Hotwav Note 15 Pro Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

HOTWAV Note 15 Pro - reliable, inexpensive, but not the most unremarkable

Low-end smartphones rarely make the hearts of demanding fans of mobile electronics melt. Unfortunately, maintaining a modest cost price and at the same time rewarding the device with an abundance of competitive advantages is a difficult task even for the largest developers of mobile electronics. The Chinese company Hotvav can hardly be classified as such, but the manufacturer tried to do everything possible to make the new Note 15 Pro relevant and competitive. And in many ways, the company succeeded, although the device is quite far from ideal.

Specifications of HOTWAV Note 15 Pro:

• Case materials: front panel - glass, back panel - plastic;
• screen: IPS technology, 6.6-inch diagonal, resolution 1612x720 pixels;
• processor: UNISOC Tiger T606, video chip: Mali-G57 MC1;
• RAM/ROM: 4GB / 128GB;
• operating system: Android 14;
• battery: 5160mAh, 10W charger;
• main camera: 13MP main + 0.3MP portrait sensor;
• front camera: 5MP;
• sound: mono speaker;
• navigation: GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo;
• dimensions and weight: 166.2 x 76.5 x 8.9 mm, 223 g;
• NFC: no.

Getting to know any smartphone starts with its package. In this aspect, HOTWAV Note 15 Pro does not disappoint. The box made of thick white cardboard looks stylish thanks to the harmonious use of red design elements. Inside, we will find not only the hero of the review, but also:

• high-quality transparent silicone case;
• USB Type-C cable;
• 10W charger;
• SIM tray clip;
• user manual.

It should also be noted that the device display already has a protective film installed at the factory. There is no oleophobic coating, but it collects scratches quite slowly.

Perhaps, the only thing missing from the list is wired headphones for the USB Type-C connector, but today, opponents do not have them. As a result, we give the device a well-deserved “five” for the package.

The design of the smartphone is quite standard for the price category. The back panel is made of iridescent plastic, but the texture is quite good, it collects fingerprints extremely reluctantly. The block of two photo modules looks modern, but protrudes from the case by about one and a half millimeters. When wearing the phone in a case, this fact, of course, is completely unnoticeable. The fingerprint scanner is located in the power button on the side panel, which is convenient from an ergonomic point of view. But the design of the front panel already raises some questions. Thus, the form factor of the 5-megapixel selfie camera is outdated, and the lower frame of the display could be narrower. Thus, the exterior of the HOTWAV Note 15 Pro can be rated at four points out of five.

The installed 6.6-inch IPS display is quite simple, which is noticeable in all its parameters. The resolution of 1612x720 pixels is not as striking as it would be with AMOLED technology, but slight blurriness of fonts is still observed. The refresh rate of the picture is standard (60 Hz), so there is no increased smoothness of the content. However, for the price category and technical characteristics used in it, such a screen feature would be excessive. The brightness reserve is average, direct rays of the summer sun will make working with the phone impossible. In winter, it is possible to see the displayed content. The presence of physical light and proximity sensors and, as a result, the presence of auto-brightness is pleasing. It does not always work correctly. Usually, errors occur when working with a mobile assistant in a room with insufficient lighting. The sensor thinks that you are in complete darkness and noticeably reduces the brightness level. However, over time and, most likely, with numerous attempts to manually set the correct brightness level, the problem began to appear less often. The final rating for the display is 4 with a minus.

Technical specifications are the most important criterion for buying a smartphone for many buyers, because the comfort of the daily user of the gadget depends on them. With them, HOTWAV Note 15 Pro is doing well. The UNISOC Tiger T606 processor together with 4 GB of RAM and the Mali G57MC1 video accelerator allow you to get smooth operation of the Android 14 interface, fairly fast launch of applications and even some gaming capabilities. Let's start analyzing the capabilities of the CPU.

Synthetic tests:

• In the AnTuTu v10 benchmark, the device gives 277059 points. This is a standard result for the processor used, meaning a good basic level of performance.
• In Geekbench 6, the CPU scored 392 points in single-core testing and 1355 points in multi-core testing. The numbers also correspond to the average values ​​​​for the chipset.
• CPU Throttling Test showed an average result of 152 GIPS with 100 threads. At the same time, the loss of performance after 20 minutes of program operation was 5%, so the installed passive cooling system can be considered effective. Let's talk about games. I don't want to try to launch the extremely resource-intensive Genshin Impact again and again and be upset about the performance of low-end processors, so let's focus on projects that are really playable on this hardware and at the same time relevant for millions of players.

Let's start with PUBG Mobile. In terms of graphics, this is far from the worst game. Realistic color rendering and relatively high texture resolution, huge draw distance allow the project to look competitive even after a long period of time from the release. With average graphic presets (shown in the screenshots below), we get a stable framerate without freezes and lags. Of course, demanding players accustomed to 120 FPS and super-responsive touch panels will not find such results satisfactory, but nothing will prevent ordinary players from getting a good gaming experience.

Tank Company's performance did not disappoint either. This is a more modern game project, which in many ways transfers the gameplay of the famous multiplayer MMO shooter World Of Tanks to mobile devices. Of course, it is difficult not to notice some simplifications in graphics, as well as physics, ballistics and damage, but the result is still impressive. Similar in architecture maps, 15 vs 15 combat vehicles battles are striking in scale. With low graphics settings, we get a stable 30 frames per second without noticeable drops even during impressive battle scenes. Not a bad achievement for an inexpensive device.

