The model number of the domestic brand BQ introduced a new smartphone Strike Power – metal, with a large screen and capacious battery. Monoblock refers to the 2017 model year, and is characterized by both interesting in appearance, especially compared to competitors for the same price and tempting specifications.
Competitive advantages of the smartphone BQ Strike Power manufacturer considers primarily regular battery, which here has a capacity from 5000 mAh, and a modern Android OS 7.0 Nougat from Google, which is only just beginning to appear in devices cheaper than 10000 rubles.
In the Russian retail the smartphone at the time of writing the news estimated at an average of 6400 rubles, according to “Yandex.Market”, and is sold in black, gray and gold colors. Us for a test got it Golden and the brightest option, so proceed to his trial.
Packaging
Smartphone BQ Strike Power will meet the potential buyer in a box of sturdy cardboard, decorated in the General style of this brand. The packaging is designed in grey, white and red colours with gold embossing, and allows you to evaluate the design of the gadget before opening.
Photo BQ Power Strike are both on the front of the pack and on the lower, including in the selected color. Also box provides comprehensive information about the hardware specifications of the device and reports information about the configuration. Total, information, and packaging design testing of a smartphone worthy of the highest rating.
Equipment
BQ Strike Power has advanced by today’s standards, a set of delivery: in addition to the traditional accessories as data cable and charger attached vacuum-type headphones. On the front panel of the smartphone is covered with the protective film.
From the documentation found in the box warranty card and instruction manual, familiarization with which will give a General idea of the arrangement and facilitate a first acquaintance with its functions. Manual is fully translated into Russian language and is relatively informative.
Features
The specifications of the smartphone BQ Strike Power have been summarized in the instructions and on the box, and more details can be found on the official website. For the price of the camera has quite a good filling, but something he still lacks, whereas the competition is already there. We are now on the support of cellular networks 4G or LTE, which, unfortunately, is no – smartphone works only on GSM and 3G. Strike Power specifications are listed below.
screen: IPS, 5 inches, 1280×720 pixels (HD format);
– processor: MediaTek MT6580, 4 cores, 1.4 GHz;
– video: integrated Mali-400MP;
– memory: 1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM, microSD up to 64 GB;
– work in networks: GSM, 3G;
interface: 2xSIM, microSD, 3,5 mm, microUSB 2.0;
– wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM;
– OS: Android 7, the interface Yandex.Launcher;
– camera: main 8 MP, front 5 MP;
– housing material: plastic, metal;
– color: black, gray, Golden;
– battery: 5000 mAh;
– dimensions: 143х73х10 mm;
– weight: 177 grams.
Appearance
BQ Strike Power is made in the classic for smartphone monoblock form factor. The rear part of its body is made of metal with plastic inserts on top and bottom, but front panel is made of black plastic. All ends of the smartphone have a ribbed shape that looks quite interesting and unusual.
Power Strike has a removable back cover, under which are three separate slot for two microSIM and one microSD. Hot swapping of cards is not supported: even if you change them when the phone is on, they are not activated without a reboot. The smartphone has three buttons below the touch screen, and above him is a camera without backlight, an indoor mesh earpiece and sensors approximation and lighting.
The right end of the body given over to the power button and volume down the phone there is a clearly visible microphone, and the top placed entry under earphone port microUSB. The back panel includes mesh main speaker at the bottom and the main camera with single led flash.
Ergonomics and build quality
Due to the capacious battery and a metal cover of the smartphone BQ Strike Power weighs quite a lot, and the weight feels nice in the hand. Rib side ends contribute to a more confident grip, and brushed battery cover. The device does not slip out of your hands and the elements, and a 5-inch screen provides the ability to control only the thumb of the right hand.
The front panel of the smartphone is closed signature pasted in factory wrap that quickly collects fingerprints, but just as quickly cleared the usual microfiber. The back panel to the pollution are not inclined and always remains perfectly clean, even with very intensive use.
Did not like the placement of the microUSB for charging on the top edge – from the point of view of the usage during the replenishment of energy levels is not very convenient, the cable constantly will get in the way, being almost in front of the nose.
The rear panel is removed with a very large force, so be careful and use a plastic card instead of fingernails. To access the battery and the slots, it took us 5 minutes of your time and two credit cards.
The removal of the main speaker on the back of the case – decision is extremely controversial. It will close the hands, tabletop, whatever, and a small plastic ledge, visible in the pictures, not save you from this.
At the same time the location of the main camera in the upper left corner a La the modern Apple iPhone, by contrast, is very true – in shooting mode, it is impossible to close the hand. Also will not pass by a single touch of the buttons on the front panel: they are here, part in stock, so that part of the screen for them to select not necessary. Lighting for them is not provided.
BQ Strike Power assembled perfectly, no flaws in this plan have been identified. Even the battery is securely fastened by several bolts to the body, so it is almost a monolith, which, moreover, no problem passes the test of bending, without making a single crunch.
Screen
Display BQ Strike Power is based on the matrix IPS, the characteristics of which default include increased brightness and wider viewing angles. In our case the diagonal of screen is 5 inches with a standard HD resolution or 1280×720 pixels.
The frame of the screen of the smartphone is: “frameless”, the trend is not affected, but it’s for the best, since in this scenario accidental pressing the side edges, characteristic of the flagship 2017 Samsung S8, are completely excluded.
In terms of brightness BQ have Strike Power all on “4+” because the sun fading is quite strong. The percentage the screen fades to approximately 85%, that is still readable, although already on the verge of becoming a high-tech mirror. In the room the brightness of the backlight enough with a large excess of comfortable operation is achieved by 30% of the maximum possibilities of illumination.
