I’ve long championed mid-range phones. There’s really no need to invest in the latest flagship from the world’s pre-eminent mobile manufacturers. For the past few years, the iterative models have been just that; iterative. More RAM, a faster processor – and gimmicky nonsense like mini second screens for notifications.

And really? A phone that costs a third of the price would be just as good for most people. It’s why I’ve been eyeing manufacturers from china like Huawei, Xioami and Hisense who are trying to do more within the budget-minded space.

The latest phone from Hisense provides a fair whack of performance for a fair price. I got to play around with the Hisense C30 Rock yesterday, and I’m impressed. It’s a successor of sorts to the Darryn-proof KO Infinity I reviewed last year. While that phone looked and felt like it was designed to be used by Batman, the C30 is a slimmer, sleeker and lighter device. It won’t stand up to nearly as much abuse. You wouldn’t want to throw it at the wall, as an example – but it does feature rubberised edging, Gorilla Glass 4 and a rubber backing to make it a little more durable. It’s also IP68 Dust Proof and Water Resistant – up to 1.5M for at least 30 minutes.

 

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As far as specs go, it runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 MSM8937 chipset, which means it has an Adreno 505 GPU and an Octo-core configuration of 4 ARM Cortex running at 1.4 GHz, with another quartet of cores running at 1.1 GHz. It’s all bolstered by 3GB of RAM and a crisp and clear 5.2” 1080p IPS screen. You’ll find the usual front and rear cameras, at 5 and 16 megapixels respectively.

A 3000mAH non-removable battery powers everything, and should give you up to two days of standard usage. Like many phones in its class, it features a dual hybrid sim – which means you can either run two sims, or a single sim and a microSD memory card. It packs 32GB of on-board storage. It also runs Android Nougat out of the box, with Hisense’s not-far-from-stock Vision UI layered on top of it. It’s now available in South Africa, for a very reasonable R4,499.

Hisense C30 Rock Specifications

• CPU – Octa-Core 4×1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A53+ 4×1.1 GHz ARM Cortex-A53
• Chipset – Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 MSM8937
• GPU -Qualcomm Adreno 505
• Camera -16 Megapixels with Dual-LED and AF Rear Camera | 5 Megapixel Front camera
• Memory – RAM- 3GB | ROM 32GB External Memory Support up to 128GB (Uses SIM 2 Slot)
• Display – Screen size 5.2 inches FHD (1080×1920 Pixels)
• Battery – Non-Removable 3,000 mAh Lithium-Polymer
• SIM – Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano+ Nano/microSD)
• Sensors -Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, Ambient Light
• Colour – Black
• Operating System – Android 7.0 Nougat
• I/O Interface – 1xNano SIM, 1xNano SIM/MicroSD Card Slot, Micro USB Port, 3.5mm Audio Out Port, Power Button, Volume Button, Microphone, Speaker
• Dimensions – 153 x 74.86 x 7.95 mm
• Weight – 165 Grams (with battery)
• Other features: – Metal Unibody Design, LTE Cat 4 150 Mbps Download, 50 Mbps Upload, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps Upload, HSDPA 42.2 Mbps Download, Compute Sync, OTA Sync, Tethering, Infrared Port, Corning Gorilla Glass 4, IP68 Dust Proof and Water Resistance – Up to 1.5M For at Least 30 Mins

Last Updated: March 24, 2017