Test and review of the BQ-6040L Magic smartphone: a summer hit with a large screen for 7,990 rubles

Russian BQ (not to be confused with Spanish BQ) began working on smartphones in 2014. They have released a lot of models over the past three years. From time to time there were funny ones among them. But everything is somehow very weak in its characteristics. But they are inexpensive.

Things got more interesting in 2020. In the summer, the super-thin BQ BQS-4800 Blade appeared, and in the fall, a couple of interesting 4G smartphones BQ BQS-5520 Mercury 5.5″ and BQ BQS-5070 Magic 5.0″ appeared. Yes, they are not top-level at all, but if you look at the characteristics, they are very competent devices that cost reasonable money. Two gigabytes of RAM, fresh processors, etc.

The first of this pair, BQ BQS-5520 Mercury, pleased me very much (see review) and deserved almost the maximum rating - 9/10.

With Magic everything turned out to be a little less fun - due to the weak battery. Otherwise, everything is not bad, plus the appearance is nice.

Now let's talk about everything in order.

Competitors

What are we looking for? Classic five-inch devices with 4G support, a normal screen and at least two gigs of RAM.

Apart from the “gray” Chinese, it turns out that BQ Magic is doing well with its price. Competitors are either more expensive or less interesting. And almost everyone has an older and slower MT6735 processor

If you are not afraid of the Chinese, you can look, for example, towards the Oukitel K7000 or Doogee X5 MAX Pro - both can be bought for six thousand with free shipping.

Hardware

It's time to pay attention to the “stuffing” of the BQ 5070 Magic. The characteristics of the gadget do not match those of a flagship, but the device copes well with its tasks. Its “heart” is the processor of the famous company MediaTek. The MT6737 model runs on four computing elements. Each of them is capable of delivering a maximum clock frequency of 1250 MHz. The well-known Mali-T720 MP2 video card was used as a graphics accelerator. This tandem is found on many inexpensive devices.

What pleasantly surprised buyers was the amount of RAM. In this model, the developers installed 2 GB. This is quite enough to ensure uninterrupted operation. All main processes function without freezes or failures. As for ROM, the device has only 16 GB. About four are already occupied by system files, so the user will only be able to work with 12 GB. If this storage is not enough for someone, you can install a 128 GB flash drive.

Appearance

The appearance is in perfect order.

Six colors, and very entertaining ones.

My copy is white with golden sides.

Plastic. The front is normal glossy. The back is matte, as if it was painted with white paint on a gray background. Pleasant to both the eye and the touch. The chamfers beveled at 45 degrees - oddly enough, are also surprisingly appropriate.

The camera is nicely designed. A golden puck with a noticeably protruding edge.

The assembly is good. The back cover is removable (albeit with some difficulty), and so is the battery. Under the cover there are two slots for SIM cards (Nano-SIM + Micro-SIM) and a separate slot for a memory card.

Some boring details

Above the screen are sensors, a front camera, and a speaker. Unfortunately, there is no LED. They saved money on it.

Under the screen there is emptiness, android buttons on the screen.

On the back there is a camera with flash.

At the bottom rear there is a speaker.

The top edge is a 3.5 mm audio output and Micro-USB (the noise-canceling microphone is not visible).

Bottom - microphone.

The volume rocker is on the left side.

The shutdown button is on the right.

BQ-6040L Magic: configuration and design

As usual, at a low price, we don’t expect rich equipment: in addition to the device itself, in the box you will only receive a power adapter and a USB-microUSB charging cable. The protective film is glued to the smartphone from the factory, but there is no cover included and, perhaps, this is a bit of a minus for this particular phone model. A little lower in the text we will return to this issue and tell you why we came to this conclusion.

You've probably already noticed that BQ likes to experiment with case colors. So the BQ-6040L Magic is offered not only in traditional black colors, but also in dark blue and cherry. It is more pragmatic to take a black smartphone - it uses a different type of plastic and the surface is matte rather than glossy. The fact is that the glossy back of the smartphone became covered with small scratches after a week of use and was slightly worn out. At the same time, the smartphone was in a soft case most of the time.

