Bq aquaris x2 pro review in Spanish (full analysis)

The BQ brand has wanted to update its mid-range with the recent Aquaris X2 Pro, the more powerful of the two models in the new Aquaris X line. The company comes with the intention of renewing many of the sections of its terminals for 2018., like the incorporation of the double rear camera, but without pretension to revolutionize the market. Among the most attractive novelties of this model is the agreement with Google to include Android One, the cleanest version without additions of this system. It remains to be seen if these developments are enough to fight the fierce battle of mid-range smartphones, where some Chinese brands are hitting hard.

BQ Aquaris X2 Pro technical specifications

Unlike other packaging, the Aquaris X2 Pro has a paper cover that covers the box itself and can be slid off. This cover does not have any details, we only find a text from the company, more specifically, a statement of intent.

Once this is slipped, the box has the same white color only broken by a black line that the part in half. Precisely this line marks the opening area of ​​the box, at mid-height, something that is not often seen. The black interior contrasts with the interior, and this is where we find the essential:

• Aquaris X2 Pro. Power adapter. MicroUSB type C cable. SIM tray extractor. Quick guide

Design

The Aquaris X2 Pro has a careful design and finish, which, like other terminals, makes it feel great in your hand. I am referring to the glass manufacture of its body, an aspect that, as is already known, always gives extra points to the design but that can be the worst enemy of fingerprints and falls. In our white color model, the fingerprint marks are not appreciated but possibly they are visible in the gray and black color models, especially in the latter. As is the norm in this type of design, the edge that joins the crystals on both sides is made of aluminum. This protects the sides and secures the terminal in the hand. It is worth noting the IP52 certification that protects from dust and water drops.

Despite its 160 grams of weight, we have not noticed that it slides much. Including a silicone sleeve would have been appreciated.

Despite the measurements of 72.3 x 150.7 x 8.3mm, the useful screen surface is around 75%. This causes the front, which has a glass with 2.5D edges and Gorilla Glass protection, to have a frame of a couple of millimeters on the sides and one centimeter on the top and bottom. From this it follows that Bq has focused on other aspects, instead of offering us a whole screen.

In this front area, we find in the upper frame the proximity sensor, the speaker for calls, the front camera for selfies that is accompanied by an LED flash. The lower frame, although it seems that it only shows the company logo, also includes a somewhat hidden notification LED, which we will only know is there when it is turned on. It certainly is in a strange place, compared to what we are used to at the top.

The side edges are not so surprising, on the top is the microphone for noise cancellation, on the left the tray for two nanoSIM or a nanoSIM and a microSD card. The right edge is occupied by the volume button and just below the on / off button. Finally, the bottom edge includes a 3.5mm audio jack connector , the microUSB Type-C port, the microphone for calls and the speaker for multimedia content.

The back, houses the double camera vertically in the upper left corner, and immediately below is the dual LED flash. In the upper central area, there is the fingerprint reader and under it, the bq logo. The lower area houses the screen printed Android One logo.

In general, despite its careful design and glass finish, it is missing that the company had broken molds and had taken a risk with a more innovative design.

screen

The 5.65 inches of this model remain at a midpoint of the screen measurements that are usually found lately, but at the same time retaining the FullHD + resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels with IPS LCD technology and 18: 9 ratio. All this gives us a density of 427 pixels per inch, quite high.

The quality of the screen in terms of color is quite good, offering vivid colors and a fairly neutral panel calibration. The technology responsible for this is the Quantum Color + used by Bq and which provides a wider range of colors.

This technology affects the backlight layer, where instead of having the usual white LEDs that are composed of a blue LED and a yellow phosphor to achieve the white color, Quantum Dots are introduced, nanoparticles that when receiving light with high frequencies like blue, they convert it to low-frequency light like red and blue. This finally achieves a white light but with more balanced peaks between the different basic colors.

The depth of the blacks, is still an aspect to improve and in which AMOLED screens continue to lead. On the other hand, the color range of this screen reaches 85% of the NTSC standard.

