[section_title title=”Performance”]Performance
The benchmarks I have run on the B15 do leave much to be desired, this clearly isn’t one of the most powerful smartphones on the market, but is it a good smartphone none the less? To answer that I used the phone for a few days, installing the applications I use personally on a daily basis. These consisted of Facebook, Twitter and Tapatalk, as well as Skype and a few other applications. There is clearly no point in having a smartphone if it cannot be used as one. Whilst the applications I tested are clearly specific to my needs they are more than likely going to be used by plenty of people who purchase the B15.
Testing the CAT B15 using the applications mentioned previously, I found that almost all of them ran perfectly (though this is also down to how well optimized the applications are), Skype being the biggest perpetrator of crashing or freezing up at times, although this has been reported by various people across different devices, so clearly isn’t specific to the B15. I found my regular day to day usage perfectly in-line with how a smartphone should perform.
The applications used were fluid and I encounter no problems what so ever, the menu systems where smooth and the touch screen was extremely responsive. When taking photos or video with the phone, the application worked as I expected. Though the camera itself is not one of the best I have used on a smartphone, the images where reasonably clear in normal lighting conditions, which is to be expected from the camera specifications on the B15.
As I stated earlier I used the B15 the same way I would use my own personal smartphone, I found I was surprised at the battery life that it was capable of sustaining. The 2000 mah battery lasted quite well, I use my mobile devices for social media and text messaging over calls. Having a device with a long battery life is something we all want in life, and there is nothing worse than having your phone die on you when you need it the most.
In addition to how well the B15 performed when using applications, I also tested the call quality, I called various people across different networks to gather a varied test of the call quality and in almost all instances the quality of the calls were excellent. I could hear people clearly and they could also hear me. Calling people in different networks gave me a means test to whether the quality was down to signal strength or not. I also tested the phones loud speaker during these calls. Whilst at high volume the speaker was slightly distorted, but, overall the quality of the calls were excellent.
