We can talk about the Oukitel devices for hours, as they always come with stylish design and sport respectable specs. But, their selling point still remains the price tag. Commonly, Chinese smartphone makers to make some competition due to low pricing, but it doesn’t work always. I mean you can find many cheap smartphones, but not all of them will be packed with good features. And sometimes you can find an actually good handset, but it wouldn’t be priced low. For example, Xiaomi has recently launched two outstanding devices dubbed as the Xiaomi Mi 5S and Mi 5S Plus. They make a stir around themselves, but when looking at their price tags we understand we are dealing with high-end smartphones. Therefore, they should be priced accordingly. In this sense, Oukitel has found some ways to make respectable smartphones powered with new features and available for under-$150 price tag. The Oukitel U15 Pro is one of those phablets that come to our way with eye-catching design and surefire features.
When talking about the Oukitel U15 Pro we can say it comes with a familiar design, as we have seen something like that at the Oukitel K7000 and Meizu MX5. The former one has been launched a bit earlier than our hero along with the Oukitel U13. This means the manufacturer has managed to come in with three new devices in a short time period. This naturally causes some questions. Especially people wonder whether a company can launch three new devices at the same time with decent specs list. So we have to dig deeper to find out whether this is the regular model for the manufacturer or it has managed to make something worthy.
Oukitel U15 Pro Apperance
As I said, this handset looks similar to the K7000, but thanks to a 5.5-inch screen it is a bit bigger. The front of the Oukitel U15 Pro carries a LCD screen at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. This 720 HD screen comes with curved edges and coated in 2.5D arc glass. It has a color saturation reaching up to 96% with high contrast. So the Oukitel U15 Pro’s display shows vivid and real colors bringing a good displaying experience. Honestly, there are many smartphones from the same niche coming with better resolution. So we can say the display is good, but this is not the feature it can win customers’ eyes with. However, the display is made by Sharp, which is another plus for it.
There are no capacitive buttons on the front panel of the Oukitel U15 Pro. The standard set of sensors, a front-facing camera, a speaker, and a notification led are located above the screen, while the touch buttons are placed below it. Such an arrangement is a matter of taste. I mean some users like when the touch buttons are under the screen, while the other prefer they appear on the screen. Regardless their placement the Oukitel U15 Pro hasn’t a dedicated home button that makes it differ from many smartphones available in the market.
The left side carries only the SD card slot as well as the SIM card slot. They are placed next to each other, and you have to use a standard pin to open it. The right side comes with a volume rocker and an unlock button. But the latter is placed a bit higher, so it will make some difficulties to get it when operating with one hand. Usually, phablet makers put it at the middle, which is the best place for it. So if you have small hands, test this handset out for several times before buying. The top of this device carries only a standard 3.5mm audio jack and a small hole for noise cancellation. Another microphone is placed at the bottom. And the mini USB port with the speakers are located next to it.
The back panel is as interesting as the front side, as here we can find the primary camera with dual-led flash and a fingerprint scanner below it. There are two straps that make this handset look like an iPhpone. Generally, Oukitel handsets always look attractive, but we can’t say they are original. As for the Oukitel U15 Pro, we can easily say it comes in a familiar design and this familiarity doesn’t refer only to other Oukitel handsets.
As for dimensions, the phone comes at 15.40 x 7.85 x 0.85 cm and weighs 201 grams. Thus it can’t be considered as a slim smartphone. It is not light as well, but this features is acceptable more or less, because we are dealing with a phablet, i.e. it is equipped with a large screen and battery that add weigh to it. The Oukitel U15 Pro is available in three colors – silver, gold, and rose gold.
Oukitel U15 Pro Performance
The MediaTek MT6753 is a respectable chip found on many high-end smartphones. But as we can see, this SoC often appears on devices that come with eye-catching design and a decent specs list but at lower price tag or as many authors like to mention at a killer pricing. This cheap can be found on the Bluboo Xtouch, Panasonic Eluga Note, ZTE Blade V7, Cubot Cheetahphone and many more. So in terms of performance the Oukitel U15 Pro should compete with these handsets first, and if it succeeds, this phone can try itself in the niche of octa-core processors. Anyway, this chip runs at 1.3GHz frequency that is too less if compared with other octa-core chips. Say the latest Snapdragon 821 is clocked at 2.15GHz or 2.35GHz at the Xiaomi Mi 5S and Mi 5S Plus, respectively. This processor is paired with a 3GB of RAM, Mali-T720 GPU and 32GB of ROM that can be expanded up to 128GB via a SD card slot.
The phone sports a 16MP camera on the back and a 5MP camera on the front that will be more useful when making video calls as well as capturing selfies. Honestly, these are 13MP and 2MP cameras, respectively, but they can be interpolated to abovementioned resolution.
Right under the rear camera is located a fast fingerprint scanner that operates in 0.1 second, so you won’t feel any inconvenience when using this feature for unlocking the phone or launching different apps. Moreover, this scanner does more functions like the one found on the Oukitel U7 Plus. This means you can use the fingerprint scanner for launching different apps even if you don’t use it for unlocking the phone. Second, you can use it to pause the music and restart the playback, to make calls and so on. And finally, you can add up to 5 fingerprints for different operations.
There is also a big 3000mAh SCUD battery that is in a good cooperation with a private Super power saving mode and can provide a long lasting lifetime.
As for the connectivity, the Oukitel U15 Pro supports 4G, 3G, and what’s the most interesting a FDD-LTE networks as well as Bluetooth 4.0.
At last, this phone comes with Android 6.0 out of the box and the custom UI of the company.
Oukitel U15 Pro Availability and Final Words
As I said the main competitors of this phablet are not top brands but Bluboo, ZTE, Chubot and so on. So let’s see how the aforementioned products are priced and whether the Oukitel U15 Pro can make competition. Our hero is available for $140. This is an affordable pricing. The Bluboo Xtouch costs $154, thePanasonic Eluga Note is sold for $157, the ZTE Blade V7 is available for $180, and the Cubot Cheetahphone is sold for $211. So it turns out the Oukitel U15 Pro is the cheapest smartphone powered with the MediaTek MT6753 processor. The Oukitel U15 Pro is currently available for pre-order and it will ship in November.
- Design – 8/10
- Display – 7/10
- Hardware – 7/10
- Software – 8/10
- Connectivity – 8/10
- Price – 9/10
