Wiko T50 Review Part II

Electric Boogaloo

BATTERY:

The Wiko T50 is a large phone sure, but it comes with a 4000mAh battery with 40W fast charging. This means the phone has a somewhat lower capacity versus the competition which usually has 4500mAh or 5000mAh batteries. However, the 40W charging may be able to compensate for it. With such a small capacity, companies can freely add more Wattage to their chargers as this will cause the battery to have less chances of becoming the next Galaxy Note 7, and hence why Samsung is playing it safer even with their flagships, sticking with 25W.

Anyway, the battery faired quite poorly in our battery endurance test using PCMark Work 3.0. Scoring just shy of 8 hours and that’s still terrible for any smartphone. Most smartphones we have tested lasted for at least 10 or 11 hours. On the bright side, it was able to keep a consistent temperature during the test, going around 36-39°C.

Meanwhile, the phone charged from 1-100% within 1 hour, and honestly we expected faster charging times. 40W and 1 hour seems slow to us, but from a casual user’s perspective, this is really fast. If you just let it charge and forget, it will feel like it instantly charged. That’s how it felt to use when we aren’t conscious anyway.

SOUND:

There is a single speaker located chiefly at the bottom of the phone. The speakers have a “moderately loud” sound as we would rate it. It’s certainly not the best sounding speakers as to us, it sounds stiff and a little “watery”. Mostly we’re hearing trebles. Use an equalizer to get the best sound experience.

The phone does not have its own music player. Instead, YouTube Music does that for you. (Once again, RIP Google Play Music).

BIOMETRICS:

The Wiko T50 uses a side-mounted fingerprint scanner which also functions as a power button. It is located on the right hand frame, alongside the volume rockers.

The fingerprint sensor is a little sensitive for our tastes, as a slight tap from it will trigger the activation process, thus marking an error even if we’re not actively trying to open the phone using it. It scans my fingers at an adequate speed although a little slow for our liking. Despite that, it is very accurate and can read marks even if you’re slightly off the fingerprint sensor.

Weirdly it does not have face unlock. Even Nokia which also uses Stock Android has it on their similarly-priced handsets.

CONCLUSION:

The Wiko T50 is certainly a phone made for everyone. A jack of all trades as we call it. It passed in many of our tests and certainly its design did win our eyes. It feels more premium compared to the competition and this is thanks to Tinno’s brilliant design choices as well as the sharp 94.58% ultra-thin bezels.

Why jack of all trades though? Well it is good in a lot of aspects, but it certainly did not produce the best results. It has a really good camera thanks to the Sony IMX682 it equips with but the shutter speed is slow. The cameras are also dependent on lighting conditions as the AI does nothing significant to improve dynamic range and contrasts.

An immersive FullHD+ screen that is a little dim to use outside. It is also only L3 Widevine certified, limiting the use of such a nearly bezel-less display

Stock Android that is optimized but also lacks some of our favourite features including Picture-in-Picture, multi-screen (not dual screen, that’s different), and three-fingered screenshots. It’s also stuck in Android 11 where Android 12 phones are now a thing.

It can play a lot of games well and does not heat up too much but also it has no high refresh rate making the phone feel slow and unresponsive, and also the price it asks is a little too expensive as other G85 phones are now priced on the lower end. Finally, it charges really fast (though not to our expectations) but also the 4000mAh battery dies too quick. Need we say more?

Nevertheless, we like the Wiko T50 given its merits. If you are more into Stock Android but feel like Nokia’s too expensive for you, then this is a good alternative. Emerald Green is also pretty stunning to look at, so we recommend getting that colour as well.

We’re also hoping that Wiko’s presence make other European brands would appear in the Philippines someday, if there are anymore left.

+PROS:

• Razor-sharp ultra-thin bezels make for an immersive movie viewing
• 64MP Sony IMX682 camera can produce world-accurate colours on images. This is further enhanced with HDR activated.
• Solid front camera with a wide viewing angle
• Stock Android. Need we say more? It’s optimized, simple, and clean.
• Charges really fast with its 40W charger (though slower in our eyes)
• Smooth performance in almost all games we played in, provided they’re in their proper configurations
• Fingerprint sensor is pretty accurate
• Classy and premium-like design

-CONS:

• Lacks a high refresh rate
• It is dim to use outdoors, but objects are still visible enough to be viewed
• L3 Widevine only. Streaming is capped at 480p limiting the use of the immersive screen
• Stuck in Android 11, not part of the Android One program (security updates are available thankfully)
• Cameras are light-dependent and have a slow shutter speed
• Lacks face unlock
• Terrible battery endurance
• No MicroSD Card slot, no Virtual RAM either

AVAILABILITY:

As we mentioned multiple times, the phone is available in Emerald Green and Midnight Black, with Lively Pink available elsewhere. It is priced at Php 11,990 and comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. Available in all Wiko kiosks nationwide, Lazada, and Shopee.