The itel P33 was launched early this month, and made available on April 8th in Uganda. With its theme tagged along its non-removable battery, the flagship goes up-to 80 hours on a single charge. This is so impressive considering that the battery is one of the biggest essential reason consumers buy smartphones. Notably, itel’s Power series smartphones is with no doubt known for the good battery performance. But in all, we have to say, so far the itel P33 stands out of all.
The P33 is the successor of the P32 that launched in August 2018. The flagship comes with more adjustments compared to its predecessor, to better the customer experience.
Ms. Lindah Nakityo, itel Uganda’s Communications Manager, says with the P33, “itel Mobile is committed to providing best-in-class smartphones for everyone that offers more value with cutting-edge technology, features, and style but at a very friendly price.”
Itel Mobile is well known for its entry-level smartphones that come affordable at least for the majority. Itel never hikes its prices a lot for the purpose of bridging the smartphone penetration in Africa. Playing a major role in this, itel wants at least everyone to own a smartphone, hence “Smartphone for Everyone”.
Having a received an itel P33, Blue in color to be specific for review, it does match some mid-range smartphones. Its 4,000mAh battery, display, affordability and Android GO performance do count in its comparison with the mid-rangers.
In our unboxing, we were impressed with its dual rear cameras, the battery, Android GO for optimization and the on-board storage.
The P33 is priced at UGX270,000 and comes available in Blue and Black color options. They can be purchased in any itel stores across the country, Jumia or any authorized smartphone seller.
What the review says;
Design, Display and Build
This does not differ a lot from the predecessor. Like the itel P32, the P33 is designed with a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top, microUSB port at the bottom, and the volume & power button at the side-right. The fingerprint mount appears at the back top-center while the dual rear camera appear in the vertical right-setting and the single speak placed at the bottom left. The front sees the 5MP camera and in-display navigation buttons.
The P33 is designed with a 5.5-Inch IPS LCD display similar to the P32 – well color-balanced, saturated and well contrast. The video and picture quality do come out well, all the whites, and blacks come out entirely well. Though the P33 doesn’t support FHD or HD, the 720 SHD does match perfectly for the entry level phone. In addition to the display, the bezels are reduced to give an 18:9 screen ratio for better/more viewership.
Like we mentioned before, the build of the P33 does not differ a lot from the P32. The P33 comes built with a non-removable 4,000mAh battery and in-hood SIM and microSD card slots.
Storage, Performance and Battery
Even though itel did keep the 1GB RAM on the P33, they managed to extend the on-board storage from 8GB to 16GB. This being key impression considering the fact that storage is a major priority in the smartphone world. Applause to itel Mobile for this. The on-board is expandable with a microSD card of up-to 32GB for better and massive storage.
When it comes to performance, its average – no doubts. Similar to the P32, the Mediatek MT6580 Quad-core 1.3GHz processor coupled with the 1GB of RAM and Android Oreo (GO Edition) optimize the performance of the P33 especially when the consumer is multi-tasking. The interface ran smoothly (optimal performance) even with transitions animations in the background.
The 4,000mAh battery being the highlight for the phone is so impressive considering it can last up-to 80 hours and more on a single charge. According to Lindah, the phone was put to extensive performance when it came to testing its battery to claim the 80 hour stand out.
On minimal usage, the battery can go up-to 96 hours equivalent to 4 days. Applause to itel Mobiles once again.
Camera Performance
Itel Mobile tried had to advance its camera performance compared to its predecessor. The P33 comes with a dual rear camera with 8MP + 0.8MP primary and secondary sensors. The primary sensor was upgraded from 5MP to 8MP. Notably, the P33 is the second handset with a dual rear cameras. On the other hand, the front shooters packs a 5MP sensor. They are supported with a LED flash light in case of a low light setting.
Like any other entry-level handsets, the photo outputs are average, the photos do appear quite sharp and crispy. But the photos are well representable, the color saturation pays off.
The cameras shoot SHD videos, we could expect more HD support in these mobiles with time.[related-posts]
The front 5MP camera takes quite good shots as well.
Fingerprint and Face ID features
The two features fingerprint and face ID are added to better the phone’s security. This is an addition to the PIN, Password, and Pattern we have come to know of.
Like any other fingerprint mount on any smartphone, users can unlock their phone, answer calls, take photos and so forth. Unlike its predecessor, the P33 fingerprint functions have been upgraded from 5 to 8. The functions include; unlocking the phone, App lock, taking a photo, answering a call, recording a call, stopping the alarm clock, recording a video and launching some apps.
On the other hand, the Face ID is a face recognition feature to unlock your smartphone.
Our expectations
We expect itel to upgrade features like its 1GB RAM to at least 2GB, HD support, 4G network connectivity, among others. The company did make an impression on the on-board storage which counts a lot to consumers.