Bq aquaris x5 review in Spanish (full analysis)

BQ Aquaris X5 technical characteristics

Unboxing and Design

BQ gives us a presentation with a white box and on the side we have screen-printed letters that indicate the exact model that it has inside.

Once we open the box we find:

BQ Aquaris X5 smartphone . Quick Start Guide Card Extractor Mini USB Cable

The Aquaris X5 is a beautiful example of the determination of the Spanish brand in search of offering what few offer. For starters, this is the brand's first terminal with a body made of metal, something quite unusual in mid-range equipment, where plastics and less noble materials usually predominate.

It has a very satisfying touch, which, added to a modern and clean aesthetic, makes this one of the most attractive mid- range smartphones, not only to the touch, but also to the eyes.

Although the back is plastic, it features a matte color to hide fingerprints, and a texture that makes it adhere better to the hand. To complete, the physical buttons are also metal, with a very different tactile feel. Its position is ideal: on the right side, the power button and the volume buttons immediately next to it. On the same side, we find the microSD card slot. On the left side, we have the place to place up to two nano SIM cards.

Also in the construction chapter, it seems pertinent to indicate that the glass is Dragontrail and not Gorilla Glass, an aspect that, for a large part of consumers looking for a solution in this price range, will make little difference, but that, in reality, ends up turning the front panel into a "softer and more flexible" assumption, although during our days of testing we have not noticed anything strange.

BQ has informed that this equipment will have a 5 year warranty at no additional cost. The price is equally interesting: 229.90 euros for the 2GB + 16GB model, 249.90 euros for the 2GB + 32GB version and 269.90 euros for the 3GB + 32GB version.

Design is undoubtedly one of the high points in the BQ Aquaris X5. In this regard, and within its category, there is no other phone as elegant as the Aquaris X5. It brings a familiar look, but without a doubt, with a good aesthetic appearance.

Ultra slim and ergonomic are two of the keywords to keep in mind when defining the design of the BQ Aquaris X5, which is 7.5mm thick.

Within these 7.5mm thick, there was ample capacity to fit a 2900 mAh battery. It is at least impressive, especially if we also consider that two nano-SIM cards also fit here, in addition to a micro-SD card slot.

5 inch screen

BQ offers a very good screen appearance. Its 5-inch screen offers a resolution of 720p. Although 1080p would have been better, this 720p size does a good job.

Colors are accurate and vibrant, with good depth of blacks. Reds look red, as well as green and white are not cloudy, as is so often the case with phones in this price segment. The IPS LCD panel doesn't offer excellent saturation like an AMOLED screen, but it's more than enough for this price.

The viewing angles are decent, although the screen has a tendency to reflect a fair amount of brightness. This makes receiving direct sunlight somewhat annoying.

Despite the fact that the resolution is already somewhat low for today, the remaining features combine to offer a sharp image, with vivid colors (even red to excess) and a fairly competent brightness, which makes the multimedia experience a very good, especially if we consider that the screen is not Full HD.

BQ Aquaris X5 - Hardware

For the price category in which it operates, the hardware of the BQ Aquaris X5 is very good. It is difficult to make it stand out from the competition when there are already proposals with similar characteristics, but the BQ Aquaris X5 benefits from the fact that these types of proposals are not yet very common in the market. This offers a window of opportunity for BQ.

A close look at the mobile phones of other brands in this segment allows us to conclude that the BQ Aquaris X5 comes with better specifications. The only exception is, once again, the third generation of the Moto G, which has almost equivalent characteristics. But with some advantageous differences for the Aquaris X5 .

The first difference is in the storage space offered. Generally the base storage in the phones in this range is 8 GB, while in the BQ Aquaris X5 it is 16 GB .

But let's be a little more realistic: of those 16GB, only 11.8GB is actually available to the end user. In other words : Android 5.1 Marshmallow will occupy approximately 4.2 GB in the BQ Aquaris X5. About 12 GB remain for free use, which is an above average amount of storage for this price category.

It is in RAM where the BQ Aquaris X5 stands out from the competition (2 GB of RAM for a mid-range mobile is more than adequate to guarantee reasonable performance for an Android phone).

Audio is another aspect in which BQ seeks to stand out with the Aquaris X5. This is a phone that comes equipped with new Dolby Atmos technology, with which BQ claims to offer a more immersive sound experience. In other words, it is good news for those who like to listen to music on the phone. Therefore, the BQ Aquaris X5 can be a good device for listening to music, in particular with a good pair of headphones.

The BQ Aquaris X5 is also notable for the battery, which is almost 3, 000 mAh. For such a slim, 5-inch phone, there was excellent work on the part of the company's design team here. For comparison, the third generation Moto G comes with a 2470 mAh battery. This translates into enviable autonomy of life, and was one of the aspects that BQ tried to focus on with the Aquaris X5.

The Aquaris X5 also includes:

One Adreno 306 graphics card Up to 32GB memory expansion Support for 4G (LTE) networks

The BQ Aquaris X5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 412 processor, with four 1.4 GHz Cortex A-53 cores, which also includes an Adreno 306 GPU, 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage.

