New and hungry chinese startup company VerneeΒ is trying agressively to establish a foothold in the market and the are planning to release three phone models this year. First one is the Vernee Thor, which is being already delivered to the customers these days and as the flagship there will be the Vernee Apollo model expected to appear somewhere in July.
But the next one to show up will be the cheaper Apollo version Vernee Apollo Lite and we finally have the full specs of the model along with the official market release date.
Gizchina News of the week
So what’s going to Vernee Apollo Lite offer ? Here what’s confirmed : 5.5-inch SHARP FullHD IGZO display with the “blue light” protection, deca-core Helio X20 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz, 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM, 32 GB of eMMC 5.1 storage (expandable up to 128 GB), 16 MPix rear camera with Samsung S5K3P3 sensor (6 lenses, ISOCELL, RWWB), front 5 MPix cam with Samsung S5K5E2 sensor, 3180 mAh battery capacity, Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the Vernee OS on top of it, USB Type-C connector with audio connector support but the usual 3.5mm jack is kept intact too, Pump Express 3.0 fast charge support, full metal body, dual SIM support and OTG. What’s worth mentioning is the open source kernel available for the model, just like for the Thor.
I’ve ordered the Vernee Thor as early user reviews on facebook have been good and the camera pics look very promising.
It’s the best 5″ phone for price and specs around.
I wouldn’t say the best, the Infocus V5 is about 100$ and has pretty much equal specs.
interesting. getting pretty positive feedback on xda. might need to look into this one
Infocus is ugly, cost 35$ more than the thor and has a smaller battery (2400mah instead og the 2850mah of the vernee). And i didn t check the 4g frequencies and other stuff.Vernee thor is far better
Good point.
It’s a toss up between the Thor having 720p screen and finger scanner, to the Infocus V5 having 1080p, smaller memory, and no finger scanner. The Thor has the bonus of open source kernel which means community support and ability.
I was interested in buying my Mum a Vernee Thor to replace a pensioner style non-android phone. She wouldn’t care about the finger scanner so the 1080p screen is a benefit.
I should say, for this price range both are pretty good. Only difference is that people hardly know about Infocus phones. There is also a variant with 3GB and 3GB, only in Rose gold unfortunately.
But I also know that everyone is excited for tryout a new brand like Vernee.
Yeah I skipped their presence, so thank for revealing their good offering to customers. The 1080p brings them on par with Vernee’s quality of manufacturing.
Battery is rather small for my taste, and I really like more the design of the other apollo… But it looks good nonetheless on paper… Now, let’s wait for reviews… Surely the open sources could be a ground breaker!
I dont like the design neither. The non-lite version looks much better but its also going to be sold for double the price of lite…
Yeah, it will cost more, plus it’ll have a 2k display which, for my personal taste, it’s just a waste of battery, so I won’t even consider it… Too bad I really like that mate 8 clone xD
agreed. i won’t consider a 2K phone at this time. for my needs, its just a battery waster
All I see between the two are two rectangular bricks…..
Battery really is small. 4200 mAh would have been a lot better. But is it Dual SIM and SD card or is it a hybrid slot again….
with pump express 3.0, we don’t need worry about the endurance and daily using i think
We have no other choice than wait for oukitel k6000 premium for an upper midrange with a good battery… ?
PS: surely it’s an hybrid sim/sd slot, there are no reasons to believe otherwise
The Thor lasts really well, I’m getting over 2 days of use including lots of pic taking.
what kind of cell signal are you getting on the Thor in the US? 3G, 4G, LTE?? How are you liking it?
Sorry I’m UK based, but loving the phone, far better than expected for price paid, especially as I got it for $99. Only small negative I have is body shape and curved screen makes it too easy to accidentally touch options at screen edge if walking with (say camera) app left open. No complaints otherwise. Camera itself is pretty good, nice exposure, sharp edge to edge, little to no flare in direct light, better than average detail. Very happy.
Where are you getting your phones from in the UK, I’ve been using gearbest for a while but they have messed up some large orders recently. The nks
I actually got it from Gearbest and in record time (for them) using standard post, but I’ve heard they now have usual delays dispatching. Everybuying are doing it for $113 on special email link http://www.everbuying.net/product1158510.html but don’t know how quickly they’ll dispatch. They usually have a slightly better rep than Gearbest.
Oppomart have it for $99 (+ P&P) with code VENE20
compared with Umi Super $249.99 price tag, i have no other choice to go away from Apollo Lite i think. considering that we won’t never get LeEco Le 2 at the same price released in China, this one would be a good choice so far.
Also you get 70 USD off if you get the phone under the presale = 180 USD for the UMi Super. Why should we buy the Apollo Lite for an increased price when they havent added any extra features to make up for the higher price tag?
