Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Русский
Türkçe
Svenska
Chinese
MagyarWiko Rainbow Lite Smartphone Review
For the original German review, see here.
Inexpensive smartphones are in high demand right now: not all users require Full-HD resolution or a high-end metal case design. Plenty of potential buyers are just looking for a phone they can live with and which allows them to be reachable. Wiko offers exactly that: a plastic, no-frills design equipped with an entry-level quad-core processor and a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels for a price of 119 Euro (~$130).
Other phones catering towards budget-conscious buyers are the Motorola Moto E, the Microsoft Lumia 532, the Samsung Galaxy J1 and the Sony Xperia E4g.
Case
The Wiko Rainbow Lite doesn't exactly make a design statement, but the black review smartphone with its rounded corners and soft-touch finish is quite comfortable to hold. Although the back of the phone is non-slip, it is also somewhat of a fingerprint magnet. The back can be removed to access the battery as well as the micro-SD and the two SIM card slots.
The 5-inch smartphone weighs 160 grams and is both larger as well as heavier compared to theSamsung Galaxy J1 Smartphone Review competing phones. At a thickness of 8.9 mm the Wiko is pretty thin, however - only the Samsung Galaxy J1 can match it; the other smartphones are thicker.
Connectivity
The Wiko Rainbow Lite doesn't support LTE - for that feature, one would have to step up to the Motorola Moto E or the Sony Xperia E4g and pay about 10 Euro (~$11) more. As far as the storage space is concerned, the review smartphone compares pretty well to the others here with 8 GB; expansion via microSD card is possible as well. Wirless communication standards like DLNA or WiFi Direct are not supported. The 1 GB of RAM is sufficient for most applications. Dual SIM card slots are not always a given in this price range; we should note here that one SIM has to be full-size and the other has to be a Micro-SIM card. Wiko thoughtfully included an adapter.
Software
Slowly but surely Android 5.0 is becoming the standard, even though 5.1 is out already and the successor Android M is available for testing purposes. Wiko uses a pretty plain-vanilla version of Android 5.0. Some symbols are more colorful than normally, but aside from looking more modern, there isn't a noteworthy difference.
The French manufacturer doesn't include a lot of apps, either: "Clean Master" keeps the smartphone clean and "TouchPal X" is an additional virtual keyboard, which we will talk about a little later.
Communication & GPS
The Rainbow Lite supports GPRS (four frequency bands) and UMTS (three frequency bands). The reception quality is decent even when indoors and when connected to the German E-Plus network, which offers more modest coverage. Connectivity outside was also still pretty strong even when we found ourselves walking between buildings.
The WLAN module supports 802.11 b/g/n, which in turn means that connecting to the 5 GHz band is not an option. WiFi reception is decent and we observed a signal strength of about 50 % through three walls and about 10 meters from our router (Hitron 6BF0). Pages load noticeably slower though that far away from the router.
The GPS module established a link fairly quickly, although it took a while before the accuracy approached four meters. Inside we were unable to get a satellite lock.
Telephone & Transmission Quality
Wiko implemented Google's standard phone app so we don't have anything out of the ordinary to report as far as the software is concerned. The transmission quality appears to be decent at first with balanced sound, even though our conversation partner sounded a little muffled. Unfortunately, things are not that great in the other direction: we were told that the microphone tends to rattle and boom even at lower volume levels.
Cameras & Multimedia
The Wiko Rainbow Lite is equipped with a rear-facing 5 MP camera and a 2 MP camera out front. We like the quality of the colors and the sharpness of the rear camera in brighter invironments; in lower-light conditions it is next to impossible to take non-blurry pictures without the aid of the LED flash. Video recording is possible in Full-HD and decent quality. The front camera also takes fairly pleasant pics. Zooming into photos taken with either camera reveals a mess of pixels, although we have to say that the quality is always decent enough for output on a monitor or smaller prints.
Input Devices & Operation
The touchscreen takes some time getting used to, since the surface is slightly sticky and doesn't always react as precisely as we would have hoped. Overall operation is pretty decent though.
Wiko doesn't make use of Google's standard keyboard app, but ships the Rainbow Light with TouchPal X instead. This keyboard can be configured in a multitude of ways and it works very well, although it tends to be a bit cluttered. Of course it's not a problem to switch to the Google keyboard instead.
Display
The 5-inch display features a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels, which is a bit lower than what is found on Sony's Xperia E4g or Motorola's Moto E. The display content isn't overly sharp as a result, but still acceptably so. Both the display brightness as well as the distribution of our review model compare well to the other candidates.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 92 %
Center on Battery: 371 cd/m²
Contrast: 1060:1 (Black: 0.35 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 6.15 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.2
ΔE Greyscale 5.75 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
Gamma: 2.06
| Wiko Rainbow Lite Mali-400 MP2, MT6582, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Microsoft Lumia 532 Adreno 302, 200 MSM8212, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy J1 Mali-400 MP2, SC8830, 4 GB Flash | Sony Xperia E4g Mali-T760 MP2, MT6732, 8 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | 2% | -26% | -20% | 27% | |
| Brightness middle | 371 | 217 -42% | 301 -19% | 370 0% | 458 23% |
| Brightness | 355 | 204 -43% | 302 -15% | 364 3% | 434 22% |
| Brightness Distribution | 92 | 55 -40% | 93 1% | 95 3% | 88 -4% |
| Black Level * | 0.35 | 0.15 57% | 0.58 -66% | 0.63 -80% | 0.21 40% |
| Contrast | 1060 | 1447 37% | 519 -51% | 587 -45% | 2181 106% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 6.15 | 4.12 33% | 6.36 -3% | 5.99 3% | 6.95 -13% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 5.75 | 4.87 15% | 7.49 -30% | 7.28 -27% | 4.87 15% |
| Gamma | 2.06 107% | 2.38 92% | 2.58 85% | 2.59 85% | 2.38 92% |
| CCT | 7596 86% | 6019 108% | 9135 71% | 7949 82% | 6635 98% |
* ... smaller is better
The contrast and the black value are good as well, although Sony's Xperia E4g beats the others with its high brightness, low black value and very high contrast. Our review smartphone can't quite keep up in these areas.
