Wiko may be a small smartphone company in the Malaysian market, but you really can’t deny that it has much better product names than the rest of the competition, especially with its stylish entry-level Y range smartphones such as the Robby, Lenny 3 and Jerry. The Wiko Harry is the latest entry-level handset that the company thinks will attract the young and outgoing audience, which is why it has been equipped with 3GB of RAM and 4G connectivity, so the question here is, what does this new kid have apart from these features to appeal to its audience?
Design and Hardware
As an entry-level handset, I have to give it to Wiko for always doing great in product design, the Harry is handsome and you won’t think that this is going to be some cheap smartphone. The phone features a removable metal back cover that has been used in many other Wiko products, the finishing looks good with a brushed aluminum style, which adds a little premium feel to it. Other notably good design practices include the well positioned MicroUSB port and headphone jack on the top, which doesn’t block hands when charging and using the device at the same time, the Wiko Harry also feels right on hand with a good balance of weight and a reasonable 9.1mm body profile, this is something that some entry-level handsets haven’t been doing well, which they are sometimes either too lightweight or too heavy.
Remove the back cover, and you will be greeted with a removable 2500mAh battery, though an unimpressive battery size, a removable battery is already becoming rare on smartphones these days, which you can still purchase one and swap if you can’t wait for it to be fully charged. In addition, Wiko still isn’t moving forward with Micro SIM cards as the Harry still features two of them, a MicroSD card is present for storage expanding the phone’s 16GB storage capacity.
The Harry, however, misses a few things on its hardware offerings, such as a fingerprint scanner, which is necessary even on an entry-level smartphone these days, the phone’s 5-inch display can also be a little small for some despite having decent brightness outdoors. Most importantly, the Harry is still using the very same quad-core Mediatek MT6737 1.3 GHz processor which has been found on other Wiko devices, you won’t find too much difference in performance despite equipped with more RAM, it might be disappointing for those looking to some change in specs, but it will still do well for the average user who wants a smartphone that performs fine.
Software and User Experience
When Apple reported that the adoption of Android Nougat barely crossed the 10% mark in WWDC 2017, the Wiko Harry is thankfully one of that very few entry-level smartphones that comes shipped with Android Nougat out of the box, which is very commendable of the company, however like most entry-level smartphones, don’t expect the Harry to get an Android O update in the near future. Since we have already reviewed a number of Wiko smartphones, the software experience isn’t too different from other models, you still get the same paginated apps home screen, which can be eventually quite a pain to maintain if you have lots of apps installed, let alone the fact that you can’t resize the grid to fit in more icons and widgets. Therefore, I have been using a custom launcher during the review period, and I highly recommend Action Launcher 3.
Although Wiko’s software is rather limited when it comes to customization, it has proven to be just as reliable on the Harry, I haven’t experience any sudden app force closes on the phone, and apps will run just fine as long as you aren’t trying to multitask heavily on the device. One thing to note though, the Harry does tend to stutter a little when unlocking the device, and that annoys me at times when I really want to get to things quickly, this isn’t something that I have experienced on the U Feel Fab, which has the same performance internals as the Harry, let’s hope Wiko issues a software update to fix this issue.
At the end of the day, the Wiko Harry performs better than some entry-level devices I have tested previously, though I have always hoped Wiko could have provided more customization features other than screen gestures, just like how the company has always wanted to be different from the rest in its “Game Changer” motto, the Harry isn’t that personal to be honest, and for that Wiko should have just stick to completely stock software if it isn’t up to the task of making a pretty one.
Camera
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The Harry’s main camera captures 13-megapixel photos and 1080p videos, I’ve taken the opportunity to do some street photography while I was in Taiwan for Computex 2017, and Wiko has obviously not given it the best camera sensor, photos taken with it is either overexposed or washed out, focusing is also an issue where it doesn’t get it right with some soft spots. Therefore, I won’t recommend this as a road trip camera, and you should really just use it for very casual photography.
For the selfie addicts, the Harry’s 5-megapixel camera will do just fine for your usual social media uploads, but it isn’t the most impressive front shooter out there when it comes to image quality
Battery Life
With a 2500mAh battery, the Harry will require a charge half way through the day if you are a heavy texter or social media whore, the good thing about overcoming this issue is that you can purchase a spare battery if you are not a person who carries a powerbank everywhere you go. But still, the Harry has more than enough space for a larger battery, even though the phone doesn’t have a lot of power hungry hardware onboard, but I’m sure everyone appreciates a long battery life.
Verdict
The Wiko Harry ticks several boxes for being a decent entry level smartphone, but that is if you aren’t too particular about the repetitive specs sheet adopted from other Wiko devices. However, this is a phone that is simply too difficult to recommend to anyone because of its RM599 price tag, which you could already purchase the U Feel Go that comes with a 4000mAh battery, fingerprint scanner and a better display, albeit with 2GB of RAM. For an additional RM200, the U Feel Fab offers a much better camera and faster software, though it still runs on Android Marshmallow. Sure, the Wiko Harry has an advantage of running Android Nougat compared to its other siblings, however the company missed the opportunity to demonstrate better software features than other of its phone models, which is why you should only buy this phone if you like its design or just wait for a price cut.
The Good
+ Reliable software
+ Good design
+ Removable battery
+ Runs Android 7.0
The Not so Good
– Probably never getting an Android O update
– Unattractively priced
– Average battery life
– Less responsive performance
– Less impressive entry-level camera performance