Phones

Vernee Mix 2 Review

02/01/2018

The Vernee Mix 2 offers solid mid-level performance with a beautiful curved edge HD+ display!

When it comes to reviewing smartphones, one of the key factors for me is how the ‘Features & Performance’ compare against the overall ‘Cost’. And… without sounding too mathsy… the Vernee Mix 2 excels at this equation.

You most probably haven’t heard of Vernee before as they only started releasing smartphones into the wild in early 2016. As with all new technology brands, it’s wise to be a little cautious…

To put your mind at ease… we’ve created full in-depth reviews of the Vernee Apollo X, Vernee Mars and a first look at the Vernee X. Can we trust Vernee? Yes, the Vernee team are a capable bunch of smartphone manufacturers who know how to create a great mix of budget hardware & Android software.

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You don’t need to spend upwards of £350 / $450 to be the proud owner of a beautiful looking smartphone… the Vernee Mix 2 is proof.

It offers 4GB’s of RAM, 64GB’s of storage, good performance and a beautiful full HD+ curved edge display at a very affordable price-point.

It’s not all high-praise though, as there are some cons to the Vernee Mix 2 that you’ll want to consider, but when we get back to the maths… it’s a no-brainer!

If you’ve been doing a bit of Vernee Mix 2 research, you might find a little discrepancy between the actual Vernee Mix 2 and some of the marketing photos. Well… that’s because Doctor Vernee (PHD Photoshop) has been tinkering away.

In real life… it’s not edge-to-edge and the bottom section is slightly longer. Unlike some of the recent Cubot smartphones, Vernee shouldn’t have worried, even with the slighter bigger bezels, the Vernee Mix 2 is still a beautiful smartphone.

In this review, I’ll be covering the Screen Quality, Performance, Vernee OS Software, Battery Life, Cameras Quality (with samples), Gaming Performance & finally… Connectivity.

This week’s Vernee Mix 2 deals…

View on GearBest

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The Good

Beautiful Curved Edge Display
The Price-tag!
Bloatware-Free
Lots of included freebies (see below)
Good mid-level performance
Feels great in your hand

The Bad

Missing Double-tap-to-wake
Missing USB Type-C
Monolithic Slab (208g)
Fingerprint Magnet
Fake Advertising Photos

Display

The moment you turn on the Vernee Mix 2 you’re eyes will light up and you’ll have a big smile on your face… why? because of the beautiful & impressive display.

It uses a full HD+ panel at 2160×1920 resolution to give a crisp PPI of 401. But it’s the bright vibrant colours that’ll impress you. The display panel really pops feeling very close to the surface of the phone.

Keeping up with the 2017/2018 flagship trend, the Vernee Mix 2’s display has curved corners giving a softer modern look to the phone. These curves also match nicely with the overall curves of the smartphone giving a cohesive design finish.

It’s not specified whether the display uses Gorilla Glass for protection, but you do get a pre-applied screen protector as well as a spare for both the front and back glass panel.

Turning and rotating the Vernee Mix 2 shows off its excellent viewing angles with minimal dimming and no distortion of colour. Finally, while still distinguishable from the surrounding border, the black levels are also very good for an IPS panel.

It’s a good job Vernee has done such a good job with the Mix 2 display as there are no calibration options to be found in the settings…

Overall, the display on the Vernee Mix 2 is nothing short of excellent. It doesn’t reach the heights of OLED technology but is up there with the best IPS mobile screens.

Screen Tech Specs: 6 inch Display, 2160×1080 resolution, 401 PPI, 10-point multi-touch

Design & Build Quality

Picking up the Vernee Mix 2 you’ll straight away notice two things… The first is how heavy it is at 208 grams… (a little more than advertised) and the second is how great it feels in your hand!

It’s a monolithic slab of glass but in your hands feels reassuringly sturdy easily being thick enough to grip one handed with ease. It reminds me of the old Sony Xperia smartphones but with a more modern display panel.

The top area of the phone is big enough to house the pulse notification LED, microphone and proximity sensor but the selfie camera has been moved to the bottom.

When we take a look at the build quality, the Vernee Mix 2 doesn’t reach the excellent levels of the Vernee Mars but passed the squeeze and twist test without any audible creaks or noises.

Unfortunately, on my review unit, the glass rear doesn’t have a perfect seam with the metal frame. It’s an aesthetic detail, but one worth mentioning.

… a beautiful monolithic slab of techy goodness …

A nice feature is that the headphone jack and USB ports are both lined with a protective layer of plastic and you also get a clear silicone case included in the box.

Even though the Vernee Mix 2 is a beast… I still like it. The dual-glass design feels premium in your hand and the thickness coupled with 18:9 ratio makes one-handed use a breeze.

Colours Available: Black & Blue

Performance & Gaming

To find out how the Vernee Mix 2 performs, I ditched the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 putting my SIM into the Vernee Mix 2… confusing I know… After a week of having the ‘Vernee’ Mix 2 in my pocket, I can honestly say that it’s a reliable mid-range performer.

