Review: BQ Aquaris M4.5

Introduction and design

The smartphone market is near saturation point. Since the craze for powerfully portable pocket computers first picked up in earnest, (arguably) with the launch of the first iPhone back in 2007, dozens, even hundreds of companies have rushed to the table.

With so much competition is there still room for smaller names, without big money behind them, to compete?

In smaller arenas, it seems as though a resounding 'yes' is the answer. Xiaomi in China and Micromax in India, among others, have achieved great success within their respective domestic markets. In Spain, relative newcomer 'BQ' has followed suit.

Beginning as a small startup in 2010, the firm has grown considerably, and now has its sights set on Europe as a whole, with devices such as the Aquaris M4.5 - part of a range of different sized handsets aimed at different sections of the market.

Available on Pay-As-You-Go from O2 for £100, or £13 per-month with £9.99 upfront, it is certainly priced keenly. But with so many other, higher-profile budget devices, such as the Moto G4 and the Samsung Galaxy J3 now dominating the ring, can the BQ Aquaris M4.5 survive?

Design

A phone is many things, and certainly very personal. To sell something that is at once so uniform in a very individualised way is understandably quite a difficult task.

As such, reading reviews and watching ads, the public is bombarded with specifications and often maudlin attempts at playing the heart, all in an attempt to loosen purse strings.

From a first glance, the Aquaris M4.5 certainly doesn't look like much. Small, matte black and slightly boxy, it almost avoids attention. This isn't a phone made to bedazzle punters at the pub.

Holding it for any period of time gives off an altogether different impression though, mostly one of comfort.

With a 4.5-inch screen, weighing in at 115g and at 8.75mm thick, this is a device made for one-handed use, and it really shows.

I have quite small hands (my father's secret shame), so phablets and anything above 5 inches are generally quite difficult for me to to handle without some serious finger gymnastics. With the Aquaris M4.5, I had no trouble whatsoever, which proved to be slightly liberating.

It also proved to be a snug fit in my partner's petite mitts, nicely reminiscent of her cherished Nokia Lumia 630. The build material was particularly pleasing, the matte plastic has a pleasant 'dry' feel, resisting fingerprints very well.

BQ also publishes some bumph about a 'Swedish finish' and a 'Solar UV coating', the latter supposedly meaning the handset will handle strong sunshine well. Regardless, it exudes quality rather than cheapness, unlike, say, the Acer Liquid Jade Z.

There are nice touches of symmetry throughout. The 8MP rear-facing camera is positioned with a nicely square cut-out at the top left of the device, flanked by the dual-LED flash.

A subtle 'BQ' logo sits in the middle of the back-plate, while all of the various device safety information is tidied along the bottom.

On the top of the phone can be found a slightly off-centre 3.5mm headphone jack. The left side is flush, sporting only two microSIM slots.

At the bottom is a micro USB port for charging and data-transfer, along with two speaker grilles.

Lastly, on the right hand side sits the volume rocker, with the power button slightly below, along with a microSD card slot.

There is a surprise to be found on the front however. A small LED flash for the 5MP front-facing camera, alongside the call speaker, a notification LED, and an ambient brightness sensor. To the bottom can be found three capacitive keys.

In all, though it doesn't look like much initially, some thought has clearly gone into the design of the Aquaris M4.5. It is distinctive while remaining subtle, a little bold while keeping a strong focus on the basics.

Key features

At 4.5 inches, the Aquaris M4.5 is something of an irregularity. As screens keep getting bigger and bigger, it is resolutely small.

That proviso unfortunately also extends to its pixel count. With a resolution of 540 x 960, the Aquaris M4.5 manages to squeeze in around 245 pixels per inch. This is below "Retina" territory, meaning that the human eye can still pick out errant pixels.

In everyday use, I found that this wasn't too bothersome. Different screen sizes warrant different use-cases. At 4.5 inches, the Aquaris M4.5 was never designed for constant video playback, unlike the LG G5, just maybe the odd YouTube video. This proved to be the case in my experience.

Reading on the commute, watching the occasional video and indulging in the odd spot of casual gaming, there are factors that count beyond the number of pixels, and it is here that the Aquaris M4.5 scores well. In bright sunlight it gets adequately bright to remain readable, and can become quite dim for bedtime reading.

Being an IPS display, viewing angles are consistently strong, while the so-called "Quantum Colour+" technology used by BQ boosts the saturation of the screen, meaning it has that 'pop' that can wow in the shop.

One small concession to the price point is the type of protective glass used. This isn't the well known "Gorilla Glass", instead being "Dragontrail Glass", a Japanese alternative that has mostly failed to gain traction outside of its own country.

