The best mobile of 2016 for less than 100 euros? Today comes the turn of the Analysis of the Vernee Thor: a 5-inch Android mobile equipped with 3 GB of RAM, 4G connectivity and fingerprint reader at an incredible price.
A surprisingly cheap mobile
Buying a mobile doesn’t have to be synonymous with spending a fortune and, in fact, most Spaniards are looking for a smartphone with good value for money than those who opt for a very high-end model.
Today it is a turn for the analysis of the Vernee Thor, a very cheap mobile with surprising specifications. It is a 5 inch device with the latest version of Android, 13 megapixel camera, 4G connectivity and fingerprint reader that you can buy in promotion under 100 dollars.
What more can you ask for from a cheap mobile? Competition in this segment has skyrocketed over the past few months, with hundreds of Chinese, Taiwanese or even Indian manufacturers fighting to offer the terminal with the best performance at the lowest price.
Vernee is a startup based in Shenzhen, China – a kind of Asian Sllicon Valley – founded in February 2016 but with experience in the market as a manufacturer for other companies under the umbrella of New-Bund Network Technology Co Ltd, which has more than 200 engineers, an own R&D team and a quality control group.
Mimbres therefore do not lack a company that seeks its place in the market with terminals very adjusted in price that do not give up almost nothing, will it be the next Chinese brand to exploit? Who knows, at the moment we stop to examine one of their most iconic models in this review of the Vernee Thor.
Design
While some brands are bent on lining their cheaper models with metal bezels or aluminum housings, which usually involves an increase in the final price of the device, the Vernee Thor is an honest mobile with no false aspirations.
We are in front of a terminal where the plastic sends, yes, but we have more than one attraction. To start its design full of curved lines reminds us of other higher-end terminals, and closely gains many integers for its fantastic ergonomics and reduced weight.
Specifically, the dimensions of the Vernee Thor are 70.3 millimeters wide by 142, with a thickness of 7.9 millimetres while the scale stops at a reasonable 140 grams. That speaks very well of a 5-inch mobile that also has physical buttons – not backlit – and incorporates fingerprint reader.
The rear features a slight curvature that positively affects that feeling of comfort when it comes to managing the phone with one hand.
That plastic back shell is removed through a small slit at the bottom edge, allowing us to access the non-removable battery and insert either two phone cards or a SIM and a microSD card to increase internal storage.
Screen
The Verne Thor’s display consists of a 5.2-inch LTPS panel with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which means it’s protected from small bumps and scratches, something that’s not all common on mobiles in its price range.
We are talking about a 2.5D screen, or what is the same, a panel with a small curvature in the edges that most associate with more expensive terminals. In this case it also serves to reduce the side frames so annoying that we are used to seeing on other smartphones: in this case the body screen ratio is close to 70 percent, an acceptable level.
The bad news is that the resolution only reaches the HD level (720p) so you won’t be able to enjoy videos at the highest resolution. Of course, that’s not a problem for the vast majority of users, who use mobile for all sorts of work and leisure management rather than going to watch a movie on a screen that’s always smaller than a TV, a tablet.
In other words, it’s not the best movie phone in the world to watch movies, but it doesn’t matter either: its resolution is enough to watch all kinds of videos from YouTube, Facebook and so on. We also have another positive note such as that the screen of the Vernee Thor is not a fingerprint catcher or, at least, not at the level of other cheap mobiles that leave much to be desired in this section.
The brightness level is surprisingly good even outdoors, as is the representation of colors that can be adjusted through Miravision controls, with the ability to even calibrate the color temperature of the display.
The average density of the screen reaches up to 294 pixels per inch, a respectable number for the price range in which we move, although if you approach the screen you will be able to distinguish the pixels from it.
Performance
At the hardware level we have had another positive surprise when performing this analysis of the Vernee Thor, which incorporates an eight-core MediaTek MT6753 processor that mounts other much more expensive mobiles such as the Lenovo K4 Note or the ZTE Blade V7.
We are talking about a SoC launched in early 2015 that is already a long way from the most powerful mobiles released recently, but that in any way remains full of the day within the segment of the most economical range and even mid-range as demonstrated by the other smartphones mentioned.
On the other hand we have no less than 3 GB of RAM, a figure not insamable if we remember that we are talking about a mobile whose price is around 100 euros. All these numbers translate into reasonably fluid performance in the most everyday scenarios, such as surfing the Internet, checking mail, having multiple open social media apps, or opening maps.
Don’t expect the level of the Snapdragon 820 that Android flagships mount, either, but the truth is that the extra RAM is noticeable when it comes to managing multitasking, as long as we compare it to models of its same price range.
The Performance Tests and Benchmarks of the Vernee Thor put the terminal in the expected place, although it is true that in the most demanding applications and in the most complex video games the experience is somewhat lasrated with a lag that we no longer find in most mid-range terminals.