Yes, but the problem is that Vernee is still a new company and we don’t know if she’s good… UMi is a bad company (most people know it) and a complete waste of money. =)
Overkill on that Employer.
No, actually I am just a normal person from Europe and have nothing to do with Umi π
no matter what price tag Apollo Lite set, i think it’s much better than $249.99 Umi Super. the marketing of UMI Super maybe is that set a much high price and give people a $70 coupon to purchase, personally i don’t think this trap will work again, because they used too many times, and we all can tell if Umi Super worthes $249.99 and how much is the benefit of “$70”.
When they first revealed this phone Vernee said they price would be 199 USD. Now they increased the price to 230 USD with no extra features added to make up for the higher price. Really bad marketing..
Also this is NOT the full spec for the phone, where are the official dimensions and weight?
u sure about the old price ?
Yeah, they posted the 199 USD price tag when it was first revealed, on both facebook and their blog. You can easily find that information on this site if you look at the old news.
You’re a UMi employee, so what you’re preparing to kill Apollo? Umi superman against Apollo? Lol
what does RWWB mean ?
If I’m not wrong, it’s supposed to mean Red-White-White-Blue… It’s referring to colours’ filters: it’s supposed to gain more sharpness and less noise in low light conditions, due to how sensors work and the fact that, in the past, sensors were oriented to privilege Green filters (RGGB) because human eyes tend to privilege green light as well, but that kind of ruined low light shots because it did not filtered white light as it was supposed to, resulting in a bad balance of red and blue, thus noise and orange-ly colours…
But keep in mind that I’m no professional, so everything I’ve said could be wrong and, even then, pics taken from this could not be as great as it sounds on paper xD
but im still hopeful … Vernee are looking tasty by the moment but only a review will tell us what their real intentions are !
The best intentions in the world don’t translate in “skill” automatically xD so maybe they just won’t be good enough to build something worth even if they want to… I’m not hopeful nor hopeless: just waiting for actual reviews before being judgmental xD
You are pretty much correct but the extra W is a typo above. RWB stands for Red, White, Blue color filter. RWB is supposed to enhance color and light sensitivity. Samsung has done an excellent job with their ISOCELL sensors. This particular sensor (S5K3P3) is going to be used in a number of phones this year including the Gionee S8.
OMG is Oh My Gionee!! I am just waiting for an S8 review to read your comments under it balco. ?
There are none right now. From what I can gather it doesn’t start shipping till end of this month.
But how does the Isocell stand up against the Sony imx 230 camera sensor, that you have on Le Max 2?!
It looks so good, but I’m afraid to go with an unknown company again. Have not really been satisfied with the Elephone P6000 and iNew V3. Debating what phone to go for, LeEco Le2, Redmi Note 3 Pro, Nubia Z11
Z11
the three phones you listed are pretty safe bets. pretty reliable companies, all of them. I’m optimistic about Vernee mainly due to the positive responses to the Thor
Go away umi and oukitel employees, sounds awesome with those specs and price, the upgrade is, I think it will have helio x25, not x20. Worth the price, I hope the camera and software are good.
lol , umi and ouki employees are here ?
Read the comments below π
i see π
I couldn’t care less about the software Verne’s put on here since the kernel is freaking available to the public!!! Can’t wait for the custom ROMs.
Dat is an ugly phone. Nice specs, but still ugly
I would call it “typical” as in nothing new or exciting, but it don’t think its ugly.
me too, i don’t like Oneplus looks either, but you will like it after use for months
All I see is a rectangular brick…..
My Vernee Thorn arrives end of this week! Excited to try this brand out, I will be using it for about 2 weeks before giving it to a younger family member as a graduation gift.
Had it for a week. Enjoying the camera quite a lot, an ON AR1330 sensor with Largon lens they reckon.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/2axc1lzis8il7/Vernee_Thor
Yay! This Apollo Lite is top of my list right now, but I’m waiting for your thoughts on the Thor first. Very interested in the software and what kind of reception you get in the US
Be interested in your review,
From what I’ve seen the Thor should meet your expectations as a backup/travel phone, as you’re used to, would. Just a friendly guess haha
But of course don’t forget to update us about your impressions.
Seems like no NFC. I like the item “Open Kernel Code”. Now wait for the specs for the full Apollo.
How the hell is this “lite”..seems great specs for me
This lite trend it’s really killing it for me, why can’t they do a normal and a PRO version instead?
May be because all the others are doing so.
its definitely “lite” compared to the regular Apollo. but its plenty good for me
Yup, all is great except the battery
can live with that battery also…not the best but definitely worth 1 day charge
Wait for X50 π …..MX5 is fast enough π
I’ve ordered the Vernee Thor as early user reviews on facebook have been good and the camera pics look very promising.
It’s the best 5″ phone for price and specs around.
