Itel P55+ 5G smartphone first impressions: What we think

Chinese smartphone brand

Itel

recently expanded its product portfolio in India with the launch of its latest Power series smartphones. The

Itel P55 series

includes two models -- the P55 5G and the P55+ 5G. Both smartphones will be available starting February 13 on Amazon. The Itel P55+ smartphone will be available in a single 8GB+128GB variant and is priced at Rs 9,999.

The smartphone is also available in two colour options -- Royal Green, Meteor Black. We have been using the Royal Green variant of the Itel P55+ 5G smartphone for a few days. Here’s our initial impressions about the new affordable 5G phone:

Design

The Itel P55+ has a premium look and a decent in-hand feel. The back panel of the smartphone comes in a premium vegan leather finish and a dual tone design that combines two different shades of green. The vegan leather reduces the chances of the phone accidentally slipping from hands. The rear panel also didn’t seem to attract dust or fingerprints.
The lower part of the back panel below the cameras which has a darker hue of green includes 3D stitching marks and the company’s ‘Power’ branding. Meanwhile the upper half that houses the dual camera setup has a lighter tone of green and the LED flashlight.
The volume rockers and the fingerprint sensor-integrated power button are placed on the right spine, while the SIM tray is located on the left spine of the phone. The bottom rail of the smartphone below the screen houses the USB-C charging port, 3.5mm audio jack and the mono speaker grille.

Coming to the front, the selfie camera is placed in a centrally-aligned punch hole in the screen. The smartphone has a lightweight design and a sturdy build. Overall, the design profile of the smartphone seems satisfactory for the average user.

Display

The smartphone’s 6.56-inch DOT-in panel supports a 90Hz refresh rate and an HD+ resolution. The display felt quite smooth and responsive. The screen also produced sharp colours and offered a decent visual experience.

The smartphone also comes with a Dynamic Island-like which appears around the front camera to show various notifications. Itel calls this the Dynamic Bar which was able to show charging, face unlock status and more.
The Dynamic Bar on the Itel P55+ worked smoothly during our testing. Considering the price of the smartphone, the experience offered by the display seemed to be good enough.

Camera and Performance

Itel P55+ comes powered by the octa-core Unisoc T606 chipset backed by 8GB RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. The smartphone also supports 8GB of virtual RAM for handling heavier apps and games. The chipset is powerful enough to handle everyday tasks without facing any issues. Playing games like Asphalt 9 and BGMI also offered a decent experience. We didn’t face any lag, stutter or heating issues while playing the games even for extensive periods.
The smartphone runs on Android 13 out-of-the-box and the UI offered by the Itel skin is also simple and user-friendly. The P55+ also doesn’t include multiple bloatware and offers an overall satisfactory experience.

For its price, the performance of the 50MP dual AI camera setup was also quite decent. However, the selfies clicked by the 8MP front camera looks grainy and washed out. The smartphone offers up to 2x software-based zoom and was also able to record stable 1080p videos at 30fps.
The default camera app of the phone also offers special features like Pro, Ultra HD and Panaroma. Users can also click photos with Snapchat-like AR filters on the smartphone by enabling the AR Shot mode. The photos clicked on Portrait and Night mode were also satisfactory.
The audio performance of the mono speaker setup was also loud and punchy. We didn’t notice any audio distortions even at higher levels. The video calling experience on the smartphone was also good enough as well.
The Dynamic Bar on the Itel P55+ also seemed to work properly every time we used Face unlock or put it on charge. This smartphone also supports NFC that enables cashless transactions.

Battery

The Itel P55+ packs a large 5000mAh battery that supports 45W fast charging. Once fully charged, the phone was able to handle everyday tasks, content streaming and minor gaming sessions throughout the day without needing to be charged. With 45W charging speed, the P55+ took less than 45 minutes to get fully charged.

What we think

Customers who are planning to buy an affordable 5G smartphone under Rs 10,000, this can be a good option to consider. The Itel P55+ has a premium design with vegan leather finish, offers a satisfactory display, decent camera performance and a long-lasting battery. At this price, we think the smartphone offers a decent overall performance. While testing, we thought that this smartphone has the potential to become popular in the affordable 5G segment.