Wiko’s new UFEEL and UFEEL Lite want you to feel the French connection

While French phone vendor WIko has been in the Malaysian market for less than a year, they’ve certainly been making waves if their most recent crop of smartphones are any indication. Blending surprisingly good looks at a price that won’t raise eyebrows, their new trio of budget phones – the UFEEL, the UFEEL Lite and the rather quaintly named Robby phablet – all made their debut yesterday in an official launch.

From left: The Wiko UFEEL, UFEEL Lite and the Robby phablet

Both the UFEEL and UFEEL Lite are almost first cousins in terms of aesthetic with rounded metal edges, a flat polished backplate and a front fascia with a home button that doubles a fingerprint sensor. The fingerprint sensor is able to map up five fingerprints and unlocks in 0.48 seconds. Of note on all three phones is that they both come with dedicated dual micro SIM card slots AND a microSD card slot, allowing you to use two SIM cards and augment the onboard memory.

The UFEEL (top) has 2.5D glass for a more rounded feel while the lower UFEEL Lite (bottom) comes with a conventional flat fascia

Where they differ is that the UFEEL’s 5-inch 720p display is sheathed in 2.5D glass to lend the edges an even more pronounced rounded look. The hardware under the hood is a step up from the UFEEL Lite too as it comes with a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 3GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. The rear camera comes with a 13-MP sensor while the front comes with a 5-MP selfie camera. What makes their camera setup interesting is that both the front and rear cameras come with an LED flash so you can mug for the camera even in dimly lit environments using the selfie camera and take snaps on the rear too. Videos are capped at 1080p 30fps on the rear camera. The 2,500mAh battery aims to offer a day or so of battery life while charging duties are taken up by a 2.0 micro USB port. It comes in either Space Grey or a shade of what they call Creamy. The UFEEL costs RM699.

The WIko UFEEL in a shade of what they call Creamy

The UFEEL Lite makes some concessions to make things a wee bit cheaper. Like the UFEEL it also sports a 2,500mAh battery and a 5-inch HD display albeit one sheathed in conventional flat glass. The processor is also a quad-core 1.3GHz but it has 2GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. The camera on the rear is 8MP while the front is a 5-MP sensor. Both front and rear have a flash as well. The UFEEL Lite retails for RM569.

The UFEEL Lite in a shade of gold

The Robby is an interesting offering as it crams in a 5.5-inch 720p display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, a rear 8-MP camera and a front 5-MP camera that, akin to the UFEEL and UFEEL Lite also has a forward-facing flash  and a 2,500mAh battery in a fetching looking metal casing that comes in either Gold or Space Grey for RM449. The concession here is that the Robby lacks LTE and is limited to 3G connectivity though it is cheap for a phablet sized phone. The Robby also has dual dedicated SIM card slots and a microSD card slot too, something worth considering if you need a dual-SIM cheap phablet phone and are on a tight budget though the lack of RAM is a concern if you’re a heavy content consumer or gamer.

The Wiko Robby phablet clocks in at under RM450

All three phones are available nationwide today. For more details logon my-en.wikomobile.com or follow Wiko Mobile Malaysia on Facebook  here

Wiko Business Development Director Ken Ang at the launch of the new UFEEL, UFEEL Lite and Robby