One of the differentiating aspects of the X5 is that it has two versions of the operating system: Cyanogen and Android Marshmallow, prioritizing in the Google version an almost total absence of pre-installed applications.

This means that the combination between its technical specifications and the operating system provides a very solid and fluid user experience, especially for the more moderate user, who will not experience any type of delay or performance compromise, whether browsing the internet., in heavier applications or throughout game sessions.

Another factor that helps the performance to be much more satisfactory is the terminal screen, with IPS technology and Quantum Color +, 5 inches and a pixel density of 294 ppi, for a resolution of 1280 × 720, that is, HD.

One of the aspects that might not stand out in this smartphone is the sound, which despite not being bad, does not have a good quality, making it difficult to distinguish between the different shades, in case the user is, for example, a avid consumer of music.

This happens despite the inclusion of a sound application called Dolby Atmos, which, in good truth, does little or nothing to improve the quality of the audio, but which BQ insists on putting in much of its terminals. The X5's cameras are, in hardware terms, quite good, once again, relative to the price.

BQ Aquaris X5 - Camera

The rear unit sensor is 13 megapixels, a Sony IMX214, paired with a lens with an f / 2 aperture and dual LED flash. In practical terms, the captured images have good detail, good contrast, and adequate color reproduction, especially in conditions where lighting is favorable. However, there is a slight disappointment with the BQ Aquaris X5 and its camera. It is slow to open, slow to focus, slow to change modes, and quite annoying to use.

The front camera is 5 megapixel, Samsung sensor, and is suitable for selfies and video calls. The worst thing in this regard is that the camera application is somewhat outdated and confusing, a feature that is more obvious when we consider that it is an easily solvable problem.

Also, this app is full of bugs between HDR and Auto mode, for example frame problems and often a complete app crash. While the flash can sometimes go off on its own.

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Autofocus is particularly poor. Locking a lens takes too long, which can cause you to end up missing many of the shots you were trying to capture.

In low light, photos are far from impressive, and images captured with almost no light source are virtually unusable. Details appear grainy and difficult to detect. The flash is normal, nothing surprising.

BQ Aquaris X5 - Battery

The Aquaris X5 offers a 2900 mAh battery, a surprising capacity for a smartphone whose screen has an HD resolution. This allows it to last a long time, even with more intensive use, especially in terms of applications or internet searches. Even abusing its autonomy a little, it lasts two days without recharging, something that we do not see in all terminals in this range.

In this way, the phone works throughout the day without too many and away from the charger. As a negative point, it can be added that it does not have fast or wireless charging, but it can be forgiven for this price.

Software and performance

First off, the overall look of Cyanogen preserves much of the DNA from the version of Android it's built on. The lockscreen, notification panel, and default apps have been ignored, which is something rarely seen in Android skins.

There is a very substantial launcher working here and it allows you to customize the icons and colors of the entire system. It works as advertised, although the selection is pretty poor and you need to set up a Cyanogen account to see the options on offer.

Alongside the usual Google apps, there are a couple of Cyanogen options that are noteworthy. Boxer is your alternative for email. It has an elegant user interface and some pretty decent options. Audio FX is dedicated to music equalization, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in experience.

There are also some useful privacy features available in Cyanogen 12.1. Privacy Guard allows you to restrict the access of some applications to your personal data, and there are a wide variety of tools with which you can strengthen your passwords to make them more secure.

Not all is good news, however. Since Cyanogen started modifying both the Android system level, updating to the latest version takes some time to arrive. Many phones are finally starting to upgrade to Marshmallow.

Slow animations are another negative point for the software. If you are going to open folders or applications, there will come a time when the delay will become obvious and annoying. The processor is capable of carrying out most daily processes and resolutions with ease. You will have no problems browsing Chrome, checking your email or playing a Candy Crush spot. Performance slows down a bit with more intensive games, causing there to be some long load times.

Final words and conclusions about BQ Aquaris X5

The BQ Aquaris X5 is a beautiful, elegant smartphone and whose touch makes it seem that we are facing a much more expensive terminal. But in reality, its price is slightly less than 250 euros, which makes it quite striking.

In terms of specs, it offers everything it can to keep BQ great value for money, without compromising on fluidity of performance . In addition, its autonomy is very satisfactory, a factor that can perfectly make the difference between choosing the X5 or the other equipment in the same price range.

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It includes a screen that defends itself very well, and while Cyanogen is not as fluid as we expected in Android pure and simple, it adds a lot of customization features that will allow you to use the phone the way you want. Hopefully a quick update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow is coming soon.

The camera is not the best, but most of the other features make it a good product to consider, especially comparing price and quality.

The reasons that may justify the slightly higher price of the BQ Aquaris X5 in relation to smartphones in the same segments are the 16 GB of internal memory, 2 GB of RAM, build quality, Dolby Atmos technology and its 2900 mAh battery. Now we ask you. What do you think about the BQ Aquaris X5?

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ AESTHETICALLY PRETTY.	- CAMERA.
+ COMPACT AND LIGHTWEIGHT.	- IT IS RECOMMENDED TO CHANGE THE APP OF THE CAMERA BY ANOTHER.
+ COMPENSATED HARDWARE.
+ 2 GB OF RAM MEMORY.
+ PRICE.