Vernee Mars smartphone

Rating 5/5

Review:
A very good mid-range phone

This is a very good phone for just over £200.  We're getting some impressive phones at this price these days, and this is one of them.

When reading this review, do bear in mind that I am in late middle age and that my use may not reflect yours. I don't game or tweet, for example; I use the phone for calls and texts, music, checking email, some catch-up TV and video streaming, occasional photos and occasional web browsing. I don't use data. All this means that I cannot advise on lots of technical specification and so on, but my ordinary user's take in the Vernee Mars is this:

The packaging is stylish you get a charger (with a UK adaptor if in the UK), a Type-C USB lead for charging and data transfer, a pin for opening the SIM tray and a quick-start guide. The phone itself is very attractive: it's slim, stylish and has a robust plastic case with a flat back. It's quite heavy, but not excessively; I like the solid feel of it and I find it very comfortable to use. There is fingerprint unlocking on the right hand edge below the volume and power buttons.  It's no better or worse than any other I have tried, but personally I prefer to stick to PIN locking. The 5.5" screen is excellent to my eyes with bright, true colours and very tolerant of viewing angle. Video, TV catch-up and so on look great and everything works very nicely for me. The Mars runs Android version 6.0, and with an impressive 4GB RAM everything is very quick and smooth and pretty intuitive.

The internal memory is 32GB and you can expand with a micro-SD card of up to 128GB capacity (I've used a 32 GB card and it works fine). Set-up was very easy.  This is a dual-SIM phone, which can be a very handy feature, but note that the memory card and second SIM share a slot, so you can't have two SIM cards and a memory card installed at the same time.

In use, everything I want works very well. Wi-fi connection was very straightforward as was syncing with my account. The battery lasts for several days with my use. The speakers aren't bad for smartphone speakers (which isn't saying much, I know) and through headphones or an external speaker - both wired and via Bluetooth 4.0 - the sound is excellent. There's no NFC, but normal Bluetooth pairing is very quick and simple, and stable up to a decent range. The rear camera has a very good 13mp resolution and the front camera is OK at 5mp. I have found both to be fine, other functions also seem very good and apps install quickly and without fuss.

In short, this is a really good phone with excellent specs (which I have copied below) for the price. I'm extremely happy with mine;  it seems to me to compete very well with models like the Umi Super and if you like the look of the Mars it should do you very well.  Very warmly recommended.

Amazon page HERE

Model:Vernee Mars
Product size: 151*73*7.6mm
Net weight: 161g

General:
Material: Plastic
Colour: Grey,Gold
Release date: September 2016

System:
OS: Android 6.0
CPU Processor: Helio P10 (MT6755)
CPU Core: 8Core 2.0GHz(64-bit)
GPU: Mali-T860MP2-700MHz

Storage:
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 32GB
Memory Card: Supported up to 128GB

Display:
Screen Size: 5.5"
Screen Resolution: 1920*1080
Multitouch: supports 5 touch

Camera
Camera Pixel: 13M F/2.0
Camera Pixel: 5M F/2.8

Network
Cellular: 2G/3G/4G
GSM: /3/5/8
UMTS: 1/ 8 FDD LTE: 1/3/7/20
Network Conversation: Micro SIM+Nano SIM / Micro SIM + TF Wi-Fi:WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4G/5G
SIM Card Type: 1 micro sim + 1 nano sim (SIM+SIM or SIM+TF)
SIM Card Quantity:2
GPS: GPS/AGPS/GLONASS
NFC: not supported
Bluetooth Version: 4.0

Other Features:
Sensor: gravity sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, Hall, fingerprints, compass, gyroscope

Packing List:
1 x Phone
1 x Battery (built-in)
1 x Data cable (100cm) TYPE-C cable
1 x AC power charger adapter
1 x user manual
1 x SIM Needle