Blackview BV9200 review

6.6-inch IPS LCD notched panel

The smartphone features a 6.6-inch IPS LCD panel with 120Hz refresh rate, up from last year's 90Hz. Resolution is 1080 x 2408px due to the notch. Speaking of which, we rarely see smartphones with teardrop-shaped notches these days, so this is quite a surprise. Then again, last year's BV8800 also had one. And we still think there was enough space to fit the selfie camera in the top bezel as it's fairly thick to begin with.

And if it was any other phone, we would have complained about the IPS LCD panel on a €300 phone, but we get why Blackview went for non-OLED but going for a simpler LCD panel makes more sense here.

Unfortunately, the peak brightness we got isn't very convincing. In manual mode, we got 481 nits of maximum brightness, and there was no boost in Auto mode either. So this is the brightest it can get, and it's far from ideal for outdoor use, which in theory is the phone's main purpose.

Additionally, due to the higher reflectivity of LCD panels compared to OLEDs, outdoor legibility is even worse, so higher brightness is desirable.

Even though color accuracy isn't the main priority for the target customer, it has to be noted it's really bad on this screen. Whites and grays are straight-up blue and purple-ish. That's why we recommend using the phone in Specialty mode with the warm color preset. We got the best results in this mode.

HRR control

The HRR control is pretty simple - if you are interacting with the display, it boosts to 120Hz, and if not, it dials down to 60Hz. Simple, yet effective. There are also three additional modes that put the display in static 120, 90 or 60Hz.

Battery life

The Blackview BV9200 has a considerably smaller battery than its predecessor, and that's the main reason it's so much lighter and thinner. However, the negative impact on battery life is apparent. In fact, we believe the overall score 85 hours is downright disappointing, especially for a rugged phone with a 5,000 mAh unit. Even the Helio G96 SoC isn't very demanding.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.

Screen-on tests aren't all that bad, though, and the 4G call runtime is impressive, even, but the standby drags down the overall score pretty substantially.

Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns, check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.

Charging speed

The handset ships with a 66W-rated charger, which is Power Delivery-compliant. The charging speed is more than adequate for the price bracket, as we got 82% of the charge back in just 30 minutes - way faster than most competitors. A full charge took only 55 minutes, another excellent result.

Speakers

The BV9200 surprises with a set of full-fledged stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. The left channel doesn't serve as an earpiece, so you will be getting the real deal.

Although loudness is okay (-26.3 LUFS), the speakers leave a lot to be desired in terms of quality. Bass is pretty much non-existent, and the vocals and highs start to ring at higher levels. Everything sounds flat.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.