Wiko Highway Star 4G and Highway Pure 4G hands-on

Wiko announced two new smartphones yesterday and we have the hands-on impressions for you now. The Highway Star 4G and Highway Pure 4G are are both quite the lookers but also boast impressive specs.

The higher end of the duo is the Highway Star 4G and rocks a matte aluminum unibody with flat front glass. It also comes in various color options like Silver, Gold, Grey and Bleen (the cyan one).

Wiko Highway Star 4G

The Wiko Highway Star 4G is very thin and light and is among the easiest 5-inchers to handle. It’s just 6.6mm thin and 123 grams light making it quite easy on the pocket. Still the Wiko Highway Star 4G boasts a 2,450mAh battery inside its metallic shell. The screen on the front is a 5″ 1280 x 720px AMOLED display of 296ppi sharpness, deep blacks, vivid colors and superb contrast. Viewing angles are impressive on it as well. Covering the display is Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Wiko Highway Star 4G

The Highway Star 4G has dual-SIM abilities courtesy of a microSIM and nanoSIM-slash-microSD card slot combo so you have to choose between expandable storage and a second SIM card. There’s a 1.5GHz octa-core processor based on ARM’s Cortex-A53 architecture, 2GB of RAM and nearly stock Android 4.4.4 with a drawer-less custom-made launcher on top.

Wiko has made the Highway Star 4G beautifully. The display on the front sits flush with the surrounding surface thanks to its AMOLED panel’s deep blacks. The aluminum shell housing the entirety of the phone is matte and hard to slip out of your hands.

The display is gorgeous and at first could be easily mistaken for a higher-res panel. The surface is slightly elevated over the edges of the phone. This could potentially make it susceptible to scratches but you’ve got Gorilla Glass 3 there to keep it safe.

Wiko Highway Star 4G

Wiko Highway Pure 4G

The lower end device has an angle of its own. The Wiko Highway Pure 4G boasts a 4.8″ AMOLED screen, it is just 5.1mm thick and weighs merely 98g, making it one of the lightest devices of this size. Wiko has achieved this by using glass-like plastic on the back of the phone as well as a 720p AMOLED screen that requires one less layer compared to LCDs.

The Highway Pure 4G has a Snapdragon 410 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 16GB non-expandable storage built in. There’s only one SIM card in the Wiko Highway Pure 4G. The thin frame still accommodates a 2,000mAh battery, 8MP camera on the back and a 5MP one on the front.

Wiko Highway Pure 4G

The Wiko Highway Pure 4G may be inferior to the Highway Star 4G but still boasts a lot of appeal. It feels incredibly small and very thin. If you’re into thinner phones this one will grab your attention. It’s also built with a lot of focus on design and colors. Its two-toned color options are aimed directly at feminine users. It will come in White and Silver, Black and Grey, Black and Gold and Black and Bleen.

The Highway Pure 4G runs the same Wiko launcher without a drawer, on top of Android KitKat 4.4.4. Its highlights are its vibrant colors and rounded icons. The preset wallpapers are also very colorful but carefully made so that they also boast a lot of blacks to accentuate the advantages of the AMOLED panel.

Wiko Highway Pure 4G

Still underlying the launcher is stock Android KitKat and you can always customize the Highway Pure 4G.

Wiko isn’t saying anything about the price of its two new phones but we expect them to be priced in the midrange to upper midrange.