Blackview BV4900 Review: Budget king is here

A perfect phone manufacturing company defines by how much satisfaction it can do to the customer. And, it is always good to satisfy all kinds of customers from the lower end to the high end. However, that is not my concern at all. I am talking about that because of this low budget Blackview BV4900 rugged phone. This 100 dollar phone is able to satisfy a certain kind of customer. If you are new to rugged phones then it is always good to start with low budget phones. Here I am to help you.

I am going to provide my honest and in-depth review of Blackview BV4900 rugged phone. This review give you an idea whether this phone is suitable for you or not. Rather than that, if you need to know about rugged phone you will get to know about rugged phone in this post too.

This Blackview BV4900 in-depth review describes every aspect of this phone. Whether that is good or bad I will try to present everything so that you get a 100% true idea of how this phone is!

Let’s start with seeing key features.

Key Features

• Rugged certifications: IP68, IP69K
• Display Size: 5.7 inch IPS LCD display
• Display Resolution: 720 X 1440 Pixels
• Processor: Mediatek Helio A22
• GPU:  IMG GE8300
• Operating System: Android 10
• Rear Camera:  8MP
• Front Camera: 5MP
• Storage: 32GB
• RAM: 3GB
• Battery: 5580 mAh 
• Network: Dual 4G sim
• Sensors:    fingerprint sensor, GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, GALILEO, NFC

Design and Build quality

Obviously, you will not get the top class design in a hundred dollar phone. Despite that, this is a decent quality design for sure. Even most of the high-end rugged phone does not contain this much good design. This black color body with an extra color accent makes it a beautiful and cool product. And, they made by taking inspiration from a space capsule in order to tribute Yuri Gagarin. Overall, the design looks sleek and attractive.

Although the phone made out of hard plastic but outer layer is from rubber. Rubber provides better grip on the hand and hard plastic makes phone strong. Despite that, corners are thicker than usual to provide extra shock and vibration protection.

Well, the phone weighs 261 gram. Not that much according to the rugged phone standard. But the phone is bulky that causes pain in the hand to hold for a long time. Same thing goes for weight as well.

There is a triple (?) Camera setup on the back along with Dual LED flash light. These four are placed in the middle with square camera cut out.

And the right side of the phone has three buttons. One power key and two volume keys. All of these keys are made out of plastic. And these are easy to press. My finger was easy to reach the buttons without any problem.

Left side has SIM card slot. And the bottom contains micro USB port and 3.5 mm headphone jack. Both these ports are covered with extra cover so that it can protect better from dust and water. Without any doubt this is a good move by Blackview.

On the front side, it has old style 18:9 aspect ratio display with no notch. Display contains thick bezels and chins as well. I will discuss this topic later.

Overal, this is perfect setup for a 100 dollar rugged phone. Rather than than weight issue this is perfect from every aspect. Especially when you are talking about design and build quality.

Rugged Features

How can a phone called a rugged phone without having rugged features? Yes, in order to being a rugged phone it must contain certain features. Such as, water and dust protection, temperature protection, pressure taking capability, drop protection and many more. AS long as we are talking about Blackview BV4900, this is well maintained rugged phone with all of the top quality rugged features available in the phone.

So, it obviously has IP68 rated protection against dust and water. I am sure it can do more than this rating means. But since this is the highest rating there is no other way to prove. So, this IP68 rating means it can protect phone from 1.5 meter depth of water for more than 30 minutes. If you suddenly drop your phone in the water you will get enough time to pull out from water without damaging it for a bit. Same way it protects from extreme dust condition as well.

They have not talked about the IP69K rating. So, we can say this is not available on the phone. But this phone has everything that can pass this IP69K rating.

But, it has military standard 810 rating that proves strength and durability of the smartphone. This phone passed 10 military grade extreme test and become ultimate rugged phone. So, what are these?

This phone is fully protected from water that I have said earlier. As well as it can take more air pressure. So, if you are in high altitude your phone will never face any problem and it will run as well as in normal surface.

Also it can take better humidity situation and absorb more shock and vibration without damaging the phone.

As well as, it can run on more than 50°C temperature to 0°C temperature without any problem.

All of these rating and features defines this phone can handle all kind of extreme situation and keep you connected with civilization. There is no complain from my end to this phone in order to being a rugged phone.

Performance

A low budget phone always juggles between performance and design. If it take care of good design then it is not possible to provide better hardware in the phone. As a result you got poor performance.

But, Blackview BV4900 managed to do it perfectly. Well, by perfect means not like top-end phones but according to the budget. The first thing you have to look after is, what you are spending on this phone. That is how you should judge the features.

