Smartphone BQ 5004G Fox - advantages and disadvantages

In 2019, BQ introduced the BQ 5004G Fox smartphone to the domestic market, the advantages and disadvantages of which attracted everyone's attention. For a budget model costing 3890 rubles, the phone turned out to be very interesting.

About BQ

The company's products are known for their high quality and affordability for all segments of the population.

It is purchased by parents for children or just those who want to save money. For reasonable money, buyers get a smart gadget and a stylish device. The company's staff consists of highly qualified developers and designers who do an excellent job. Their style cannot be confused with any other brand. And the point is not even in the company logo, but in individualism.

Production begins with a brainstorming session of creatives who create an initial image and pass it on to the technical team who bring it to life.After assembly and quality control, the output is a unique device with its own image. This can be safely called the 5004G series.

Description BQ 5004G Fox

Phone weighing 126 grams has dimensions of 66.1 x 138.5 x 9.1 mm. Case type classic with colors:

• black;
• pink;
• gray;
• silvery.

It has a completely plastic design without a metal edging. The 4.95-inch 2.5D rounded edge borderless touchscreen is a capacitive matrix display with Mali-400-MP2 accelerating module. There is an automatic image rotation, the resolution corresponds to color TFT and is 960x480 pixels.

The heart of the device is the MediaTek-MT6580 processor with overclocking up to 1.3 GHz and four cores. For its class, it works quickly, but to increase efficiency, the developers installed Android 8.1 in the light version of Oreo Go Edition. The operating system has a minimal set of options, but the user can install other applications on his own. This is calculated, as it allows you to reduce the cost of RAM. Windows of programs and websites open without delay.

There is a rear and front camera of 8 and 1 MP with LED flash. Their shooting quality is enough for the existing screen. However, on a computer, photos and videos do not lose any of their saturation and color reproduction. In the settings there is a digital zoom. There are also several modes for different lighting, including sepia and negative.

There is a speaker next to the selfie camera. The placement of the control and power buttons is standard - on the right. A microphone is located at the bottom of the case, there is another one for noise suppression, USB and 3.5 mm connectors are located just below.The phone itself has a radio and supports AAC, MP3, WMA, WAV formats. In addition to the headphones, there is also an external speaker with good volume characteristics. Music lovers will be able to store their favorite music on a flash drive up to 32 GB in size. There is 8 GB space on the internal disk. Although this is not so much, experts advise using it for installing programs. But it is better to transfer the cache and swap files to a removable drive.

The functionality of the device includes flight mode, flashlight, voice control, including dialing. But in order to call someone, there is no need to call numbers, it is enough to voice only the name of the subscriber. You only need to set the kryzhik in the options and always try to speak in an even and distinct voice. The system does not always understand if the intonation changes.

The battery capacity is 2000 mAh. At first glance, this is not enough, but in fact it is enough for several hours of watching videos when the screen is constantly on. He is the main consumer. Even communication modules do not consume as much as the display.

It supports GSM and 3G cellular communications. There is no support for fourth generation networks, although today they are already considered obsolete. There is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, only GPS from satellite navigation. Here it is not clear why there is no Russian GLONASS standard, since the assembly is domestic.

Externally, the phone looks very nice and stylish. Has good ergonomics, fits perfectly in the hand. If you close the logo, then at first glance you can’t say that this is a budget smartphone. For its price range, a very good design.

Characteristic table

Hardware build and performance

The brain of the smartphone is a MediaTek-MT6580 quad-core processor. Its manufacturing technology is 28 nanometers. 32-bit cores are based on Cortex-A7 with ARM architecture. The maximum overclocking frequency is from 420 to 1300 MHz. It was born back in 2015 and formed the basis of budget smartphone models in both the initial and middle segments. It supports cameras up to 13 MP and displays with high and full screen resolutions, including OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware encoding.

Unfortunately, it cannot work in 4G LTE networks, since it has not undergone modifications and improvements since the day it was released. But, even despite this, it is widely used in inexpensive devices. The reason is its availability on the market and low cost.

It is suitable for all types of firmware, so the developers, wanting to offload the chipset, installed a lightweight version of Android 8.1. Also, in order to optimize the work, cameras with medium resolution were selected. Cooling is air, but even under heavy load, the rear wall of the case is not heated.

The device itself shows good performance. Mobile applications open in one click.Does not start to slow down if you run several programs at the same time. The manufacturer took a lightweight version of the firmware, so the software set is minimal. Since the assembly is Russian, they are all based on the Yandex. It is assumed that users will install the software they need, and there is no need to think about what they might need.

The composition includes maps and navigation, but on American satellites via GPS. The connection is stable, but the network determines its own location and lays a route in priority. Drawing is instantaneous.

The Internet connection is always stable even on the highway, which indicates a powerful antenna module. It behaves well in games of medium complexity without lags and falls. Gamers will definitely note this fact, since many retro games come in this format. They are especially valued in dedicated circles. In general, this phone shows excellent performance, stability and connection stability for its price.

Screen and graphics

The visualization is based on the Mali-400-MP2 video accelerator with overclocking up to 412 MHz. This is a simple but reliable module from MediaTek. It is capable of working with two and three-dimensional images. For optimal playback, the developers have selected a display with a resolution of 960x480 pixels. This is a 4.95-inch LCD screen with a depth of 217 dots.

