Neffos released in the Philippine market another smartphone called the Neffos X20 Pro, and it’s packed with a 6.3-inch display, a MediaTek chip, and a 4000mah battery. The brand touts better signal quality, but does that suffice? Here’s our full review.
Neffos X20 Pro specs:
- 6.26-inch HD+ IPS display, 720 x 1520 px
2.5D Curved Glass - MediaTek Helio P22
PowerVR GE8320 - 3GB RAM
- 64GB internal storage, with dedicated microSD slot for up to 128GB
- Dual rear cameras with LED Flash:
13MP
5MP - 13MP front camera
- 4G LTE, Dual SIM (nano), Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS
- Fingerprint Sensor
- NFUI 9 (Android 9 Pie)
- 4100mAh battery
- Colors: Sapphire Blue, Garnet Red, Obsidian Black, Malachite Green
Inside the box, we get quite a generous pack which includes a TPU case and a screen shield, among other essentials such as the pair of earphones, the wall charger, some documentation, and the phone itself.
Surprisingly decently-built and lightweight
This is my second Neffos phone review, and the phones so far do not disappoint with design and build. The X20, in particular, presents itself with a full polycarbonate build.
Take the back for example, which has a glossy finish. Smudges do thrive from time to time, but an added jelly case does prevent that from occurring. It’s also great to see the dual rear camera not protrude so much as other phones do. We also have the fingerprint scanner, as well as the Neffos logo, at the upper-middle.
We have the 6.26-inch notched IPS display at the front, as well as the 13-megapixel selfie camera. The Neffos logo is seen at the chin, which we liked for hand rest in landscape-oriented gaming.
At the bottom of the device, we have the microUSB port and a set of what seems to be loudspeaker grills. One of them hides the micrphone in, while the other set is the actual loudspeaker.
The volume keys and the power/lock button are at the right, while the Dual-SIM and microSD card tray is at the left. The buttons are easy to press and can be easily reached with both hands.
Overall, the phone is easy to hold despite the slippery feel it exudes when sweaty hands come in contact with its glossy back plate. the curvature of the sides also aide in the device grip, and using the phone with the hand is relatively easy because you can use a single hand to reach most parts of the display. It’s also surprisingly lightweight, partly due to the all-polycarbonate device construction.
It’s an HD+ display, and it’s okay
The 6.22-inch 18:9 IPS display has an HD+ resolution, resulting to a 294ppi density and an 81.3% screen-to-body resolution, which is just right. The colors are great, the sharpness decent, and its viewing angles generally good. Its highest setting is good enough to be used outdoors, and the lowest just enough in low-light scenarios.
Listening to my earphones on the device is quite pleasant, though there’s nothing noteworthy to put and it’s generally normal-sounding. Its loudspeaker, on the other hand, is loud enough to fill up a medium-sized room, but its audio quality is just your usual sound found on most entry-level devices with almost no bass and decent mids and highs.
Two cameras aren’t to be underestimated
The X20 Pro comes with only two rear cameras, a 13-megapixel main and a five-megapixel for depth-of-field while a 13-megapixel shooter is added for selfies in front. Its camera app includes AI-assisted shooting technology and offers modes such as Bokeh Portrait, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Panorama, Food, Monochrome, Pro, and Streamer. AI Beautification is also available.
Autofocus may be a bit slower than expected, but shooting is a breeze. Photos we captured were some of the sharpest we’ve seen for this price range. It presents itself with decent brightness, contrast, and dynamic range, although you may find the saturation lacking a bit at times. Here are some sample photos:
Videos are as crisp as the photos, and they offer the same amount of settings. The maximum shooting resolution is at Full HD at 30 frames per second. Here’s a sample clip:
Performance as expected
We have in here Neffos’ own NFUI 9, which is based on Android Pie. It’s quite a similar experience with other phones having an app drawer, skinned notifications and settings panel, and a smart assistant when you swipe left of your home screen. There are some nifty features including an app cloner, fingerprint gestures for the notification panel, the float button, and screen-off gestures.
Pre-installed apps include a few games such as Asphalt Nitro and Spider-Man, and these take 8.34GB of the 64GB internal storage. Luckily, there’s a dedicated microSD card slot for more activities.
This phone has a MediaTek Helio A22 chip with 3GB of RAM on board, and the performance is just okay. We’re not seeing much lags when we multitask on the phone, but heavy gaming could be an issue especially for those who like their graphics set on high. Despite our heavy gaming activities, we only felt a warm sensation at the upper back part of the phone. Here are some benchmark scores we took:
- AnTuTu – 88,214
- GeekBench – 148 (Single Core), 861 (Multi-core)
- PCMark – 5066 (Work 2.0)
This phone is clearly not made for gaming, but it’s surprisingly great for just your usual calls, texts, multitasking apps, and online browsing.
Connectivity-wise, the signal reception in this phone is incredible. Like the C9 Max earlier, the X20 Pro gets signal bars on areas where we usually do not receive any. WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS all work well too. The fingerprint scanner is pretty responsive not only to unlocking but also with other feature tasks Neffos had built into it. Face unlock is decent in well-lit areas as well.
Stellar battery life
If this phone has a competitive edge. it has to be its 4000mAh battery. Call it less than its competitors, but we used this for the past three months and were surprised to see it last more than a day even on a normal day of phone activities with calls, SMS, and constant online activities via WiFi or LTE. Our PCMark Battery test scored 15 hours and 45 minutes, while our video loop test almost doubled that at 28 hours and 13 minutes. Recharging the phone takes around an hour and 10 minutes on its standard charger.
