Symphony Mobile’s budget-friendly smartphone series Helio is pushing its limit with every release. Symphony targets the same budget segment with the latest Helio 50, released on 3rd June 2024 in Bangladesh. Let’s deep dive into the Symphony Helio 50's features to learn about its potential and disadvantages. Key Specifications and Features Design The Symphony Helio 50 has dimensions of 167.4 mm by 77.6 mm by 8.79 mm and weighs 215g, including the battery. It features a Gorilla Glass front and a plastic back that mimics the glass look. The phone has an almost square shape with rounded corners.  On the back, there is a square triple camera hump. The front camera has a punch-hole design and is placed at the top center of the phone. A side-mounted fingerprint sensor is included for security. Helio 50 includes dual speakers that provide stereo sound. There is a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. All other ports and buttons are located in their standard positions. Read more: Top Smart TV Picks for 2024: Ultimate Buyer’s Guide in Bangladesh Display The Symphony Helio 50 features a 6.72-inch LTPS LCD panel with a 1080 by 2400 pixels HD+ resolution. The display supports multitouch and has a density of 392 ppi. It offers a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother visuals. The screen has standard chin and bezel levels. Color reproduction is accurate, and the touch response is consistent.  The display is protected by Corning glass, enhancing its durability. This combination provides a decent viewing experience while maintaining durability.  Overall, the display specifications cover essential aspects without any standout features or significant drawbacks. However, switching between apps can sometimes feel slow.  Read more: 2024 DSLR Camera Buying Guide: Prices and Top Picks in Bangladesh Performance and Software The Symphony Helio 50 runs on Android 14 and is powered by a MediaTek Helio G88 12 nm chipset. It features an octa-core CPU clocked at 2.0GHz and an Arm Mali-G52 MC2 GPU at 1.0 GHz. It runs on Android 14 OS. The phone comes with 128 GB of internal memory, expandable up to 512GB via a microSD card. It offers RAM options of 6 GB or 8 GB.  The device handles regular tasks without heating up. Apps may take a little time to launch but do not freeze or lag. It can play heavy games and run multiple apps in the background, though heavy games perform better at lower settings. The UI is clean with minimal bloatware. Read more: Benco V90 Plus Review: A Worthy New Contender in the Budget Smartphone Market Cameras The Symphony Helio 50 has a triple rear camera setup. The primary camera is 108 MP (wide), accompanied by a 2 MP macro lens and a 0.08 MP auxiliary lens. The front camera is 32 MP.  Camera features include an LED flash and panorama mode. Video recording options are 2K, 1080p, 720p, and 480p.  Pictures taken with the main camera do not meet expectations and often appear too contrasty. The camera struggles with dynamic range, resulting in poor-quality images in various lighting conditions. This affects the overall photo quality and may disappoint users expecting high performance from the camera. Read more: Honor Pad 9 Tablet: Is It Worth Buying? Battery and Charger The Symphony Helio 50 is equipped with a non-removable Li-Po battery. It has a capacity of 5000 mAh, providing ample power for daily use. The phone supports 33W wired charging, allowing for quicker recharges. This combination ensures the device can handle extensive use without frequent charging interruptions.

The Honor X series has been the brand’s entry-level and mid-range line of smartphones. The X series has always brought a compelling price-performance balance that has aided in its huge popularity. Honor launched X5 Plus in Bangladesh on 16th August 2023. Apart from the large screen, the Honor X5 Plus brings some exciting features. Let’s check them out.  Key Specifications of Honor X5 Plus  Design and Build Quality  The X5 Plus is sort of a semi-update to the X5 released earlier this year. As a result, the X5 Plus carries a lot of the design elements forward with several internal updates. There are subtle changes in the design on the X5 Plus with the back having a frosted glass hue. However, the back is still plastic which just looks like glass. The camera housing now has a refractive glossy finish which stands out in direct light. As for colors, users will be getting a choice of Cyan Lake or Midnight Black. Dimension-wise the devices come in at around 163.32 mm by 75.07 mm by 8.35 mm with 188g of effective weight. The lightweight design and the rounded edges give an impressive hand feel to the device. The device has all the ports and buttons in their usual place. Except for the sim slot which is placed at the top of the device. Apart from the two stand-by nano sims, there is a dedicated micro SDXC slot as well. It’s a useful addition considering the internal storage is only 64 GB.  Read more: Xiaomi 14 Pro Review: What’s special about it? The power button on the right also doubles as the fingerprint scanner on the X5 Plus. There is also the usual bottom-firing speaker, Type C port, and the ever-disappearing 3.5 mm headphone jack at the bottom of the device. Being an entry-level smartphone, there is a noticeable chin at the bottom of the smartphone. Other than that, the X5 Plus is a well-built solid device that will withstand heavy and rough usage.  The Display  The display on the X5 Plus is a 6.56-inch TFT LCD panel with HD+ configuration. The resolution stands at 720 by 1612 pixels with a 20:9 aspect ratio and 269 ppi density. The slightly larger display on the X5 Plus allows for the screen-to-body ratio to be bumped up to 84.3%.  As mentioned before, the front chin stands out as an eyesore in 2023. But given the ultra-budget positioning of the X5 Plus, it only makes sense that Honor had to cut corners.  Read more: Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 Review: Flagship Phone with Slim Foldable Design However, it's not all gloomy with the display. Even as a TFT panel, the screen showed good contrast and balance. The blacks weren’t completely washed out and there wasn’t also any noticeable blue tint. What’s even better is that users will be getting a 90 Hz refresh rate on the X5 Plus.  It’s not a great display by any means. But for its price, it doesn’t get any better than this.  The Camera  There is a dual camera module on the X5 Plus. The main camera is a 50 MP f/1.8 wide-angle shooter with PDAF. There is no OIS and EIS for stabilization. Pictures during the daytime came out pretty well. There were good details in the images with post-processing color pop. The boosted colors rendered a better result as the color reproduction was almost always on point. However, the camera failed to replicate the same in shades or under artificial lights. The dynamic range was also average with passable details.  Read more: vivo V29e 5G Review: Is this mid-range phone rightly priced? The story continues the same in low light conditions as well. There were noticeable noises in the pictures and most shots came out softer than one would like. The shutter speed on the night mode is pretty slow. But if one can keep a steady hand, the images would come out far better than they usually do.  There is an additional 2 MP f/2.4 depth sensor. It aids a bit in the portrait shot but nothing other than that.  The front-facing 5 MP shooter can be considered generic at best.  Videography is rated at 1080P at 30 fps.  But without any form of stabilization, the results aren’t really passable per se.  Read more: Top 10 Smartphones Coming to Bangladesh in November 2023