Another great way to spend time with HOTWAV Note 15 Pro can be emulators of game consoles. If testing such applications for Sega Mega Drive 2, Sony PlayStation 1 and similar consoles does not make sense, because the processor will easily handle the emulation of almost 100% of the game library. But Sony Playstation Portable is already a more interesting example, on which you can find hundreds of games that are relevant even today. Such hits as Burnout Legends, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection were tested directly on the smartphone. All of them were played at 2X resolution without lags. As a result, the phone's performance for the price segment can be rated at 4 points out of 5.

An important factor for choosing a particular smartphone is its battery life. The HOTWAV Note 15 Pro has it for several reasons. Firstly, the device has a capacious 5160 mAh battery, secondly, the energy efficiency of the UNISOC Tiger T606 processor has been confirmed more than once, and thirdly, the phone's software is quite well optimized. Thanks to this, we get the following results.

In the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Test at about 50% brightness and 50% volume, the phone gave an excellent 18 hours of screen time.

In everyday life, we get:

• about 4.5 hours of gameplay in Tank Company (the battery lost 21% in an hour);
• about 5 hours of gameplay in PUBG Mobile (the battery lost 19% in an hour);
• about 8 hours of gameplay in PUBG Mobile (the battery lost 12% in an hour);
• approximately 9 hours of screen time per day with active use (25% of the time - games, 75% of the time - web surfing and other activities).

The smartphone received a complete charger with a power of 10W, so you can’t count on a fast charging time. It took almost four hours to reach 100% battery capacity. Most likely, the user will have to leave the HOTWAV Note 15 Pro near the outlet all night.

The final autonomy is better than most of its competitors, so the “5 minus” rating for this criterion is well deserved. It would be even higher with fast charging.

Speaking of software, HOTWAV Note 15 Pro runs on Android 14 without any visible changes to the standard shell. The interface functions smoothly most of the time, but sometimes lags are noticeable when opening the news feed, launching a more or less resource-intensive application or a heavy page in the browser. There is also a minor bug: when taking a screenshot of the desktop, the performance in games drops for a couple of seconds, but this is a specific scenario that is not necessary for every user. As for the translation, it is close to 100%, you can see a foreign language only in the settings menu, for example, in the RAM expansion item using ROM. No critical bugs were noticed, during testing the device did not freeze or reboot, but a small software update came.

The specifications of the photo modules are unlikely to amaze even the most sophisticated user. 13 and 0.3-megapixel cameras, however, are suitable for daytime photos. The color rendering is close to the real one, the detailing is average, but not mediocre. Of course, in half of the situations the smartphone owner will have to manually adjust the exposure, since inexpensive sensors sometimes overexpose or darken objects. But autofocus rarely makes mistakes, which is more of an exception for the value segment. But the video sequence modules do not succeed at all. The maximum resolution is FullHD, the frame rate is 30 frames per second, with minor deviations from ideal lighting, the user will get a picture as if painted with watercolors. And you should definitely not try to turn on video stabilization. As a result, the already mediocre image is heavily cropped at the edges. The 5-megapixel selfie camera is suitable for video calls, but it will be problematic to make a new avatar for social networks with it. Thus, the photographic capabilities of the HOTWAV Note 15 Pro can be rated “4 minus” for the price category.

Examples of photos on the main camera:

Examples of photos taken with a selfie camera:

The sound component causes mixed emotions. The device has one speaker, the maximum volume of which when playing music reaches 89-90 decibels, and on average is a good 86 dB. There is only one problem - the quality of this sound is frankly poor. You can hear both distortions and a frequency response bias towards mid-high frequencies, which simply makes your ears hurt after a few tens of seconds. But for notifications, such a speaker is perfect, you are unlikely to miss a call no matter how hard you try. The Note 15 Pro can work with HOTWAV wireless headphones, but the supported codecs are limited to a list of SBC, AAC. Thus, modern wireless headphones like the Redmi Buds 5 Pro will function with phones, but still will not reveal their full potential. Thus, in terms of sound, the device deserves a rating of “four with a minus”.

Let's finish our review of the phone by analyzing its main function, namely the quality of communication. If we talk about ordinary calls, then no discomfort was noticed during communication. The speaker is not bad, the voice of the interlocutor is recognizable, without any artifacts. There are also no strong complaints about the microphone. Only when communicating in a noisy place (for example, near the highway) requests to raise the voice become frequent. The Internet connection worked at the level of higher-class smartphones, namely Realme GT2, Honor Magic 6 Pro, which is good news. 4G connection is stable, but the WiFi connection is already weaker than that of the mentioned models. If the Internet of the mentioned smartphones still worked through 3 walls from the modem, then HOTWAV Note 15 Pro has already given up in a similar situation. The GPS navigator functions can be given to the device, but you should not expect impressive accuracy of coordinates. As a result, it is the telephone component of the device that gets a solid 4 out of 5 points.

Let's summarize and list the main pros and cons of HOTWAV Note 15 Pro.

Pros:

• Good case design for the price category;
• Balanced UNISOC Tiger T606 processor with 4GB of RAM;
• 128GB of built-in memory, expandable with MicroSD cards;
• High speaker volume;
• The cameras are capable of taking good quality daytime photos;
• Excellent battery life, realized by a 5160mAh battery;
• NFC support.

Cons:

• The HD+ screen resolution is not enough for excellent picture clarity;
• Evening photos are disappointing in detail, the amount of noise;
• The speaker is loud, but the sound is distorted, does not shine with quality;
• The WiFi connection could be more stable;
• No NFC.

As a result, we have a stylish and fairly balanced phone in the low price segment, which is suitable for the role of a spare mobile assistant, a device for getting to know the Android OS, or a phone for a not particularly demanding user (for example, for a child). The device is prevented from claiming to be something more, first of all, by the lack of NFC and not the most perfect display. I express my gratitude to the HOTWAV OFFICIAL STORE for the smartphone provided for review.