In practice, I can't say anything regarding a difference in durability (I treat every phone like a child when it comes to potential damage), but it doesn't seem quite as resistant to fingerprints as some other phones. Normal folk will likely notice no difference.

Android, pure and simple

The subtle design philosophy of the hardware is one that is clearly adhered to closely by BQ, for it applies to the software too.

Many manufacturers lure you in with the promise of nice hardware, only to present a software experience akin to beating one's head against a brick wall (*cough* TouchWiz *cough*). Here, we are greeted with an almost stock version of Google's operating system.

What this means is no duplicate email apps, no duplicate calendar apps, no in-built services, no apps that cannot be deleted, no Galaxy app stores and no RAM managers. After an LG, Huawei or Samsung phone, it is something of a relief.

Those purchasing the phone from O2 will be treated to some pre-loaded bloat however, consisting of the "My O2" app and the "O2 Priority" app, both of which can be swiftly uninstalled – not simply 'deactivated'.

BQ has loaded in a few small customisations to the experience however. Double-tap to wake makes a nice addition, while a scheduled power-off and power-on time can be set – useful for those who like to turn their phone off while sleeping.

The notification LED can also be customised to a host of different colours for different situations, in what proves to be a nice touch.

This simple approach to software has some big benefits when it comes to long-term support too, as it is far simpler to upgrade when there isn't a cumbersome skin to manoeuvre around.

Currently the Aquaris M4.5 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. I approached BQ, and it has stated that the handset will be receiving Marshmallow, which is something of a rarity nowadays – certainly on the budget side.

LEDs, as far as the eye can see

A few years ago, budget handsets really were the poor cousins of the high-end flagships. There was a real paucity of worthwhile features, screens were very low resolution and unresponsive, processors were exceptionally poor and slow, and battery life was often abysmal.

Cameras were especially rubbish. Tiny sensors were paired with almost non-existent megapixel counts, no auto-focus and not even an LED flash. Even as recently as two years ago, having a flash on a phone costing less than £150 was an exceptional luxury, and my how times have changed.

On the rear of the handset rests a dual-LED effort (which doubles as an excellent torch), while the front also has a flash, something that even many flagship devices fail to provide.

Of course, these are mere blinking lights compared the power of a full Xenon flash, but nonetheless provide a little breathing room in otherwise difficult, dark situations.

Both the selfie snapper and the rear-facing camera have an f/2.0 aperture, which is quite wide given their inexpensive provenance, but on such small sensors has only a limited potential to make any real difference to overall image quality, though theoretically should ensure better low-light performance.

A little Dolby in the room

BQ's attempts to differentiate the Aquaris M4.5 from the rest go further than the number of LED lights however, as some efforts have also been made to improve the audio beyond the base offerings that might generally be expected.

To start, the speaker grilles are situated on the bottom of the device, not the rear. This may be something of a pyrrhic victory, but it is undeniably a better position for a speaker than the rear.

As might be expected, of the two grilles, only one has an audio driver situated behind it. That driver manages to pump out sound at a highly respectable volume for such a cheap effort.

Though not reaching the highs of the Nexus 6P or the HTC 10, it is decently loud and has a reasonable separation between the highs and lows. It does lack bass, but it is certainly adequate for a quick Spotify session while cooking.

This sound is helped considerably by the included "Dolby Atmos" technology. Existing as an app/equaliser, along with a button in the quick settings, this immediately delivers more 'pop' to the sound when activated.

It may be the case that the drivers were a little undercooked to provide a greater perception of 'oomph' when the button is pressed, but nonetheless it definitely seems to work and is a welcome inclusion.

Performance and battery life

Specifications have long defined the smartphone wars. Whoever has the faster processor, higher resolution screen and so on is deemed to win whatever battle is currently taking place, only for the conflict to continue endlessly.

What smart manufacturers have begun to notice, as Apple arguably has done from the start, is that the notion of experience is just as important as the numbers on paper, if a great deal harder to define.

With an unknown, relatively anaemic SoC, the Aquaris M4.5 certainly isn't set up to wow in this regard.

The device is powered by a MediaTek MT6735M Cortex-A53 quad core processor, running at up to 1GHz, so nothing to set the world on fire. Though there are several options available from the manufacturer directly, including one with 2GB of RAM, the PAYG version provided by O2 has 1GB of RAM.

As for the experience this provides, it can be quite variable. In most conditions, aided by the almost stock software experience, the Aquaris M4.5 flies when navigating the OS.

Opening and closing apps leads to some stutter if done too quickly, and poorly optimised system hogs like Facebook are quite a drag. Multi-tasking is generally…ok. Juggling too many apps is an obvious issue, but moving between say, three to five applications is perfectly feasible if done gently.

