Leagoo M5 smartphone

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very good budget smartphone

I was sent this phone for review.  It is 3G only and has some pretty basic specs, but it is nicely made and does the basics very well. At this price (currently under seventy quid) I think it's excellent value.

When reading this review, please 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, and I don't use data; I use the phone for calls and texts, music, checking email, some catch-up TV, occasional photos and occasional web browsing. This means that I cannot advise on detailed comparisons of technical specification and so on, but my personal view of the Leagoo M5 is this:

The packaging is basic and a bit crude, but it's OK. In it you get:
the phone,
a mains charger,
a white micro-USB lead for charging and data transfer

a pair of white earphones
a phone stand

a hopelessly bad user manual

I think the phone itself is attractive: it is slim and stylish with a robust metal frame and sturdy plastic back.  It's quite heavy, but not excessively so and I find it very comfortable in the hand. The screen is very good to my eyes; it's a generous 5" with slightly rounded edges and a pleasure to use: bright, true colours and surprisingly tolerant of viewing angle. Video, TV catch-up and so on look fine and everything works very nicely for me. It runs Android 6.0.  It has just 2GB RAM and the processor is quad-core not octa-core. Frankly, this makes no difference for my use; everything I want to do seems quick, smooth and pretty intuitive, but if you use apps with big memory or speed demands it may be something to consider. The internal memory is 16GB and you can expand with a micro-SD card; I use a 32GB card and it works fine.

Set-up was very easy (which is just as well, because the User Manual is virtually useless.).  You take the back off to access the SIM and micro-SD card slots, and the replaceable battery (hurrah!).  It takes two micro-SIM cards - not standard SIM as stated on the product page - with a separate slot for a micro-SD card.  Security is OK; it has fingerprint recognition unlocking, which I never have much success with and don't like, but this works as well as any other I have tried and I know a lot of users do like fingerprint unlocking.  (Personally, I'm sticking to PIN unlocking.)

Apps install very quickly and simply. 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 speaker is pretty terrible (as on most phones) but 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 about 4 metres. The cameras aren't the greatest at 8mp and 5mp, but they're perfectly OK and other functions seem very good.

In summary, this is a very good smartphone for the price which seems robust and works well for basic use. I can recommend it warmly if you're looking for a second phone, a starter phone for a young person – or if you just want a decent basic smartphone which just does the job.

Amazon page HERE