Hotwav W10 Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

HOTWAV W10 - surviving in any conditions

A modern smartphone is not just a beautiful toy, which it was a few years ago. Today this type of phone has become a multifunctional mobile assistant, without which a modern person cannot live a day. Calls, instant messengers, web surfing, social networks, photo, video and document editors, photo and video shooting are an incomplete list of tasks assigned to the above device. And how annoying it is to lose the above functionality due to an accidental fall of the gadget into the water and other force majeure situations. Thank God that such a situation will bypass the owner of the HOTWAV W10.

Acquaintance with the phone occurs with its configuration and appearance. Inside the device’s box you will find an OTG cable and a data cable, an 18W (9V 2A) charger, an instruction manual and a protective display film. Perhaps, only a protective silicone case is missing, but it is not necessary with the overall durability of the gadget. The design of the back panel of the phone turned out to be more than attractive, because it combines the original dual camera module, a fingerprint sensor, and an interesting texture. Additional beauty is brought by pseudo-metallic elements. The front surface is already less interesting because of the wide display’s bezels, the device's thickness and weight will be a moot point. Protection from moisture and dust negatively affected the dimensions, so a monoblock weighing 470 grams will retain at least some ergonomics only in a large male palm. On the other hand, sometimes users demand just such brutality from an inexpensive IP68 smartphone.

The display of the novelty has a 6.53-inch diagonal with a resolution of 1600x720 pixels, which indicates an average image clarity for the price category. There is also no increased refresh rate, but the picture tries to compensate for this fact with good levels of brightness and contrast. Image remains visible in direct sunlight. The display is covered with glass, but there is no oleophobic coating. It is difficult to consider this fact as a critical minus, because few of the opponents are ready to boast of a full-fledged oleophobic screen layer.

An affordable smartphone with IP68 protection is unlikely to be purchased for the most demanding games, while technical specifications in the form of a MediaTek Helio A22 processor, 4GB of RAM and a PowerVR GE 8320 video accelerator will cope with less simple projects. For example, the popular World Of Tanks Blitz and Call Of Duty functions smoothly at low graphic settings, frame rate drops are infrequent. In the Antutu benchmark the bundle is gaining almost 90 thousand points. The Android 12 interface itself turned out to be resource-intensive, the CPU used is still not always enough for the ideal responsiveness of the operating system, and sometimes there is a noticeable pause in the launch of applications. The size of the internal storage was 32GB, which is unlikely to be enough for a modern user who daily receives an abundance of information at once in several instant messengers. The slot for microSD-cards should reduce the likelihood of a lack of memory.

The list of sensors installed in the phone includes a GPS module with GLONASS support, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, proximity and light sensors. Unfortunately, there are no NFC contactless payments, so you will have to pay in stores with an electronic card or cash. As for GPS, reception in open areas is not bad, the error in the test readings was 7-8 meters. FDD-LTE B7 and B20 frequencies are supported, there were no problems with 4G communication.

The main 13- and 0.3-megapixel photo modules are approximately at the level of the phone's opponents in the price segment. Daytime photos shot with them do not always have natural color reproduction, however, the detail of the frame is not bad, blurring is not so common thanks to the autofocus system. However, frankly simple sensors give in to evening shots or shooting indoors. It is almost impossible to see small details in such pictures, the photo becomes like a mess of spots of different colors and noise. The footage can be recorded in FullHD-resolution at 30 frames per second, there is no electronic stabilization, the sound is recorded in mono mode. Everything described above is relevant for both video shooting and selfies taken with a 5-megapixel front camera.

Of course, the main competitive advantage of the gadget is a huge 15000mAh battery. Such a battery seriously increased the dimensions and weight of the gadget, but it was able to bring the autonomy of the smartphone to close to the fantastic 20 hours of active screen time. You need to charge the phone about once every 3-4 days, but even fast 18W charging does not reduce the phablet’s charging time. It takes about 8-9 hours to reach the full capacity.

The only speaker will not let you miss an important call, but the uniformity of the frequency response is mediocre. If it is still possible to watch videos on YouTube with comfort, then not to enjoy the music. The headphone jack is presented on the top of the smartphone, the codec built into the MediaTek processor is able to demonstrate relatively good sound quality if the user has good in-ear headphones. As for communication the installed microphone reliably carries the user's voice, there were no complaints from subscribers on the other side of the wire.

As a result, we got an incredibly autonomous and durable device at a low price, capable of competing on equal terms with the best IP68 smartphones in the low-mid price category. Perhaps only the excess dimensions and weight of the device can scare away a potential buyer from buying, but without these shortcomings such a capacious battery and moisture protection would simply be impossible.

You can get acquainted with Hotwav products on the official site.
You can purchase the smartphone disscussed in review on the following link.