled, which is very welcome because on devices of the same price range this is almost never present .
Finally, the keys are touch-type on the body and not backlit but have a vibration with a really calibrated feed in the right way.
Display
The HOMTOM HT 17 panel has a diagonal from 5,5 IPS type inches with a resolution of 1280 x 720. A discreet unit, especially for the price range, in fact the display has bright colors and good brightness, although under the direct sunlight some of the visibility problems we notice. The colors are lighter when we tilt the device in a particular way to blacks that tend to gray.
However, there is some attention from Mediatek, as the HomTom HT 17 software Miravision to make colors more vivid and with higher contrast. Finally, the touch is always responsive but poco oleophobic.
Battery, Audio and Receiving
The HOMTOM HT 17 battery is from 3000 mAh, enough to carry us further a day and a half of intense use. The terminal reaches values of 4 hours and minutes 30 about screen turned on, using both SIMs with display brightness at most. Charging is, however, fast, completing at about 2 and a half hours.
The HomTom HT 17 hosts two SIMs, in micro format, Dual Stand by, with relative network support LTE 4G on both slots. It is also supported bandwidth of 800 mHz.
From the settings we can choose the preferred SIM for data and call or SMS network, or from time to time choose which SIM to call. However, you can not associate different ring tones for the two SIMs.
The sound in the call is undertone and a poco muffled, both in capsule and speakerphone, as it is in listening to music from the system speaker with almost non-existent bass and audio poco clean. It is far better to listen to the other side of the phone, even though there is no second microphone.
Software
On the HTOM HT 17 turns Android 6.0 with a slightly personalized interface from HomTom. In fact we find custom icons, a launcher with absence of the app drawer without customization. We also find some gesture divided into Telephony Motion, System Motion, Gesture Wakeup.
In practice, we can answer a call simply by raising the phone, or silence it by turning it upside down. We can make a screenshot by swiping three fingers down at the same time or drawing a letter off screen to start, for example, the camera.
Also available double tap to awaken the screen from off. Customization is also found in Mediatek's classic apps such as File Explorer, which on this HomTom HT17 has a refurbished and very nice graphics. Also available is the function of Turbo Download, namely the ability to simultaneously use Wi-Fi and 4G / 3G networks.
The simplicity of the software makes the phone always very fluid without impending with a reactive user experience.
The web browser behaves discreetly, although not loading pages fast, navigation is smooth. In essence, the HomTom HT 17 runs well in every operation, even during heavy gaming, such as Real Racing 3 (boot in 50 seconds), thanks to the built-in card Mali T720, which returns the maximum graphic detail, playability is pleasant and without lag.
I have never experienced any particular heat but under stress. It is also possible to block access to applications with l'Apps Lock, which can also take a picture to the person who inserts the wrong code, thus showing us who tried to access our phone.
Particular negative note we find it with regard to the GPS which, although present, is really unusable. The first fix was made after more than 10 minutes and the navigation was snug because the GPS signal was falling continuously.
Benchmark Results
Camera and Multimedia
The HOMTOM HT 17 rear camera from 13 Mpx, interpolated via software, realizes enough clicks ideal for social photographers. Even in low light conditions, the photos are made sufficiently even if the flash tends to burn all the contours of the objects. The sufficiency of course is related to the price at which the device is sold.
Macros raise the overall quality of the photos, but when you zoom in, you notice a loss of detail and some clarity even though the colors are well-replicated. The function is present HDR which works pretty well, while focusing on the video is lazy and often the colors tend to be too bright, having to manually focus on the correct color correction. The selfies taken with the front camera are highly interpolated and the final quality is definitely insufficient if not disappointing.
Conclusions
Undoubtedly, we can not expect anything from a smartphone of just Euro 70, but we can safely say that the cost is still high because of the big limits that this HomTom HT 17 brings with it. At the same price we find more powerful devices or in any case they can be used in their entirety without having to give up, for example, GPS.
The price might have to be revised, even though the HomTom support to the bug fixes (the 1 day of use I received 4 update notifications), and the powerful and reliable fingerprint sensor, make the device run with full power.
We just have to say goodbye to our video review.
I DO NOT WANT TO MOVE PHOTOS ON THE COMPUTER. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO?
I would point out that the gps has been bug fixed with new updates.