BenQ T3 Review: An affordable 4G LTE smartphone

766

When I reviewed the BenQ F5 last month, I was impressed with a few things – first, it was one of the few affordable mid-range smartphones that offers 4G LTE, then it was a very snappy device despite being a Snapdragon 400 device and finally, BenQ is doing what it has done well to its monitors, implementing its low blue light tech on to its smartphone display. While BenQ’s smartphones certainly need to be more creative in the software department, they are certainly capable of competing with a few of its own Taiwanese competitors such as ASUS and HTC. Moving on to the BenQ T3, a more entry level device that packs a slower clocked Snapdragon quad-core SoC and a smaller display than the F5, it feels more like a flagship than its all plastic counterpart, it is a sleek looking entry-level smartphone that will capture anyone’s attention with it, but of course, there are always compromises that you’ll have to accept under its hood.

BenQ T3 Hardware Specifications

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8926 1.2GHz Quad-Core

RAM/ROM: 1GB/4GB ROM expandable via MicroSD up to 64GB

Display: 4.5″ qHD (960 x 540) IPS with Low Blue Light

Camera: 8MP (Main), 0.3MP (Front)

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, BT 4.0

Networks: 4G LTE/DC-HSPA+/GSM

Battery: 1900mAh

Unbelievable high profile design

We haven’t seen mid-range smartphones designed like the BenQ T3, of course we are not saying that the phone is built with premium materials, but simply put, the BenQ T3 isn’t a thick, ugly, rounded and plasticky device. In fact, the phone has an extremely sleek and compact built, which doesn’t make it cheap at all and it looks like it should cost more than it should. The phone has a chrome painted frame on the sides and its soft touch back cover makes it a really good phone to hold on your hand, if it had been an ASUS or HTC branded device, this phone will definitely sell like hot cakes and BenQ has to reach that brand status really soon.

One of the best things on a BenQ smartphone is the ergonomic display tech that many users will appreciate if reading on a smartphone display is a major activity, low blue light technology reduces blue light on the display which basically creates a natural paper reading experience, thus making the screen color temperature warmer and a little yellowish to reduce strain to the eyes. Of course, we won’t expect you reading an e-Book on a small 4.5-inch display but you can’t deny that it would work well for browsing the web on it for long hours.

All in all, the T3 is going to make people around you exclaiming about its affordability, because there’s simply no other smartphones in its range are going to look as handsome as it is.

Q Home UI gets revamped, phone storage a major issue

The phone comes with BenQ’s own Q Home UI running on top of Android KitKat, we’ve once complained its ugliness and features on the F5, it’s pretty flawless and snappy despite of that. During our review period, the T3 got its software update and introduced a much more polished user experience, despite not being an entire overhaul but BenQ has certainly spent their effort in beautifying app icons, which makes a lot more sense than having those outdated looking icons. Navigation is pretty much the same where it lags a standard Android app drawer and you’ll need to access all of your newly installed apps in the New Corner.

With that said, we are very impressed with the phone’s overall performance despite only having 1GB of RAM, app crashes and lags can be expected at times but you certainly won’t experience freezes like many other phones, it is safe to say that BenQ has implemented a really reliable software experience and have not made the phone bloated with third party apps.

Merely having 4GB of internal memory isn’t sufficient for installing the largest games despite having the required fire power most games will require, because it fills up too easily when you’ve already installed a number of apps and moving them to the SD card still doesn’t help much, you are given approximately 2GB of user allocated storage so you might want to purchase an SD card to go with the phone.

There’s no perfect combo in the world, when you are paying for a device that cheap, you have to live with compromises, even with the most affordable and powerful Chinese Android smartphone, the BenQ T3 has the great and smooth software experience you will want but its paltry amount of storage is something that you’ll have to think twice before making that purchase.

Camera