Smartphone sales are growing and are rapidly replacing simple mobile phones. However, there are still users in the world who buy regular phones without popular operating systems. This review is dedicated to the budget touchphone Fly E154. This is not a smartphone as it might seem, and it does not have an Android system.
** Main competitors in the price segment ** - Magic M800, LG E400 Optimus L3, Nokia Asha 305, LG T370, Fly IQ235.
Construction, design and equipment
The phone comes in a regular paper box. Inside you can find the device itself, a 1050 mAh battery, documentation, a micro-USB cable, headphones and an unusual charger with an output current of 1000 mA. On the front side of the box there is a picture of a phone with a TouchWiz interface, which has nothing to do with the reviewed device. If Fly were a more established player in the mobile technology market, then the Korean company's legal department would have already approached it with some "sinister" lawsuit. Although the consumer should not be satisfied with this behavior.
On the front panel there is a company logo, light and distance sensors, an earpiece, a 3.5-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 480x320 pixels, a microphone and four touch buttons - menu, home, search and back. Vibration feedback function is supported. There is nothing on the bottom and left ends, on the right there is a volume rocker, on the top there is a mini-jack connector, a micro-USB port for data transfer and charging, as well as a power on / off button. At the back you can see the eye of a 2-megapixel camera module (without autofocus and flash) and the main speaker.
A battery, two slots for SIM-cards and a slot for a microSD-card are located under the cover.
Pixel density - 165 PPI (comparable to iPhone 3GS display). However, the E154 sensor does not boast such good viewing angles, sunlight readability and color reproduction. The responsiveness of the sensor is at its best (undemanding software is to blame).
Externally, the Fly E154 is no different from the IQ series smartphones based on the Android system: the same cheap plastic case, the same icons under the screen. But don't believe your eyes - this is an ordinary mobile phone, it's just well stylized. The device is well assembled, but after several removal of the cover, a backlash appears on the left side. The plastic is glossy and easily soiled, but the silver lid diligently hides fingerprints, which cannot be said about the front panel.
Of the design features, one can single out the absence of a rope attachment, but some users like to hang various pendants and jewelry on their phones.
Software
Honestly, people have already grown out of the habit of simple phones, where everything is original and unusual. After a lot of Android devices of the same type, I want to see something fresh, but in the case of the E154, you will be disappointed. The fact is that the phone is built on some kind of proprietary Chinese platform, stylized as Android. Notification menu, desktops, options, app list, settings - everything is borrowed from Google. However, most users will even love it, because Android is a smart platform with a very user-friendly interface. We can only praise the company Fly, because it was the first to release a simple phone with a touch of a green robot. Let's take a closer look at the software.
In "Settings" the user can manage wireless connections (it is possible to use the phone as a Wi-Fi access point, low-speed EDGE Internet broadcasts), set the screen brightness (there is an automatic adjustment). It is possible to configure sound modes, accelerometer (it activates silent mode - turning the phone screen down), security, calls, messages and contacts, input method, mode of operation of SIM-cards (on / off). The interface language can be in: English, Ukrainian and Russian.In the "Additional" item, the statistics of SIM-cards are viewed, the settings are reset to the factory settings, and the mode of switching on / off the phone according to the schedule is configured (it can be useful to save battery power). The "Themes" section is of great interest.
In addition to the lock screen and main menu wallpaper, here you can change the look of the home screen (two options), color and style (light and dark themes), unlock type (three settings) and a set of icons. The design of the notification screen has been blatantly stolen from the Android system. Shows event notifications, cellular network status, and applications running in the background. The user is allocated 5 desktops on which widgets and links to programs can be placed - the corresponding menu is called up by holding a finger on the screen. There are not so many widgets: clock (several types), FM radio, calendar, gallery, Facebook, music player and shortcuts to brightness, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, silent mode and air mode.
Depending on the selected design, applications can be displayed page by page or in the form of a vertical list. A set of preinstalled programs will satisfy even the most demanding customers.
Applications include: browser, gallery, calculator, file manager, voice recorder, application manager, notes, task list, audio player, FM radio (only works with headphones connected), mail client, world clock and converter (currency, weight , length). It is better to use the Fly Market service to download additional content. In the Funbox application, you can accidentally subscribe to some nonsense and then wonder for a long time where your money is going from your account. Shortcuts Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Twitter are regular links to the browser, not special clients. But the Facebook icon is "real" - by clicking on it, the preinstalled client of the social network is launched. There are several gaming applications: Empire Fighter, Transform Robots, Lively Cubes, Molecules and Piranha. These are standard low-grade games that even 6 years ago would not have looked the best (they are very far from the masterpieces from Gameloft).
The phone's box contains some icons (from Samsung Galaxy), but inside we are dealing with completely different ones. Although Samsung's ideas are visible to the naked eye.
Camera
How well can a 2MP phone camera shoot? The answer is bad. Sane photos are obtained only outdoors on a sunny day, but indoor shots are frustrating. The lack of flash and autofocus only aggravates the situation: the photos are very dark, and it is not possible to shoot a document or a synopsis at all. The video quality is also not happy. With all the desire to remove the masterpiece will not work.
The camera can take 3D photos and panoramas. But there is no need to talk about their quality. So it makes no sense to use these two functions. Forget they even exist.
Using the phone
The manufacturer called the Fly E154 “a multimedia phone with a large screen”. If we consider the device not as a smartphone, then this epithet suits it. The 3.5-inch display can be considered large. The phone is capable of opening all the most common audio and video formats - MIDI, AMR, WAV, MP3, AVI, 3GP, MP4. There is a built-in radio, you can take photos, record videos, go online. The multimedia is average. Of course, everything was achieved by compromises (weak camera, low resolution, support for standard definition video, outdated Java games, lack of 3G). For its price, the phone is very decent.
The device handles telephony just fine. High volume and powerful vibration feedback are not the only advantages of the phone. It supports two SIM-cards and confidently keeps in touch (they work exclusively in standby mode - if there is a conversation on one card, then no one will be able to call the other SIM). When you need to send an SMS or make a call, the phone simply asks which SIM card to do it from.
In active mode, the operating time is extremely short.With continuous playback of a video file at maximum screen brightness and with all active wireless networks, the phone can last no more than 5 hours. The manufacturer itself claims 8 hours of work in audio listening mode. In standby mode, the official operating time is limited to 400 hours. In other words, if the user is actively using the phone, then it will have to be charged once a day. If Fly E154 is used only for sending messages and calls, then you can hold out for four days. The main advantage of the phone is its large touch screen. He is also the main consumer of the charge.
Summarizing
Going to a mobile equipment salon, it is better to add quite a bit of money and become the owner of an Android smartphone from the same manufacturer (Uno, Wizard, Victory, Whiz - there are thousands of them), which is much more flexible due to the Play Market service. At the same time, Fly E154 does not have any critical advantages over budget Android smartphones. But it was possible to realize a long battery life, a sturdy metal case and support for two SIM-cards in active mode (two GSM-modules). But as the review has shown, Fly E154 cannot boast of anything significant. But we can safely state that Android has entered the lower price segment and sets its own rules there.
To whom should we recommend the reviewed device? Most likely, users who stubbornly reject smartphones, but want a phone with a sufficiently strong multimedia component, support for two SIM-cards and convenient touch controls.
