[Android General] mynameisthehulk:
I have used this device for the last week in place of my usual device, which is a Samsung Galaxy S7. Throughout the review I will compare the Nomu S20 to the S7, and other devices which I have owned in the past. It is important to note that, of course – the S7 is a far more expensive device and this will be reflected in my review.

The review will be split into the following sections:-

Initial Impressions

Build Quality and Ruggedness

Display

Day to Day Performance and Software

Benchmarks

Sound and Call Quality

Battery Life

Camera

Conclusion

Initial Impressions

The item comes in a rather plain brown box with the Nomu logo on the top. It contains a Charger, Cable and SIM tool. On first removing the phone from its protective bag, the first thing to strike you is how tough it looks and feel. The rubberised back looks very high end and gives a wonderful level of grip. This is the first way that you are reminded that this is no ordinary Smartphone, but one that has been designed to withstand more than your average level of knocks and bumps. There are a large number of videos you can find online of this phone having being pushed to its physical limitations and boy can it take a kicking. It is quite a weighty beast, but this really does give you confidence that it can handle being dropped or knocked and take it all in its stride. In short – it is built like a tank, but don’t let that lead you into thinking I am talking about an ugly device. It has an industrial beauty that wouldn’t look out place on the set of Blade Runner.

Build Quality and Ruggedness

With the Nomu S20 focussed very much in the “rugged” device space, you would expect it to be built exceedingly well, and that it is. With metal reinforced edges and a textured rubber back it feels to me very much like a premium device, more so than some flagship phones from large manufacturers that I have owned, for example the LG G3. There are removable flaps covering all the phones ports (SIM/SD, Charger, Headphone Jack) in order to ensure the phone is water and dust proof. I don’t have access to a lot of dust, but I have had the phone in the shower and left it dunked in the sink to test its waterproofing and can report that the device coped with it just as expected. Believe me this is no Sony Xperia Z, where the manufacturer tells you the device is waterproof but recommends you don’t actually use it in the water. My descriptions will not really do it justice though, I suggest you have a look at the following videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTnUpgfkOMg – Mentos and Cola!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOE1kvKe6ic – Smash it on a desk!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nom2agkfxjM – Try to destroy by any means necessary!

It is a little heavy for my tastes, however it needs to be in order to be able to take everything that is thrown at it in those videos, it is quite thick too – but considering you probably won’t need to bother with a case then it is pretty much the same as any other device once you include a decent protective casing.

Display

Impressive, very clear and very bright! 720p on a 5 inch screen is perfectly good enough resolution for watching TV and Movies on the go. The screen is very responsive to touch considering it appears to have a built in screen protector on it. I was tempted to remove it but I usually regret this type of thing as soon as I have done it as in my experience no matter what kind of glass is used on a display it eventually gets scratched. All in all I think the screen protector is a nice touch because they can be difficult to fit and for some phones difficult to find, so with the Nomu S20 you can be sure that your screen will be kept immaculate underneath

Day to Day Performance and Software

The MediaTek MT6737T SoC with 4 cores clocked at 1.5 Ghz is more than enough to handle everyday tasks at speed, I experienced little to no lag at any time when browsing even the most complex and advertising heavy websites or scrolling up and down my social media feeds. YouTube videos played promptly and I was easily able to throw these at my Smart TV. Sky Go was fine too and videos that were on my SD card played again without any hitches. I do not play games and did not attempt to use the Nomu but I don’t imagine it would struggle with Angry Birds, 3D games might be a bit of a stretch though.

It held a wireless connection as well as any other phone that I have owned and produced some good results on 4G speed tests, marginally slower and I mean very marginally slower than my S7 in the same places inside and outside the house.

The operating system seems very close to Vanilla Marshmallow and there is no bloat, not one item of bloatware and you cannot say fairer than that. There does seem to be some messaging customisation that I was prompted to try but it seem to be a direct translation from the Chinese language and I was not really sure what it was asking me, but it was easy enough to decline. The only bug I was able to find was with the battery monitor, with the graph not always displaying when you open this options through settings. Hopefully that will be resolve with an update.

Benchmarks

Antutu 38451

Geekbench Single Core 633

Geekbench Multi Core 1748

These scores are in line with the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the HTC One (M8) so flagship devices 2 or 3 years ago – pretty impressive for a ruggedised device that you can pick up for £120!

Sound and Call Quality

Call quality was no different to the S7 or any other device I have been happy with, I could hear the caller clearly using the handset speaker, loud speaker and my Bluetooth headset. I cannot imagine that there will be any problems in this area. Probably a good time to mention that the Nomu S20 supports all UK LTE bands which is not always the case with devices from new manufacturer.

The speaker. I haven’t mention it yet at all because if there was one thing on this device that really stood out it was the speaker. Waterproof and works underwater and boy, this thing is loud – really loud. I owned the HTC One (M7) with Boomsound and the Nomu S20 is much, much louder – very clear too. The speaker is rear facing rather than front facing but it makes little difference when it has this much oomph! I had to keep the volume down just a couple of clicks above mute during day to day use otherwise you ran the risk of making yourself jump with every notification. It truly is amazing.

Battery

A 3000 mAh battery + a 720p 5 inch screen = awesome battery life. Again very impressive for a device in this class, 22% battery left after 36 hours with 5 hours screen on time. This was with Bluetooth and GPS on, auto brightness with dynamic contrast turned on. I sync my emails and other messages all day long. Browsing, social media and phone calls all going on too – so there is no danger and I mean no danger of this phone letting you down during the day. Ideal for people who are working outdoors.

Camera

The camera is functional, good enough for a few quick pics for social media. I think I have been spoiled with recent devices so I wasn’t able to reproduce the quality of low light shot that I get with the S7 but that is to be expected on a device in this price range. To pack all this performance into such a tough device there was always going to need to be a little compromise somewhere and the camera might be that area.

Conclusion

The Nomu S20 would be a great choice as a daily driver for a builder or anyone else who works outside and needs something that is going to withstand a few knocks. Although the focus is on the rugged nature of the device it does not compromise in any area other than the camera as far as I am concerned. With its all day battery, shock proofing, dust and waterproofing it is going to survive under the harshest of circumstances and the industrial look ensures that it really plays the part. No bloatware and the ultra-powerful speaker are genuine highlights for me, the speaker would not be out of place on a phone at £400 and I know that vanilla Android is always welcome for a lot of users.

I only have one active SIM so I was not able to test the dual SIM functionality. The SD card I used in the device was 32GB and supported without issue but I cannot comment on whether it is able to support larger SD cards.