TP-LINK Neffos N1 64Gb smartphone - advantages and disadvantages

In early spring 2018, at the Barcelona exhibition, TP-LINK announced a new product of its own flagship phones, the Neffos N1. Russian buyers got acquainted with the phone at the beginning of the summer. The design performance of the smartphone is not remarkable, since it does not stand out against the general background of its own competitors. Of interest is the electronic filling of the device, the characteristics of some of the nodes of which give reason to think.

Specifications

The advantages and disadvantages of the TP-LINK Neffos N1 64Gb Smartphone became obvious after a couple of months of using the device. It is powered by the Helio P25 8-core 64-bit chipset architecture manufactured by MediaTek. Has high-speed RAM and permanent memory equal to 4 GB and, accordingly, 64 GB. The manufacturer announced the aspect ratio of the display corresponding to 18: 9, but in fact this value was only 16: 9. But there are plenty of fans of such screens.

The gadget has two cameras: one of them receives color images, the other - monochrome. Equipped with fast battery charging function. The all-metal body is available in two colors: yellow and light gray. With an average price of no more than 20,000 rubles, the phone turned out to be smart for budget devices. The rating of positive qualities is crowned with a dual-band Wi-Fi network and GPS positioning, as a symbol of leadership in the production of wireless equipment.

Equipment

The phone package includes:

• smartphone;
• charger with standard mini USB cable length;
• screen protection;
• headphones;
• instruction;
• warranty service coupon.

general description

Outwardly, the device very much resembles the design of Huawei's flagship P10 Plus phone, which was released last year. It is very difficult to explain the criteria for choosing this particular model. The development of the N1 model began a long time ago. Perhaps the company liked the developments of the Chinese company, since their model has a winning option in relation to other models of the best manufacturers. It demonstrates the original polish of the case, comfortable ergonomics, and a pleasant-looking color. This feature attracted the attention of TP-LINK developers. Nevertheless, in terms of price, N1 differs from P10, but is not inferior to it in the rating of quality goods. Here they go on a par.

The phone case is streamlined with rounded corners according to the 2.5D standard. The back is flat. The antenna is located at the bottom. The designers hid it under a gray strip. There is a special plastic insert at the top. It is needed not only as an element of decor, but also for the operation of the antenna. The completely metal case will not be able to transmit signals.

The screen has the third generation of Gorilla Glass protective glass. There is an oleophobic coating. Its quality is much worse than that of previous models. When touched, prints remain on the front. It can be concluded that this coating will wear off over time. The case is metal, after a couple of months scratches and scuffs appear on it. In general, the quality of the materials used is not very good. Therefore, you should take care of buying a cover in advance.

The dimensions of the smartphone remain the same as in previous models. The width is a little too large for a standard hand. It would not hurt to reduce it. If its prototype had large speakers and a fingerprint scanner on the back, and this can explain its dimensions, then in the N1, such dimensions are explained only by simple copying of the design. However, no one had any complaints about the quality of the design.

At the top of the front panel is an event display indicator. The brightness of the LED is acceptable. Nearby is the front camera with f / 2.2 luminous intensity and 2.45mm focusing. There are no complaints about how she takes pictures. A speaker and built-in sensors are located nearby. Their work is quite satisfactory. The speaker tone is tuned to work with midrange, but the sound is clear without distortion.

The touch buttons are located in the standard order at the bottom of the screen. They have additional illumination.Such an insignificant detail is very pleasing. Not all phones have this feature. She is very helpful in the dark. At the bottom of the case is a 3.5mm RJ headphone jack. There is also a microphone and a small speaker. In the center there is a connector for connection with a mini USB-cable of type C. The connector is reliable and does not get loose over time, as in analogs.

On the right side of the case there is a power button for the phone. Pressing firmly, without backlash. Above is the SIM-card slot. It allows you to insert two nanoscale SIM cards or one nanoscale "SIM" and one micro SD memory card. On the left side are the volume buttons and a slider for switching modes. This arrangement of buttons is not quite typical for smartphones, but you can get used to it very quickly. A microphone is located slightly higher to reduce the noise level. Not a very good placement for him, because during a conversation it is blocked by a finger. According to many users, it should be carried to the top of the phone.

At the back are two cameras with dual LED flash. Below them is a fingerprint sensor. Its main purpose is to unlock your smartphone. But the functionality of the device allows you to assign a quick call to a frequently used option to the scanner. The dual matrix cameras are equipped with a night shooting option. It should be noted that the quality for a budget gadget is very good with decent image sharpness. You can buy such a phone even below its market price. Where is it profitable to buy? For example, in online stores. They don't provide a warranty, but the phone is much cheaper. The phone costs less than 18,000 rubles for the promotion.

