“The A62 is a budget smartphone with 18:9 display and dual camera module”
Hong Kong-based itel has been in the Indian handset market for a while now. While the brand is known for its feature phones, it’s been launching budget smartphones as well. The phonemaker has now introduced a new A series smartphone, the itel A62, in the subcontinent. The newest offering comes with an 18:9 display and dual-camera module at an enticing price point of Rs 7,499. The smartphone landed in our labs today and here are our first impressions.
Starting with the packaging of the itel A62, the box is bright red with usual branding and core specs mentioned on it. Opening the side flap of the handset, you will need to slide out the plain white cardboard box to get your hands on the smartphone. Upon lifting the handset, you will find the documentation, a power adapter, micro-USB cable and SIM ejector tool. The phone also comes with a smoky protective case and a pair of in-ear headphones in an attractive red / black finish in the package. We particularly liked the protective case for the dust-resistant flaps over the 3.5mm audio jack and micro-USB port.
Right off the bat, the itel A62 offers a premium in-hand feel despite having a plastic build. This can be credited to the rugged matte finish on the rear panel and a uniform weight to the handset. The 3.5mm audio socket rests on the top, while loudspeaker and micro-USB port are on the bottom, and volume, as well as power buttons, are placed on the right edge. What caught our attention is the dedicated physical button on the left, which the brand is referring to as the smart key. This key is particularly useful as it can be set to one of a preset list of actions, which include initiating a fake call, accelerating the phone, muting the handset, turning on the flashlight, or enabling the Bike Mode.
Moving on to the fascia, the A62 flaunts a 5.65-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and HD+ screen resolution. The choice of display size makes the phone quite compact and easy to handle with one hand. Quality wise, the panel is bright and colours are good, but the screen is quite reflective making it hard to read under a direct light source. As for the rear panel, the handset houses a vertically-stacked dual-camera module and a fingerprint scanner, which is pretty fast and accurate. The smartphone also offers face unlock for security, which is a tad slower but works as intended.
The performance of the iTel A62 is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6739 processor backed by 2GB RAM. In our brief time with the smartphone, while we didn’t experience any issue while normal navigation, there was a slight lag when switching between apps and video streaming. The phone boots Android 8.1 out of the box, with additional features like gesture support, speed optimisations and app lock, among others. There’s 16GB native storage, of which around 9GB is available to the user. Powering the handset is a 3,000mAh battery.
In the imaging department, the itel A62 comes with a 13-megapixel primary sensor accompanied by a 0.3-megapixel secondary shooter on the back. The main camera app offers modes like HDR, live filters, low light, panorama and portrait mode. All the modes work as intended with the portrait mode managing to surprise us with a decent edge detection for the subject in the foreground. For selfies, you get a 5MP shooter on the front.
To summarise, the itel A62 brings a modern spec sheet to the table and is priced well at Rs 7,499, especially since it’ll be available to buy offline. However, at this price, it goes up against some powerful budget options such as the Xiaomi Redmi 5 (review) and Infinix Hot 6 Pro (first impressions), which offer better hardware and imaging capabilities.
