Saygus first announced its entrance into the smartphone world in 2015 and it was greeted with huge amounts of praise.

Our quick take

The Saygus V Squared adds some good features for 2016. Two microSD card slots, USB Type-C, waterproofing and Android Marshmallow are all additions many will appreciate.

Couple the four upgrades with the funky design and other decent specs including two decent camera resolutions and a big battery capacity and you have yourself a very interesting device.

The Saygus V Squared is cool but it also does well on the numbers and you can't really argue with that.

Saygus V Squared

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This year sees the company make a couple of changes here and there, including the latest version of Android and some hardware advancements, all placed into the V Squared smartphone.

It's cool, it's quirky and it's one to watch when it launches in a couple of months. Here are our first impressions of the Saygus V Squared.

Saygus V Squared design

The Saygus V Squared doesn't look like your average smartphone. It doesn't have metal build, or glass rear and it isn't just your standard rectangle with curved edges either. It is different.

The V Squared is rectangular and its corners are rounded, but it angles downwards beneath the display and this small design detail makes the device catch your eye, helped by material that covers it.

A white and grey squared pattern features on the front and the rear of the V Squared. It Is soft and smooth, with a lovely matte finish making the device a true delight to hold. At 141g, it is also very light, surprisingly so in fact.

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The removable rear of the device features a large camera lens at the top, while the Saygus logo sits subtly beneath it. The bottom of the back is where things really get interesting though. A black wiggly line marks out two smaller bumps and one larger bump. It looks a little like the way you might have drawn trees as a child.

The pattern isn't just a random design Saygus decided to add to the V Squared though. It is called Fractural Antenna Technology and it is said to consolidate signals and concentrate them to provide you with better reception, such as when you are in a lift for example.

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The front of the V Squared has two speaker grilles, one at the top and the other at the bottom, the latter of which sits on the line where the smartphone angles downwards. The front camera sits to the right, while the V Squared logo sits subtly in the right-hand corner.

This smartphone isn't the slimmest around, but it does pack a lot into its 137 x 67 x 9.7mm body including IPX7 waterproofing, which is a new feature for 2016, and a biometric fingerprint sensor that sits on the right-hand side of the device with the volume controls and dedicated camera launcher.

There is also USB Type-C on board, allowing for faster charging and data transfer. The design of the Saygus V Squared might not be to everyone's tastes but we think different is cool and that the V Squared most definitely is.

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Saygus V Squared display

The Saygus V Squared comes with a 5-inch display, which Saygus says is edge-to-edge and borderless, although that's not quite the case. The Full HD display is framed by the white and grey pattern so you don’t get the same edge-to-edge experience as you do with the likes of the new Sony Xperia XA for example.

The 1920 x 1080 resolution means the V Squared offers a pixel density of 445ppi, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Saygus says the display is viewable even in bright conditions and it also features front and back light sensors for better lighting control.

The colours of the display were bright and punchy and viewing angles seemed good but we will wait until we have spent some more time with the V Squared before we pass a final judgement on the display.

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Saygus V Squared camera

It's been all about the camera on the latest flagship smartphone launches with both LG and Samsung placing a big focus on how capable the new cameras are on the LG G5 and SGS7 are.

The V Squared doesn't shy away though with a 21-megapixel rear snapper capable of 4K video recording, coupled with a 13-megaixel front camera. Both offer optical image stabilisation and auto focus, while the rear offers a dual LED flash too.

We couldn't test the camera performance during our brief amount of time with the V Squared at the show, but we will be sure to put it through its paces when we get it in for review.

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Saygus V Squared hardware and specs

The Saygus V Squared comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, which may surprise a few given the rest of its specs. It's a very established processor that is under the hood of many successful devices but it isn't the new SD820 that everyone is now talking about.

It is perhaps a blessing that it isn't the SD810 however as this chip has a couple of issues in some devices. Saygus said it opted for the SD801 for stability and the next device would sport the SD820.

Supporting the chip is 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage with not one but two microSD slots for storage expansion up to 400GB. This is another of the new features added for 2016, along with the inclusion of USB Type-C that we mentioned earlier. It is not clear whether the V Squared will support Marshmallow's Flex storage but we have asked the question and we will update this hands on when we hear more.

A removable 3100mAh battery powers the V Squared, which in itself is a pretty big capacity in comparison to some other newly devices, including the LG G5 and the SGS7, both of which have slightly smaller capacities.

Wireless charging is built in and the V Squared also features a special power saving chip that does something to the pixels in the display in order to save up to 50 per cent battery life. We couldn’t test this in but it will be interesting to see how it works in the real world and whether it makes a difference.

In terms of audio, the V Squared has built-in stereo speakers and mics, powered by Harman Kardon. There is also something called 3D Audio for video and Noise Cancelling Cypher Sound technology on board too.

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Saygus V Squared software

The Saygus V Squared will launch globally on Android Marshmallow, which is the final change since 2015. The device we saw didn't have the final software on board so details on what else it will offer are slim.

We were told it would be close to stock and there was an interesting launcher that appears in a circle. This is an option rather than customary though.