MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY NOT HONORED!! Iâll start apologizing for the lengthy review first off. There are Serious issues with warranty. Bought the phone May 2023. Stopped working February 2024. Stuck in a power cycle (powering on, powering off, rinse repeat until battery dies). Since it was past the Amazon return, I was directed to the Manufacturer. Overseas in China. Okay cool. After two weeks sending emails, pictures and videos of what phone was doing, I was told the manufacturer would not honor the 1 year manufacturer warranty because the phone was purchased from a third party reseller AKA Amazon. After several hours of arguing with Amazon, having the phone disconnected twice (âOh weâre so sorry that happenedâ), an agreement was reached to send a new replacement phone, same type but I would be losing $52 due to restocking fee. New phone received 2-26-24 and GUESS WHAT?! This phone started the same issue of power cycling. Hey for ten weeks I had a functioning phone that only cost me $300. After an hour of debating with Amazon, the phone is being returned for refund and again Iâm only losing $52. So a phone that originally cost me $364 back in 2023, has cost me close to $500 in restocking fees , original cost and return fees. DONT BUY THIS PHONE. Maybe I got a lemon
Durable Build Quality; Excellent Battery Life We replaced my wife’s phone with this one a few weeks ago, and so far, so good. She is tough on her phones, with frequent drops, scratches, etc. This phone has a beastly build quality. It is indeed rugged as claimed. It doesn’t need a case – the chassis is obviously intended to function as a case. It also comes with a tempered screen protector already installed. My wife came to me complaining she had already scratched the screen but thankfully it was only the screen protector. That’s good, but it is not obvious from the listing what screen protector matches this phone so that may be a problem when I need to finally replace the pre-installed protector.The screen size is great at 6.5 inches. The battery is pretty huge at 6150 mAH. My wife plays a lot of games on her phone and she rarely needs to recharge before she goes to bed. The camera quality is good, as is the call quality.This is a well made, durable phone. While premium flagships from Samsung or Apple easily exceed $1100, this phone is a great budget offering at $240 for our version. It works great with T-Mo.The Samsung A14 is probably the closest competitor from a major brand. It’s cheaper but lacks the build quality and battery size of the Bison, and also only has 64GB of storage. It’s expandable via SD card, but I have concluded expandable storage can be hit or miss because Android isn’t really built to handle expandable storage. I’ve had no trouble with SD support but my family members have.Regardless, if you are looking for a rugged, unlocked phone with a decent screen size, true all day battery, large storage at 128 GB, and decent picture and call quality, this phone hits a lot of bells and whistles at less than $300.
as good as my S21 Ultra There is a lot to like about this bison phone. It really surprises me. First was that this Mediatek chip feels just as snappy as the Snapdragon 8 in the galaxy S21 I am used to. There are features available on the Bison that are not available on many other phones including my S21, like the FM radio. The bison also has a thermal sensor for taking temperatures though I don’t think it is medically accurate. And it has two physical ‘smart keys’, one on each side, that you can assign to different features for quick access. I have one set to the thermal sensor and the other set to the flashlight.As you can see from the sample photos I’ve shared the camera is comparable to the S21 though not as warm. the images here are both in 16:9 mode and using the higher res available in that mode that wasn’t the super resolution mode. those would be too large to post. so the samsung image is 12MP and the bison is 9.4MP. As you can see the samsung is a warmer by default. but both seem to be equally sharp.There is a flaw in the design in the placement of the speaker. It’s on the back. When you put the phone down, many surfaces almost completely mute the sound, as does your hand if you hold the phone wrong.In airplane mode with wifi on using the same wifi 6 connection I compared the connection speeds. I tested against the same server using ookla speedtest app. I ran the test on on then the other, back and forth, three times each. Both achieved similar speeds.**One feature missing on the Bison, that I appreciate on the samsung. Bison could easily add This in an update ( hint hint ). This is the option to limit max battery charge to 85%. This should help extend the life of the battery. I’ve used this on my S21 from day one and it’s over 3 years old and still going strong.
Daniel Acevedo –
Not At&t compatible
I like the design as built but it’s not At&t compatible.
