Neffos X series marks TP-Link’s entry into smartphone wars

•  Budget friendly smartphones from TP-Link are their first entries
• Fast shooting camera, fast charging camera, and mute button among features

^{Robert Hu, Sales Director for Neffos unveiled the price of the new phones under the new brand by Tp-Link.}

YOU may not be familiar with the brand Neffos, but you would definitely have heard of wireless networking equipment maker, TP-Link. In fact, they are the force behind this brand new smartphone brand.

Unveiled at last year’s IFA (International radio exhibition Berlin), TP-Link’s Neffos X1 and X1 Max smartphones are the company’s first bid to grow beyond networking devices but to building smart devices.

Admittedly, the smartphone space is already rather challenging and crowded space to be in, so can the X1 and X1 Max actually make an impact? TP-Link certainly thinks so.

Neffos’ designers must have gone through a checklist and tick off what makes a premium smartphone. The two X series phones certainly have the looks with a super slim metallic body.

Bearing similar designs the phone distinguish themselves in terms of size with the X1 sporting a 5-inch 720p screen while the X1 Max has a larger 5.5-inch full HD screen.

Neffos’ X series takes a feather off Apple’s cap by including a mute button to mute all sounds easily, convenient if you often find yourself in meetings.

It has a fingerprint sensor on the back which, personally for me, always makes more sense as it is easier to place your forefinger on it naturally and unlocking the phone easily. TP-Link claims the phones takes just 0.2 seconds to unlock, which is very fast.

Those of you who are still holding on to your wired headphones can breathe a collective sigh of relief, the X1 does indeed have a microphone port.

While many of the new smartphones seen at CES this year have opted to use the new USB-Type C port, the X1 opts to stick to the classic micro USB port. Sure it may not be as convenient as the reversible Type-C port but at least you don’t have to buy new charging cables.

The X1 features a modest 13-megapixel camera on the rear, powered by a Sony IMX258 sensor and has a f/2.0 aperture for low light photography. You also get Phase Detect Auto Focusing (PDAF) for speedy focus speeds.

Those who love selfies may not find the 5-megapixel front facing camera doing them justice but there is a real-time beauty mode should satisfy them.

Underneath the hood, the X1 is powered by MediaTek’s Helio P10 chipset with a 1.8Ghz octa-core processor and Mali-T860 GPU that TP-Link says would provide smoother and faster user experience.

The phones come in a variety of different configurations. The X1 comes with up to 2GB RAM and 16GB built-in storage while the X1 Max has up to 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

In either case, you can always expand the storage with a microSD card.

Apart from that, you get 4G LTE connectivity and it runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Powering the X1 is a 2,250mAh battery while the X1 Max gets a larger 3,000mAh battery that supports fast charging.

The Neffos X1 is available now and the X1 Max will only be available in March. Prices start at RM769 for the X1 and RM999 for the X1 Max.

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