The design certainly makes you sit up and take notice, with a near-record slimness of just 5.1 mm and weighing only 98 g. You can almost forget about it whilst holding it, and it's easy to imagine bending or breaking it - but don't worry, it's made of aluminium and so is pretty resilient to damage.
Technically, what we have is a model with a AMOLED HD screen measuring 4.8 inches diagonally, behind which is a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core processor.
Wiko has been smart enough to include a Sony 8 mega-pixel camera (5 mega-pixels on the front-facing camera). It uses the Android 4.4.4. (KitKat) operating system, has ROM of 16 Go and a RAM of 2 Go. When you look at the price, it seems like this phone is quite the bargain.
In terms of audio, Wiko has announced native support (integrated playback software) with MP3, eAAC, ACC+, and principally WAV. We want to find out more about how it supports various audio files.
The audio menu contains the usual options, except for an icon labelled "Dirac HD Sound", which optimises the audio - or corrects it - to adapt to the preferences of individual listeners. With the Pure, Wiko includes in-ear headphones recognised by Dirac HD. On paper, the circuit should be able to calibrate the sound according to the performance of its transistors.
The Wiko Highway Pure "natively" (via its integrated player) supports the following file formats:
- FLAC 16-bit/44.1 kHz - FLAC 24-bit 44.1, 48 and 96 kHz (any higher and it can play it, but not well) - WAV 16-bit/44.1 kHz, with no 24-bit WAV files being playable (you can install another player should you wish, but we test smartphones as the manufacturer intended them to be used) - We should note that above 96 kHz, the sound became decidedly messy - AAC and MP3 accepted
Listening
To begin with - and it's quite rare with a model going for less than €800 - the earphones that come with this product, conforming to Dirac HD Sound, are not actually as bad as you might think. They're nothing to write home about, but the textured is clear, and the Wiko offers a good output (after you've unlocked the limit on audio).
The sound of the earphones is dry and does not give the most solid bass, but we have definitely heard worse.
When used in conjunction with a good-quality headset (Denon MM400), the Wiko Pure does not give the audio texture of an iPhone or the Meizu MX4 Pro, especially in the lower register, its dynamics or the overall finesse, but it produces satisfactory sound.
You cannot hear much "real" difference between various file formats (AAC or FLAC for example) but it has a fairly large soundscape and lots of voices - but there is no depth or substantial body.
You could say that it does the job, catering to urban on-the-go listening, but if you really want to immerse yourself, the smartphone of choice would be the Meizu MX4.
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Original article by PATRICK-PIERRE GARCIA Translation by RACHEL HARPOLE