The Medion Living P4502 will be available in stores ALDI from today (December 18). This is a limited Specialbuy, so when it's gone it's gone. If it takes your fancy then remember that the ALDI smartphone is unlikely to be stock still after this weekend.£ 79 is temptingly priced between £ 60 Nokia Lumia 530 and £ 89 Motorola MOTO E. And hope we will be a better deal than any of the phones. Read on to learn why.
Two traditional telltale signs of a smartphone budget is its width and the poor quality of its display. At 10mm the ALDI phone is thicker than many of the latest high-end devices, but significantly slimmer than the chunky 12.3mm Moto E and 12mm Lumia 530, along with other cheap phones.
Unfortunately, in order to achieve the slimness screen is raised from the chassis, and the camera ALDI phone protrudes in the rear, which means it is probably from side to side when placed on the table. Apparently still good for a superbudget phone, but in the hands of less favorable mood.
With virtually no screen bezel ALDI phone is super-compact, maybe just a millimeter or two larger than the 4.5in screen. Fits very comfortable in the hand, and one-handed operation is simple. However, low weight of ALDI phone (142g) and plastic shell make it feel pretty toy like.
The back panel is removable, snap-on and off very easily and allows you to access the well-removable battery, plus microSD slot and dual-SIM slot. Despite this chassis does not creak or bend to pressure.
The lower back is a speaker. You may find that it falls under your hands, muffling the sound, but it was a great pairing for the built-in FM radio (becoming a rarity on Android phones these days) and function MP3 player. You also get a pair of earphones in the box.
The only hardware buttons is a power switch on the left side and a volume rocker on the right. You'll also find a headphone jack on the top, and the Micro-USB charging connector below.
Sit three touch-sensitive buttons below the display, which offers Options, Home and Back. To display the menu of the recent apps you'll need to double-press the Home button.
We saw some marketing material that defines the display as a Quad HD panel. It does not. It is a qHD - or a quarter-HD - display with resolution of 960x450 pixels, equating to 236 pixels per inch (ppi). That's standard for a budget phone, and in line with both the Lumia 530 and Moto E, but really really Quad HD.
What is more important is a display IP, which makes for rich colors and excellent viewing angle. We found it a bit dull the box, but ramping up the light can not fix.
In 236ppi with little more than fuzziness we're used to seeing, but overall the screen is fine for a budget phone. One thing to note, however, is that it is a magnet for fingerprints.