Yarvik Smartphone Tech of the Week... Bit Rubbish

You know, when I saw this, I thought it was quite a good Tech of the Week...

But then Bid aren't really saying much about the specs. It's running ICS, which is getting long in the tooth with Android now, 4GB internal is going to eaten up largely by the Android OS itself. No mention of the screen resolution makes me really sceptical that the screen's res is crap for the 5" panel. I can see them not wanting to mention the CPU or GPU to save confusing some consumers, but not even mentioning it on their website is a bit ridiculous. No mention of the RAM either, which is vital information in buying anything Android, because it will make or break the multi-tasking. The Yarvik tablets had 512MB, so I assume this phone would too, which is quite simply rubbish, even for £160. That's an assumption, but if Bid aren't going to bother mentioning it anywhere, everyone has to assume...


For £160 there is so much better avaliable. Google's Nexus 4 is £160 delivered, straight from Google, and it blows the Yarvik out of the water in specs (and brand, if that's a factor to you).


Seems like a very well engineered Tech of the Week. £160 sounds great for a smartphone to anyone who doesn't know much about smartphones. But just a little digging and you'll find that so much better is avaliable for that same price...

KingEurope said:

You know, when I saw this, I thought it was quite a good Tech of the Week...

But then Bid aren't really saying much about the specs. It's running ICS, which is getting long in the tooth with Android now, 4GB internal is going to eaten up largely by the Android OS itself. No mention of the screen resolution makes me really sceptical that the screen's res is crap for the 5" panel. I can see them not wanting to mention the CPU or GPU to save confusing some consumers, but not even mentioning it on their website is a bit ridiculous.

No... for £160 there is so much better avaliable. Google's Nexus 4 is £160 delivered, straight from Google, and it blows the Yarvik out of the water in specs (and brand, if that's a factor to you).


Seems like a very well engineered Tech of the Week. £160 sounds great for a smartphone to anyone who doesn't know much about smartphones. But just a little digging and you'll find that so much better is avaliable for that same price...

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They seem to be making much of the fact it's Dual Sim (but only one is 3G compatible) but how many people actually require such a feature is questionable given that most of the worlds biggest selling phones don't have this feature.

According to James Russell it apparently has a 'Compactive' Touchscreen, I have never heard of this myself.

Dual Sims slots are a staple of cheap Chinese phones, so I would be extremely surprised if this Yarvik isn't just one of them, rebranded.

I should hope that it's capacitive; resistive touch screens haven't been used in even the cheapest phones for years.

KingEurope said:

Dual Sims slots are a staple of cheap Chinese phones, so I would be extremely surprised if this Yarvik isn't just one of them, rebranded.

I should hope that it's capacitive; resistive touch screens haven't been used in even the cheapest phones for years.

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He keeps saying over and over again its Compactive, not Capacitive

Wirral70 said:

He keeps saying over and over again its Compactive, not Capacitive

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Oh dear... where is self-proclaimed Tech Expert Mr Mason when you need him?

"It's got a compressive screen, you wonk! Not compactive!"

KingEurope said:

Oh dear... where is self-proclaimed Tech Expert Mr Mason when you need him?

"It's got a compressive screen, you wonk! Not compactive!"

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He's still saying it even though the Yarvik stooge says capacitive. I actually think he might be saying ca-pac-tive

Maybe he just can't pronounce it which would be surprising considering how he can roll out the Geeeahnee Reeecheee!

Did a few minutes of research, and found the full spec sheet.
Please, avoid this phone, it really is garbage, even for the price.

http://www.yarvik.com/download.php?...-201/Productsheets/SMP50-201_productsheet.pdf

480x800 is a terrible resolution for a 5" screen. 512MB RAM is quite simply not enough for Android. No wonder Bid left out those details. The "Andreno" 203 at least shows that the CPU is relatively recent, would be nice if they spelt Adreno correctly though and just said the CPU was a Snapdragon S4 to save me looking.

Smartphones are one of the things I really enjoy and spend a lot of time looking into. This just ain't a good buy. It doesn't come close. If £160 is your budget, I highly recommend looking into the Google Nexus 4.

