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Oukitel C22 hands-on: Affordable Android with a good-sized battery
Oukitel C22 Android phone
pros and cons
- Long-lasting 4,000mAh battery
- Good camera features
- No OEM OS bloatware
- Phone pre-built with Simplified Chinese language
- Will not work with CDMA carriers in US
- No NFC
- No wireless charging
The Oukitel C22 Android phone is a nice, affordable, slimline phone with pared-down features and decent battery size.
The phone is nice, with a curved glass back and a clear silicone protector cover. Its 5.86-inch HD display has a small bezel giving it a good screen view. Its dimensions are 148 x 70 x 8.9mm and it is light weighing in at 178g.
Inside the device, there is a MediaTek T6761 64-bit chipset running at 2.0GHz, and a PowerVR GE8300 GPU. The phone comes with 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM, which is extendable up to 256GB with a TF card in the second SIM slot.
The Oukitel C22 has three rear cameras, delivering up to 13MP images. There is a main camera with an aperture of f2.2, an f2.4 blur lens, and an f2.4 2MP macro lens, which takes really good images at less than 2cm distance.
The front-facing camera is 8MP and has an interesting setting: A selfie panorama. You can record the view around you when you take your selfie. Portrait mode blurs the background -- to give a bokeh effect behind you.
There is also a feature to add stickers to your images, scan QR codes, take images at night, panorama shots, and time-lapse photos. Post image manipulation is basic.
The C22's battery is 4,000mAh and will take a 10W fast charge. It does charge really quickly compared to other phones I have reviewed.
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The C22 has face and fingerprint ID, which is reliable and fairly fast; it will recognize you in low light wearing glasses or not. The fingerprint sensor is on the back of the phone so you can use either hand to authenticate.
One thing to note that might be a showstopper for you. Although the phone is unlocked, it does have the following limitations. It does not work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, Boost Mobile, Straight Talk, or USCellular.
However, the C22 can work with GSM carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Metro PCS. Oukitel recommends that you check your SIM frequency band before purchasing the phone. It supports FDD-LTE：B2/4/5/7/12/17/28A/28B and WCDMA: B2 / B4 / B5.
The operating system is standard Android 10, and I am very pleased about that. When the phone arrived, it had already been set up but was configured for the simplified Chinese language.
I had no idea how to search for, or get to the reset settings to rebuild the phone. Fortunately, I am currently also trying out an F150 rugged phone to write about next week, and it has the same icon configurations in the settings menu.
This enabled me to work through the English version, matching the icons to the simplified Chinese version to add the English language and delete the simplified Chinese language.
The C22 does not have NFC, which could be an issue if you use NFC regularly. It also will not charge wirelessly.
There are no OEM extras on the C22 and no bloatware to show the device down. This OS is a pared-down system for you to configure as you want.
This version of Android can power on and off the device to give you dedicated time without any disturbances. Digital wellbeing and parental controls enable you to set restrictions on other users' screen time.
All in all, at under $170, the Oukitel C22 is an affordable phone with a great camera and reasonable performance, which is extendable to suit your storage requirements.
Apart from the language issues I had, there is little to dislike about the C22, and the simplicity of the phone will suit anyone -- no matter what age.