Maximum capacity: BQ Aurora smartphone with edge-to-edge screen and 4 GB RAM

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Domestic brand BQ Mobile introduced its new smartphone BQ Aurora. This is representative of a new generation of smartphones, which the manufacturer has changed everything – screen format, software, and positioning. Now this is not just a means of communication, it is a complete pocket computer on a modern Android OS with advanced features.

In the Russian retail BQ Aurora costs 15 000 rubles at the time of this writing. Compared to competitors for the same price officially sold in our country, it is markedly superior to them in abilities, so the purchase will be potentially beneficial. Today, the smartphone in our test, and our task is to understand, really it is worth the money.

 

Packaging

In the case of Aurora, the company BQ has departed from its traditional packaging design and prefer the more classic style. Box is now made of more durable cardboard, but it is much smaller (in length it is commensurate to the smartphone), while maintaining the informative value at the same high level.

Box allows you to fully appreciate the exterior of the apparatus: the top sealed his faceplate, and the bottom panel rear. Also, the manufacturer has included a list of specifications and list of accessories included in the package.

Just specify that the inscription “18:15” – it’s just a screenshot of the time on the smartphone screen, and not an indication of the size of the screen: they are 18:9.

 

Picking

Smartphone BQ Aurora by Russian standards, is quite expensive, but the equipment he has is pretty standard. In the box, couldn’t find the headphone, although the connector for them in the device available.

The smartphone itself is in a plastic tray, which was cardboard. Beneath it is a niche with the charger on 2 amps, data cable microUSB, manual, warranty card and a paper clip to eject SIM cards.

In a separate bag is a protective film on the screen that you have to glue yourself. Before BQ was applied already at the factory, but in this case it is not required, and the reason we’ll cover in the section “Screen”.

Manual from the kit is very detailed – it contains a lot of useful information for those who have never dealt with a widescreen smartphone without a removable back cover.

 

Characteristics

Specifications BQ Aurora a very detailed list on the website BQ Mobile, a short version of the list is on the back side of the box. An additional source is the complete user manual.

screen: 6 inch, HD+ (1440х720 pixels), IPS, 18:9;

– processor: MediaTek Helio P25, 8×2. 4 GHz;

– memory: 4 GB RAM, 64 GB ROM, microSD up to 256 GB;

interfaces: microUSВ 2.0, microSD card, 2xSIM, 3.5 mm;

– wireless connectivity: GSM, 3G, LTE, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 n;

– firmware: OS Google Android 7 Nougat, native interface;

– battery: Li-polymer, non-removable, 4010 mAh;

camera: front 13+5 MP and flash, the main 20+8 MP and flash;

– housing material: metal, plastic;

– case color: black, Golden;

– dimensions: 160х77х8 mm;

– weight: 189 grams;

features: unlock face, VoLTE, glass 2.5 D Gorilla Glass.

 

Competitive advantages of the smartphone can be attributed directly big screen in a new format, a lot of storage and four camera – double module front and rear, each with its own flash.

 

Appearance

On testing we got a gold version BQ Aurora, allowing you to easily estimate the thickness of the screen frames. The smartphone is made in a classic style BQ, but has a number of interesting characteristics of appearance, some of which are not immediately apparent.

For example, it is patterned button switch, while the volume rocker is traditionally smooth, or black plastic camera module while the case of Golden. Looks like this choice of colors as at least good. The location of the elements here are fairly standard: the buttons on the right side, the SIM slot card on the left, microUSB port along with MIC and speaker – on the bottom. At the bottom is the connector for headphones, which is not always convenient, especially when the smartphone in your pocket when listening to music.

The front panel is almost one continuous screen, and really minimal, though the bottom is still there, but it is empty. It is quite possible to place the control buttons, but, alas, they are here virtual. The upper bound is given to two camera, speaker, flash, led indicator and sensors, lighting and proximity. The face of the smartphone closes the glass is 2.5 D, but it bends the edges slightly noticeable and the frame thickness not conceal.

The back panel is made of metal with large plastic inserts on top and bottom for the antennas. Here is a dual camera module with a large, but a single flash, just below there is the logo of the company and the fingerprint scanner and the name of the smartphone.

The design of the device makes a good impression – there is nothing superfluous, everything in its place, the word, classic appearance, coupled with modern screen format.

 

Ergonomics

6-inch widescreen smartphone lies in the hand exactly the same as 5.5-inch with a traditional 16:9 screen, so call it downright large does not – its dimensions are quite standard. The hand of a man of ordinary size, the phone feels quite confident, comfortable grip.

