itel P33 unboxing and hands-on review

itel’s P33 launch event was with a lot of buzz. itel’s P-series devices are focused on putting as much battery power in your hands at a budget price. Itel has sent MobilityArena a unit for review, and we have our itel P33 unboxing and hands-on review for you.

itel P33 is the follow up to 2018’s itel P32, a budget smartphone that gave us a pleasant surprise. Does the P33 build on it? We will find out as we dive into the itel P33 unboxing, and our first is to have a look at the key specs.

itel P33 specs

• Body: Plastic.
• Screen: 5.5″ HD+, IPS display.
• Chipset: Spreadtrum SC7731E quad-core, with Mali-T820 GPU (I checked; it isn’t a MediaTek processor in here).
• Memory: 1GB RAM, 16 GB built-in storage.
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo Go Edition
• Rear camera: 8 MP + 5 MP dual camera; LED flash; 1080p@30 video recording.
• Front Camera: 5 MP selfie camera.
• Battery: 4,000mAh; AI Power Master; regular charging
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS; Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP, USB 2.0.
• Misc: rear-mounted fingerprint reader, face unlock.

If interested in more details, see the full itel P33 specs. The next step in our itel P33 unboxing is a quick comparison of the P33 with its predecessor.

itel P32 vs itel P33

So, in what ways does the P33 provide an upgrade to the P32?

1. Internal storage. The P33 has twice the storage of the P32.
2. Rear camera. This model has an 8 MP dual camera, against last year’s 5 MP dual cam.

We could add that it provides longer operation and standby times than the P32, but we have to prove that first. They both have a 4000 mAh battery, but itel says the P33 has an AI Power Master built-in to provide “80 hours normal use, 22 hours continual 3G phone call, 350 hours standby with a SIM card”. You will get details of this in our full review.

But the combination of more memory and a better camera is a good deal for an upgrade. After all, there is a limit to how much of an upgrade you can make on a smartphone that costs N24,000.

itel P33 unboxing: What’s in the box?

The box is a compact one this time and includes the following items:

• itel P33 phone.
• 3.5mm audio earpiece.
• wall charging plug.
• USB cable.
• transparent plastic case

itel P33 hands-on

The P33 has been with us for about 48 hours now and we have spent some time with it and so the next section of our itel P33 unboxing is our hands-on and first impressions.

The P33 has a nice faux-metal, plastic back cover that features a dual camera and LED flash in the top left corner, a fingerprint reader in the usual position, as well as a loudspeaker in the bottom left corner.

The back is removable, though the battery is not. With the back cover off, you have access to two SIM card slots, as well as a dedicated slot for a microSD card. The SIM slots are nano size. Finally, we see the nano SIM making its way to budget smartphones. The end of micro-SIM cards is upon us and we can all stop worrying about cutting SIMS and using SIM card adaptors when the next device shows up with a micro slot..

The itel P33 boots with Android 8.1 Oreo Go Edition. That means that it runs a version of Android OS that is optimized to deliver better performance on low-end hardware. The homescreen has an iPhone-like interface, in which you swipe horizontally to access your apps. There is no apps drawer in sight.

Pre-installed apps include Google Lite apps – Google Go, YouTube Go, Gmail Go, Assistant Go, and Maps Go. Other pre-installed apps include Facebook Lite, Opera Mini, Opera News, Palmstore, WhatsApp, Galleria, App Freezer, and Power Master, FM Radio, among others.

The Phone status page of the P33 indicates that this model is also called itel W5504. The default keyboard is GBoard. 12 GB of the 16 GB internal storage is available to the user right after boot up. The itel P33 runs smoothly, though we are yet to load the phone with apps. We will provide you full details about its performance in our full review coming up later.

This is where we wrap up this itel P33 unboxing and hands-on review. As is standard practice here at MobilityArena, you can expect our full review to follow soon. We welcome whatever questions you would like to see answered in the full review.

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Author: Mister Mobility

Master storyteller and founder of Mobility Nigeria, Mister Mobility, has used and reviewed hundreds of mobile phones since 2001.