The Zhicheng W18 is a new phone recently released in China from a startup known as Langfeng, that is a startup comprised of the original Nokia design and research development team. Their goal is to bring the flip phone back into mainstream popularity. The manufacturing of the phone is done by Foxconn.
This phone is considered to be a luxury phone which is evident by the metal body and leather back. Furthermore it’s running Android 6.0 with a custom UI to give off the feeling that it’s made from gold and silver.
One of the main selling points are the two 4.1″ displays. This allows you to use your phone and view notifications while it is closed. The other selling point is a traditional keypad for typing and menu navigation.
On the inside it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC 5.1 storage, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. The front camera is 5 MP and the rear camera is 16 MP. It’s disappointing to see that they opted for Snapdragon 820 as it was released in 2016. However it’s still a very capable SoC and beats a lot of cheaper MediaTek SoCs that manufacturers usually opt for.
It is powered by a 2000mAh battery with a USB Type-C port, also it’s not clear if there are any fast charging technology being used but 2000mAh would be quick to charge regardless.
The Zhicheng W18 takes a Nano SIM with a wide range of frequencies and VoLTE support.
Mobile Frequencies
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Quadbands: (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
- CDMA: BC0 TD-SCDMA: B34/B39
- W-CDMA: B1/B2/B5
- FDD LTE: B1/B3/B7/B4/B8/B12
- TDD LTE: B38/B39/B40/B41
Availability
Currently the Zhicheng W18 is selling for ￥3999 CNY ($582 USD) in China. This is a very high price considering what’s included. Langfeng however are advertising this as a luxury phone and the price reflects that.