InternetSwag
Expert Member
Hey guys, I have owned my U970 for about 5 days now and I wanted to give my review of it.
Intro: I originally wanted a Motorola Moto E, due to the stellar reviews of it on both YouTube and Orangestore. Unfortunately I couldn't purchase it from Orangestore with my Capitec card so I had to find an alternative, the U970.
So here's a short review.
Packaging: The box that the phone comes in is tiny, it's so small that I thought I was just getting a phone and nothing else. But not to worry, the phone comes with earphones, 2x booklets, a tiny charger, micro usb cable and ofc the battery.
Screen Quality: The screen looks great, it's a 5" IPS panel with a resolution of 960X540. I'm a big critic when it comes to resolution on PC monitors, less than 1080p is unacceptable, but on this phone I can't see any pixelation unless I stick my eyeball right up against it. The screen really looks good and I'm not exaggerating. I did however have an issue with the touchscreen once or twice while using the phone for GPS, I wanted to zoom in, but despite pressing on the screen and pushing my fingers apart, the screen just kept zooming out. However when I used two hands, the problem went away, so that may be a user error, still, using two hands on a GPS is not ideal, luckily I wasn't driving at the time.
Sound quality: It's loud and sounds decent, but it doesn't distort. Of course it's not going to match a high end phone's sound quality. It's very loud though imo, I played Pokemon Emerald on it using an emulator, and at max volume it was too loud for me to tolerate. The included earphones are average though.
GPS: This was a big necessity for me and one I was afraid Hisense might have skimped on to cut costs. I NEED a quality GPS, hell, that was my reason for buying a new phone in the first place. My old Motorola MB 525 wasn't cutting it with a 3.5 inch screen and 800 mhz single core processor. My GPS would often lag.
This was partially the reason I wanted a Moto E, because I was sure it would have a good GPS.
Alas, the U970 has an amazing GPS, coming from a 4 year old Motorola my mind was blown. Though it may just be the newer version of Android and google maps, but the GPS is incredible, I get multiple display routes and almost every small business around me is displayed. So if I am in a bind I can just be like, "yeah I'm near Naidoo's 7/11."
I even get these gray lines of optional routes I can take and what their ETA is vs my current one. Truly impressed.
Software updates: This one surprised me, in order to cut costs, I didn't think Hisense would put in the R&D to make software updates, but mine picked up a software update on the second day of owning it. Update was 7 mb's, fast and efficient to update.
Build Quality: This is the biggest con for me. I dropped my old phone probably twice a week, luckily it had gorilla glass and it was build like a 3310. This Hisense... not so much. I can just tell that one major fall will **** this phone over royally. So I been really overprotective of it.
Another nuisance was getting the back cover off, I had to prey it open and it was very tight, I could feel the back cover plastic was flimsy as well and I knew if I rushed prying it open I would break the backplate. Luckily you only need to do that once to put in your simcards and SD card.
Battery Life: It's on par with what you can expect from today's smartphones. Mine lasts about 2 days with moderate use, while using it as a dedicated GPS it drains in about 5-6 hours though.
Summary: This phone is well worth the price. Very glad I made this purchase. If you have an old phone and want to upgrade, this is the phone for you.
Intro: I originally wanted a Motorola Moto E, due to the stellar reviews of it on both YouTube and Orangestore. Unfortunately I couldn't purchase it from Orangestore with my Capitec card so I had to find an alternative, the U970.
So here's a short review.
Packaging: The box that the phone comes in is tiny, it's so small that I thought I was just getting a phone and nothing else. But not to worry, the phone comes with earphones, 2x booklets, a tiny charger, micro usb cable and ofc the battery.
Screen Quality: The screen looks great, it's a 5" IPS panel with a resolution of 960X540. I'm a big critic when it comes to resolution on PC monitors, less than 1080p is unacceptable, but on this phone I can't see any pixelation unless I stick my eyeball right up against it. The screen really looks good and I'm not exaggerating. I did however have an issue with the touchscreen once or twice while using the phone for GPS, I wanted to zoom in, but despite pressing on the screen and pushing my fingers apart, the screen just kept zooming out. However when I used two hands, the problem went away, so that may be a user error, still, using two hands on a GPS is not ideal, luckily I wasn't driving at the time.
Sound quality: It's loud and sounds decent, but it doesn't distort. Of course it's not going to match a high end phone's sound quality. It's very loud though imo, I played Pokemon Emerald on it using an emulator, and at max volume it was too loud for me to tolerate. The included earphones are average though.
GPS: This was a big necessity for me and one I was afraid Hisense might have skimped on to cut costs. I NEED a quality GPS, hell, that was my reason for buying a new phone in the first place. My old Motorola MB 525 wasn't cutting it with a 3.5 inch screen and 800 mhz single core processor. My GPS would often lag.
This was partially the reason I wanted a Moto E, because I was sure it would have a good GPS.
Alas, the U970 has an amazing GPS, coming from a 4 year old Motorola my mind was blown. Though it may just be the newer version of Android and google maps, but the GPS is incredible, I get multiple display routes and almost every small business around me is displayed. So if I am in a bind I can just be like, "yeah I'm near Naidoo's 7/11."
I even get these gray lines of optional routes I can take and what their ETA is vs my current one. Truly impressed.
Software updates: This one surprised me, in order to cut costs, I didn't think Hisense would put in the R&D to make software updates, but mine picked up a software update on the second day of owning it. Update was 7 mb's, fast and efficient to update.
Build Quality: This is the biggest con for me. I dropped my old phone probably twice a week, luckily it had gorilla glass and it was build like a 3310. This Hisense... not so much. I can just tell that one major fall will **** this phone over royally. So I been really overprotective of it.
Another nuisance was getting the back cover off, I had to prey it open and it was very tight, I could feel the back cover plastic was flimsy as well and I knew if I rushed prying it open I would break the backplate. Luckily you only need to do that once to put in your simcards and SD card.
Battery Life: It's on par with what you can expect from today's smartphones. Mine lasts about 2 days with moderate use, while using it as a dedicated GPS it drains in about 5-6 hours though.
Summary: This phone is well worth the price. Very glad I made this purchase. If you have an old phone and want to upgrade, this is the phone for you.
Last edited: