Helio by Edison Group has been churning out smartphones for a few years' now but went into a bit of hiatus in the last couple of quarters. But now they are back with a brand new smartphone: Helio S60. Inspired by the design of Apple, the Helio S60 is probably the first notch-display smartphone we are reviewing by any local brand. Besides swaggering in with its good, the phone also comes with a two-vertically-stacked-cameras on the back and a true-face-ID security feature. What else does this phone have to offer? Dig in to know more:

Design & Display

Starting with the display and the form factor: if you put the iPhone-resemblance out of the way, there's a notched display, but with this, a 6.2-inch FHD with 402 PPI pixel density. It does come with a super skinny bezel running across the phone which is only noticeable in the front. The screen is sharp, the colour rendition was superb and the touch was responsive. Not bad for a mid-range phone.

And let's take a step back from the display and appreciate the design for a bit. A seductive all-glass in the back (minus the fingerprint scanner) and polished metal bezel that rolls seamlessly is helping the phone stand out amongst the competition. Our review unit came in a silver gunmetal colour scheme which we adored. The power charging is a USB-C in the bottom accompanied by dual speaker grills. No 3.5 mm port meaning you will have to carry a USB-C to 3.5mm converter (comes with the box) along with you if you are an audiophile.

Hardware & Performance

About the hardware: Helio tried to get the best hardware possible without cutting many corners for the price that you are paying. Meaning, the hardware screams premium without robbing you blind. Inside, Helio is using the new MediaTek 6771 2.0 GHz Octa-core processor coupled with an ARM Mali G72 MP3 700 MHz graphic processing unit. The performance was great except some occasional stuttering when you are playing graphic-intensive games. While playing Asphalt 8, we noticed a bit of loss of frame when the game was initialising. We also tried Marvel's future fights and we were able to play it without choking out the phone for a bit.

Camera

The camera is one of the few places where the Helio cut some corners to make the phone wallet-friendly. On a hardware level, the rear camera sports a 16MP + 5MP (PDAF+FF) camera with f/2.0 aperture. The photos taken by the camera are snazzy, detailed and a bit oversaturated in daylight. The front shooter is 16MP with f/2.0 aperture. The sensors aren't best in the industry, but Helio made sure you are getting the best according to price-tag. But, competition is coming with better technology for selfie camera so Helio will be facing some tough days in camera segment if they don't level up their game. The camera app seemed like Google's default camera so most the essentials features (the popular modes and filter) were there.

UI & OS

The Passion UI is a significant improvement over most of the UI we have seen on Helios so far. It is very close to the vanilla android. The Oreo 8.1 itself has a sleek UI; Passion just moulded it a bit for the local market. The only complain is the hideous startup animation we are greeted with when restarting/powering up the phone.

Battery

The battery of the phone is 3000mAh, meaning you will be able to manage an entire workday if you are not using the internet every now and then. The phone comes with USB-C, so charging won't take much longer. But as most people around you are unlikely to have a USB-C port phone, so it's best to carry a USB-C cable all the time with you.

What else?

The phone comes has some cool add-ons: hardware-based Face ID, thanks to the AI-powered processor. The Face-ID is adaptive, but I couldn't grow my beard long enough to test it out. Despite being a mid-range phone, the Face ID worked swiftly most of the time. The fingerprint scanner was on the back and was super-responsive. The phone weighs a bit more than most other 6.2-inch phone and probably its because of the glass back. Speaking of glass on the back, it supports wireless charging. In the box, you get a free wireless charger where all you need is to place to phone and voilà- it's charging. Interesting, we tried out Samsung S8 to charge using the wireless charger, and it worked. Most 'qi-wireless-charging' enabled phones can be charged from this platform. Pretty neat, right?

Specs

Display: 6.2", FHD with 402 ppi

OS: Passion UI 1.1 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo)

CPU: MediaTek 6771 2.0GHz Octa Core

GPU: Mali G72 Mp3

RAM: 4 GB

ROM: 64 GB

Camera: Back-16MP + 5MP (PDAF+FF) with Back flash, depth sensor & Front- 16MP (FF) Camera

Features: Fingerprint Sensor, AI processor, 3D Face ID, Wireless Charging etc

Battery: 3000mAh

Price: Tk. 25,990/-

Verdict

Helio certainly took an audacious move by bringing out a notch display phone that comes with a price-tag of BDT 26K. Everything you would want in a phone with Octacore 4GB RAM'ed phone, you have got it. The camera is probably the weakest point of the phone but even that can take snaps good enough to taunt the competition. Summing up, Helio S60 is certainly a step towards the right direction for Edison Group and we would love to see more devices like these in the market soon.