Updated August 17 2019: The Cubot X19 smartphone arrived back in May, well packaged, complete with USB charger and lead (the ad describes charging as Type-C fast charge and with its own charger it does charge quite quickly) and the first thing that came to my wife’s attention was the COLOUR – she LOVES it.
At just over £100 sterling (with free shipping to the UK) and other destinations from (the now defunct – September 2019) Gearbest, while taking the low cost into account, this is a good value phone, still working perfectly after being in constant use for approaching 3 months here in Spain. This is not the first Cubot we’ve had but is definitely the best looking so far. The last one was also a budget Cubot and was flawless.
If you’re used to unreasonably tarted up studio photos, these un-retouched photos should be refreshingly real. The photo above is the X19 sitting on my desk, shot taken with my Pocophone and NO adjustments made.
Check the centre of the image above – pin-sharp and IMHO just the right distance from the edge of the phone. I also want to show you the unique colour of the Cubot X19 phone back, underneath that clear plastic protector. Not sure I can do the variable “Twilight colour” justice – SO very much better than plain black. It’s….. LOVELY.
Gearbest refer to the phone as the Cubot X19 4G Phablet. specs include 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, 5.93” FHD+ screen, 16MP + 2MP dual cameras. The phone also comes complete with a SIM tool.
The unit originally came with Android 8.1 Oreo, MT6763T (Helio P23) Octa-core 2.5Ghz 64-bit chip, fingerprint sensor, face recognition and 4000maH battery. The Gearbest ad claimed (as did Cubot) that the Android would be upgraded to 9.0 soon. On June 25, 2019 An OTA version was available and I immediately had it running on the X19 – all is well to date with this phone.
The screen is a very reasonable (given the physical size under 6 inches) 1080×2160 pixels and the front camera is 8MP. At 4:3 aspect ratio the rear camera is 16Mpx. At 16:9 the images are 4096×2304.
Sensors include e-compass, fingerprint sensor, gravity, light sensor, gyroscope and distance sensor.
The phone handles 2 nano-SIMs or 1 nano-sim and a micro-SD card. Bluetooth is version 4.2 and the unit also has GPS, A-GPS, Glonass and voice. No NFC.
A question often asked about new phones at this time of year is: how does it work in bright sunlight?
Ok, so check this out, photo taken with my Pocophone of the Cubot camera looking at my Pocophone – if that makes sense. In VERY bright Spanish sunshine, the X19 screen looks just fine.
Networks include: GDM 850/900/1800/1900Mhz, WCDMA 900/2100Mhz, FDD-LTE B1/3/7/8/20 ; i.e. 4g no problem.
Of course, the phone also supports the all-important Android Playstore, has type-C USB and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
Here are a couple of photos taken with the X19 – again – NO touching up on any of these photos – which is very unusual for me.
And before you say that “iPhones have a different visual tone”, it would have taken me a second to adjust that Spanish blue sky to any tone you like – using as usual the free Snapseed app or even the phone’s own editing tools. While I’m here, I’ve recently become a fan of Corel Paintshop Pro 2019 Ultimate… just thought I’d mention that. When I use these images elsewhere (i.e. not in a phone review) expect very difference colour and tone.
and another photo…
As for WIFI and mobile connectivity on the X19, absolutely no dropouts on either WIFI or mobile. We are now running the X19 phone with HITS as we’ve been in Spain for some months.
Battery life on the X19 is fine – I’ve seen worse in budget and not so budget phones. So you’re looking at around a day’s operation, maybe more depending on screen brightness (we always use full brightness). The X19 charges more quickly with the phone turned off.
Taking into account both screen and camera resolution, the X19 seems to represent very good value.
As you can no doubt tell, at the budget end, I’m a fan of Cubot.
Really interesting review. I have a Cubot Dinosaur (sic) for well over 2+ years and was thinking of getting the X19. Does the X19 have the facility where one can speak one’s messages instead of having to type? On the Dinosaur’s keyboard there’s a small black microphone symbol that you simply press. Is that the case on the X19?
