Itel Mobile launched their handset the itel A56 in mid of March to succeed the itel A55 of last year. Available in three color options, we received a black variant for a review, and we have our results after nearly two weeks with the phone.
There are a lot of disappointments with the phone that we didn’t expect and that its predecessor might be better off than it. On the other hand, we truly understand that the manufacturer makes its mobile phones so cheap (affordable), because they are entry-level devices.
The itel A56 has therefore some downgraded features compared with the itel A55 which is first bad impression but still has some improvements.
Our first impressions of the itel A56 that we thought Itel Mobiles pulled off were, the bigger battery, a bigger screen, and the Android GO Edition OS to optimize the phone’s performance. These are mostly the phones key selling points, it is themed; “Bigger is Better”.
1. Design, Display and Build
The design of most itel smartphones never change. Before we discuss the design, the build of the Itel A56 is really good, disguised to look like a mid-range phone. The design is similar to the A55, the 3.5mm standard earphone jack appears at the top. The microUSB port appears at the bottom with a mouth-piece. The volume and power keys appear on the right. At the back is the dual rear camera, LED light, fingerprint sensor and a speaker grill.
The A56 comes with a 6-Inch display and a screen resolution of 960 x 480 pixels. The resolution was downgraded, Itel should have stuck with the at least 720p. 480p is old school resolution and even though these are entry-level smartphones, the least we should see is 720p. But while shooting videos on the A56, we noticed it goes up to 1080p even though the video is that clear for a 1080p resolution but at least.
The bezels at the top and bottom are big, they could have reduced more on the bezels to give more display screen. However, the 6-Inch on the phone is still perfect, it gives good viewership and more working space.
2. Storage, Performance and Battery
In brief, the performance and the power on this phone are perfect for it. Storage-wise, the A56 comes with an internal storage of 16GB and is expandable with a microSD card of up to 32GB. The storage is good to store minimal things mostly applications. The A56 comes with a File Go app that allows you to save your documents and media in the cloud and not the phone storage.
The performance is optimal because of the 1GB RAM and a powered by a Quad-core processor. It lags if you run heavy apps, multi tasking. Itel Mobile should look at working on the performance. Thereby increase on the RAM, change in processor and chipset.
The battery life is good and can go for two-days on a single charge.
3. Android 9.0 GO Edition
This OS is better suits a phone like this. On a 1GB RAM it has to smoothly optimize the phone’s performance. It comes with pre-installed GO apps like; YouTube GO, Gmail GO, Files GO which occupy less space on the phone. We also highly recommend installing light app versions of the original apps like Facebook Lite.
4. Camera Performance
The A56 comes with a single front-facing camera with a 5MP sensor. And dual-rear camera with 8MP + VGA sensors. For an entry-level smartphone, the photos you get from the cameras aren’t the best. We noticed that the photos appear saturated to make them look a bit better. With good lighting, mostly day-light settings, the photos do come out well. This goes for both the front and rear camera.
We were impressed that the A56 can allow you shooting the camera in manual mode.
5. Security
The A56 comes with fingerprint sensor and FaceID lock feature. The two features are to better the phone’s security. This is addition to the PIN, Password, and Pattern we have come to know of.
