Earlier today we had a look at mobile network EE’s first tablet, the Eagle, and now we’re back with its first phone, the Kestrel. Like its larger brother, the Kestrel is a rebranded Huawei device with good hardware, a simplified OS and a very attractive pricetag – just £99 on pay-as-you-go, or free on a £14/month 4G contract. Let’s take a closer look as we go hands-on with the Kestrel!
The Kestrel is an attractive if understated phone, with a simple blocky shape that reminds me of older HTC phones. On the front you’ll find a 4.5″ 540p display; inside there’s a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage plus microSD.
The phone is constructed from a cheapish feeling plastic, with a bit of flex evident. The back cover peels off elastically to reveal a non-removable battery and two slots – one for the micro SIM card, one for microSD storage. The phone is light and thin, measuring at less than 8mm thick and 145 grams, respectively.
The Kestrel’s headline feature is its 4G connectivity, so how does it compare to 3G and fellow 4G devices? Well, it looks like you may get slower speeds than on a more expensive 4G device, but still way faster than 3G. The Kestrel reported speeds of 14 Mb/s down, and 9 Mb/s up in our tests. That’s a lot faster than my Nexus 5’s 3G connection (2 Mb/s down and 3 Mb/s up), but not as strong as the 4G Galaxy S5 (41 Mb/s down and 13 Mb/s up).
In terms of software, we’ve got a slightly outdated version of Android – 4.3 Jelly Bean – running Huawei’s EmotionUI. The simplified icons and lack of an app drawer aren’t brilliant changes, but it’s simple enough to install a new launcher if they bother you. The phone runs fairly smoothly, although as with many other low and mid-range phones you’ll find most things take a beat or two longer. Scrolling can be a little choppy, and graphically intense games don’t run too well. Still, the experience here is much better than on last year’s low-end devices; Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 chipset definitely deserves some praise for that.
The camera on the Kestrel is quite simple, a 5-megapixel unit with LED flash and autofocus. You won’t get the beautiful high resolution shots you’d expect from a Galaxy S5 or Sony Xperia Z2 or the low-light performance of a Lumia 1020 or HTC One M8, but the end result is perfectly tolerable for Facebook and Instagram updates.
The Kestrel seems a decent phone for the money then; delivering 4G for £99 makes it a reasonable purchase for anyone with a need for 4G speed.
Its chief competitor is the Moto G, which comes out in a 4G version later this month for £160. That phone sports a better screen and a cleaner version of Android, as well as a larger range of accessories thanks to its popularity over the last few months. Is that worth an extra £60? That’s for you to decide.
We’ll be supporting the Kestrel with a full range of EE Kestrel cases and accessories, so if you do decide to pick up the phone then take a look at our selection. We’ll be highlighting some of the best accessories in our inventory in a later blog post, so stay tuned for that in the coming couple of days!