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ClaudeFTW
Posts: 5074
Location: Bucharest, Romania
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 Posted: Thu, 14th Mar 2013 14:32 Post subject: [Android] ZTE Grand X IN review from yours truly. |
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Ever needed a cheap Android phone which doesn't lag even when you're just trying to access the dialer? Well, look no further, ZTE launched a couple of months ago the Grand X IN, the IN in its name standing for the Clover Trail platform powering it, instead of the Tegra 2 chipset found on its cousin, the ZTE Grand X. The phone has a dual-threaded, single core Intel Atom clocked at 1.6 GHz, 1 gig of RAM and a PowerVR SGX540. There's even an Intel inside logo on the back for you to brag with it. Speaking of the back plate, it presents itself with a rubberized pattern which will make it really hard for the phone to fall out of your hand, and, to be honest, it is by far the grippiest phone I've ever had my hands on, the pattern on the back and slight bump at the lower base helping this fact a ton. On the front you will find standard four capacitive hardware buttons, the Back, Home, Options and Search. In the upper side there's a light and proximity sensor, the front-facing VGA camera and the 4'3 inch screen. The screen behaves very well when touched and has and 8 axis (up and low, right and left and two diagonals) touch matrix (which can be see under the microscope). There is virtually no lag for touch, and the angle visibility is pretty great, considering it's a TFT screen (it's rumored some units have an IPS panel).
Software side, the phone comes with Android 4.0.4 installed but unfortunately, the typical carrier crap bloatware is there, however, these can be easily disabled, which is a big plus for a carrier. The phone is also unlocked and it may be used in any network, even when purchased with a subscription, not a move from the carrier which sells it, Cosmote, but a standard for ZTE devices which work with a SIM card. Appearance is typical for AOSP, and the biggest change brought to the software running on it, is the lock-screen which is unlocked by keeping the screen pressed along with a circle which runs around the shortcuts present there (which are in a circle pattern and can be customized in Options).
Phone behaved very well in Epic Citadel and Dead Trigger. Epic Citadel gave it a High Performance setting and an average of 49.1 FPS's. Dead Trigger ran solidly with no visible slowdowns. There's a Micro SD slot as the internal space is limited at 2GB's - which can be accessed by the user. Antutu score is at a solid 11000 score, which is greater than a..say, Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation, both score around 9-10k.
Battery seems to last for about a day and a half with normal use, a few minutes of browsing, a few dozen minutes talking and other dozens for gaming. The back camera, however, sucks. Low-light photos looks like absolute crap and are full of noise, but the camera shines for park or beach photos.
The phone can be found in Romania through Cosmote and is priced at 200 Euros free of a subscription and 40 euros with a ~20 euros subscription. It's a pretty great price for a phone with such performance and screen but subpar camera. Had the pleasure of trying this out for a week, for a friend as he didn't have the time to do so himself and to be frank, I was impressed by how much it packs, for such a low price, and by low price I mean it, the SGS2 is about 320 euros without a subscription here. Perfect for people wanting bang for the buck, but not my first choice for a phone, as the software cannot be replaced, for now, the phone cannot be rooted without installing a custom ROM, the only one, and that one behaves like crap because of the lack of experience with Intel Atom for phones.
Hope you enjoyed this, I will post more reviews as soon as I finish testing products. Feel free to ask me anything.
R7 2700x @4GHz / MSI B450 Tomahawk / beQuiet! Dark Rock 4 / 32GB @3000 MHz / MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z / Samsung 850 EVO 250GB / Western Digital 1TB / Fractal Design Meshify C Dark / SuperFlower Leadex Gold 650W / DELL whatever 27 inch IPS
I usually stream stuff: http://www.twitch.tv/claudeftw
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| Posted: Sat, 16th Mar 2013 11:18 Post subject: |
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Thx claude.
Enjoyed your review. A picture of the device would be good, and some more details. How big? Weight? Root? Custom roms available? Screen resolution?
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Waargh
Posts: 6997
Location: hell on earth
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| Posted: Sat, 16th Mar 2013 12:22 Post subject: |
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Nice review, thx
Today I didn't even need to use my AK. I gotta say it was a good day. (c) - Ice Cube
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ClaudeFTW
Posts: 5074
Location: Bucharest, Romania
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| Posted: Sat, 16th Mar 2013 12:56 Post subject: |
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| AwE wrote: | Thx claude.
Enjoyed your review. A picture of the device would be good, and some more details. How big? Weight? Root? Custom roms available? Screen resolution? |
I can't put up any pics with it since I have given it back by now. It's as big as the S2 and feels very great in hand, especially with the texture on its back which doesn't let it slip. It is, however, a tad thicker., and heavier, it weighs 140 grams. Best I can do about photos, RIGHT now, is post some from the Internet, which I'm sure you already saw. I may be able to post some pics of it and camera samples sometimes next week, if you're willing to wait.
There are no custom roms floating around of which I know, and rooting it is very tricky as you need to install a pre-rooted ROM (that's how far I got into it, since it sounded all very fishy). Found more info here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2077174 , but they're all carrier ROMs. Good news is, last night I met with a friend which bought it (everyone working for Cosmote bought it, there's a great offer for employees) and the good news is, the bloatware can be disabled in App settings.
The screen has a 960 by 540 resolutions, and is 4.3 inches.
R7 2700x @4GHz / MSI B450 Tomahawk / beQuiet! Dark Rock 4 / 32GB @3000 MHz / MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z / Samsung 850 EVO 250GB / Western Digital 1TB / Fractal Design Meshify C Dark / SuperFlower Leadex Gold 650W / DELL whatever 27 inch IPS
I usually stream stuff: http://www.twitch.tv/claudeftw |
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