Vernee Apollo 2
It has been clear since the beginning of last year that Vernee is planning an Apollo 2 smartphone. Although a first prototype with a MediaTek Helio X2017 processor was already on display at MWC 30 and a possible sales start was to take place in May, the Apollo successor has been quiet for the past few months. At MWC 2018, Vernee will again have the Vernee Apollo 2 with them. Even before the official presentation, the smartphone appeared in the GearBest product range, which is why sales can be expected soon.
Below we refer to the pre-published data, which serve as a guide until the official presentation of the smartphone. With the presentation on the MWC 2018 the contribution is supplemented accordingly!
Design and display
The design of last year's prototype is history. According to the first teasers, Vernee relies on a slim, almost rimless smartphone with a simple front. Following the current trend, the Apollo 2 will be equipped with a 6 inch display, which according to the first information has a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. This results in an aspect ratio of 18: 9. The upper and lower distances between the display and the frame are extremely small, which is why the home button on the prototype has also disappeared. With regard to the housing materials, the smartphone will be made of metal and available in black and red.
Processor and memory
Equipped with a powerful MediaTek Helio X30 processor, the Vernee Apollo 2 would no longer be the first smartphone to use this system-on-chip, but it would still be one of the few Chinese smartphones that use this processor. So far, only the Meizu Pro 7 (Plus) with Helio X30 SoC has been released. The system-on-chip, manufactured using the 10 nm process, consists of a total of 10 processor cores (Deca-Core). For more efficient work, the cores are divided into a total of 3 clusters. The clusters consist of a performance cluster consisting of two ARM Cortex-A73 cores with 2.6 GHz clock rate, a working cluster with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores (2.2 GHz) and a power-saving cluster with four ARM Cortex-A35 cores (1.9 GHz). Compared to a Helio X20 SoC, the Helio X30 promises an increased performance of 35% and at the same time reduced power consumption of 50%. In terms of performance, the Helio X30 promises decent everyday performance, even if it cannot keep up with the current competition from Qualcomm from a benchmark point of view.
For graphic applications, especially mobile games, the system-on-chip is equipped with an IMG PowerVR 7XTP-MT4 GPU. The memory equipment of the Vernee Apollo 2 amounts to a 6GB DDR4X memory and a 128GB flash memory. It is not yet known whether Vernee will opt for UFS 2.1 or eMMC5.1 storage. It will be possible to expand the memory using a microSD memory card.
Camera, battery and others
The rear main camera will consist of a dual camera system. The main sensor should resolve with 16 megapixels, the auxiliary sensor in turn with 13 megapixels. More is not yet known about the main camera. The front camera is based on an 8 megapixel image sensor. It could be interesting with the battery. According to the GearBest product listing, this should offer a capacity of 5000 mAh. The charging socket is of the USB-C type.
In mobile communications, the Apollo 2 should support the 2G, 3G and 4G mobile phone bands that are common in this country. The SIM slot is a so-called “hybrid slot” that can be equipped with two nano-SIM cards or alternatively with a nano-SIM and a microSD memory card. There is a rear fingerprint scanner. The operating system on the smartphone should already be Android 8 upon delivery.
