A quick look at the itel it1556 phablet

There’s many phone brands out there that may not quite suit your pocket when it comes to purchase time, but the itel it1556 with a 5000mAh makes sure you get an affordable phone with a large screen and at only about K800.

I spent the past 2 days with it and here are some features you may need to consider before buying it:

Screen size and resolution: 5.5″ with 480 x 854 pixels (wide VGA), so don’t expect as much richness in colours.

Weight and dimensions: a bit heavy at  for what I’m used to in the phablet range but it competes well with other devices in its price range. It measures 156 x 79.3 x 9.9 mm.

Mobile connectivity: it is not 4G enabled, only 3G

RAM: 512MB. With this much RAM, be cautioned that you may experience some lagging of applications if you run too many at a time.

Memory: 8GB internal storage, but you only get about 5GB as nearly 3GB is taken up by standard system applications. You can insertt an SD card of up to 32GB.

Operating system: comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop and there was no update to v6.0 Marshmallow when I tried to update it.

Camera: it has a 5MP rear camera and 2MP front snapper. Here’s a pic I took of my business card holder under decent indoor lighting with the rear camera, and a selfie in the same conditions with the front camera.

Battery: 5000mAh. When charged to 100%, it gave me an onscreen notification of 72 hours left to use device. 3 whole days, but that may not be the case depending on how heavily you use your device and if you keep your data (mobile or WiFi) on during the period. It also has a Super Power feature, a power saving tool, that saves on battery life by giving access to few tools like the dialer, messages, calendar, calculator and a clock.

See more images of the itel it1556 here:

Price: itel (Zambia) gave me a price of the iTel it556 at K800, though it may vary slightly from one retailer to the next.

Conclusion: itel it1556’s a long lasting phone with an OK camera, you just need to be smart about lighting. The screen is not too clear in bright sunlight so you’ll see better using it indoors. The weight will be a little uncomfortable at first but the slightly textured back will give you a firm grip on the phone and you should be able to use it with both hands very well. I would recommend it for someone who uses more messaging and social apps than photo ones like Instagram, and doesn’t want to break the bank for a new device.