But we must pay tribute: thanks to the gradient tints, the body looks fashionable, beautiful and expensive. Purely visually, the smartphone does not look like a budget smartphone, but rather a middle-class one. It’s a pity that the glossy finish in general is easily soiled (this applies in principle to any smartphone). If you don’t paw it too much, holding the BQ-6040L Magic by the side edges made of matte plastic, then the aesthetic appearance will last longer, but it’s better to still buy a case or protective glass for the back side so as not to “overwrite” such beauty. After all, the “magic” of iridescent colors is one of the model’s calling cards.

Once again, we emphasize that the smartphone in black is made of matte plastic, so it is not in danger. Otherwise, the device feels solid and reliable, despite its light weight of 161 grams. Operating it with one hand is also convenient, although the diagonal is large - 6.09 inches with narrow frames (no more than 2 mm). The tray for installing SIM cards and microSD drives is not combined here, which is another unconditional plus.

Internals (iron)

The Mediatek MT6737 processor is already familiar to me. Exactly the same as in the BQ BQS-5520 Mercury. Only works in 64-bit mode. However, it is hardly possible to feel the difference in performance. The number of bits with two gigabytes of RAM makes no difference to you and me. Sort of.

Low-end processor. However, the performance is, in my opinion, quite satisfactory.

Special thanks for not being greedy with memory, especially RAM.

Sensors - to a minimum. Accelerometer, illumination, proximity. There is no compass, no gyroscope, no fingerprint sensor.

Some synthetic tests

⇡#Hardware and performance

BQ Magic has an unusual platform. We have long been accustomed to the dominance of Mediatek in budget models and Qualcomm in everything that is more expensive than 10-15 thousand rubles. With small inclusions of companies’ own developments (HiSilicon, Samsung, Apple). But the “magic” smartphone turned out to be equipped with a UNISOC chip – a company formerly known as Spreadtrum. In this case we are talking about the SC9863A system-on-chip.

It consists of four ARM Cortex-A55 cores with a clock frequency of 1.6 GHz and four of the same, but with a reduced frequency of 1.2 GHz. GPU – PowerVR IMG8322. The technological process used to produce the platform is 28 nm. The platform also includes an LTE modem and supports Full HD screens. All this does not look very modern, but in general the platform provides the smartphone with quite normal performance.

We did not have the opportunity to compare the BQ Magic in terms of performance with direct competitors equipped with Mediatek platforms, but even compared to more expensive smartphones it looks quite decent. There is no need to talk about any serious gaming abilities, but all basic applications open and work without failures. The system lacks overall smoothness; it slows down in various aspects, but it does not lead to critical problems.

The cooling system in BQ Magic copes with its tasks confidently. In the CPU Throttling Test benchmark, the average performance was 78 GIPS with the operating frequency dropping to 78% of the maximum. These are very good indicators, above average for budget smartphones.

I also tested BQ Magic in the Ludashi AI Mark benchmark, since it claims to work with neural network calculations. And the figure of 4440 points is a really good result. Moto g7, for example, has 4480 points, and Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 has 5558 points.

The BQ Magic has 3 GB of RAM - even if you install “full-size” Android 9 Pie, this is enough for a smartphone with an HD screen. The drive is 32 GB, which is also normal given the ability to expand the volume using a memory card. There is a separate slot for it; you don’t need to remove the second SIM card for it. MicroSD up to 128 GB is supported.

Screen

The screen is quite black, i.e. The IPS matrix is ​​not very, very cheap. However, there is nothing much to brag about. Low brightness, no oleophobic coating.

The default color temperature is high. However, it doesn’t matter, picky people can quietly adjust it in the depths of the screen settings.

There are no newfangled 2.5D fillets.

BQ Majdik – design, screen

The appearance of the smartphone is modern, but not original. Here is a typical representative of the market: an elongated screen with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9, a plastic body with a glossy finish, a dual main camera sensor, a fairly thin body and a round fingerprint scanner. The BQ-6040L Magic is available in three colors: blue, red and black. The system control buttons and connectors are in the usual places: the volume rocker and smartphone unlocking are on the right side, on the top there is a headphone jack, on the bottom there is a USB 2.0 connector and an external speaker. The dimensions of the BQ-6040L Magic are comfortable and do not go beyond what is permitted: dimensions – 73.3x156x8.7, weight – 161 grams. The phone is comfortable to use with one hand - there are minimal questions about ergonomics. There are problems with fingerprints on the smartphone body, but the case solves all problems.