Machine screen

Despite the manufacturer's claims, this model did not receive the declared aspect ratio of the display of 18: 9. Not all users liked this ratio due to the smaller screen real estate. And not all manufacturers agree to reduce the size of the side panels, which negatively affects the popularity of such models.

5.5-inch diagonal with gold plating. The developers decided not to abandon the design of the models of past years and left it in this version. Has a standard pixelization resolution of 1920 × 1080 (corresponds to the image quality of FullHD). Image density - 400 pixels. per inch. The matrix with the liquid crystal screen is made using IPS-technology with the location of the sensors under the color-transmitting filters under the lower layers of the screen glass.

The image contrast is 980: 1. With a brightness of 470 cd / m2 for light shades and 0.5 cd / m2 for dark shades, silhouettes are clearly visible in the sun. A lot of blue, red, on the contrary, is not enough. Shades of gray do not look natural. In general, the color gamut complies with the sRGB standards.

It is equipped with an eye protection function and automatic adjustment of the brightness of the glow according to the light intensity. As soon as you need to select this function, you can activate it with two taps on the screen or configure it to the scanner. For inexpensive smartphones, such screen characteristics are very good.

Accumulator battery

The battery capacity of the N1 device is 3260mAh. With moderate operation of the phone with an automated screen backlight, the charge lasts for two days. Even with active use of the gadget, he can work for a day and a half. With increased brightness, it will last for 10 hours for watching videos, for active games this figure will decrease to 5 hours. Similar models from other manufacturers have an order of magnitude lower performance with less autonomy.

A plus is the fast battery charging function. You can fully charge your phone in just an hour.

Communication technology support

SIM-cards support standard channels of the fourth generation of LTE technology. For Internet access, there is Wi-Fi operating over 802.11 protocols on channels a, b, g, n, n 5 GHz / dual band / hosting / direct. There is Bluetooth version 4.1, A-GPS, GPS and GLONASS positioning.Identifies more than twenty satellites with position accuracy up to three meters. The only omission was the lack of a small field communication interface. It would be very useful here. In general, the phone shows excellent performance of the communication elements.

Phone cameras

The manufacturers have equipped the phone with three cameras. One is on the front side, the other two are on the back. One of the paired cameras is color, the other takes pictures only in monochrome. The monochrome module is needed for bokeh and dynamic range expansion.

The modules of both cameras are model IMX386 by Sony. This is not surprising, since the question of which is better to buy and which company is better for the developers is not worth it. Sony has long established itself on the good side. Such modules are installed on almost all phone models. There are some exceptions, but not many.

The quality of the final images is always high quality. The presence of a monochrome addition is felt. For phones of its price category, this figure is much higher. With decreasing illumination, the light sensitivity of the modules decreases.

The cameras are capable of recording video at up to 30 frames / sec. It would seem not a bad quality. However, with a processor speed of 20 MB / second, motion blur appears in motion pictures.

Phone chipset architecture

Manufacturers did not skimp on the filling. Installed an 8-core 2.6 GHz Cortex-A53 processor and Mali-T880 graphics. Just perfect for medium difficulty games, for more complex games you'll have to opt for lower resolution graphics. But even when the phone is fully loaded, no freezes are observed. The device behaves briskly due to the efficient filling of the device.

Reviews

According to user reviews, the phone has excellent performance for its price class. Has a capacious rechargeable battery. Its charging is enough for a day of active use of the device, and a decent percentage of the charge remains the next day. With the fast charging function, the autonomy of the smartphone is extended indefinitely.

The neat design of the case raises no complaints. Many note the similarity of the design with Huawei, but this cannot be considered a disadvantage. Over time, scratches and scuffs appear on the case material, so it's better to keep the device in a case.

Thanks to high-quality cameras, photos and videos are always clear. Focusing is clear with ignorance of sharpness. But there is no image stabilization, so the quality of images drops dramatically during movement. The zoom works fine without any loss in quality.

• digital zoom;
• stylish design;
• high-quality video and photography;
• confident network reception.

• reduced image quality in the dark;
• the appearance of scratches on the material of the device case;
• lack of a near-field communication interface;
• incomplete adherence of the protective glass.

Output

In general, the phone turned out to be very interesting in its technical characteristics: a productive chipset, cameras, a high-resolution display. It has its own shortcomings, but they seem insignificant against the background of all its advantages. Even manufacturers of more expensive flagship phones have to make sacrifices to improve other features, TP-LINK is no exception. During this time, he has already managed to find his fans, in the future their number will only increase.