{"id":35568,"date":"2014-06-03T18:28:58","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T17:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=35568"},"modified":"2014-06-03T18:28:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T17:28:58","slug":"ee-kestrel-hands-on-review-the-cheapest-4g-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/06\/ee-kestrel-hands-on-review-the-cheapest-4g-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"EE Kestrel hands-on review: the cheapest 4G phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Earlier today we had a look at mobile network EE’s first tablet, the Eagle<\/a>, 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 \u00a399 on pay-as-you-go, or free on a \u00a314\/month 4G contract. Let’s take a closer look as we go hands-on with the Kestrel!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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In terms of software, we’ve got a slightly outdated version of Android – 4.3 Jelly Bean – running Huawei’s EmotionUI.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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Kestrel seems a decent phone for the money then;\u00a0delivering 4G for \u00a399 makes it a reasonable purchase for anyone with a need for 4G speed.<\/p>\n

Its chief competitor is the Moto G, which comes out in a 4G version later this month for \u00a3160. 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 \u00a360? That’s for you to decide.<\/p>\n

We’ll be supporting the Kestrel with a full range of EE Kestrel cases<\/a> 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!<\/p>\n\n\n

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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 \u00a399 on pay-as-you-go, or free on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[311,6],"tags":[7433,7434],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35572,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35568\/revisions\/35572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}