The display of the BQ-6040L Magic is of impressive size and mediocre characteristics: 6.09'', resolution 720x1560, 282 ppi, IPS matrix, 80% of the usable area of ​​the front panel, 2.5D glass. Advertising articles report that the display occupies 90%, but in reality the numbers are different. There is a drop-shaped cutout for the front camera. This looks less hackneyed than, for example, a “unibrow”, and also saves more space directly for the display. The screen is covered with a special protective glass Panda Glass, which already has an oleophobic coating applied, which increases the comfort of interaction. The display handles five simultaneous touches. As for color rendition, it is at a good level - suitable for daily use. If you switch to the BQ-6040L Magic from a smartphone with FullHD resolution, then you will, of course, see the difference in detail, but you will quickly get used to it and it will not put any pressure on you. From design and screen let's move on to .

Battery

Battery capacity is a modest 2000 mAh. The battery test results are sad, only 71% of the standard. Naturally, I assumed that it wouldn’t be chocolate. But for it to be so bad is even strange.

BQ-6040L Magic: Autonomous operation

The battery capacity here is 4000 mAh, which is not bad at all for a smartphone costing 7,999 rubles. To fully charge the battery it will take about 3 hours from a standard 5V/1.5A charger (included). Unfortunately, there is no support for Quick Charge technology. According to the manufacturer, the battery capacity is enough for 13 hours of video playback, but in fact it is only enough for 8 hours of watching 720p HD video at maximum screen brightness. However, this is a very good result compared to competitors.

In mixed mode of use (navigator, photographs, communication in instant messengers), the smartphone lasts for one and a half to two days. With constant activity, the battery drains within a day. For example, using the phone as a navigator and camera for a week, the battery ran out within 10 hours with the screen always on and brightness at 80%. Thumbs up. And if you also correctly configure the energy saving mode, autonomy will increase.

BQ BQS-5070 Magic as a photo and video camera

For its money, the camera shoots quite confidently. Those. There is no such thing that you need to duplicate any picture three times, because every second frame will be a complete wash. But don't expect miracles, of course. The camera is not for highly artistic memory photography.

More photos

More photos

The front camera is of quite reasonable quality. My favorite selfie with chewing background.

BQ Magic – camera, photo

There are no decent camera phones in the price category of the participant in our review. There are smartphones that take decent photos, but don't expect anything special from the BQ-6040L Magic. The main camera of the smartphone consists of two sensors working in pairs: the main one is 13 MP, the secondary one is 2 MP. The latter helps analyze depth of field and take portrait shots with background blur. The quality of the images is saved a little by the artificial intelligence algorithm, but not much. Front camera – 5MP. Takes decent self-portraits and is suitable for video calls and face unlocking.

BQ BQS-5070 Magic as a toy

The games are fine.

BQ-6040L Magic: characteristics and competitors

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Screen and image

The screen is based on an IPS matrix with a diagonal of 6.35 inches, a resolution of 1560 x 720 and an aspect ratio of 19:9. The pixel density is 271 ppi, which ensures image transmission without noticeable grain and pixelation.

You quickly get used to the location of the cutout for the selfie camera, and it does not distract when watching videos on YouTube. You can turn on adaptive screen brightness - it works stably until you take the smartphone horizontally, blocking the light sensor on the top end with your hand.

Color reproduction is accurate, shifting only at acute viewing angles. There is a reserve of brightness for working in the sun. The touch layer works accurately. There are no comments on the screen; the IPS matrix in the phone is excellent.

Detailed technical specifications

Make and model

Make and model of the device, and alternative names (if any).

Design

Appearance of the device including dimensions, weight, volume, colors and materials.

System on a Chip (SoC)

A system on a chip, a single-chip system (System on a Chip, SoC) is when several systems performing different device functions are connected on one chip.

