Philips almost get it right with the all metal Philips S653H


philips S653H

While Phillips aren’t known for phones everywhere, they are making a space for themselves in China, and the newly leaked Philips S653H even had my attention!

Generally when we see Philips phones, they have been fine, ok, even ‘So so’, they so far they have yet to make me take a second look. The Philips S653H, is a bit different though.

The new phone features a new design, plus an all metal body measuring a compact 153.5 x 74.3 x 6.95mm. Although we’ve been fooled in the past, rumours say the Philips phone is a near borderless device, and we can see from the rear view some really rather elegant antennas and machining.

philips S653H

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A rear fingerprint scanner and dual LED flash are nice features too, as is the SIM trail with room for a 128SD card.

Even the hardware starts off well with a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display, 2Ghz Helio P10 chipset, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory and 8 mega-pixel camera, but where the phone face dives is with a rear 8 mega-pixel camera, and a battery of just 2550mAh! In comparison the recently leaked LeTV Le2 has a 16 mega-pixel rear camera plus 3000mAh battery, while the Meizu M3 Note has a 13 mega-pixel sensor plus 4100mAh battery!

Apparently Philips will try to sell the phone for just 799 Yuan. A good price, but with completion from Meizu, Xiaomi and LeTV in the future it’s not great. What are your thoughts?

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24 Comments

  1. Assefa Hanson
    April 10, 2016

    i think this is a good phone BUTTT competition from meizu, letv and xioami really puts it in the shade, relatively speaking, only way to tell is through performance, who knows maybe its 8mp camera will be good, maybe the battery is made by scud well im a dreamer so but in any case competition is good

  2. Yeti hand
    April 10, 2016

    why not? the battery is a bit small that’s the only problem for me

  3. Assefa Hanson
    April 10, 2016

    i think this is a good phone BUTTT competition from meizu, letv and xioami really puts it in the shade, relatively speaking, only way to tell is through performance, who knows maybe its 8mp camera will be good, maybe the battery is made by scud well im a dreamer so but in any case competition is good

  4. balcobomber25
    April 10, 2016

    I don’t like the design of it at all.

  5. G'n'T
    April 10, 2016

    Very uninspiring design. This one is for the Philips fan base only..

    • April 11, 2016

      Did you say Philips fan base?

      • ferdi
        April 12, 2016

        made me LOL too. But perhaps not as much of a joke as we think. I have had Philips bluetooth speakers/ headphones and put them on par with my $250 models. And there old backlit tv models were nice. I would recommend there HiFI stuff. NOt phones though! I tried to purchase ne of their last models but only place to buy from was dingjong and the price was waaay too much for the phone. They have the price nice with this release and I hope they do well.

        • April 12, 2016

          Exactly what I think too. Philips do quite a bit of stuff well, but phones are NOT one of those things! The price is nice and all but doesn’t seem compelling enough for the potential buyer to consider a rather unpopular phone brand I would assume.

  6. Yeti hand
    April 10, 2016

    why not? the battery is a bit small that’s the only problem for me

  7. balcobomber25
    April 10, 2016

    I don’t like the design of it at all.

  8. G'n'T
    April 10, 2016

    Very uninspiring design. This one is for the Philips fan base only..

    • Yash Garg
      April 11, 2016

      Did you say Philips fan base?

    • ferdi
      April 12, 2016

      made me LOL too. But perhaps not as much of a joke as we think. I have had Philips bluetooth speakers/ headphones and put them on par with my $250 models. And there old backlit tv models were nice. I would recommend there HiFI stuff. NOt phones though! I tried to purchase ne of their last models but only place to buy from was dingjong and the price was waaay too much for the phone. They have the price nice with this release and I hope they do well.

    • Yash Garg
      April 12, 2016

      Exactly what I think too. Philips do quite a bit of stuff well, but phones are NOT one of those things! The price is nice and all but doesn’t seem compelling enough for the potential buyer to consider a rather unpopular phone brand I would assume.

  9. MitsosDaBest
    April 11, 2016

    The design is not bad, although it kinda reminds me the nasty iPhones…

    The price of 800 Yuan is around $123, right? If yes, it’s a good value for money, but the battery is a bit small for 5,5″ screen…

    • VMortens
      April 11, 2016

      They sold their brand – Chinese are only using it as a label. It’s some Chinese OEM who releases it I bet. It definately isn’t Philips who manufacture them.

      • careeste
        April 11, 2016

        China Electronics Corporation bought the phillips smartphone division long time ago in 2007.I used to have a phillips phone back in the day. The chinese phillips phones are still sold in europe especially their xenium line known for good batery. But speaking of the new comer i must say that is the first ‘phillips’ that looks decent .

  10. Begbie
    April 11, 2016

    The battery is a bit small, however I like the design. LTE B20 could be a huge advantage over Meizu, and Xiaomi phones, but I would like to see those bezels with screen on before I can consider this worth buying.

  11. MitsosDaBest
    April 11, 2016

    The design is not bad, although it kinda reminds me of the ugly iPhones…

    The price of 800 Yuan is around $123, right? If yes, it’s a good value for money, but the battery is a bit small for 5,5″ screen… I hope it gets Updates and an 800MHz EU 4G band and will be a great deal.

    Philips is a very well known company in Europe (not for smartphones). It used to have its base in Netherlands and make different products (TVs, lamps etc), but now I think that Chinese bought it.

    • VMortens
      April 11, 2016

      They sold their brand – Chinese are only using it as a label. It’s some Chinese OEM who releases it, I bet. It definately isn’t Philips who manufacture them.

    • careeste
      April 11, 2016

      China Electronics Corporation bought the phillips smartphone division long time ago in 2007.I used to have a phillips phone back in the day. The chinese phillips phones are still sold in europe especially their xenium line known for good batery. But speaking of the new comer i must say that is the first ‘phillips’ that looks decent .

  12. Guest
    April 11, 2016

    The battery is a bit small, however I like the design. LTE B20 could be a huge advantage over Meizu, and Xiaomi phones, but I would like to see those bezels with screen on before I can consider this worth buying.

  13. Muhammad Yasir
    April 11, 2016

    pricing is good.

  14. Guest
    April 11, 2016

    pricing is good.