The Telstra T-Elite 5G phone has made its way into the market, generating buzz as a budget-friendly 5G option. It promises some reasonably robust features, although some will say the specs are lacking; but how does it fare in real-world use?
The specs are reasonably solid delivering a generous 6.6-inch HD+ — some users will prefer higher resolution, but they’ll also be shopping at a higher budget — display with a 120Hz refresh rate. This makes for a smooth and immersive viewing experience, whether you’re scrolling through social media, watching videos, or browsing the web.
The T-Elite delivered a consistent experience, including a very consistent full of pretty heavy use. With social media, calls, emails, streaming music and a bit of web surfing, across the testing period, I regularly went to bed at 11pm with around 20% battery left after unplugging at around 5:50 am.
Perhaps one of the biggest selling points with the pending shutdown of 3G networks is the fact that this is a 5G option. This offers a relatively — $179.00 — cheap option to those who don’t use their phone much and are being forced to update their device. The other strong attraction to this device for rural users, is the Telstra Blue Tick – Showing it has been tested and proven to have good signal in rural areas.
I’ll preface this with considering the budget but with that in mind, the camera is reasonably capable. It has a 50MP main camera, a 2MP depth sensor and a 5MP selfie camera. All of them perform pretty well in decent lighting and even capture some decent quality video.
It’s pretty solid, but what about limitations?
The performance is a bit of a mixed bag, and to be honest; with the budget it delivers on what you could realistically expect. The Unisoc T760 Octa-core processor and 4GB ram (extendable by 4GB) are enough to handle normal, basic daily use needs but the phone struggles with multitasking and heavy processing need apps and games.
The other limitation a lot of users will find quickly is if you’re someone that takes a lot of photos at night, when out with friends etc then you’re probably going to want to give this a wide berth. The photo quality in low light just doesn’t cut it for what users want when they’re taking these photos; they’re grainy, lose colour clarity and too often it struggles to focus.
I’m also — we don’t have clarity on this — cautious with any budget device, as to how long OS and security updates will be available for. If you get two years, you’re probably doing pretty well. This is when, no disrespect to the budget manufacturers intended, the long-term value of going to a better known brand may come in to play.
Final thoughts…
I’m personally in a very fortunate position to have access to high end phones all the time, so reviewing budget friendly devices can be a bit of a shock to me. Moving from the recent reviews of the Pixel range, as well as the Nubia Focus 5G this was a big step down in specs. The step down in user experience was nowhere near as large as I expected it to be given the budget gap, which speaks volumes of what has been delivered for under $200.00
The phone will handle pretty much everything you throw at it, but you may see some slowdowns if you’re multitasking; that’s not the target market for a $179.00 phone though.
While there are some shortcomings, the Telstra T-Elite 5G phone is a solid choice for users who are budget-conscious and only need the essentials, perhaps with the added bonus of 5G connectivity. It’s got a good-sized screen, consistent and reliable battery life, a decent camera and excellent and solid connectivity.
Disclosure Statement
ZTE do not wish to have the unit back following review