Central processing unit (CPU)

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

Random access memory (RAM)

Built-in memory

Most mobile devices have built-in Flash memory, which is used as a storage for system data, the operating system, as well as user data - photos, videos, recordings and much more.

Operating system

A mobile operating system (OS) is pre-installed software with a well-thought-out interface for user control of device functions.

Battery

To operate autonomously, a mobile device requires a battery that powers all its components.

Screen

The screen (display) is the main element for displaying graphic information.

Main camera

The main camera, usually built into the rear of the device, is designed for creating photo and video content.

Additional cameras

Secondary cameras allow you to expand the capabilities of the main camera, such as adding a wide shooting angle, sharpness, optical zoom and other functions depending on the type of secondary camera.

Front-camera

The front camera of a mobile device (selfie camera, rear camera) is a camera on the front part, which is usually used for video communication, recognition of gestures or faces, and selfie photographs.

Memory card

A memory card (flash card) is an external data storage device that is used in many devices to increase memory capacity.

SIM card

Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) used in mobile devices to identify subscribers in cellular networks.

Mobile networks

This is a system in which communication and data transfer is carried out between subscribers, the location of one or more of which changes. This section lists the supported mobile communication standards and frequencies.

Mobile network data standards

What data transfer standards in cellular networks are supported by the device, as well as their speed.

WiFi

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is a technology for wireless data transmission over a local network among devices based on IEEE 802.11 standards.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth (BT, bluetooth (z), “blue tooth”) is a short-range wireless network (up to 10, sometimes 100 meters) operating on radio waves to transmit voice and data between devices.

Sensors

Modern devices have many sensors that help in measurements, trigger functions, and make using the device more pleasant.

Audio

Audio - characteristics and capabilities of a mobile device in terms of sound.

Radio

The radio in a mobile device can be built-in by the manufacturer (catch local radio channels, no internet required, often works only with headphones (as an antenna), but not always) or installed as an online application (requires internet, but more channels and often better quality) .

Navigation and location

The location is determined by satellite navigation systems that track the device's autonomous geospatial location at multiple points. The most common satellite navigation systems are GPS, GLONASS, and the Chinese BeiDou.

USB connector

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a serial interface for connecting peripherals to computers, smartphones, laptops and much more. The interface allows you to exchange data and power a peripheral device with energy, as well as connect several peripheral devices to one USB connector at once.

Headphone jack

A TRS headphone jack (or jack) is a common standard of connectors used for transmitting audio signals. By diameter there are jack (6.5 mm), mini-jack (3.5 mm) and micro-jack (2.5 mm). In mobile devices, the 3.5mm jack was considered the most popular and widespread, but recently they began to be removed, leaving only USB connectors, through which headphones are connected with a corresponding plug or using adapters.

Connection and synchronization

Options for synchronizing your mobile device and connecting it to other devices.

Browser

A browser is a browser program for viewing sites and their content on the Internet. Through the browser, you can open websites, search for information, download necessary files, watch streaming videos, play browser games, etc.

Audio file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support many audio file formats, as well as codecs for playing them.

Description of the advantages and disadvantages of the BQ-5731L Magic S phone

The dimensions of the BQ Mobile BQ-5731L Magic S are 71.9 mm wide, 148.8 mm long and 9.2 mm thick. With such dimensions it is convenient to operate the device with one hand. In addition, the weight of the device is about 155 g. Even if you operate the device with one hand, its weight is almost not felt.

If we evaluate the overall ease of use of the phone taking into account the size and weight, then there will be no problems with everyday use.

The smartphone is equipped with an 8-core Unisoc SC9863A processor, which is manufactured at 28 nm. technical process.

The smartphone has 3 GB. RAM, which is quite enough. In very rare cases it will not be enough, but with this amount of RAM, you will rarely have problems.

The device's data storage capacity is 32 GB, and while this is enough for photos, it may not be enough for video shooting and a large number of games.

The phone is compatible with SD cards, so you can easily expand its memory. So you probably don't need to worry about storage capacity.

The BQ-5731L Magic S has a display diagonal of 5.84 inches. It's quite big. Photos, videos and games will look great on this screen. It is also suitable for productive use, such as creating a business document.

The smartphone has a high-end display and any graphic content you display on it, including videos and games, will be displayed clearly.

