itel A56 First Impressions: Incredible value at an incredible price

Itel Mobile’s track record with budget phones has been on steroids over the past few years. At the beginning of last year, they launched the itel A16, an affordable entry-level device that ships with Andriod Go. This year, the company is back with itel A56, a larger 6.0-inch screen budget phone. Will this phone help set a new bar for low budget phones, or get lost in a sea of mediocrity? Find out in Techjaja‘s Google review later in the week.

We managed to receive a copy of the trademark “Bigger is Better” smartphone and its simple elegant packaging tempted us to surely unbox as to have a glimpse of what comes along with the Itel A56 for now.

What’s in the box?

Precious little: itel A56 phone, a USB cable, a charger head, red earphones, and a transparent phone case. The box is pretty much the standard itel mobile phone box if you care about that sort of thing.

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Design

Starting with the front, the large 6.0-inch display is flanked by not-too-large bezels on the sides. Yes, there’s a bit of a chin at the bottom and the top which houses the 5-megapixel front selfie camera with the flashlight. The IPS LCD fullscreen in use here isn’t bad at all. I took it out and about and, for the most part, I didn’t have any issues with viewing it outdoors. 

The dual rear camera setup is also is vertically arranged, along with a rear placed fingerprint scanner. The rear camera is 8 MP and houses a LED Flash. The Fingerprint accommodates accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass functionality.

Design is one of the most important factors when it comes to mobiles. This phone is 159.7 x 77.7 x 8.9 mm slim and the weight is 164 g which runs on Android 9.0 (Pie, Go Edition) operating system.

Headphone jacks are still common on entry-level hardware and, yes, the itel A56 has one as well on the top part of the phone.

The Positives (What we like so far)

The Battery: The itel A56 is equipped with a cool 4000 mAh battery capacity to keep it running throughout the day and even more if you are a battery saver. The phone caters to users who are often on the road, make a lot of phone calls, and generally push batteries to their limits.

The performance: The itel A56 performance stands out from the usual entry-level smartphones for me. The Andriod Go edition software is well mated to the hardware and this makes it surprisingly fast and easy to use. The 1GB RAM isn’t enough for gaming though if you plan to play heavy-duty games like PUBG on the device then I advise you to reconsider your decision. However, if you stick with the simpler 2D games(Candy Crush ish), your experience will be remarkably fine.

Security: The A56 has a fingerprint sensor at the back for out of the box security. There is also a face unlock feature which the company claims are so secure in that when you don’t blink, your phone can’t unlock. ( I’m yet to try that)

The Negatives (What we don’t like)

The itel A56 does not support 4G technology. It’s pretty much what we don’t like out of the box now that telecoms are pushing for 4G technology and the demand for a 4G enabled phone is more like a necessity.

There is another edition of the same phone(itel A56 Pro) which supports 4G technology and have superior specs to this particular one. We will keep you posted in case itel Mobile decides to launch it here in Uganda.

Itel A56 Specifications

Itel A56 Price and Availability in Uganda

You can get one at itel branded shops and Airtel service centres across the country. Customers can also utilize the partnership that the manufacturers have with Airtel Uganda and enjoy 100% data bonus whenever they load data for the next 3 months. The phone comes with 3GB of free data, and here is how you can activate the free Airtel data.

The phone is between UGX 239,000 and UGX241,000 depending on where you are buying it from.