In this section you can highlight the quality of viewing from different angles, where chromatic aberration is not seen either, but the characteristic that really stands out is the intensity of brightness. In manual mode it can reach 650 nits, an amount undoubtedly enough to appreciate the content of the screen outdoors and with the sun at its peak. In automatic mode, the brightness is capable of reaching even 750 nits if necessary, therefore, you can have no complaints in this regard but praise the good performance achieved.

On other occasions we end this section emphasizing other software settings related to the display configuration, but it is something that is missed in this terminal, since it only has the conventional settings that can be found in all the others.

Sound

This Aquaris X2 Pro, in addition to achieving a powerful and clear sound, boasts an addition that few terminals have, and should have, and that is that along with the speaker located on the bottom edge, the speaker is also used for calls to Playing multimedia content, this makes it easy to deliver stereo sound to the user. Without a doubt, having two sound channels is an addition that is greatly appreciated by customers. The only one that can be added to the sound quality is in the high frequencies. While the mid and bass frequencies sound quite correct, the treble lacks some body.

When using headphones, this overall quality is enhanced, compensating for frequencies and obtaining a warmer sound. In this section, as with the screen, some advanced adjustment is missing.

OS

We arrived at one of the star points of this terminal, which comes with Android 8.1 Oreo and most importantly: with Android One. This means that we have a pure version of Android, without layers of customization added by the manufacturer that can hinder or slow down the system. In any case, it is worth mentioning that BQ was never a company that overly customized its previous systems.

However, despite thinking at first instance that we would not see anything typical of Bq in terms of software, we were surprised to find that the camera's app was personalized instead of having the stock one. Another small introduction from the company is the BQ Plus app, which allows us to take out insurance against theft and damage directly with the company itself.

With respect to everything else, the system runs smoothly and practically at no time during its use have we had any problems. This denotes how well they have implemented this pure version of Android. One point that Aquaris X2 Pro owners are supposed to benefit from is having future Google updates in the coming years.

Among the few extra settings, we find gestures, one to quickly access the camera and another to check the phone when lifting it.

performance

The Aquaris X2 Pro, thanks to its Snapdragon 660, far outperforms other previous processors, such as the 625, 630 and 636, although it does not reach others such as the 845 or the Kirin 970. The Snapdragon 660 specifically has eight Kryo 260 cores, four of them at 2.2 Ghz and another four at 1.8 Ghz. This is accompanied by 4 GB or 6 GB of RAM. In our case we have for the review with the 4 GB version.

When it comes to performance, the 660 performs quite well in terms of system fluidity, as we discussed earlier, and the same goes for running any app or using multitasking. The AI engine introduced by Qualcomm for this model is supposed to accomplish several tasks to optimize performance at different points and maximize user experience.

Entering the rag with games, it is necessary to comment that we have the Adreno 512 GPU, which allows you to play any game and perform a good job even in the most demanding games without appreciating any pull, you can only notice a slight increase in temperature internal terminal.

In synthetic tests the hardware comes out quite well with an AnTuTu score of 140100. It follows that although the final price of the terminal may be somewhat higher than expected, the performance it gives us is worth it.

The 4 GB version of RAM comes with 64 GB of internal memory, and the 6 GB of RAM with 128 GB. Fortunately, there is also the possibility of inserting a microSD card.

The performance of the fingerprint sensor is one of the sections that least convinced me. More than once I had problems with the sensor recognizing my fingerprint and unlocking the terminal quickly and efficiently, so a second attempt was necessary to achieve this. Once the fingerprint is recognized, unlocking is good, although not for launching rockets.

Camera

Bq has jumped on the cart of the two rear cameras. The main 12.2 megapixel camera with Samsung S5K2L8 CMOS sensor with 1.8 focal length, 1, 290 micron pixel size, autofocus, digital zoom and burst shooting. The secondary, on the other hand, has a S5K5E8 CMOS BSI sensor also from Samsung with 1.12 microns in terms of pixel size, 6-element lens and phase detection with Dual Pixel.

The image quality in scenes with good light has a very good level of detail, although when zooming, it is easily appreciated that it does not reach the definition of high-end terminals. Colors are vivid and fairly accurate. The same goes for contrast, its representation is quite accurate, thanks largely to the HDR mode that works automatically. Only in a specific occasion its use is not entirely good.