Gaming on the Aquaris M4.5 is just about acceptable – that is if you plan in indulging an Angry Birds habit. Though this handset will load more demanding titles, it will certainly groan while doing so, dropping frames the entire time.

Generally, once I had adjusted my expectations, I found I had very few problems with the chipset, though I am admittedly quite a light user. When updated to Marshmallow this situation will likely improve, given the new optimisations built in.

Geekbench 3, a general, objective measure of processing power, rates the single core performance of the Aquaris M4.5 at 461, coming out just slightly behind the Sony Xperia Z running a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro. The multi-core score is slightly stronger, although the ageing Sony is again the nearest contender.

Thankfully, the Aquaris M4.5 comes with 16GB of built-in storage, which is expandable via microSD card (which can be used while still retaining dual-SIM capabilities).

Around 11GB of this is available to the user. With the addition of adoptable storage with Android Marshmallow, this situation is likely to become even better.

Battery life

This year, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge set new standards for battery life, certainly for Android phones. That is the high end of course, and the Aquaris M4.5 doesn't belong in that tier.

Nonetheless, this is a very solid performer when it comes to battery life. With a 2470mAh cell crammed into its petite frame, I found that I could generally get around two days of use before a quick charge became a necessity.

Waking up at 7am, followed by a half hour commute, internet browsing, taking calls, receiving messages, streaming audio over Bluetooth, playing a few games and performing the odd Google search, I generally had between 30 and 35% battery left by midnight, which is really quite good.

This is in no small part due to the relatively anaemic processor and the low-resolution screen, but the results are no less pleasing. I found that the Aquaris M4.5 was a phone that I could rely on, that wouldn't die at inopportune moments, which was quite a liberating feeling.

Especially for a dual-SIM smartphone, this is an impressive showing.

Camera

As with every manufacturer, BQ has made a great song and dance about the camera in the Aquaris M4.5, though it isn't really worthy of the hype.

The front facing camera is a 5MP effort with a flash and an f/2.0 aperture, while the rear has an 8MP sensor, a dual-LED flash and, again, an f/2.0 aperture.

In practice, what this translates to is a quite respectable performance. When in good light, macro shots tend to be nicely detailed, and this is the same of other shots. Colours are nicely reproduced, although in most situations the highlights tend to be blown out completely.

Selfies are also just about acceptable, if not capable of wowing, though they're certainly worthy of Instagram.

Things are complicated somewhat by the included camera app from BQ. 'Borrowing' liberally from Apple, it will likely be very familiar to most, and it even has some nice features.

A panorama mode allows for some impressive wide shots, while the included slow-motion video is fun to play around with.

The app is slooow however, both to open and to operate. Focusing takes longer than it should, snapping an HDR image is a longer commitment than modern marriage and certain features are hidden in odd areas.

It is far from terrible, and something that a software update could likely fix, but at the moment it tarnishes a nicely surprising experience.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Verdict

A relatively no-name phone from an unknown manufacturer at a very competitive price point, the BQ Aquaris M4.5 has a lot going for it, but against such strong competition can it really succeed?

We liked

The BQ Aquaris M4.5 is an excellent phone for one-handed use. The low weight, ergonomic design and restrained dimensions make this very comfortable to use even if you're not endowed with large mitts.

Snaps from the rear-facing camera are nicely detailed for the price point and have good colour, while the flash on the front is surprisingly useful in a number of different situations.

Battery life is fantastic, easily lasting throughout the whole day and then some.

We disliked

Although the screen has many good points, the low resolution is becoming an increasing weakness as the competition go HD and full HD, sometimes at lower price points. The Dragontrail coating is also prone to collecting fingerprints.

The chipset struggles with demanding apps and doesn't handle multitasking especially well.

Though the camera is decent, the in-built app is strangely designed and very laggy.

Verdict

BQ has done well in Spain, offering a line of well-spec'd, popular devices that don't break the bank. Now it is hoping to do the same in the UK, and the Aquaris M4.5 is leading the low-end budget charge.

In many ways, this is a phone that belies its origins. A great deal of thought has been put into the design, into the experience behind the handset, and this approach has paid off handsomely.

This is a phone with a lot to offer, with a practical screen, great battery life, decent performance, an acceptable pair of cameras and pretty good audio reproduction.

As such, someone looking for a backup phone, a first phone or even a replacement for an old budget handset will likely be wowed, this is a solid option, for there is certainly plenty to love.

Though the agitated power-hounds and spec heads will dismiss it outright, this is a cracking little handset, and shows that BQ could be a name to watch in years to come, especially as other phones become phablets.

First reviewed: June 2016