Wiko, a French smartphone company, is to arrive in the Philippines this 2nd of June

At least it’s not Chinese… Oh wait

Wiko has announced that the company will bring its smartphones onto Philippine shores and would be announcing some of its portfolios through a live event on the 2nd of June.

For those who don’t know, Wiko is a French smartphone brand but they are wholly owned by Tinno Mobile. Tinno is an ODM contractor that designs smartphones for other manufacturers like Realme and Xiaomi. Hence, Wiko’s phones may heavily resemble phones from both Xiaomi and Realme but will have completely different internals.

As a European company, their phones may be more expensive than their Chinese counterparts. However, since Tinno owns them, we could expect competitive pricing. After all, no one would buy a budget phone that’s the price of a Realme GT Master Edition.

One of their first phones to arrive in the Philippines is the Wiko T3, a phone that bears a striking resemblance to the Realme C25 albeit the phone looks a little more premium and the fingerprint scanner is instead placed on the side.

The Wiko T3 is a budget phone in all respects It has a 6.6in. HD+ (1600x720px) IPS LCD screen, a triple camera setup consisting of a 48mp main camera, 5mp ultrawide, and a 2mp depth. Cannot expect much on a phone of its class. It runs Android 11 which is considered by some to be dated. The phone has an 8mp selfie camera sitting on a dewdrop notch.

The phone is powered by a Helio P35 chipset complemented by 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The latter can be further expanded via MicroSD card, up to 256GB

Keeping the phone active is the 5000mAh battery. Although it has no fast charging, it at least charges via USB-C. According to Wiko, this battery can provide up to 172 hours of music playback and 28 hours of video playback. The company also took note of its large 86dB speaker which should provide high-quality audio, especially if they advertised it. This speaker has “3D audio enhancement” and other “audio enhancement effects”.

According to local bloggers, Cherry Mobile may be the primary distributor of Wiko phones. So we can expect Cherry to advertise them and sell them through their own stores. We could also expect their own kiosks or pop-up stores.

Some distributors like Rull’s have already listed the Wiko T3, priced at Php 7,499. It comes in Classic Black and Elegant Gold colours. The phone also has been listed on Wiko’s official store and is priced similarly.

SPECS:

• 6.6in. HD+ (1600x720px) IPS LCD
• Mediatek Helio P35 (12nm)
• CAMERAS:
  • 48mp (main), f/2.2
  • 5mp (ultrawide)
  • 2mp (depth), f/2.4
  • FRONT: 8mp
• 5000mAh
• USB-C, 3.5mm jack, 86dB speakers, MicroSD slot (up to 256GB)
• 4G LTE services, Wi-Fi
• Elegant Gold, Classic Black
• PRICE:
  • 4/128: Php 7,499

We can expect it to arrive on June 2.

Source: Wiko Philippines