Focusing is generally fast and accurate, so we haven't had a problem with fast shots or blurred images in general.

When the light begins to dwindle, the real challenge of the Aquaris X2 Pro begins and we must honestly recognize that it does not perform badly. There is some noise as is logical but a good level of sharpness is maintained despite everything. Colors also keep the type as possible. The set really offers a quality that I did not expect to find. In our tests, only some photos taken at night had room for improvement.

The portrait mode came to BQ thanks to its secondary camera and they have been released on a good note. In most of the photos the effect is good and you can only see some very slight flaw in the blur, but on other occasions it is true that the software messes up a bit and makes some outrage, this usually happens in somewhat complicated scenes and it is not the norm. It should be recognized in favor of this mode that even in low light you can make good Bokeh effects.

The rear camera of the aquaris X2 Pro can record at 1080p at 60fps or 4K at 30fps. The image quality and fluidity in good light is quite decent, although the lack of stabilization makes the whole a bit ugly. Recording incorporates other modes such as fast motion at 120 fps or slow motion.

The front selfie camera features an 8-megapixel S5K4H7 sensor, again from Samsung, 2.0 focal aperture and a pixel size of 1.12 microns. The level of detail given by this camera in light scenes is still quite good as is the case with the colorimetry shown. It does not stray far from what the rear camera gives, saving the distances.

It is in the night scenes where despite retaining the type, the grain is more pressing and much detail is lost. The colors, on the other hand, appear somewhat duller. The portrait mode, finally, is done correctly and only has a few slight flaws at the edges between the focus and the background. This effect also has a beauty mode, which can be modified on a number bar. As always, the best option is to disable it if you don't want a slightly strange result.

Battery

3100 mAh is the capacity of the Aquaris X2 Pro battery. A capacity not bad at all on paper. In practice, using social networks, web browsing and some multimedia content with the adaptive brightness activated, it has lasted about 2 days of use and 6 and a half hours of screen. With manual brightness, that amount was reduced to 1 day and 10 hours and just over 5 hours of display. So depending on how it is configured, you can get a good autonomy or autonomy within the average.

The Aquaris X2 Pro is compatible with Quick Charge 4+, with which we will charge half the battery in about 35 minutes and 100% in 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Connectivity

Among the connections that we find in the Aquaris X2 Pro we must highlight: Bluetooth 5.0, LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac / b / g / n / 5 GHz, A-GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS, NFC and FM radio.

Conclusion and final words of the BQ Aquaris X2 Pro

With the aquaris X2 Pro the BQ company has wanted to enter the arena of premium mid-range terminals, for this it has provided its smartphone with some specifications and features that are worth taking into account. In this case we have a very good quality screen, an operating system with pure Android One, a decent enough performance to move what we find and a camera that gives more than a surprise.

The battery is a separate section since depending on the configuration chosen, it can give more joy or pain.

Anyway, it shows how BQ learns from its previous models and what the market is asking for, perhaps not including the notch has been a good decision given the hatred that many people have for it but that does not mean that they should have tried to improve the percentage useful screen, the same goes for the design, it is good and it works but they should invest in R&D and stay ahead of their competitors. There are more and more premium media ranges, so to stand out you need to launch something that distinguishes you and attracts the public.

We recommend you read the best mid-range smartphones

The Aquaris X2 Pro can be found for sale for € 379 RRP if we look for the black or white version of 64 GB + 4GB of RAM. The 128 GB + 6 GB version will go on sale soon for a RRP of € 499.90. If the former has a price that falls within the limits of this range, the latter is more at risk from the public.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ Great screen quality.	- The fingerprint sensor is not so accurate sometimes.
+ Good camera quality and Bokeh effect.	- The design could be improved.
+ System with Android One and well optimized.	- The sound falters in the treble.

The Professional Review team awards you the Gold Medal and the Recommended Product Badge.

BQ Aquaris X2 Pro

DESIGN - 78%

PERFORMANCE - 81%

CAMERA - 85%

AUTONOMY - 86%

PRICE - 78%

82%