itel A55 review and specs

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2021-02-23
Abraham Miller

Still in the entry-level Android smartphone market, itel has continued to strengthen its position and reputation by producing super-cheap budget phones. Powered by Android Go, itel A55 is targeted for running fundamental functions like calling, texting, watching videos, light browsing, and more. Here's our review of the itel A55. Here, you'll get familiar with what is featured in the super affordable itel smartphone.

 itel a55 review

Design

As expected from a budget phone of its kind, the itel A55 comes in a plastic body with minimal design. It's just the clean rear design with a 2-tone color gradient. You'll find a vertically aligned dual-camera setup with flash at the top right corner of the cover. Next to it is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor that matches the colour of the cover. The rest looks clean with a sizable itel branding and a mono speaker on the rear cover. The itel A55 has its power and volume keys placed on the right-side frame. They're well-spaced and placed where it's comfortable to reach.

Moving to the front, itel A55 features an impressive 6-inches IPS LCD screen, giving you an expansive view of display to immerse yourself totally in movies and supported games. Thankfully, it's an HD+ display with the resolution of 720*1440 pixels. The screen is surrounded by large bezels, especially at the top and bottom.

Performance

Besides that itel produce basic smartphones predominantly, itel refers to the "A-series" as its "basic series", which means the itel A55 is not built to be a performance beast but rather for basic stuff. You'll be more than happy if all you need a smartphone for is just calling, texting, watching movies, and other basic tasks. Considering its price tag, the itel A55 could pass as impressive. It features a 32nm UniSoC Spreadtrum SC7731E Quad-Core processor with the max CPU speed of 1.3GHz. As said earlier, you'd enjoy the itelA55 if you don't push it too far.

To aid multitasking, performance and help you store your files, the itelA55 comes with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. You can also expand it up to 32GB using micro SD card.  Thanks to Android 9 (Go Edition), it's optimized to launch your apps faster and to help reduce storage usage. In fact, you get up to 14GB of free storage to keep your files on the itelA55.

For security options, the itel A55 features both Fingerprint and a software-based Face Unlock. Itel has done an impressive job here by adding an extra layer of security to its Face Unlock, making it less likely for someone to jailbreak into your phone with a mere photograph of you. To unlock your itel A55 with Face Unlock, you'll need to blink your eyes before it confirms and let you in. Smart trick!

Software and Features

If there are reasons why we would recommend the itel A55 for anyone, it would definitely be the software and the battery. Android (Go Edition) is one reason why you shouldn't look down on low-end smartphones.

In terms of software, itel A55 runs on Android 9 Go - a stripped-down version of Android 9. Rather than having apps that occupy an enormous amount of storage, Android 9 Go features tons of lightweight apps, giving you more space to store your files. It also benefits the 1GB of RAM: apps are optimized to launch and run faster with minimal lags unlike running a standard Android on the same hardware configuration.

You'll find lightweight apps like Google Go, YouTube Go, Gmail Go, Files Go, etc. Android 9 Go also has a unique version of Play Store with compact apps storefront, allowing you to install more lite apps like Facebook Lite, Twitter Lite, etc. Though these lightweight apps lack some core or rarely used features, it's not so bad to compensate for the kind of performance it brings. Meanwhile, you can get the full version of apps on the Play Store if you need it.

Battery

itel A55 comes packed with a somewhat large 2900mAh battery. Since it runs on Android 9 Go - featured with lightweight apps, a 2900mAh battery is enough to fuel your day if used judiciously. To help you save even more battery, the itel A55 comes with Power Master - itel's version of Battery Saver. Here, you get two modes of Power Master - Smart Power Saving and Ultra Power Saving. The first elongate your battery life throughout the day, while the latter is meant for critical low battery conditions.

Camera 

Speaking of cameras, you can get relatively usable shots on the itel A55. Again, the itel A55 specs and features have been toned down to make it super affordable.

In terms of camera specs, the itel A55 features an 8MP dual-camera setup at the rear and an 8MP camera on the front. The dual-camera configuration is a combination of 8MP primary camera and a 0.8MP secondary camera. The itel A55 camera interface is pretty simple and has features like HDR, face detection, beauty mode, digital zoom and more.

Itel wants you to take more beautiful selfies with the 8MP selfie camera on the A55. It comes with an innovative 4-in-1 big pixel technology. The trick here is understandable; every time you take a selfie, it takes four pictures and uses software to combine it into one, giving you better, clearer, and vivid selfies.

itelA55 Key Specs

  • 6.0" IPS LCD screen; 720*1440 pixels.
  • 1GB RAM
  • 16GB Storage; Dedicated micro SD card slot
  • 3GHz Quad-Core processor
  • 8MP dual rear camera
  • 8MP front camera
  • 2900mAh battery
  • Face Unlock + Fingerprint

Reliable Customer Care for itel A55

In case of an issue, you may need a repairer to fix one or two things for you on the itel A55. Don't look too far. Carlcare is right by your side. Carlcare is the official service provider for TECNO, Infinix, and itel. We exist to render top-notch repair and customer service for all TECNO, Infinix, and itel users when needed. We can help fix your broken screen, replace your damaged battery, and every other issue you might have with your itel A55 along the way. You can also get all sorts of high-quality accessories like micro SD cards, Power Banks, etc., at our office.