I wouldn’t say the best, the Infocus V5 is about 100$ and has pretty much equal specs.
interesting. getting pretty positive feedback on xda. might need to look into this one
Infocus is ugly, cost 35$ more than the thor and has a smaller battery (2400mah instead og the 2850mah of the vernee). And i didn t check the 4g frequencies and other stuff.Vernee thor is far better
Good point.
It’s a toss up between the Thor having 720p screen and finger scanner, to the Infocus V5 having 1080p, smaller memory, and no finger scanner. The Thor has the bonus of open source kernel which means community support and ability.
I was interested in buying my Mum a Vernee Thor to replace a pensioner style non-android phone. She wouldn’t care about the finger scanner so the 1080p screen is a benefit.
I should say, for this price range both are pretty good. Only difference is that people hardly know about Infocus phones. There is also a variant with 3GB and 32GB, only in Rose gold unfortunately.
But I also know that everyone is excited for tryout a new brand like Vernee.
Yeah I skipped their presence, so thank for revealing their good offering to customers. The 1080p brings them on par with Vernee’s quality of manufacturing.
Battery is rather small for my taste, and I really like more the design of the other apollo… But it looks good nonetheless on paper… Now, let’s wait for reviews… Surely the open sources could be a ground breaker!
I dont like the design neither. The non-lite version looks much better but its also going to be sold for double the price of lite…
Yeah, it will cost more, plus it’ll have a 2k display which, for my personal taste, it’s just a waste of battery, so I won’t even consider it… Too bad I really like that mate 8 clone xD
agreed. i won’t consider a 2K phone at this time. for my needs, its just a battery waster
All I see between the two are two rectangular bricks…..
Battery really is small. 4200 mAh would have been a lot better. But is it Dual SIM and SD card or is it a hybrid slot again….
with pump express 3.0, we don’t need worry about the endurance and daily using i think
We have no other choice than wait for oukitel k6000 premium for an upper midrange with a good battery… π
PS: surely it’s an hybrid sim/sd slot, there are no reasons to believe otherwise
The Thor lasts really well, I’m getting over 2 days of use including lots of pic taking.
what kind of cell signal are you getting on the Thor in the US? 3G, 4G, LTE?? How are you liking it?
Sorry I’m UK based, but loving the phone, far better than expected for price paid, especially as I got it for $99. Only small negative I have is body shape and curved screen makes it too easy to accidentally touch options at screen edge if walking with (say camera) app left open. No complaints otherwise. Camera itself is pretty good, nice exposure, sharp edge to edge, little to no flare in direct light, better than average detail. Very happy.
Where are you getting your phones from in the UK, I’ve been using gearbest for a while but they have messed up some large orders recently. The nks
I actually got it from Gearbest and in record time (for them) using standard post, but I’ve heard they now have usual delays dispatching. Everybuying are doing it for $113 on special email link http://www.everbuying.net/product1158510.html but don’t know how quickly they’ll dispatch. They usually have a slightly better rep than Gearbest.
Oppomart have it for $99 (+ P&P) with code VENE20
compared with Umi Super $249.99 price tag, i have no other choice to go away from Apollo Lite i think. considering that we won’t never get LeEco Le 2 at the same price released in China, this one would be a good choice so far.
Also you get 70 USD off if you get the phone under the presale = 180 USD for the UMi Super. Why should we buy the Apollo Lite for an increased price when they havent added any extra features to make up for the higher price tag?
Yes, but the problem is that Vernee is still a new company and we don’t know if she’s good… UMi is a bad company (most people know it) and a complete waste of money. =)
Overkill on that Employer.
no matter what price tag Apollo Lite set, i think it’s much better than $249.99 Umi Super. the marketing of UMI Super maybe is that set a much high price and give people a $70 coupon to purchase, personally i don’t think this trap will work again, because they used too many times, and we all can tell if Umi Super worthes $249.99 and how much is the benefit of “$70”.
No, actually I am just a normal person from Europe and have nothing to do with Umi π
When they first revealed this phone Vernee said they price would be 199 USD. Now they increased the price to 230 USD with no extra features added to make up for the higher price. Really bad marketing..
Also this is NOT the full spec for the phone, where are the official dimensions and weight?
u sure about the old price ?
Yeah, they posted the 199 USD price tag when it was first revealed, on both facebook and their blog. You can easily find that information on this site if you look at the old news.
what does RWWB mean ?
If I’m not wrong, it’s supposed to mean Red-White-White-Blue… It’s referring to colours’ filters: it’s supposed to gain more sharpness and less noise in low light conditions, due to how sensors work and the fact that, in the past, sensors were oriented to privilege Green filters (RGGB) because human eyes tend to privilege green light as well, but that kind of ruined low light shots because it did not filtered white light as it was supposed to, resulting in a bad balance of red and blue, thus noise and orange-ly colours…
But keep in mind that I’m no professional, so everything I’ve said could be wrong and, even then, pics taken from this could not be as great as it sounds on paper xD
but im still hopeful … Vernee are looking tasty by the moment but only a review will tell us what their real intentions are !
