Smaller manufacturers from China prove again and again that a smartphone does not have to have a famous brand name in front of the model name to be good. Also Blackview: The manufacturer has so far made a name for itself with us primarily for inexpensive tablets (list of the best) and outdoor cell phones (list of the best). Now the first smartphone with an OLED display comes from the Hong Kong manufacturer.
The biggest and most important feature of the A200 Pro is its good value for money. For just around 235 Euro Buyers get a well-equipped smartphone with a great, if somewhat dark, screen, high-quality design that could also have been used on a flagship smartphone, a decent amount of performance and much more. The few compromises that you have to make with this smartphone are evident in the test.
Design and workmanship
All in all, the design of the Blackview A200 Pro can be described as successful. Everything is just right: the matt glass back with the shiny Blackview logo looks extremely elegant, and with the arrangement of the cameras on the back, the manufacturer is clearly taking its cues from the competition from Realme or Honor.
The front is characterized by the curved display, which also sets a premium accent thanks to its thin edges. And thanks to its thinness of 8.7 mm and weight of 194 g, the device is so light and comfortable to hold that it is simply fun to use. The workmanship is also first-class – we only noticed the slightly wobbly keys as a minor negative.
Display
The display is a small highlight of the Blackview A200 Pro. The 6.67-inch AMOLED panel has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels, which results in a fairly high pixel density of 395 ppi. The refresh rate is 120 Hz – no longer a rarity in this price range, but still nice to see; it can be downgraded to 90 Hz as an intermediate step to save power consumption. This ensures smooth movement of the screen contents when scrolling and opening menus.
The color reproduction is first-class, as are the viewing angles. It’s a shame that HDR is not supported. There is also no support for Widevine L1, so content on Netflix and Co. can be played at a maximum of 480p. The measured maximum brightness of our test device is around 500 cd/m² – unfortunately much lower than the 1300 cd/m² advertised on the product page. The always-on display is just a so-called sometimes-on display, which did not always remain active properly in the test.
Camera
The camera setup of the Blackview A200 Pro consists of a main camera with 108 megapixels, an ultra-wide-angle camera with 8 megapixels and an actually superfluous macro camera that has a measly 2 megapixel resolution.
The main camera takes really good pictures in good lighting conditions. The dynamic range and color representation are accurate, as is the sharpness and details. The 108 MP mode in particular gives the images a lot of detail; colors remain roughly the same in this mode.
Things look worse with the other two cameras: the ultra-wide-angle camera produces images that have unnaturally warm colors. On top of that, there is a lack of detail and sharpness in the photos, making the recordings less usable. The same thing happens with the macro camera, which needs a lot of light and time to take a picture, which is not really usable due to the lack of detail and color representation.
Videos can be recorded in a maximum of 2K at 30 frames per second and are relatively good thanks to the electronic image stabilization. The 16 megapixel selfie camera has a similarly natural color representation as the main camera, which was positive in the test. There wasn’t too much of a lack of sharpness and detail.
Blackview A200 Pro – original shots
Blackview A200 Pro – original shots
Furnishing
The MediaTek Helio G99 installed in the Blackview A200 Pro is not a monster, but it is not an entry-level chip either. The processor offers a lot of performance – which is initially less apparent in the benchmarks. The result of around 9200 points in PCmark Work 3.0 is rather mediocre, while the 1250 points in 3Dmark Wild Life are okay.
The everyday performance is completely impeccable regardless of these values. Apps and menus usually open after a few moments, and multitasking is also possible without any problems thanks to the impressive 12 GB of RAM. The A200 Pro has a bit of a hard time with 3D applications and other resource-intensive tasks, but it mostly performs well here too. The internal UFS 2.2 memory of 256 GB is sufficiently large to store a lot of content. It can also be expanded with a memory card if you forego the dual SIM functionality.
It’s difficult to accept the lack of support for 5G mobile communications in the A200 Pro’s price range. Users have to be content with the 4G, which is slowly becoming obsolete. Wi-Fi 6 is also not supported, only Wi-Fi 5 (according to IEEE 802.11ac). Bluetooth version 5.2 is installed. What is positive is that the smartphone has an e-compass and a gyroscope. The fingerprint sensor in the display was always able to recognize our test fingers without any problems, but it is positioned a little too far down for our taste. The built-in speakers sound relatively good. The call quality during phone calls also leaves nothing to be desired.
Blackview A200 Pro – photo series
Blackview A200 Pro – photo series
Software
The installed version of Android 13 comes with a user interface similar to Huawei EMUI. There are a few unnecessary apps pre-installed, but they can be removed. However, buyers should not expect regular updates here, as the security patch was already out of date at the time of testing.
battery pack
The battery life of the Blackview A200 Pro is great: the device managed a whopping 13.5 hours with its 5050 mAh battery in the PCmark battery test. In daily use, this usually resulted in around 7 hours of screen usage time, which is a solid value. It can easily last two days with moderate use. It is recharged with 66 watts, which ensures a short charging time of around an hour for 0 to 80 percent. However, the entire charging cycle takes almost 2 hours because the charging speed is reduced for the last 20 percent to protect the battery cells.
Preis
The Blackview A200 Pro is available here in the colors black, white and blue 235 Euro available. The only memory combination available is 12 GB of RAM paired with 256 GB of internal storage.
Alternatives
Conclusion
The Blackview A200 Pro really offers a lot of good technology for comparatively little money. The smartphone usage experience would be substantially better if common features such as a true always-on display, 5G connectivity or Widevine L1 were available. But that doesn’t deprive the device of its raison d’être – thanks to its numerous advantages and the price-performance ratio, which remains outstanding at the end of the day, the smartphone is a good choice if the competitors’ devices don’t appeal and you want to try something new.