Vernee Mars

It is apparent that Vernee attempts to offer consumers with an out of the world experience with its range of galactically-named smartphones.  The Mars model is a beautifully crafted phone and based on its marketing efforts, it is apparent that Vernee takes pride on the efforts invested in its design and build. At first glance, the Mars bears striking similarities with iPhone 6. It is built on an all metal body with 81 percent screen-to-body ratio.  The robustness of this smartphone is unquestionable as it is constructed with the 6000 series aluminium material. The dimensions of this smartphone measure at 151 x 73 x 7.6mm with a weight of 161g (with battery). On the display side, the screen in 5.5-in in size with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It features a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and it is remarkable how Vernee managed to make the bezel thinner at just 1mm wide. In terms of performance, the Mars runs on an octa-core Helio P10 processor, a chip building in eight Cortex-A53 cores which is less superior to the deca-core on its sibling, the Apollo Lite. This is nevertheless not a drawback to the Mars as performance of daily tasks on this processor is overall fluid and smooth. The difference will only show up on much more heavier tasks and gaming.

The available storage on this smartphone is 32GB (which is the standard these days) and it supports up to 128GB of removable storage via microSD. The 3000mAh cell is pretty standard too and is adequate to support a full day’s usage according to the company. Keep in mind though, these figures are usually far from the actual figures. Connectivity on this smartphone includes dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS and GLONASS, and OTG. It also has a dual-sim support module (with both supporting nano sim). In its attempt to appeal shutterbugs, Vernee claims the primary camera on the Mars is ‘perhaps the best 13MP camera so far’. It  feature a 13MP Sony IMX258 lens, which has an f/2.0 aperture, phase-detection autofocus and a dual-LED flash, plus support for full-HD video recording at 30fps. The front-facing camera is a 5MP Samsung S5K5E2. Vernee’s attention to detail is also apparent from its positioning of the fingerprint sensor on the Mars. It is side-mounted where fingers can naturally reach while picking up the phone. This allows the sensor to be activated lithely with either the right thumb or left index finger. The Mars runs on Android 6.0 OS. It is fitted with the USB type-C connector and is capable of quick charging. Overall, the Vernee Mars is an appealing, well-rounded phone which makes it an attractive option. 

Hands-on article of Jagadisa Rajarathnam