Kindle Customer –
MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY NOT HONORED!!
Iâll start apologizing for the lengthy review first off. There are Serious issues with warranty. Bought the phone May 2023. Stopped working February 2024. Stuck in a power cycle (powering on, powering off, rinse repeat until battery dies). Since it was past the Amazon return, I was directed to the Manufacturer. Overseas in China. Okay cool. After two weeks sending emails, pictures and videos of what phone was doing, I was told the manufacturer would not honor the 1 year manufacturer warranty because the phone was purchased from a third party reseller AKA Amazon. After several hours of arguing with Amazon, having the phone disconnected twice (âOh weâre so sorry that happenedâ), an agreement was reached to send a new replacement phone, same type but I would be losing $52 due to restocking fee. New phone received 2-26-24 and GUESS WHAT?! This phone started the same issue of power cycling. Hey for ten weeks I had a functioning phone that only cost me $300. After an hour of debating with Amazon, the phone is being returned for refund and again Iâm only losing $52. So a phone that originally cost me $364 back in 2023, has cost me close to $500 in restocking fees , original cost and return fees. DONT BUY THIS PHONE. Maybe I got a lemon
A Gamer at Heart –
Durable Build Quality; Excellent Battery Life
We replaced my wife’s phone with this one a few weeks ago, and so far, so good. She is tough on her phones, with frequent drops, scratches, etc. This phone has a beastly build quality. It is indeed rugged as claimed. It doesn’t need a case – the chassis is obviously intended to function as a case. It also comes with a tempered screen protector already installed. My wife came to me complaining she had already scratched the screen but thankfully it was only the screen protector. That’s good, but it is not obvious from the listing what screen protector matches this phone so that may be a problem when I need to finally replace the pre-installed protector.The screen size is great at 6.5 inches. The battery is pretty huge at 6150 mAH. My wife plays a lot of games on her phone and she rarely needs to recharge before she goes to bed. The camera quality is good, as is the call quality.This is a well made, durable phone. While premium flagships from Samsung or Apple easily exceed $1100, this phone is a great budget offering at $240 for our version. It works great with T-Mo.The Samsung A14 is probably the closest competitor from a major brand. It’s cheaper but lacks the build quality and battery size of the Bison, and also only has 64GB of storage. It’s expandable via SD card, but I have concluded expandable storage can be hit or miss because Android isn’t really built to handle expandable storage. I’ve had no trouble with SD support but my family members have.Regardless, if you are looking for a rugged, unlocked phone with a decent screen size, true all day battery, large storage at 128 GB, and decent picture and call quality, this phone hits a lot of bells and whistles at less than $300.
Jeff l. –
as good as my S21 Ultra
There is a lot to like about this bison phone. It really surprises me. First was that this Mediatek chip feels just as snappy as the Snapdragon 8 in the galaxy S21 I am used to. There are features available on the Bison that are not available on many other phones including my S21, like the FM radio. The bison also has a thermal sensor for taking temperatures though I don’t think it is medically accurate. And it has two physical ‘smart keys’, one on each side, that you can assign to different features for quick access. I have one set to the thermal sensor and the other set to the flashlight.As you can see from the sample photos I’ve shared the camera is comparable to the S21 though not as warm. the images here are both in 16:9 mode and using the higher res available in that mode that wasn’t the super resolution mode. those would be too large to post. so the samsung image is 12MP and the bison is 9.4MP. As you can see the samsung is a warmer by default. but both seem to be equally sharp.There is a flaw in the design in the placement of the speaker. It’s on the back. When you put the phone down, many surfaces almost completely mute the sound, as does your hand if you hold the phone wrong.In airplane mode with wifi on using the same wifi 6 connection I compared the connection speeds. I tested against the same server using ookla speedtest app. I ran the test on on then the other, back and forth, three times each. Both achieved similar speeds.**One feature missing on the Bison, that I appreciate on the samsung. Bison could easily add This in an update ( hint hint ). This is the option to limit max battery charge to 85%. This should help extend the life of the battery. I’ve used this on my S21 from day one and it’s over 3 years old and still going strong.