The main camera of the phone has 16 megapixels and can take high-resolution photos and videos. While you're shooting landscapes or printing high-definition photos, you may want a higher-resolution camera, but most of the time you'll be happy with the camera.

The smartphone has a 16 megapixel front camera, which is quite high. Photos taken with this camera will look sharp even if you print them, so you will be quite satisfied with the quality of the camera.

The battery capacity of the BQ Mobile BQ-5731L Magic S is 3650 mAh, which is a relatively large figure. Compared to other smartphones, the battery life of the BQ Mobile BQ-5731L Magic S is good. With this capacity, you won't experience any problems even if you spend time on the Internet or Twitter for a long period of time. Even while playing games or watching videos, you can do so comfortably without worrying about battery life. However, some caution should be exercised when watching movies or playing games for too long.

⇡#Cameras

The set of cameras in the device is standard. The front camera here is five megapixel, without autofocus and its own flash. It can only be used if there is a light source, otherwise the picture will be too noisy.

BQ BQS-5070 Magic – main camera

The rear camera is more serious - it has a 13 megapixel sensor, complemented by an automatic focusing system and a single LED flash. You can see examples of photos taken with the main BQ Magic camera below.

BQ BQS-5070 Magic – examples of photos taken with the rear camera

View all images (5)

BQ Magic shoots quite standard. With sufficient lighting, photos come out well detailed, with natural colors and decent contrast. In rooms with artificial light, the picture becomes covered in noise and saturation is lost. It is possible to record video in Full HD format. A minute of recorded video takes up approximately 130 MB of disk space.

⇡#Display

As we said earlier, the smartphone has a five-inch display with HD resolution. The pixel density is moderate at 293.7 ppi. Of course, an eye spoiled by 400+ ppi will notice fine grain and slight roughness of the text - especially on icon captions. Nevertheless, HD is quite enough for movies and photographs, and even when reading electronic text, the eyes do not strain.

The screen is made using IPS technology. When you look away from the perpendicular, the contrast of the display noticeably drops. However, for inexpensive screens made using this technology, this is quite a typical phenomenon. The touch layer is quite responsive; it responds to touch quickly and accurately. The device easily recognizes gestures and understands up to five simultaneous touches. You can work with the gadget wearing loose gloves. The shell has built-in support for “smart gestures” on the locked screen - with their help you can quickly open the desired application, bypassing the lock screen.

We are forced to once again emphasize that BQ Magic is a budget smartphone. And in this context, it is especially pleasing that its screen is made according to all modern canons: there is no air gap between the matrix and the protective glass of the front panel, and the glass is equipped with an oleophobic coating and a polarizing filter.

The display's brightness reserve is average. The maximum luminosity of the white field on the BQ Magic screen is 387 cd/m2, the minimum is 16 cd/m2. Such backlight boundaries make it relatively comfortable to work with the device under any conditions - both in complete darkness and in bright external lighting. It is noteworthy that the gadget can independently control the backlight level - the device has a light sensor. Brightness is adjusted smoothly to suit your surroundings.

The luminosity of the black field at maximum brightness is 0.37 cd/m2. For a mobile IPS matrix, this is a completely acceptable indicator – the black color looks rich. Static contrast ratio is normal: 1046:1.

BQ BQS-5070 Magic – grayscale color temperature

White balance is traditionally somewhat overwhelmed for a smartphone in this price segment. It is higher than the reference value of 6500 K - the average color temperature of shades of gray is 8250 K. The deviation is significant, because of it the picture on the BQ Magic screen looks colder than it should, this is especially noticeable on white. But the smartphone’s firmware contains MiraVision filters, which allow the user to adjust the color rendering of the screen to suit their tastes.

With gamma curves everything is more or less decent - they are all close to the standard. Of course, minus the blue curve - it is noticeably raised, which is not surprising at such a high color temperature.

The color gamut of a smartphone screen is slightly different from the reference sRGB color space, to which most existing images are adapted. The deviations are by no means critical, and you can close your eyes to them.

BQ BQS-5070 Magic – smartphone screen color gamut (white triangle) compared to sRGB color space (black triangle)