Itel S17

The Itel S17 brings competitive pricing to significantly cheaper options, with a budget performance device, an immersive 6.6. IPS LCD screen, a primary 8MP camera, 10W normal charging, a massive battery at 4000mAh, and a refreshed Unisoc chipset. It comes off as a beautiful yet budget device, with a promise of a great value proposition.

Design

The Itel S17 comes with a 6.6-inch IPS LCD screen with a drop-down notch for the selfie camera. It’s a massive screen, hardly a one-handed operation, with a screen-to-body ratio of 83.7%. It has an aspect ratio of 20:9 and supports HDR which makes it an absolute delight to consume media with. It has a plastic frame and back and a smash-resistant front panel. It is very bright and vivid, peaking at 450 nits. It has a headphone jack, fortunately. It has a physical fast fingerprint sensor, conveniently placed on at the rear, that feels fast too. It has a mono speaker whose sound is surprisingly clear when playing media.

Performance

The Itel S17 has a 1.3ghz quad-core CPU paired with an ARM Mali GPU, with storage options of 1GB for RAM & 16GB for ROM. It has an expandable memory option with a dedicated slot. It’s running the latest Android 11 Go Edition, so the performance isn’t all that shabby. Android Go Edition ideally has less bloatware as compared to the ordinary Android so it shouldn’t lag or feel heavy. Everything feels decently fast and snappy.

Cameras

The Itel S17 has a triple camera arrangement on the back. It comes with a decent single 8MP primary sensor for those fairly usable daylight photos. It has 2 extra 2MP depth and AI sensors, one for to add portrait and more accurate distance distinction to the photos & the other is unspecified. The video can support up to 720p video at 30 fps, with HDR support. The selfie camera is a decent 8MP wide sensor, capable of 720p video at 30fps. The selfies are great and well-lit.

Other features

We can’t fail to mention the charging speeds in the Itel S17. without fast charging, the phone can get fully charged in about a little over one and half hours. That’s passable by all standards. That is in addition to the fact that it also comes with a massive Li-Po 4000mAh non-removable battery. This should be more than enough even for the power user. In this case, it’s a little obvious that is no wireless charging here.

Similarly, priced phones would include Huawei Y5P, Nokia C10, Infinix HD Smart 2021, and the Tecno Pop 5 Go. the main distinctions at this price point is often a choice of a better camera or larger screen. The sizes are usually standard and the batteries are often huge. It’s unlikely there are fast charging options as the price is too competitive.

The design is great, but the design allure of a quad-camera is very misleading, though it does great for the aesthetics. The OS might feel a little bloated but anyone who has used an Itel phone before will feel right at home.

Common Q &A

1. How much is an Itel S17 in Kenya: the phone is currently retailing at Ksh 9,800
2. Where can I buy an Itel S17 in Kenya: you can buy it at phonesstorekenya.com, both online and offline, with optional delivery on request.
3. Does Itel S17 have fast charging: no. at this price point, the competition is too tight to allow such a feature. It however dons come with 10W charging for the standard micro USB cable.
4. Does Itel S17 have expandable memory: yes, it does, in a dedicated slot, so that it feels like the internal storage is not enough, you can always add more. It supports up to 128 GB
5. What OS does Itel S17 support: it comes with the Android Go edition which eases off the processor considering it’s a budget device. That means it has more processing power for other activities, while still having less bloatware.