Hi
Sorry I can’t comment as the X19 is now (only just) history in favour of the Xiaomi Note 8 – but it was a good watch – it only went in favour of the Xiaomi because of more lenses in the latter. I never tried speaking messages.
Thanks. But did you notice whether that facility was available as it is in the Dinasaur?
I didn’t look for it I’m afraid and my ife used the X19 for some time – speech was not on her requirement list.
just install swiftkey keyboard, the best out there…
Will Cubot X19 work in United Kingdom? on virgin net work I CANNOT GET ANY ANSWERS CAN YOU HELP ME
Of course it will work. We ran ours on Giffgaff (O2) in the UK and Hits in Spain.
Bought an X19 a couple of weeks ago and must say a brilliant phone for £99 though Amazon added another 20 quid to the price last week.
Anyway not wanting to babble on about how good this phone is I’ve come across a bit of a downer because having loaded 15 Gb of music to the massive 64 Gb onboard memory I noticed the sound back through headphones, wired or Bluetooth, is mono and just wondered is yours the same or do you know a setting that will correct it to stereo.
Thanks
My wife uses it constantly and I’m unaware of any stereo issues…
hello Pete
my Cubott x19 updated ota to android 9 on the 18th June
regards all
Thank for that info Brian, I’m updating Maureen’s X19 to Android 9 Pie now after reading your comment. I’d seen the offline update but figured I’d wait for the OTA and here it is. A timely reminder to all: only do this when plugged in or with a charged battery. This is going to take a while. Here in sunny Spain we have only 12Mb/s download speed and the file is over 1GB.
Thanks for all of that. Confirms my suspicion that unlimited 4G data only packages are not available in Spain. More’s the pity. At home (Ireland) I can get unlimited 4G data on a 30-day “contract” for €30. Unfortunately there’s no roaming on that.
You are in the Euro-zone when visiting Spain for 2 weeks, so roaming should be included as standard? If they limit that then they seem to violate the EU-law.
That’s what I thought about that data only deal I mention above – not sure how that works.
On my phone I have full and unlimited calls and texts and 15GB data. When roaming I get my full calls and texts, just as I have at home. There’s a workaround on the data though: the data is divided into 2 parts; 8GB full EU data (which roams) plus a “free” extra 7 GB for use in ROI only. Looks like rules are there to be circumvented!!
Still illegal in my layman opinion! Data is data and nothing can be excluded afterwards. If you can use it in ROI it should be available in the whole EU.
Find the authority to handle a complaint about this!
If you had a subscription with unlimited data before the switch to roam like at home you must have kept it without change( see – https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/faq/question-and-answers-roaming – for answers on this). But OK the phone companies are full of tricks and they have more money to battle your complaints.
I only go to Spain for fortnights at a time (unfortunately). Have you come across any decent (cheap) sim only data packages there. I only get 8gb of my home data package while roaming so that gets used up pretty quickly if I’m watching sky sports on Sky Q mobile.
Your query raises more questions than answers, however, here goes…
Simyo do Pay As You Go, 22GB for 15.5 Euros being one example but you will need one of their SIMS which I recall costs maybe a tenner. Also they simply will not speak English if you have problems and for that reason I ditched them after a year or so. Indeed they are technically that good that when returning to the UK for the winter I chose to stick with them and “roam” in the UK – ultimately they cut me off after 4 months of constant roaming – not a problem but for the utter lack of communication.
HITSMobile speak Spanish, English and apparently German and charge a fiver postage for the otherwise free SIM and do for example 20GB on Pay As You Go for 19.90 Euros for a month – no ontract needed. As far as I can tell these are amongst the best options.
Speed depends entirely on location, right now in my cave, on HITSMobile, I have speeds of 15 meg down, 5 meg up, entirely enough for HD TV (my WIFI is slightly slower but good enough). Indeed if 20GB wasn’t their highest offering I might consider scrapping the WIFI but I need more per month than that. On WIFI I get unlimited amounts of data for under 30 Euros a month but limited to around 12 Meg download speed and 3 Meg up if I’m lucky.
I’m assuming your phone can take a second SIM or you’ll have to pull out the original – I’m also assuming you are not locked to a particular provider.
Helpful?