Wiko View4 is the new low-end smartphone with which the company of French origins tries to earn a position. If on the one hand, there are those who are engaged in the megapixel race; Wiko is all about the battery. Just like the predecessor, the newcomer is a real champion autonomy. It comes in at 159,99 euros in the configuration that provides 3 Gigabytes and 64 Gigabytes of internal memory, as always expandable.
Like all smartphones belonging to this price range, even Wiko View4 is not free from defects. There is now a lot of competition and it is not easy to make your way in such a crowded market. There are some changes compared to the previous generation: the photographic sector is almost flush on a body with attractive colors and the biometric sensor disappears. It is not a very demanding device, but it is a basic product able to accompany the user during the performance of daily activities net of some slowdown in some moments.
Autonomy and performance: two sides of the same coin
Wiko View4 integrates a large 5.000 mAh battery. The company ensures up to 3 days of autonomy on a single charge. It's really like this? Absolutely yes. In my test, I ended up on the third working day (around 20:00) with still 24% remaining charge compared to over 6 hours and 30 minutes of active display.
Of course, the use was not intense. In this lockdown period, I tend to use the PC more than the smartphone but the results obtained by Wiko View4 are still remarkable. And I am almost certain that a medium-high use can ensure autonomy capable of covering at least 2 days. The only negative note is the charging still entrusted to the micro-USB port, anachronistic in 2020.
The credit for these results also goes to a low resolution of the display and a low energy processor. The beating heart is represented by the MediaTek Helio A25 who returned some fluctuating performance. They manage to do their normal daily activities, but they struggle if you start stressing them out with multitasking activities and lots of background apps. It can handle game sessions, especially not very heavy titles. Perfect heat dissipation, imperceptible through the body.
The audio is mono and is entrusted only to the speaker placed on the lower edge. The quality is in line with what is offered by direct competitors in the same price range. There is the 3,5mm audio jack implemented on the upper edge. Connectivity does not shine: monoband Wi-Fi, dual-SIM support, memory expansion, Bluetooth 4.2, A-GPS, micro-USB port instead of Type-C and there is no NFC support.
The front is occupied by a display 6,52 inch IPS LCD with HD + resolution (720 x 1.600 pixels). There is a teardrop notch for the front camera. The panel is one of the aspects that convinced me least. From a user experience point of view, it gets along fairly well in almost all situations. The blacks are not absolute and the maximum brightness is not very high with the consequent difficulty of viewing in particularly sunny days. However, there is an element that has now almost disappeared on smartphones: the notification LED, which I personally always appreciate.
Build quality and camera to improve
Wiko View4 has a shell made of polycarbonate but the sensation to the touch is pleasant. It is available in three colors: Cosmic Blue, Cosmic Grenn e Cosmic Gold. The latter is the one you see in the images in the review. It's a nice colorway that might grab the attention of a younger audience or who still want an eye-catching design.
The back cover retains fingerprints. The build quality is to be reviewed. Holding the Wiko View4 in your hands, you happen to hear creaks. It therefore does not return a feeling of solidity and robustness. On the side edge, there is the volume rocker along with the power button. While on the left one, we find the button dedicated to Google Assistant. All perfectly reachable.
As we said, there is no biometric sensor for fingerprints. Authentication is entrusted to 2D face recognition or the entry of the access password. Personally, I would have preferred it to have been integrated as facial recognition doesn't always work perfectly.
The photographic compartment of Wiko View4 consists of a 13 Megapixel main sensor, paired with a second 5-megapixel wide-angle and a third 2-megapixel for portrait mode shots. I particularly appreciated the lack of protrusion of the photographic module, a little less the shots especially at night.
In excellent light conditions, it manages to pull off of the images in line with the price range of belonging. The level of detail is not high and the color rendering is not always perfect. Wide-angle shots, on the other hand, are less convincing with less detail and the classic distortion. The result, however, drops drastically at night where there is a significant loss of detail and a little too much digital noise takes over.
Analogous speech for the 8 Megapixel front camera: appreciable shots with the right lighting; less satisfactory those at night. The internal flash helps to illuminate the face a little more. However, the possibility of taking selfies with a blurred background is missing. In short, we are talking about a photographic sector that needs refinements also because at similar figures (thanks to the price drop) it is possible to buy devices that are able to do better, such as Redmi Note 8T.
The software on board is Android 10 - as per tradition - in an almost stock version. As on the predecessor, we find the function Simple mode activated by Wiko Functions which transforms the device interface with larger icons for the most basic functions, such as Photos, Phone, Messages. An interesting option that makes Wiko View4 a smartphone also suitable for an audience less close to the technological world.
Conclusions: who should buy it?
Wiko View4 is the right smartphone if you are looking for an affordable device that guarantees excellent autonomy. It is not a smartphone with great demands, as we have seen in the review, but there are aspects that make it particularly suitable for certain types of users. The design is interesting and could attract the attention of the very young audience that is about to receive the first smartphone.
Or, Simple Mode makes it perfect for those who are far from technology thanks to a simple interface reminiscent of mobile phones but with all the smart components. Greater stability and better yield of the photographic sector would have given added value to this Wiko View4. Now, the ball goes to the market and we will see what his response will be to the newcomer at Wiko.