The mass of the BQ Aurora is not felt: it weighs no more and no less than any modern smartphone with more or less good battery, and its thickness is minimal compared to many other “classmates”. The smartphone does not slip, it is pleasant to hold in your hand.

Glass front panel is covered with fingerprints reluctantly, and the metal rear panel is not dirty at all, though probably in a black case, the finger marks will be visible stronger. The fingerprint scanner is in place and is easy to find by touch, and wherein the camera module is absolutely impossible to get dirty.

The build of the smartphone is made at a high enough level, but still at the test bending heard the subtle creak. In real conditions, they will not occur.

On the downside, the ergonomics include on-screen buttons – the bottom frame has sufficient thickness to fit them myself. In addition, the smartphone is a hybrid slot under the SIM card: either dual SIM or SIM+microSD. On the other hand, he’s got 64 GB of ROM, so 99% of the buyers of the flash drive is not required.

 

Screen

The display in BQ Aurora is the IPS panel with an aspect ratio of 18:9. Immediately consider it to be an obvious drawback: all those on-screen buttons that this device is truly gigantic and is not just a lot, and a lot of space. Moreover, in many applications, they are displayed on a black background, and in the end of the 6-inch screen turns into a 5.5-inch volume of the displayed content. Decrease the scale of the interface can not – it only changes the font size.

The advantages of the smartphone screen very much its touch layer handles up to 5 simultaneous touches and makes it very accurate, even in cold weather. Can be touched with wet fingers and even gloves – the corresponding item is activated in the menu and works 10 times out of 10.

The screen also stands out for high saturation of colors, just like AMOLED panels, and he has very wide viewing angles – 178 degrees vertically and horizontally. Highlights is for black color only at critical angles, and in normal mode it is impossible to ignore them.

The brightness of the display is a little lacking, although the adjustment range is rather wide: the sun it is the readability drops to near zero, but it is a problem of all LCD screens to some extent. Control the smartphone with one hand is possible: you can programmatically zoom the displayed image up to 5 and even four inches, as is done, for example, smartphones Xiaomi.

Now to answer the question of why BQ chose not to glue the film on the screen and just put it in the box. It’s simple: the glass front panel is Gorilla Glass (generation unknown), and it perfectly resists scratches and other signs of careless use. For this reason, the film as such is not required and will be useful only to those who really really cares about the perfect condition of your mobile device.

 

Sound

Main speaker BQ Aurora is located on the bottom of the case, and he’s here alone. Hand to close it not just only in landscape mode usage, and supply loud enough to hear the call on the street. Sound quality – 4 out of 5 smartphone slightly lacking bottom, but the overall sound is very rich and nice, no cheap Chinese chatter. The vibration in the smartphone too high – it feels soft, but still strong enough.

Voice speaker we have rated 3+ of 5 – that’s it, the volume just is not enough, unfortunately. The situation will only be solved in the engineering menu, but this aspect we have not tested. In addition, the smartphone does not has a function of pair wise operation of two speakers to achieve stereo sound, which is also not enough. Maybe in new firmware versions this feature adds.

Microphone BQ Aurora is very pleased: well protected from the wind, noises catches within acceptable limits, and the interlocutor will hear you very clearly almost always. The system of suppression of noise due to the lack of a second microphone in the smartphone not.

 

Face Unlock and a thumbprint scanner

In BQ Aurora is the unlock function, and it works on 6 points from 5. It is based on one of the two front cameras and recognizes the owner’s of pictures almost instantly – much faster than it does Apple iPhone X for 92 000.

Out of 10 cases the person had been recognized 10 times in bright light and 7 times in the twilight – an excellent result given the fact that there is no 3D face scanner. And here’s a test to unlock with your eyes closed, the smartphone failed: he rasplachivaetsya, even if you sleep.

The fingerprint scanner works quite well: true positives, 9 out of 10, and can be touched with wet fingers – in the case of a successful unlock will be 8 out of 10. The response speed is almost instantaneous as that of the top smartphones, but Face Unlock is still a little faster.

 

Cameras

Consider the smartphone one of the first two dual module, that is, it has four built-in camera. First look at the flash: the core consists of one, but a big led, and its effectiveness in the dark – about 2-3 meters, which is good. The light is bright but defocused, and therefore soft, so that the discolouration doesn’t usually happen. Front flash has a lower brightness but it is enough for selfies in the darkness, and the only requirement to it.