A simple and very reliable matrix that has proven itself for several years. It can play high definition (HD) videos and photos. The picture quality is beyond doubt. Heavier and more capacious are given to her with difficulty, but for budget models such behavior is the norm.

There are standard options for adjusting the brightness to save battery.They are convenient when the user is on the road and there is no way to connect the device to the mains. The color scheme is not affected. The palette is not poor, it is even noticeable in your own photographs. Silhouettes and contours are clearly visible, even in darker images. Direct sunlight also does not affect visibility.

Works stably in online games without lags and dead squares. The rendering of textures is close to real. It functions without crashes even in "games" with three-dimensional graphics, responds to user actions, which can be critical in some situations. Here the merit is not only a capacious sensor, but also a matrix. Despite being cheap, it is well made. Thanks to the synchronization of processes, it accelerates at the right time and goes into normal mode under normal load. This avoids overheating and performance drops.

The phone produces video files without distortion in FULLHD and HD quality. It doesn't matter if it's a network movie. The third generation of networks have a lower speed compared to the fourth, so sometimes it starts to load more information. There is no such thing on Wi-Fi, there is parallel buffering and rendering of content.

Memory

The chipset includes single-channel LPDDR2 and LPDDR3 modules with a frequency of 533 MHz, 512 MB each. Together they form 1 gigabyte of RAM. 8 GB is allocated for permanent storage of information. The hardware stuffing supports removable media up to 32 GB, which gives a total of 40 gigs.

Developers recommend storing programs on the internal disk, and transferring the rest of the files to a USB flash drive. The cache should also be sent here.Such a scheme will reduce the load on the microcircuits and optimize the operation of the system. The small volume of disks is due to the presence of cloud services that offer free space for user files.

The Yandex disk is already embroidered into the operating system, but the equipment does not prohibit the use of other services. With such a scheme, the user only wins, since all information will be stored in the cloud and will remain available at any time. Relevant for travelers and tourists, as you do not have to carry SD cards with you. They always take a lot of photos and videos. It must be stored somewhere.

Downloading and uploading depends on the connection quality and data transfer rate. However, buffering is fast due to the acceleration of the chipset itself. Now most of the filming takes place by broadcasting to the network. The phone itself is equipped with a slot for two SIM cards (dual sim). It is always possible to choose which operator to use to access the Internet.

In the case of transferring the cache to a USB flash drive, swap files will also go there. You need to experiment, because this method does not always optimize the performance of the Internet and games. Different models of SD cards have different write and data transfer speeds. Therefore, in some cases it is reasonable to leave it on the internal media.

cameras

On the case there is one front and one rear camera for 1 and 8 MP. Since the chipset supports sensors up to 13 MP, so the developers have chosen the best option. But when shooting a video, you should be prepared that it will be only 5 MP. However, there is an option to change the pixelization from 1280x720 to 3264x2448 at 30 frames per second. The quality corresponds to HD and FullHD.

There is bokeh and image stabilization.Autofocus allows you not to search for faces on your own, the system will do it all for the user. Pleasantly surprised by the presence of digital zoom, which does not reduce the quality of images. There is a slight distraction of the contours, but it does not affect the general background. The flash is LED and very bright. Therefore, at night he takes pictures almost like during the day. There is a change of shooting modes from normal to panoramic in HDR format.

When shooting while walking or moving subjects, there is no blur. Of course, the speed should not be high. If you photograph, for example, matches from the stadium, then even with a digital zoom, people are clearly visible. Experts say that over time, such cameras have blurred lenses, which affects the quality. This is a “disease” of many cameras, but this has rarely been observed.

Battery

The smartphone is equipped with a 2000 mAh non-removable battery. At first glance, this is very little, but in fact, in power saving mode, it is enough for a day of active conversations. There is no fast charging option, but this is not due to a whim of the phone's developers, and the chipset does not support it. With such a small capacity, the battery lasts for 12 hours of video playback, 18 hours of audio listening and 10 hours of surfing the Internet.

Reviews

Not being a fan of expensive flagships, I decided to change my smartphone. They attract with their affordability and do not hit hard on the family budget. There was an option to purchase a Chinese or domestic assembly. Friends recommended to take the last option. I saw the BQ 5004G Fox in the store and my eyes fell on it. It attracted attention with its design - stylish, beautiful and with a twist. In terms of technical characteristics, it even surpassed Chinese devices in many respects.I tried cameras, videos and photos, I liked everything very much. The cost is quite affordable, for such a price you can buy only a push-button phone. In this case, a smart device with high performance. This is how BQ was born. After the purchase, it never let me down, it always works clearly and stably. The screen is so sensitive that in winter you can control the device in mittens. Never regretted the purchase in all this time.

Advantages and disadvantages

• affordable;
• stylish;
• productive.

• no fast charging;
• no headphones included.

Conclusion

The BQ company appeared on the market quite recently, but during this time it managed to increase its customer base by several times, squeezing out foreign competitors. They managed to do this thanks to the quality and availability of their products. The equipment of this brand has been working stably and without failures for years. Production is growing every year. However, when evaluating the parameter, one should not forget that this is a budget segment.