On initial switch on and for the following 48 hours I was really annoyed.
The phone ships with the App Drawer disabled which is crazy, so as Google loads all the apps you previously used they all land directly on your desktop and there's nothing you can do to stop it until it's done. Then when you figure out to enable the App Drawer it removes everything from the Desktop except all the Google rubbish that you then have to manually remove.
Then there's the OS itself, I really feel Oukitel could have streamlined this before release. Google harasses you at every opportunity, notifications galore, it took two days to make the phone feel like it belonged to me and not Google.
The phone is severely lacking an led indicator, receive a text while not near your phone, you'll never know until you wake up the screen. Plug it in no indicator, finishes charging still no indication. I used to have an Umi Super and that had a gently pulsing multi coloured led that was a delight to see. My last phone was an Ulefone Power 5 it had an led indicator nothing fancy but I knew when things were waiting for me at a glance.
Speaking of the Power 5, it had a 13,000 mah battery and the phone died as it approached it's 7 year anniversary, the battery on this WP56 is no better than that 7 year old battery which is a tad disappointing, I can only presume it's because this Oukitel is running multiple hidden Google apps in the background that I'll never know about.
I like the speaker but given the weight of the phone if I'm watching a video I leave the phone lying on a table or cushion, so the sound is muffled as it's the only external speaker. Odd given that the camping light isn't the only light source on the phone.
I wish the extra button wasn't directly opposite the power button as in the dark it's unnerving when the screen won't turn on, only to find you're pressing the extra button and the phone is upside down.
You can't set the extra button to use to take photos, it can only be used to open specific apps. I set mine to take screenshots before realising a single press needed to be disabled entirely as I took 37 screenshots whilst trying to take a photo in an awkward position.
The WP56 couldn't read the SD card I've used in my previous 3 phones. it insisted it needed to be formatted to be used.
I connected the SD card to my PC, copied it all the my computer. Installed it back into the phone and then let it format the card before transferring everything back to return to where I was before the phone told me it wasn't readable. More wasted time.
The last thing that irks me and it's probably a Google decision is, I can't choose to have no lock. I HAVE to have either a PIN or face or fingerprint lock setup, yet since I've been using mobile phones (32 years) I've not bothered or needed to lock my phone and now I'm not allowed to choose.
So to sum up, my 7 year old Ulefone was much nicer, with a longer lasting battery, led light, was thinner and lighter than the Oukitel WP56.
But it died, suspected ROM fault and the WP56 was the nearest thing I could find with updated specs and a similarly large battery but it has some big shoes to fill and if it doesn't last at least 7 years I'll be royally upset.