For cameras BQ Aurora has its own interface, the simplicity and intuitiveness similar to the add-on shell 9 MIUI from Xiaomi. Minimalistic and very comfortable, and the camera work very quickly. Front camera allows you to take both portrait and wide angle shots, capturing scenes in very much detail. The pictures are succulent, regardless of the time of day: even in the dark noises in the photo are almost there.

The situation is similar with the main camera – the pictures are very high quality, but there are notable works autofocus. It works almost instantly and never fails during the day, but at night all to focus not on the object, which is needed. It corrects conventional touch-focus.

In BQ Aurora has a HDR mode, but no image stabilization, which affects primarily on video. Smartphone writes in Full HD at 60 frames per second and the video quality is quite high, but if you use it as a video camera constantly, you have to spend money on an external stabilizer.

 

Software and memory

On BQ Aurora running Android 7 and sheath in the style of iOS – a separate menu with the app and all icons are displayed right on the desktop. Also, the control center displays the mobile swipe from the bottom up – at the top of the curtain there were only so many notifications.

The interface itself makes a good impression: it’s fast, easy, not overloaded with unnecessary features and is very flexible in terms of settings – in this respect it is on par with FlyMe from Meizu and overtakes Oxygen OS from OnePlus, but Xiaomi MIUI, where you can configure everything, yet falls short.

However, even the suggested settings of the standard user is enough: there is even a program select a color temperature, the application to protect the view (changes the brightness and backlight), gesture support and even additional virtual button with the frequently used functions.

In the SMS app there was a separate menu for spam, and you can configure the operation of the light indicator located above the touch display. And it’s not all the possibilities of the shell.

In the end, the new interface is very pleased with the quality of performance, and, in contrast to all of the same MIUI, it does not consume RAM for nothing: after the first run available 2.6 GB out of 4. As for the internal memory of 64 GB, given an installed system, a free 50 GB.

By cons software BQ Aurora belongs IN the garbage, though few. Of the five third-party applications you cannot uninstall only Yandex and Yandex.Browser, but you can disable them, and with them half of Google’s applications, using free utilities QuickIconManager.

 

Performance

During the testing BQ Aurora never hampered and not lag. He has enough RAM to store running two Navigator and the browser with multiple tabs, and if you use a less heavy application, some five or six programs in its RAM for sure will fit without any problems.

The smartphone interface is also devoid of lag and works extremely fast. Applications are open quickly, and even Full HD movie running from the internal memory is played back without brakes. In General it is quite high-speed mobile, and largely due to the processor Helio P25 – of course, CPU is not the flagship, but the “Tanks” on medium graphics settings are coming without throttle.

In games hot CPU is barely noticeable, which also contributes to increased productivity. The test results in the benchmarks you can see in the screenshots, and should pay particular attention to scores in games 3D Mark test. For the smartphone, which costs 15,000 rubles, which is very high.

 

Autonomous operation

Aurora is inside BQ battery on 4010 mAh without the support of an accelerated charge. The set comes charger for 5V 2A (10 watt), which fills 100% of energy for two hours. Not too slow, of course, but not as quickly as we would like. On the other hand, it is impossible to get everything at once from one smartphone from the middle price segment.

In our test, the smartphone lasted 2.5 days in the “two hours of calls a day and two to three hours on the Internet and the messengers”. The screen brightness was set to 50%, and the Internet, we connect via 3G and WI-FI. If you use the system more actively, 1.5-2 days it should definitely be enough. When playing streaming HD video from YouTube battery dead in 6 hours.

 

Conclusion

About the smartphone BQ Aurora in General we can not say anything bad: it has some shortcomings, but individually they are insignificant. BQ Mobile has tried to make really high quality gadget, and she did it for the second time: at the end of 2017, it presented no less interesting model BQ Space X with its own unique features.

Over BQ Aurora has done a great job, and for 15 000 rubles now on the Russian market there is no one more worthy of attention and purchase a smartphone, because it has a modern camera that is optimized FOR good battery and a large widescreen display. At the device: no target audience: its capacity is enough for a young gamer, and businessman, and regular users of both sexes.

 

Pros BQ Aurora

– wide screen;

– great battery;

– Gorilla glass;

– optimized interface;

– a lot of memory;

– powerful processor.

 

Cons BQ Aurora

– on-screen control buttons;

– no headphones included;

outdated microUSB.

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