While many budget-friendly mobile phones cut a lot of corners to achieve the desired price point, the EE Rook has been designed whilst thinking out of the box. It has a list of respectable features while maintaining a very reasonable price tag. It comes with 4G connectivity, the Android 5.1 operating system. a 5-megapixel rear snapper, and a 65-bit quad-core processor.
The EE Rook Brings a Reasonable Wealth of Specs and Features at a Budget Price
In terms of design, the EE Rook won’t win any awards, but it doesn’t mean that it looks hauntingly ugly. In fact, it’s not disappointing to look at, at all. It has a design that may look like a throwback to smartphones that had been released from the previous decade. Its simplicity also brings an easy-to-use phone that is solidly built. For many, these are the aspects that truly counts.
It is very light as it only weighs 130-grams, but it is a bit heavier than other phones such as the Alcatel OneTouch Pixi 3 4.5 (which weighs 130-grams). The design is in a classic candy-bar style, and it does not take up too much room as it only has a miniscule 4-inch screen. Therefore, placing it inside your jeans pocket is by no means a hassle.
The Rook is finished with matte black at the back, while it is glossy on the front. Perhaps the only bit of color here is the yellow ring that encircles the rear snapper. Other than that, every other design element looks fairly standard.
Unsurprisingly, the mobile phone has a screen quality below par. Viewing angles are not the best that you can see in a smartphone and it can be unforgiving even for its price point. This is also the biggest shortcoming of this particular device.
When you tilt the phone upwards or downwards, the screen will either look almost completely black or white. Hence, the only reasonable perspective is viewing the screen straight on. This is not very practical, especially when you want to show something from the phone to your friends.
Display brightness is not that great either; so much so that the phone is quite useless to be used under direct sunlight. However, it still works okay when using it indoors. Color reproduction is pretty decent and the 480 x 800 resolution is reasonable for a phone with a diminutive size.
Because it’s a budget phone, then you won’t expect anything great from the EE Rook. While it does offer above average hardware specs and a decent hardware, you’re still going to have to deal with the poor brightness and disappointing viewing angles.