So, Blackview BV4900 has Mediatek Helio A22 processor with accompany of IMG GE8300 GPU. Clearly this is a very low end processor. But as far as I know there is no complain about this processor at all. It performs as like it should be. As you know, mediatek is known for low budget higher performance processor. Especially in the lower market, Mediatek is the sole king. And, this CPU is nothing different than that. You can check Antutu benchmark score in bellow image.

Well, how it can perform in real life uses? In my test, there is no regular life slow issue at all. All the apps run smoothly and fast enough. But due to the lower grade processor, it is impossible to do heavy multitasking or heavy gaming. Although all kinds of games run smoothly but in lower graphics mode. Other than that calling, browsing, opening certain apps is smoother than you can imagine. GPU rendering is also very good as well.

For the storage it comes with 32GB onboard storage. Clearly this is very low for current standard of smartphone storage. At least they could put a 64GB onboard memory. Because phone default apps and operating system need around 10 gigabye storage on its own. Not to worry though, you can expand your phone memory anytime via an external memory card.

A good RAM capacity do impact on phone performance that for sure. This tiny low-budget phone has 3GB RAM. Well it seems multitasking is not possible in this phone. At least not as smooth as you are expecting. But this 100 phone don’t require a 6 GB RAM on it. According to that criteria, I think this is not bad at all.

And, this new android 10 operating system fulfill the dream of smooth daily operating. It holds these hardware and deliver a smooth performance by its upgraded and best so per software management and clear UI system.

Overall, you will never feel any bad experience with this phone. But the condition is, do not push it to the edge. Keep stick to the normal uses, not in heavy uses. Consider the budget do not blame or expect higher performance than this.

Display

Blackview BV4900 has a large size display with lower resolution. That is what we all can expect in a entry level rugged phone. If you want to hold tight your budget this is what you will get at the best.

So, Blackview BV4900 has 5.7 inch IPS LCD display with 720P resolution. Due to large size you will not get a sharper display that for sure. But it has enough sharpness to operate phone without having any issue. In you daily life you will never feel the lack of sharpness. Also display color accuracy is very good. Not as good as AMOLED but it is enough and well justified with the price point.

Watching any media content is a good experience, as well as gaming. Since it has a multi-touch option, any games in the world can play smoothly. Also, the touch response and touch accuracy are outstanding.

Since this is a outdoor phone you need enough brightness to operate it in bright sunlight. I never feel any bother in bright sunlight but I am afraid you can not operate or see phone display in direct sunlight.

Overall this display serves better job than what you are going to pay it for. As because this is a rugged phone they have put a protection of gorilla glass on the top of the display.

Camera

Not only in rugged phone, for any smartphone when you will seek for less than hundred dollar phone you can not expect a better camera. They all just for doing the job not for competing with others.

Despite that, I would say BV4900 managed to put a better camera module in this phone. But, they disguise by putting to dummy cameras in the design. The design says 3 camera modules in the back. But in reality, it has only one camera in the back. There has an 8MP f2.2 aperture back camera. Do not expect to do photography on this phone. If you need to take quick pictures for your job’s purpose, this is perfect other than crap. But this does not mean this is worst. It just serves its duty as it should be not the best by any means.

Back camera is able to shoot 1080P video as well. And, the front side has 5MP f 2.4 aperture selfie camera.

Well, compare to the back this is a good selfie camera. It keeps good light and color balance with enough sharpness. Overall pull out the job decently.

Although, there was an option to do something better in the camera section but it seems they had not intend to do so. But, that triple fraud camera is not acceptable by any means. I am totally disappointed with that cheap marketing.

Battery

Despite having that bad camera experience it is good to know that you are getting one of the best battery result in this phone.

Blackview BV4900 has 5580 mAh large size battery. You may ask, there are lot of phone has 5580 mAh or higher capacity battery. But this low end hardware of this phone consume less battery power than usual smartphone.

As a result you will get minimum three days battery backup without any problem. Even you are a heavy user it shouldn’t be problem in battery backup. Without panic about battery you can go anywhere in the outside and finish your other job and phone will be alive and keep you connected with civilization.

Since it has old USB port it can not do fast charging. Also it does not have wireless charging or anything else.

Misc

Obviously phone has dual 4G SIM. And, it has different place for memory card.

All the navigation sensors are available on this phone including GPS, GLONASS, BEIDU, GAlILEO.

Also phone has NFC system too.

Above all it has 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Conclusion

All of these features makes it perfect entry level rugged phone. It has over the edge features according to its price point. If you are looking for a entry level rugged phone then I would definitely love to recommend this phone to you. But If you have no issue with budget then go for something better not this. It is extremely compatible with beginner and low budget market.