Introduction
A smartphone from TP-LINK? Are you serious? Yes, TP-LINK which is one of the world’s leading providers of SOHO & SMB networking products have their first smartphone – Neffos C5 series. Neffos C5 is the one that I had played with for the past 2 weeks. It is powered by quad-core 64-bit processor. Packed with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM. Dual SIM cards with 4G LTE and external microSD support. Loaded with sharp and colourful 5″ HD IPS display. Rear 8MP camera with dual LED flash and front 5MP camera as shooters. And running Android 5.1 Lollipop. You should know them in details if you have been following my Neffos C5 articles for the past 2 weeks. Else do read through this recap and highlights. And be sure to click on every single links to get more detailed information about Neffos C5. Enjoy reading this review…
Package Contents
Once opened the sealed tough purple box, you can see Neffos C5. Follow by quick start guide in multiple language, warranty notice and safety notice. And USB cable, 1A charger and earphones. By the way, I received mine from Skynet carrier service. And Neffos C5 is available on all popular local online shops like Lazada, 11street and Lelong. Sold and fulfilled by Neffos Malaysia itself directly. More info at Neffos C5 unboxing post by the way.
Design & Construction
Solid build! And stylish too thanks to the sliver ring in front of the display and the tiny sparkle particles at bottom of the phone. In addition, it fit comfortably on my palm thanks to ergonomic curved design. Its sharp and colourful HD screen is bright enough to use it outdoor under the sun. And the battery is removable. You can see dual micro SIM and microSD slots once the back cover is removed. Do check out all Neffos C5 hi-res photos to know more.
Camera
Do go through Neffos C5 Camera Functions, Photo & Video Samples article. You can find more photo and video samples there that took with Neffos C5 rear 8MP camera with dual LED flash and wide-angle front 5MP camera. And learn all modes like intelligent, normal, scenery, food, beauty, HDR and panorama. Don’t forget the 30 different filters for you to play with. Actual size photos are located there too. For me, Neffos C5 cameras are good enough for daily social media use.
Software & Gaming Video
Neffos C5 performs well as an entry level smartphone. Fast and smooth as you can see from above video. 2GB of RAM is enough for normal multi-tasking usage here. MediaTek MT6735 4x Cortex-A53 1.3GHz CPU manages to handle daily applications like Facebook, Chrome and WeChat quite good. However, ARM Mali-T720 MP2 450Mhz GPU struggles to perform well on HD screen especially on GPU power hungry 3D games. No problem to play casual 2D and 3D games though. By the way, the HD screen look nice and themes are fun to play with, right? Great to play with gamepad like GameSir G4s too (read GameSir G4s Review).
Battery Life, Connectivity & Benchmark
5 hours screen time on casual usage (Facebook, WeChat, web browsing) with playing Asphalt 8: Airborne 3D racing game. Yup, that’s what I get from Neffos C5 2200mAh battery. I am really impressed by its power management. Surely more than enough to last for a day on casual use. By the way, 2 and a half hour is required to fully charge it. There is no need to share slot here as dual 4G SIM cards and microSD card can be used at the same time. Besides, it is loaded Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/GLONASS and Wi-Fi connection up to 802.11n. Do read Neffos C5 Battery Life, Connectivity & Benchmark article to find out their performance. And check out its benchmark scores from AnTuTu, 3DMark, Geekbench 3, Basemark OS II and A1 SD Bench too.
Software
Clean and smooth as Neffos C5 is using stock Android OS with a skin layer (Fine Home Launcher). And home screen UI is just like iOS. No app drawer and everything is placed directly on home screens. So folders are there for you to keep things tidy. In addition, you can change user interface totally with themes. Change lock screen, wallpaper, home screens and fonts too. By the way, it has the ability to hide applications. Nice feature to keep all your secret applications. There are several useful software and tools that come along with Neffos C5. And I love pop-up call reminder most as a gamer. Yup, not losing any single Clash of Clans and Clash Royale battle due to call here. Guess what? I just got an OTA update for system optimization and bugs fixed. Not sure what it fix as I did not encounter any issue during my 2 weeks usage.
Conclusion
At RM539, TP-LINK Neffos C5 is a solid budget performer no doubt. Loaded with 64-bit quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. Dual 4G LTE SIM cards and microSD card support simultaneously. Don’t forget the colourful 5″ HD IPS screen. 8MP rear and 5MP front shooters for beautiful photos too. More information can be found at Neffos Website.
