Hisense F24 goes to the edge

Although the Hisense F24 is aimed at the mid-range market, BRYAN TURNER finds that it gets the job done, is well built and even boasts some features found on higher end devices.

In a smartphone space that’s heavily saturated with the iPhone’s latest facial recognition and the Galaxy’s best camera, Hisense carves its own space with the new Infinity F24 smartphone. 

What’s special about it? It gets the job done with the features you’d expect from a high-end smartphone, but at a mid-range price.

The all-metal body feels very premium and not a fingerprint magnet, as many metal-bodied phones have been in the past. The 5.99” screen – call it 6” – is a narrow-bezelled HD+ IPS display with good colour replication. 

Due to the large screen and low bezels, this phone enters the 18:9 resolution space, which is generally held by the higher-end Samsung and Huawei phones. Hisense is known for creating brilliant displays and it’s good to see it continue this legacy. 

The 2.5D glass allowed my finger to glide smoothly along the screen with little resistance, while the design didn’t allow my palm to touch the screen accidentally.

The rear of the phone hosts a very quick-to-register fingerprint sensor. The speaker’s placement, slightly lower down, is not optimal and the sound is muffled when I placed the phone face-up on a cloth surface. A headphone jack at the top of the phone is a nice-to-have, since some manufacturers have been removing them from their smartphones. A slightly-outdated micro-USB port is positioned at the bottom of the phone but this doesn’t reduce the capabilities of the fast charging dual-charge chip, which charged the phone from 20% to 80% in around 30 minutes. 

The 3400mAh non-removable battery is very capable, providing a good 10 hours of medium usage (checking messages every half hour and playing Scrabble online every hour) until it reached 20%. The battery capacity isn’t the only factor in this good battery life: the Android Nougat operating system comes with power-saving software measures to keep background apps from using battery and the 2GB of RAM unnecessarily. 

It is surprising is that there is almost no bloatware installed on this device, as many phone manufacturers tend to do. Hisense smartphones are well supported with Android updates, and this phone had an update waiting after the first boot. This, coupled with the MediaTek Quad Core processor, provides a good user experience when I played graphic-intensive games, and made multi-tasking painless.

The F24 has 16GB of on-board storage, but it can be expanded by up to 128GB with a MicroSD card. The 4G-LTE capabilities are perfect for most high-speed broadband situations, with around 40Mbps download and around 10Mbps upload in an area with good cell service. The 3-choose-2 SIM tray allows for dual-SIM connectivity if you’re willing to sacrifice the SD card slot; or single SIM connectivity with an SD card if you’re willing to sacrifice an extra SIM connection.

The 13MP rear camera is decent for quick shots, but pictures can be better after figuring out the camera modes available. That being said, the camera app’s settings are confusing, and it takes a while to identify what setting is right for you. 

The 8MP front camera is a different story – I have never seen a selfie so clear. This camera app has beauty face filters, as well as make-up filters. This smartphone even has a hidden front flash for low light conditions, so there are plenty options when you’re snapping a selfie. 

Videos were recorded with a good 1080p 30fps quality, and performed well in good lighting. Low lighting lacks a little in performance, with some grain appearing on flash night shots.

Overall, the F24 is a phone for the everyday user who needs to send messages, watch online content and wants to play a game occasionally.  The camera is very capable, but the camera app could be easier to use and night shots could be better. The form factor is aesthetically stunning with no ergonomic trade-offs.