The TikTok phone is a solid budget handset with flagship specs

The Smartisan Nut Pro 3 -- or the TikTok phone, as some like to call it -- is the brand’s first smartphone since being taken over by TikTok maker ByteDance. But it’s more than just a phone that comes with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. It also has a solid build quality and an affordable price tag with flagship specs. 

It’s a recipe we’re used to seeing from Chinese companies at this point. But after spending some time with the Nut Pro 3, I think this so-called TikTok phone is worth a serious look.

DESIGN

The first thing I noticed about the TikTok phone is the look and feel. It reminds me of the iPhone 4’s boxy design, which I really love. It also helps the phone feel secure in the hand. 

But the phone does have a glass back, making it a fingerprint magnet. The sleek black look is nice, though. Even the metal frame is in black. And I love the rounded buttons on the side that keep the phone looking clean.

But the Nut Pro 3 isn’t all about the looks. It has some flagship power inside while maintaining the price tag of a mid-range handset. The base model starts at less than US$400.

For that price, you get a Snapdragon 855+ CPU, 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The 6.4-inch screen uses an AMOLED display, too, and it supports the DCI-P3 color gamut and an in-screen fingerprint sensor. It also has a relatively beefy 4,000mAh battery.

But if you’re picking up a TikTok phone, you’re gonna want to know about the cameras, right? The phone has four cameras on the back, which include the main 48-megapixel wide-angle shooter, 13-megapixel ultra-wide lens, 8-megapixel telephoto lens and 5-megapixel macro camera. There’s also a 20-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

BUILT-IN TIKTOK APP

The first phone from ByteDance unsurprisingly comes with TikTok preinstalled. Well, the local version called Douyin, to be precise. This phone isn’t officially available outside China yet.