Oukitel K4000 Pro -- a smartphone for a life of hard knocks [Review]

At the top end of the smartphone market the likes of Apple and Samsung are competing to offer the latest technology. But down at the lower priced end of things, for people who want a smartphone on a budget, there are a swathe of Chinese makers competing for your cash.

Set aside your techno-snobbery and many of these phones turn out to be surprisingly good for the price. The latest to come our way is the Oukitel K4000 Pro. It's a 64-bit, quad-core, 4G phone with a five-inch screen, running last-but-one Android 5.1 Lollipop and costing less that $150. Its key selling point though is that it's designed to be tough. On paper the spec looks impressive but how does it stack up in the real world?

In the box

The first thing that strikes you about the K4000 is the rather startling dayglo orange box it comes in. Take out the phone itself and it feels chunky and heavy -- it weighs 250 grammes. The thickness is partly due to the rubber cover that comes pre-attached, but even without that the K4000 gives the impression of a previous generation device.

The power switch is on the left, volume on the right, with USB and headphone sockets on the top edge. The frame is metal with neat bevelled edges, the back is plastic and has a sort of fake leather texture, the camera lens and flash are at the top center with the lens standing slightly proud. As well as the rubber cover the phone comes with a screen protector this has a slightly matt finish which doesn't feel nice and does seem to dull the touch response. The only other item included is a mains charger.

Under the cover specs include a 1.0 GHz Mediatek MT6735P processor, 2GB of memory and 16GB of storage. The capacitive screen is made of tempered glass and is 720p with a 1280x720 pixel resolution and 294ppi plus multitouch. You get a 13MP rear camera and 5MP front.

In use

It's a dual SIM device, and unlike some phones it doesn't share a SIM slot with the storage so you can have two SIMs and an SD card installed at once. In order to install a SIM card and micro SD you have to prize off the back. This reveals part of the reason for the K4000's heft, it has a massive battery.

That big battery is 4600mAh and it takes over three hours to charge with the standard USB power supply. Once charged though it delivers a life of several days normal use (the manufacturer claims up to six), which is pretty impressive, or more than a month on standby.

While it doesn't have the fastest of processors, it's fine for everyday tasks and casual games. The screen offers good viewing angles, strong colors and crisp contrast. Video playback is smooth but sound from the single speaker is rather weedy. It has fixed menu, home and back buttons at the bottom of the screen but these are quite dim and hard to see.

The rear camera is okay in daylight, but struggles in low light. The front one is acceptable for video calling. There are quite a few options in the standard camera app including movement tracking and a beauty mode, but overall the cameras are the weakest feature here.

Other than changing the standard launcher, the K4000 runs a pretty much stock version of Android. The phone isn't overloaded with bloatware but you do get some pre-installed apps including Opera Mini, a torch, an FM radio and a clean up tool. It also supports Smart Gestures to let you access features quickly.

Conclusion

This isn't a phone you’re going to buy if you want the latest thin and light technology. However, the fact that it looks and feels as if it was built in a shipyard does have an upside, it's tough. You get the impression you could drop the K4000 Pro a considerable distance, or use it as a cosh, and it would come to no harm.

Functionally it does most things apart from photography reasonably well without being spectacular in any area other than its battery life. If you want an affordable smartphone that will survive the knocks of everyday life and which you can forget to charge on a regular basis then it might be worth considering.

The K4000 Pro has a list price of $104.99, but it's widely on sale for less. You can order it from AliExpress in China, or from Coolicool if you'd prefer it shipped from Europe.