It has 2024MB of RAM, as opposed to the 512MB in the Yarvik. It's running the latest version of Android, the Yarvik is running a 2 year old version. The CPU is a quad core and clocked faster in the Nexus 4, the Yarvik's CPU is pretty uninspiring. The Nexus 4 has a 720x1280 screen, the Yarvik has an embarassing 480x800...

KingEurope said:

Did a few minutes of research, and found the full spec sheet.
Please, avoid this phone, it really is garbage, even for the price.

http://www.yarvik.com/download.php?...-201/Productsheets/SMP50-201_productsheet.pdf

480x800 is a terrible resolution for a 5" screen. 512MB RAM is quite simply not enough for Android. No wonder Bid left out those details. The "Andreno" 203 at least shows that the CPU is relatively recent, would be nice if they spelt Adreno correctly though and just said the CPU was a Snapdragon S4 to save me looking.

Smartphones are one of the things I really enjoy and spend a lot of time looking into. This just ain't a good buy. It doesn't come close. If £160 is your budget, I highly recommend looking into the Google Nexus 4.

It has 2024MB of RAM, as opposed to the 512MB in the Yarvik. It's running the latest version of Android, the Yarvik is running a 2 year old version. The CPU is a quad core and clocked faster in the Nexus 4, the Yarvik's CPU is pretty uninspiring. The Nexus 4 has a 720x1280 screen, the Yarvik has an embarassing 480x800...

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Yarvik Schmarvik

A very poor buy, and a VERY poor presentation from both Russell and Miss Yarvik.

Very poor indeed :wink:

Not to defend Yarvik too much (as I'm pretty sure they're low level crap...) but people buying Yarvik stuff probably aren't that into technology, aren't that knowledgeable and most importantly aren't going to be really using the device to its capacity. My point is that the type of people watching Bid and buying their technology will probably not do that much with a phone and find it pretty suitable for their relatively basic needs.

Anyone who's into technoloy would do their research (I'm an Iphone boy...so I wouldn't dream of touching a Yarvik)

My point is that the spec probably doesn't matter that much to the people buying...

Atticus said:

Not to defend Yarvik too much (as I'm pretty sure they're low level crap...) but people buying Yarvik stuff probably aren't that into technology, aren't that knowledgeable and most importantly aren't going to be really using the device to its capacity. My point is that the type of people watching Bid and buying their technology will probably not do that much with a phone and find it pretty suitable for their relatively basic needs.

Anyone who's into technoloy would do their research (I'm an Iphone boy...so I wouldn't dream of touching a Yarvik)

My point is that the spec probably doesn't matter that much to the people buying...

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As long as they are happy I guess that's the most important thing.

Looking at similar products on ebay i'd say it was maybe worth around £100

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-White-S4-5-HD-Smart-Phone-Android-4-1-1GHz-Dual-Core-Sim-Free-3G-UK-/161092599199?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item2581ddfd9f

Atticus said:

Not to defend Yarvik too much (as I'm pretty sure they're low level crap...) but people buying Yarvik stuff probably aren't that into technology, aren't that knowledgeable and most importantly aren't going to be really using the device to its capacity. My point is that the type of people watching Bid and buying their technology will probably not do that much with a phone and find it pretty suitable for their relatively basic needs.

Anyone who's into technoloy would do their research (I'm an Iphone boy...so I wouldn't dream of touching a Yarvik)

My point is that the spec probably doesn't matter that much to the people buying...

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I understand that not everyone will care about specs, but it's a shame that a lot of people are going to be buying this phone thinking they got a steal, when in reality, they got a bad phone for the price point.

KingEurope said:

I understand that not everyone will care about specs, but it's a shame that a lot of people are going to be buying this phone thinking they got a steal, when in reality, they got a bad phone for the price point.

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£160 all in seems a good 50-60% overpriced for such old and low spec technology.

KingEurope said:

I understand that not everyone will care about specs, but it's a shame that a lot of people are going to be buying this phone thinking they got a steal, when in reality, they got a bad phone for the price point.

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Absolutely Agree.

But the buyer has to take some responsibility - I know absolutely nothing about jewellery, so I'd know to do a bit of research before buying a ring Peter Simon has described as being 'the most amazing product this channel has every done'.