You've most likely heard of Energizer. It sells batteries, right? True, but it has also become a smartphone brand. Avenir Telecom, a French company that has received the rights to use this brand name, started selling mobile phones under the Energizer name back in 2015. This year, they released a new portfolio of smartphones and feature phones. The common theme that unites them all (except their brand name), is the battery and the autonomy it provides. In this review we evaluate the Energizer Power Max P550S, a low-budget Android smartphone which boasts a 5.000 mAh battery - quite large by today's standards. Let's dig in:

Energizer Power Max P550S: who is it good for?

The Energizer Power Max P550S is an excellent smartphone for:

• Users who need a solid phone with a stock Android operating system
• People who want long battery life from their smartphone
• Buyers on a budget

Pros and cons

We liked the following about the Energizer Power Max P550S:

• Amazing battery life
• Solid design with a full metal body
• No unnecessary applications are installed
• It has an untouched Android operating system

However, there were also some negatives to consider:

• The smartphone is very heavy
• The screen's color reproduction is not as good as on other smartphones with a similar price
• The included headset is of poor quality

Verdict

The Energizer Power Max P550S is a simple, easy to use smartphone for low-budget buyers. While the phone is heavy, its outstanding battery life may be a decisive quality for some users. The camera is mediocre, the phone is sturdy but unremarkable as far as design goes, and while we usually enjoy the clean Android operating system, the experience with the Energizer Power Max P550S convinced us that, sometimes, less is just… less. This smartphone is a good fit for people who want a cheap smartphone, with a long battery life and a clean Android distribution that is not weighed down by bloatware.

Hardware specifications and packaging

The Energizer P550S comes in a package that's different from any other offering at its price level. The box is made from metal and suggests ruggedness and endurance.

Upon opening the metallic container, you will see the phone, underneath a black cardboard cover.

Underneath the phone, you find a small manual, a modular charger which allows it to be used both in Europe and in the UK, the pin for opening the SIM tray and a pair of earbuds. Unfortunately, although the phone supports fast charging, the supplied charger only delivers a voltage of 5V, insufficient for fast charging. In line with the "ruggedness" image, you also find a glass screen protector in the box. This is a nice addition, even though the smartphone comes with a pre-applied protective film. The glass protector is more resistant and can take much more punishment than a plastic film. More importantly, in case of an accident, it dissipates the force of impact over a larger surface, thus increasing the chances of the screen surviving the impact.

The Energizer Power Max P550S is quite a large phone, at 6.07 x 3.08 x 0.37 inches or 154.3 x 78.3 x 9.4 mm in width x depth x height. It is thick and heavy, with a weight of 7.16 oz or 203 grams. However, it has a full metal body and a large 5000 mAh battery, so the weight won't come as a surprise for informed buyers.

The screen is a 5.5-inch touchscreen display with an HD resolution. With only 1280 by 720 pixels on a screen this large, the pixel density is low, roughly 267 pixels per inch. The rest of the specs are equally unimpressive. The processing is done on a Mediatek MT6737 chipset with a Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, a Mali-T720 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Although low-end, these components are sufficiently powerful to run the usual applications on Android without severely affecting the user experience.The internal storage space is sufficient, 16GB, and it can be further expanded by adding a microSD card of up to 64GB. The Energizer Power Max P550S is a dual-SIM phone, and as with most dual-SIM phones, the microSD card occupies the second SIM slot.

As mentioned before, the non-removable battery has a capacity of 5000 mAh. That's 30-40% more capacity than your average phone battery, at the cost of weight and size. The main camera uses a 13MP sensor with autofocus and a LED flash, capable of recording video at a resolution of 720p with 30 frames per second. It lacks optical image stabilization, but it does have a software stabilization feature. The front camera has a resolution of 5MP, fixed focus and is also capable of recording video.

The Energizer Power Max P550S uses two nano-SIMs and can connect to GSM / HSPA / LTE mobile networks. Connectivity options include 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and USB OTG. The type-C USB port is a nice addition, while in the sensors department all boxes are checked: accelerometer, compass, light, gyro sensors are all present. The fingerprint reader is located on the back of the phone.

If you would like to see more details about the features and the detailed hardware specifications of this smartphone, browse its official webpage Energizer Power Max P550S: .

The Energizer Power Max P550S specs are, with the exception of the battery capacity, unspectacular and aimed towards an entry-level position. The package is good looking and inspires solidity and endurance.

Design and build quality

The moment you pick up the smartphone you feel its sturdiness. It is heavy by today's standards and pretty thick as well. The aluminium alloy used for the body of the phone is not brushed, so we can't really talk about elegance or good looks. On the upside, fingerprints and dirt aren't a problem, as the phone does not get smudged easily.

The front of the Energizer Power Max P550S houses, in the upper part, the light and proximity sensors, the 5MP camera, the LED flash, and the ear speaker.

Underneath the screen, you can find the (slightly disappointing) physical, capacitive buttons. Physical buttons take space away from the screen, and while while having the buttons in a fixed position is slightly better for ergonomics, the trend is towards including them on the screen. The buttons have no backlighting, so you'll be pressing blind in low light conditions, with no clear indication of where the buttons are.

The bottom of the smartphone houses the mono speaker, the Type-C micro-USB port and the microphone. The top of the phone houses only the 3.5 mm audio jack.

On the right side of the phone, you find the volume buttons as well as the power button, while on the left side there is only the SIM tray.

The back of the Energizer Power Max P550S is flat, with rounded edges, and a small rim around the camera. Apart from the Energizer logo and the sticker with the phone IMEI codes, the only other feature present is the small fingerprint reader. The phone looks like it has a removable back lid, but that age is long gone.

The design of the Energizer Power Max P550S is as generic as it gets. Thickness is not a real issue, the only real complaint would be the weight, but the phone is solid and the metallic body feels nice when handled.

On the next page, we test the Energizer Power Max P550S, its camera, we review the bundled apps, and benchmark the performance of the device.