Smartisan are quickly making a name for themselves in China thanks to their polished smartphones and even slicker marketing. Their latest phone, the T2, is the first Chinese smartphone to come with a seamless metal frame. It’s an iterative upgrade over 2014’s T1, designed to wipe away the needless details in favour of an ever-shinier façade. Let’s take a closer look at what the company’s clever creatives have accomplished with the T2.
While most smartphones define themselves through novel materials or added features, the T2 differentiates itself through the near-ubiquitous design elements it eschews. The phone has no power button, no visible screws, no separate SIM tray, no removable back, not even any antenna bands to mar the seamless bezel.
Instead, you’ll find a symmetric pair of rocker buttons on either side of the screen, with the right one hiding a nano SIM tray. The physical home button?—?one of three tucked below the 2.5D display — doubles as a power button; all buttons on the phone are customisable.
The seamless aluminium design reportedly took nearly 600 days to develop, but it was surely time well spent if the T2 works as intended.
In terms of specifications, the T2 is firmly ensconced in the upper middle class. It is powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor, backed with 3GB RAM and 16 or 32GB of internal storage. The 4.95-inch JDI Pixel Eyes screen has a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, making for a display density of 445 pixels per inch.
All of the usual wireless tech is supported?—?Wi-Fi ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 — but Smartisan miss a trick by remaining on micro USB while forward-thinking devices move to USB-C. The modest 2,670mAh battery should last all day, but won’t allow the T2 to match the 36 hour longevity of the average phablet.
When it comes to imaging, the T2 ticks the boxes but not much more. It sports a capable (if unexciting) 13-megapixel rear camera, with a f/2.0 aperture and optical image stabilisation. On the front is a 5-megapixel camera; similarly up to par but hardly revolutionary.
Smartisan seek to differentiate themselves through software as well as hardware, and this continues with the T2. The phone runs Smartisan OS 2.5, a heavily re-skinned version of Android that relies heavily on skeuomorphic design. It’s hard to see the appeal for stock Android purists, but it’s a viable alternative if you don’t like the latest releases from Mountain View.
The Smartisan T2 is an intriguing phone, combining a sleek minimal design with good-enough specs and stylish non-stock Android. It’s already gone on sale in China for $385 (£270), and should reach Western shores sometime later this year.
If you’d like to see how one of Smartisan’s earlier designs fared when brought to the UK, check out my review of the Smartisan Nut U1, their colourful budget phone.
Source: Smartisan
Image credit: Engadget