Our analysis with a photospectrometer and the software CalMan revealed a slight purple cast which causes the colors to appear a little less vivid than expected. Light blue and white deviate the most from their ideal values.
The glossy display is highly reflective but since the brightness is high as well, the phone is still usable outdoors as long as it isn't overly bright.
Thanks to the IPS panel, the screen content remains readable even when the viewing angles are very shallow. We did notice some ghosting (secondary contours) caused by the distance between the display and the glas panel above it.
Performance
The Rainbow Lite is powered by an entry-level Mediatek MT6582 with four cores and a frequency of 1.3 GHz. Compared to the other smartphones mentioned in this review, the performance isn't very high, although the Samsung Galaxy J1 is equipped with an even slower processor (Spreadtrum SC8830) .
The graphics performance of the ARM Mali-400 MP can't compete with the GPUs the Motorola Moto E or the Sony Xperia E4g are equipped with, but the Samsung Galaxy J1 is once again slower.
We didn't encounter noticeable delays when browsing the Internet, although the performance of the Rainbow Lite once again trails many competing phones.
The internal storage - although a bit on the skimpy side with just over 4 GB usable - is quite fast and offers higher transfer speeds than the other phones in our comparison. The user can also move apps to the SD card, which in turn frees up internal storage.
| Geekbench 3 | |
| 32 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| 32 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Smartbench 2012 | |
| Productivity Index (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Gaming Index (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Linpack Android / IOS | |
| Single Thread (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Microsoft Lumia 532 | |
| Multi Thread (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Microsoft Lumia 532 | |
| AnTuTu v5 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Sunspider - 1.0 Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Microsoft Lumia 532 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Microsoft Lumia 532 | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Sony Xperia E4g | |
| Microsoft Lumia 532 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| AndroBench 3-5 | |
| Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Random Read 4KB (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
| Random Write 4KB (sort by value) | |
| Wiko Rainbow Lite | |
| Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J1 | |
* ... smaller is better
Gaming Performance
Although the 3D game Asphalt 8 has higher demands on the hardware, the Wiko Rainbow Lite has no issues even with the details set to high - although at least part of the reason for the adequate performance is the fact that the resolution is quite low. Controlling the game via the touchscreen and the position sensor works without major issues. Simple games like "Angry Birds" pose of course no problem for the smartphone, either.
Emissions
Temperature
Ouch! At one area near the rear camera we measured 46.4 degrees at maximum load - albeit not dangerous, it's nevertheless highly uncomfortable. Although the hotspot is localized and the phone gets cooler towards the bottom, sweaty hands can't be avoided when operating the phone for a longer time under higher load.
(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 44.8 °C / 113 F, compared to the average of 34.9 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 52.9 °C for the class Smartphone.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 46.4 °C / 116 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F
(±) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 35.7 °C / 96 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
The single speaker on the back does its job pretty well given the price of the smartphone. Even listening to music every so often is possible and the maximum volume leve is loud enough as well. Bass of course can't be expected and highs are over-emphasized. Music, sounds and voices - like when watching a movie - overburden the little speaker, but overall, the sound quality is still acceptable.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The high temperature we observed under full load means that the power consumption has to be correspondingly high as well. And indeed: 2.8 watts during idle is twice as high as the power requirements of the Motorola Moto E. Things are not much different under load: the minimum of 3.9 watts speaks volumes and only the Sony Xperia E4g keeps up with the maximum power draw of 4.5 watts.
| Off / Standby |   0 / 0.3 Watt |
| Idle |  1.5 / 2.5 / 2.8 Watt |
| Load |
3.9 / 4.5 Watt |
    
| |
Battery Life
The battery is swappable and provides a capacity of 7.4 Wh. The Wiko Rainbow Lite can browse the Internet for about 6 hours before shutting down. This means that the smartphone will generally last a workday, but does have to be recharged daily.
| Wiko Rainbow Lite Mali-400 MP2, MT6582, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Motorola Moto E 2. Gen 2015 Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Microsoft Lumia 532 Adreno 302, 200 MSM8212, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy J1 Mali-400 MP2, SC8830, 4 GB Flash | Sony Xperia E4g Mali-T760 MP2, MT6732, 8 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | 67% | -19% | 109% | 91% | |
| WiFi v1.3 | 367 | 506 38% | 298 -19% | 648 77% | 452 23% |
| Load | 133 | 260 95% | 321 141% | 344 159% | |
| Reader / Idle | 1593 | 623 | 1262 | 912 | |
| H.264 | 360 | 512 | 528 |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
The Wiko Rainbow Lite can't really hide its low price: the lack of LTE and the simple case design are dead giveaways. Many users likely won't care, since the smartphone comes with a decent camera, a good speaker and a pretty bright display. The Rainbow 4G costs about 20 Euro (~$22) more, but it has LTE and the camers feature a higher resolution.
The main problem lies elsewhere: the Rainbow Lite simply gets too warm during prolonged use. The higher power consumption and the short battery life are also not encouraging. The touchscreen sometimes doesn't want to cooperate and the resolution is a little low given the size of the display.
Potential buyers who don't mind taking along a second battery and who can adapt to the touchscreen will find the smartphone to be a solid entry-level choice capable of good pictures and dual SIM-card support.
Wiko Rainbow Lite
-
08/05/2015 v4(old)
Florian Wimmer
Pricecompare