But with the angles of the smartphone are not deceived: the claimed 178 degrees here, so look at BQ Power can Strike from almost any angle. There is a small inversion of black color, it is a characteristic feature of matrix IPS, but no more.
The touch layer of the display recognizes up to two simultaneous touch. For most of the gestures that are used daily, including pinch-to-zoom, this is more than enough.
Sound
BQ Strike Power comes with a surprisingly good headphones-headset included: sound on 4+ out of 5 (if you are an audiophile with perfect hearing), in ears sit very tightly and the external noise practically miss. With these headphones, very comfortable to ride in the car and, if necessary, to respond with them to calls.
The earpiece of the smartphone has a volume above the average, but without fanaticism. You will hear your interlocutor very well, and he will hear you for sure thanks to sensitive MIC. However, the voice podmetaetsya and external noise due to the lack of additional microphone for noise cancellation.
The volume of the main speaker with basic settings is not impressed smartphone tihout, there is nothing to hide, but for a couple of minutes in the engineering menu, this problem is easy to fix. After the “patch” sound quality (that is quality, not volume), initially very good, not getting worse. Sound nice – MIDs cut, but the bottom is still lacking. The final grade in the sound – 4 out of 5.
Camera
A strong point of the smartphone BQ Strike Power is its front camera that take pictures equally well in the sun and in artificial light. Noise in images in this mode, detail is very good, and only when shooting in the dark a selfie to look blurry. Front flash a smartphone has no.
The main camera shoots quite a bit better than the front – this is manifested in more correct color reproduction and the ability to lead a night photography using flash. The latter, however, bright is not called, because it comprised only one led of the large reflector. In General, the camera made a good impression, especially considering the cost of the smartphone.
Software
On BQ Strike Power installed modern OS Google Android 7.0 Nougat, at the time of release of the smartphone one of the latest. In this case, we are dealing with extra interface Yandex.Launcher that runs by default and consume a lot of RAM.
Memory Power Strike deals with unnecessary elements, and operational and integrated: the smartphone comes with third-party software, much of which still is not removed by standard means and without rooting. In particular, in firmware sewn Yandex services, anti-spam app AppsPress and toy Blitz.
After the first boot the user is 407 MB RAM of 1 GB, which is quite a lot, and 8GB ROM under files selected 3,51 GB will be enough for a couple of navigators with offline maps, music and photos.
In BQ Strike Power supports a variety of gestures, including double tap on the screen to activate the device. In addition, the smartphone allows you to zoom not only text, but all the image on the screen, thus allowing you to place significantly more information at one time.
Performance
In the process of testing the smartphone BQ Power Strike have the impression that to optimize the firmware has been spent quite a few hours: everything works stable, without any slowdown, despite 1 GB of RAM. It, emphasize it on the operating system itself: third-party apps such RAM is not enough, especially when you need to run something heavy, for example, a Navigator or a browser with multiple tabs. The only way out of this situation – the installation of the rooting and ruthless removal third-party software, as well as parts of the system, which will be used and will not affect the operation of the OS.
BQ performance Power Strike as a whole was tested in the benchmark AnTuTu, GeekBench and Quadrant Standard, the results shown in the screenshots. Video subsystem the CPU is quite fast, but heavy 3D is still not drawn, but many modern games it is possible to run it on minimum or medium graphics settings.
The computational part of the processor proved quite well that even made it to GeekBench. Overall for the money the smartphone is very fast, as if to clear it of debris, you can further accelerate it.
Work offline
The main weapon of BQ Strike Power in the fight against competitors is, of course, its battery, because not every smartphone, even among the flagships of 2017, boasts a battery of 5000 mAh. Battery is removable and does not support fast charging (in the processor no instructions), but the package includes a AC charging adapter 2 ampere, so that the energy is spent not so much time.
To be precise, for charging the battery from 5 to 100 percent it took us about 3.2 hours from the regular charger. Attempts to resupply from the USB 3.0 port on the computer yielded no result, as the output was able to obtain only 500 mA, and it is four times less than the branded charger.
In terms of autonomy to BQ Strike Power claims, as in the talk mode in 3G networks it lasted for about 16 hours and about 20 hours in GSM networks. Again, if we attend to the matter of cleaning smartphone from unnecessary software, the result with 100 percent probability will be significantly improved.
In the normal operating mode when the average brightness of the screen and the Internet primarily through Wi-Fi BQ Strike Power stand 2.5 days. Intensive use discharge its battery in 12 hours. The only pity is that the battery is removable: it would be possible to acquire an additional battery and a 10000 mAh one smartphone and do not be afraid to remain without communication.
Conclusion
BQ Strike Power is very modest-a smartphone, because outwardly it is absolutely not to say that inside it is such a harsh battery. It has a very classic design, no frills and attention-grabbing elements, and only the owner will know that with such apparatus it is not necessary to carry the AC charger or external battery.
The smartphone was very balanced in terms of cost and performance, and especially pleased with its equipment, the sound and build quality. Shortcomings, of course, too: in particular quite strange to see in the smartphone sample 2017 the lack of support for 4G networks. But, on the other hand, high-speed mobile Internet demand, but not all, so this disadvantage is not for everyone.
Total on a scale we would rate BQ Strike Power 4+ points. The biggest disappointment in this model for us was the presence of non-removable adware, but no more. The smartphone is definitely worthy to pay attention to it when buying.
Pros BQ Strike Power
– capacious battery;
metal cover;
film and earphones included;
– high build quality;
great camera;
– modern operating system.
Cons BQ Strike Power
– lack of support for 4G;
– removable battery;
– pre-installed adware.
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