The Mix 2 comes in two flavours… with 6GB’s of RAM or 4GB’s of RAM. For me, the 4GB RAM version is the sweet deal… the jump up to 6GB isn’t worth the cost for the tiny amount of performance gained.

The brains inside the Vernee Mix 2 come in the form of the Helio P25 from MediaTek which boasts power efficiency and an 8-core setup. This is coupled with 64GB’s of onboard storage which hit 111MB’s read & 130MB’s write during our tests.

… The Vernee Mix 2 is Gaming-ready …

Need more storage? You can use the second SIM slot to add a Micro-SD card up to 128GB’s in size.

To test out the gaming performance I loaded up some popular Android titles while looking out for any frame-rate drops, stutters and overheating. The ARM Mali-T880 handled all the games with ease, making light work of Mortal Kombat X & Modern Combat 5.

CPU: MediaTek Helio P25 (8-Cores)
GPU: ARM Mali-T880 MP2 900MHz
RAM: 4GB (6GB option)
Storage: 64GB’s (56GB usable) (read speed: 111MB/s, write speed: 130MB/s)
Expandable: Yes (2nd SIM slot up to 128GB)

Pokemon Go Test: Full Support (AR Works) (GPS Locked on quickly)

AnTuTu Benchmark 6

3D – 10407
UX – 26473
CPU – 17957
RAM – 3773

Overall Score: 58610

Geekbench Score:

Single Core Performance: 822
Multi-Core Performance: 2892

Vernee Software Experience

Vernee have gone down the route of… we can make a better Android Experience than Google creating their own Android overlay / launcher called Vernee VOS 1.0.

So what does this mean for you?

Firstly, you’ll notice a really annoying keyboard called TouchPal which you’ll want to disable straight away. But apart from this and the odd customisation (like wallpapers) the Vernee Mix 2 feels like regular old stock Android.

The launcher isn’t locked, so you can customise to your heart’s content. The Vernee VOS takes up 10GB’s of the 64GB onboard storage which is fairly slimline. To give you a comparison… the Xiaomi Mi A1 which runs Google Android One Software had 58GB’s of storage taking up only 6GB’s.

There are a few notable software additions missing from the Vernee Mix 2, like double-tap-to-wake, Android Nougat 7.1 updates and the latest security updates from Google. The last update is dated August 2017.

Finally, you can switch the on-screen button layout and the Vernee Mix 2 is encrypted by default.

Software features include: Not Rooted, DuraSpeed, 5 Fingerprint recognition, Smart Lock, SIM Management, LED Pulse Notification

Fingerprint Reader Speed & Accuracy

The fingerprint ready is accurate unlocking first time at around the 95% mark. While accurate, it’s not the fastest though taking it’s sweet time before the screen unlocks. From locked to screen on, you’re looking at over 0.5 seconds…

When you’re playing with new smartphones every week, it seems on the slow side… but in reality, you’ll get used to it in a few days… heck… I put up with the dodgy slow fingerprint reader on my Galaxy S7 for over a year :D

Camera Quality

Vernee isn’t giving much away when it comes to camera specs inside the Mix 2. They’ve only gone as far as listing the megapixels and aperture with no mention of who manufactured the dual lens setup?

So… I took the Vernee Mix 2 out with me for the day to see what it’s capable of. You can see the full samples album here: Vernee Mix 2 – Photo/ Camera Samples

Rear Camera:

13MP + 5MP
f/2.0
1080P Video @ 30fps

Front Camera (Selfie time):

8MP
Beauty Mode

Battery Life

Battery life on the Vernee Mix 2 is above average. The non-removable 4200mAh battery comes quick-charge ready using the PE+ standard but still take just under 2 hours for a full charge.

It comes with a fairly chunky 2-pin charger that pushes out 2 amps. With a battery this size 3 amps would have been a better fit and help to speed up the charging time.

In terms of screen-on time, the Vernee Mix 2 achieved around 5-6 hours. This is mainly using WiFi with a mix of 4G. I played light games most days but the bulk of my use is for web browsing, photography and social media.

What’s in the box?

The Vernee Mix 2 comes in a white square box made with a textured feel. Once inside, it’s budget origins reveal themselves as the phone is placed on top of a cheap plastic insert.

In terms of freebies, Vernee does a good job. As well as the Micro-USB cable, SIM Pin and Wall Charger, you also get a transparent soft case (with drop protection corners) and a self-apply screen protector for both the front and back of the Vernee Mix 2.

Unfortunately, the pre-applied screen protector had bubbles in it… but at least there’s a spare if you’re unlucky like me.

Vernee Mix 2 – The Verdict

While writing this review I keep having to remind myself how much this phone costs… it belongs in the £200+ / $250+ bracket… but… it’s available online right now for as little as £125 / $165.

The big drawback with the Vernee Mix 2 has to be its weight! This smartphone feels heavy… because it is! But… if you can look past this then you’re on to a real winner!

Overall, it’s a capable smartphone that offers mid level performance inside a premium all-glass exterior that houses one of the best budget (non-OLED) displays I’ve seen in a while!

Do I recommend the Vernee Mix 2? Yes, just be aware you are buying a beast!

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