Introduction
This is the Neffos N1, the latest smartphone by TP-Link. In case you didn’t know, TP-Link is the world-renowned router maker, and the company has debuted its smartphone division, Neffos, a few years ago. It’s been nearly 3 years since the company first made its official appearance in Malaysia, can the new N1 storm the market this time? We’ll find out in the full review!
Unboxing
The N1 comes in a box with white and purple color scheme. Inside the box:
- Neffos N1
- Charger
- USB-C Cable
- Earphones
- Extra Ear Tips
- SIM Ejector Tool
- Quick Start Guide
- Warranty Notice
- Safety Notice
- Tempered Glass Protector
Surprisingly, the tempered glass protector is included in the box. It would be nicer if there’s a phone case in the box as well.
The Look I’ve Seen Before
Looking at the design of the N1, especially the back, surely it will remind you of the P10 Plus by the “H” company. Alright, it’s not 100% alike, but it’ll get most people confused. The top part of the rear has a camera plate for the dual-camera and dual-tone LED setups. Below the camera plate, there’s a fingerprint sensor.
The front of the phone is another story, though. Nope, it doesn’t have the trendy 18:9 screen display, just a typical 16:9 one. The bezels of this phone aren’t thin too, but overall I’m still okay with it. Below the screen, there are three Android navigation buttons, you can swap the Back and Recent Apps buttons in the settings.
The buttons and ports are all located at the usual place — power button on the right; 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C port, and speaker grill at the bottom. The interesting part is the left side, where there’s the alert slider for you to change to sound or vibration mode in just a slide, I really enjoy using it a lot!
Conventional 16:9 Display
The Neffos N1 sports a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with an aspect ratio of 16:9. The display is sharp and crystal clear, though the white balance is a little bit off as the white tends to be slightly bluish. Its display can go super bright, so outdoor usage isn’t a big problem.
MediaTek Helio P25 SoC
Powering the device is a MediaTek Helio P25 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB expandable storage. The phone is able to get most of the daily tasks done easily. In terms of gaming performance, its Mali-T880 GPU is able to play most games smoothly, I was able to play Rules of Survival smoothly in excellent graphics settings.
NFUI 7.0
The N1 runs on NFUI 7.0 based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The entire user interface actually looks quite similar to EMUI, from the absence of app drawer to the quick settings toggles. That’s not a bad thing at all, as long as the software is stable and easy to use, I’m okay with it, and I’ll say NFUI 7.0 pretty much did it. I would have still preferred vanilla Android, though.
Additionally, NFUI 7.0 now comes with the App Cloner feature, which allows you to login to two different accounts simultaneously. App Cloner feature currently supports apps like Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
As a professional router maker company, it’s no surprise to see that the phone actually comes with a few router-like functionalities. Smart WLAN is an app that makes your phone to work like a router, turning on the WLAN Extender will increase the Wi-Fi connection range, which quite useful. The speed will be compromised, though. Kasa and Tether apps are parts of TP-Link’s ecosystem, allowing you to access TP-Link devices on your phone.
RGB + Monochrome Dual-Camera
The Neffos N1 comes with a dual-camera setup — 12MP RGB + 12MP monochrome, both use the Sony IMX386 sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Selfie wise, there’s an 8MP front-facing camera with beautifying feature.
Image quality generally is quite good with plenty of details and eye-pleasing colors tuning. There’s even the full manual mode which is capable of astrophotography. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture because you know living in the city have to deal with the light pollution. With the dual-camera, the phone can create bokeh effect, you can even refocus after a photo is taken. The blurring effect is nice but still looks unnatural.
3,260mAh Battery
The phone packs a 3,260mAh battery with fast charging supported. Based on my test, it took me around 1.5 hours to charge the phone from 15% to 100%. Battery life is impressive as it was able to last through my day easily with the screen-on-time of 4 hours 20 minutes.
Final Words
Retailing at just RM1,099, the N1 is definitely the best phone Neffos ever made. You won’t normally find a phone with such specs at this price tag. Even though this phone has quite a few similarities to another phone, the company was able to include some exclusive features. Having been making phones for nearly 3 years, this is actually a big improvement for the company. I would like to see more about the company’s own style in the future, though.
Yay
- Decent camera
- Impressive battery life
- Affordable
Nay
- That familiar design
- Software still lacking something