You probably haven't heard of Saygus and that's because the US-based phone manufacturer has been quiet in recent years since it unveiled the V phone that never turned up. It's readying a return with the Saygus V2 (squared) 5-inch Android smartphone that's crammed with features in all the right places.
Watch our hands-on video of the Saygus V2The mostly working production model I had a chance to play with wasn't entirely in the best of shape, but there was enough to suggest this is a phone to take notice off if it meets its scheduled global 2015 launch.Its design won't thrill you in the same way the One M8 or the iPhone 6 might but that doesn't mean it's ugly. The V2 has a stature that's Samsung Galaxy S5-esque from the back and up front, it resembles a phone with a case glued onto it. It's actually a tough kevlar trim that extends to the back and is slightly recessed so sits above the screen to add protection when the phone falls face first. It's waterproof too and without those annoying seals thanks to technology from waterproofing company HZO.
There's physical metal buttons on the side alongside a fingerprint side scanner that can be used as an alternative way to unlock the phone. The back shell is removable hiding away the SIM card slot, a removable 3,100mAh battery and a whole load of physical storage support. There's two microSD card slots and both can be expanded up to 128GB to go with the 64GB of built-in storage. That's a whole lot of space for your content.
When you clip the case back on, there's more to discover as Saygus also includes a fractal antenna. Essentially, this aims to spread the technology required to ensure you have strong reception much wider than the average phone. The hardware goodies don't end there though. In the camera department there's a 21-megapixel main camera and 13-megapixel camera both with optical image stabilisation. Unfortunately, the cameras, which run with a stock Android camera app at the moment was not in a fit state to take any images.
The sharp 5-inch screen is Full HD with an impressive 445ppi pixel density and is almost edge-to-edge. Two rather sizeable front-facing speakers sit above the display and are powered by Harmon Kardon. Again, I was unable to get a listen to see how they fare against something like HTC's Boomsound speakers. Saygus is not ignoring the all-important call quality either and is using something called Cypher noise-cancelling technology to pick out your voice in busy environments.On the connectivity front, the V2 supports 60GHZ Wireless HD to beam content to TVs super quick. There's not many phones at the moment that can boast that kind of technology. Additionally it will work with all standards of Wi-Fi plus there's NFC, QI wireless charging support and even an IR blaster.
It's running on Android 4.4 KitKat as Saygus says it's waiting for Google to deliver a more stable version of Lollipop and there will be the option to run multiple operating systems if you feel the need to go for Windows Phone instead of Android. That's powered by a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor with 3GB of RAM. It's slightly disappointing, it's not the same Snapdragon 810 packed into the LG G Flex 2, but then there's still plenty of phones that still run on this setup.
Early impressions
There's a lot of 'ifs' with the Saygus V2. If the company can actually get this phone out this year and if it can price it competitively with other top end 5-inch phones as it hopes to do, then there's numerous reasons why this phone will have great appeal for many.
Whether it's the masses of extra storage, the impressive-sounding cameras and some truly innovative features, there's something for everyone here. I just hope it does happen because it could push the big boys to up their game.