Chinese mobile phones are in fairly high demand, including in the CIS market. These devices have low cost, acceptable build quality and wide functionality, which makes them so popular in the domestic market. It is not difficult to verify this - take a look at the window of any electronics supermarket, and you yourself will notice several dozen devices from any of the most famous manufacturers, such as Huawei, Lenovo, Meizu or some Prestigio. And this is official trading! What can we say about illegally imported brands that sell their “copies of iPhones” through online stores.
In this article, however, we will not touch on this topic - but pay attention to the last of the above companies - Prestigio. Her smartphone model "Prestigio 5500" will be described in the following sections. Read this material if you are interested in what the specified model is and what you should expect from it.
Concept
We begin with a description of the general concept of the device, its positioning. Note that all smartphones manufactured under the Prestigio brand (5500 is no exception) are inexpensive, but functional gadgets for everyday use, while the target audience for working with these phones can also act as people who are absolutely not important the price of a smartphone (“just call”), and those who want to get the most out of their device, purchased at the most favorable cost. We can say that the Prestigio 5500 described by us successfully combines the interests of both of them.
The model itself is a classic “Chinese” with the Android operating system. The descriptions of such gadgets are the same, under whose brand they are not produced. The only difference is in the names, design elements and the overall positioning of the gadget on the market.
Design
As for appearance, in this regard, there is simply nothing to surprise us with the Prestigio 5500 telephone. The case of the smartphone is made in a classic style: “brick” made of soft-touch plastic with traditionally located controls. The keys to go to the home page, open options, and also return back here have a physical form (and are not presented in a touch form, as is often seen on different devices).
The “rocker” for adjusting the sound is on the left, and the button to unlock the screen is on the right side panels. On the front surface there is a camera for “selfie” and a speaker (oval in shape, reminiscent of the characteristic functional holes in the “apple” devices).
According to the official description, the Prestigio 5500 phone is offered in different color variations due to removable rear panels. With their help, everyone can change the style of their device in the simplest way - by rearranging the housing cover. At the time of sale, the phone had 4 different covers.
Screen
The Prestigio 5500 is a somewhat outdated model, since it was replaced by new devices with improved technical parameters and, therefore, new features. However, despite this, do not underestimate the capabilities of the 5500 smartphone itself. The display, at least, has a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels. Despite the fact that it is based on TFT technology, image quality, due to its small size, is quite high here. At least, externally, the picture retains its proper appearance without blurring.
The physical screen size that the Prestigio 5500 smartphone has, by the way, is 5 inches. This is the classic size for phones of this class, which is considered as convenient as possible (and, by the way, in demand) among users. The sensor installed on the screen supports the ability to simultaneously click in multiple places.
CPU
As we all know very well, with the “hardware” in Chinese smartphones, as a rule, the biggest problems are observed. Developers from the Middle Kingdom most often save on components by installing on their products the cheapest parts that you can find. For this reason, the processor from Mediatek (and not, say, from NVidia or Qualcomm) is so common among such phones. The Prestigio 5500 is no exception. The characteristics of the gadget clearly indicate that it is equipped with a “heart” MT6572, running on two cores. The frequency of each of the latter is determined at 1.2 GHz. Due to this, we can talk about more or less stable operation and the ability to play most games from the same Google Play.
Camera
We are already used to the fact that most modern smartphones are equipped with two cameras - front (front) and rear (main). As for the Prestigio 5500 (reviews confirm this information), the model has two “eyes”. The main camera (for taking pictures) has a resolution of 5 megapixels and various "add-ons", such as autofocus and LED flash. Another thing is the front camera, which has a matrix with a resolution of 0.3 megapixels. It, accordingly, is designed to create a "selfie" for video conferencing and communication via Skype.
As the reviews show, the main camera copes with some simple pictures in excellent conditions (with good lighting and normal visibility of the subject). Judging by the reviews, things are much worse with the front camera - it is not capable of transmitting the color gamut and outlines of objects normally, so it will not be so easy to examine them in the photo.
Communication
The Prestigio 5500 smartphone has the entire “classic set” that we saw on other, similar devices of Chinese origin. This includes, in particular, the Bluetooth system for exchanging files, GPS for targeting the area, and a Wi-Fi module for connecting to wireless Internet.
As for mobile communications, the phone works with two mini-SIM cards, which are served in a standard set of GSM and UMTS frequencies.
Thus, the model cannot boast of anything new, but there is everything that is necessary for the average user. And the presence of two slots for “SIM cards” is also a great opportunity to save on mobile services by choosing an operator for a particular task.
operating system
Of course, the Prestigio 5500 (the price of which, while it was being sold, was 4-5 thousand rubles at different time periods) is offered with Android 4.2. This, of course, is an outdated modification, but it remains stable enough to successfully support work with everyday tasks. In addition, as advanced users describe in various Android forums, the device can be reflashed using other versions of the OS.
The graphical shell on Prestigio is used "native", with small additions in the form of an individually designed application store from the developer and some other "standard" programs. If desired, they can be easily “torn down” and thus get the standard Android version of this modification.
Reviews
What do users write about this phone in their reviews? Most, of course, praise the device for the benefits that it can boast of. For example, this is the price. The phone is super affordable, which last but not least plays in favor of its popularity. In addition, the device has a cool design that positively complements the style of its owner (it looks really nice in someone’s hands). Also, the advantages include a colorful screen, support for two communication cards, the presence of headphones included with the device. Regarding the performance of the device, in the comments we found a lot of controversy. Some users claim that they have no problems with “braking” the phone, its freezes and graphic jerks during operation. While the other part of the authors of the reviews indicates that the device has obvious performance problems. Perhaps it all depends on what programs to work with and for what purpose to use the device.
Still playing a significant role going into the set of covers for the "Prestigio 5500."
The disadvantages of the device include rather weak functionality. Anyway, 512 MB of RAM is not enough for a modern device. And the quality of work of individual modules (cameras, speakers, and sometimes the processor) also leaves much to be desired.
conclusions
Whatever the negative is written about this smartphone, it continues to remain very popular in the domestic market. And now I am referring not specifically to the 5500 model, but as a whole - the entire Prestigio line. Given the growth in sales, we will undoubtedly see an increase in the quality of work of this brand, which will mean an increase in the level of its products. So, it is quite possible that in a few years Prestigio will reach the level of such well-known Chinese manufacturers as Meizu and Huawei and will compete with them.