The best intentions in the world don’t translate in “skill” automatically xD so maybe they just won’t be good enough to build something worth even if they want to… I’m not hopeful nor hopeless: just waiting for actual reviews before being judgmental xD
You are pretty much correct but the extra W is a typo above. RWB stands for Red, White, Blue color filter. RWB is supposed to enhance color and light sensitivity. Samsung has done an excellent job with their ISOCELL sensors. This particular sensor (S5K3P3) is going to be used in a number of phones this year including the Gionee S8.
But how does the Isocell stand up against the Sony imx 230 camera sensor, that you have on Le Max 2?!
OMG is Oh My Gionee!! I am just waiting for an S8 review to read your comments under it balco. π
There are none right now. From what I can gather it doesn’t start shipping till end of this month.
It looks so good, but I’m afraid to go with an unknown company again. Have not really been satisfied with the Elephone P6000 and iNew V3. Debating what phone to go for, LeEco Le2, Redmi Note 3 Pro, Nubia Z11
Z11
the three phones you listed are pretty safe bets. pretty reliable companies, all of them. I’m optimistic about Vernee mainly due to the positive responses to the Thor
Go away umi and oukitel employees.
Sounds awesome with those specs and price, the upgrade is, I think, it will have helio x25, not x20. Worth the price, I hope the camera and software are good.
lol , umi and ouki employees are here ?
Read the comments below π
i see π
I couldn’t care less about the software Verne’s put on here since the kernel is freaking available to the public!!! Can’t wait for the custom ROMs.
Dat is an ugly phone. Nice specs, but still ugly
I would call it “typical” as in nothing new or exciting, but it don’t think its ugly.
me too, i don’t like Oneplus looks either, but you will like it after use for months
All I see is a rectangular brick…..
My Vernee Thorn arrives end of this week! Excited to try this brand out, I will be using it for about 2 weeks before giving it to a younger family member as a graduation gift.
Had it for a week. Enjoying the camera quite a lot, an ON AR1330 sensor with Largon lens they reckon.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/2axc1lzis8il7/Vernee_Thor
Yay! This Apollo Lite is top of my list right now, but I’m waiting for your thoughts on the Thor first. Very interested in the software and what kind of reception you get in the US
Be interested in your review,
From what I’ve seen the Thor should meet your expectations as a backup/travel phone, as you’re used to, would. Just a friendly guess haha
But of course don’t forget to update us about your impressions.
Seems like no NFC. I like the item “Open Kernel Code”. Now wait for the specs for the full Apollo.
How the hell is this “lite”..seems great specs for me
This lite trend it’s really killing it for me, why can’t they do a normal and a PRO version instead?
its definitely “lite” compared to the regular Apollo. but its plenty good for me
Yup, all is great except the battery
May be because all the others are doing so.
can live with that battery also…not the best but definitely worth 1 day charge
Wait for X50 π …..MX5 is fast enough π
This is looking great on the paper, cutting edges specs for a few, specially when you consider the inferior P9000 being more expensive.
When the reviews show up the reality I’ll might cobsider getting one.
This is looking great on the paper, cutting edges specs for a few, specially when you consider the inferior P9000 being more expensive.
When the reviews show up the reality I’ll might consider getting one.
Seems like the best deal out there! X20,4GB ram for 220 bucks. The bad is that they don’t provide complete Stock Android and the average battery.
I think the Android is very close to Stock, if you check Thor for example… Generally and Hopefully Vernee OS may be just a launcher.
Yup, just saw the Thor unboxing and the OS is pure Android. This is nice. When I saw Vernee OS I thought this would be something like EMUI of Huawei or EUI of Le Tv and so on.
I hope not, EUI is terrible :X Anyway I know a group of developers that should be working aside Vernee, so some good things like CM13 should pop out for their devices.
Seems like the best deal out there! X20,4GB ram for 220 bucks. The bad is that they don’t provide complete Stock Android and the average battery.
I think the Android is very close to Stock, if you check Thor for example… Generally and Hopefully Vernee OS may be just a launcher.
Yup, just saw the Thor unboxing and the OS is pure Android. This is nice. When I saw Vernee OS I thought this would be something like EMUI of Huawei or EUI of Le Tv and so on.
I hope not, EUI is terrible :X Anyway I know a group of developers that should be working aside Vernee, so some good things like CM13 should pop out for their devices.
Vernee Apollo Lite is now available in china markets π
But i already have bought a Bluboo Maya at $69.99,The shipping of bluboo maya has already begins from 10th of july,Now i am just waiting to get it in my hands.