Tag: Display

ZTE Axon 7: A Six-Month Review

Posted on by ja3techreviews

So, 2017 is finally upon us, and one of my New Year’s Resolutions remains giving credit where credit is due.  Because of this resolution, it is time to give credit to the folks at ZTE for engineering a magnificent device, full of the pillars that make a smartphone great.  As I have been using this as my daily driver regularly for four of those six months, I felt it was my duty in helping you decide if this is the phone for you.

Sporting the now one-generation old Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, an Adreno 530 GPU, and 4GB of RAM, calling this a buttery smooth experience might be an understatement.  Even after the six months of installing and removing apps, playing games, tweaking the camera, making phone calls, and customizing the user interface (UI), this thing still hums along like a newborn.  Mixed with the proper amount of inertia dampening, flying through all home screens, streaming through your app drawer, or breezing through website on your browser of choice will be silky smooth.  In comparison to the current Snapdragon 821, you will find negligible slowing, as the 820 still proves as a powerhouse among processors.  In everyday usage, playing intensive games such as Marvel Legends with no problems was a constant.  I also attribute this to the fact ZTE clocked the processor in at a higher 2.15Ghz, as opposed to OEMs such as Samsung who generally clock their devices at the lower 1.8Ghz, thus minimizing power output on a similar chip. Also, this is a hybrid phone with dual-sim capabilities, or one sim and SD card.

The MiFavor and Android Marshmallow (6.0.1) software provides several welcomed features speeding up an already fast user experience, such as modified setting toggles, most used quick settings menu feature, and message alerts from the lockscreen, this will be a fun phone for daily driving.  And battery life should not be a daily concern, as the Axon 7 has a 3,250 mAh, which got me an average of 5 hours 32 minutes of screen-on time throughout the six-months of testing.  Don’t forget on those days you need to top off, quick charge 3.0 is present, and re-charging from 0 to 100% was done in 44 minutes, 48 minutes and 46 minutes, during my review.  Very sharp!

As for gaming, this is not just a fast device, things just look astounding on the 5.5″ Quad-HD AMOLED display, with a pixel count of 538, and the word “glorious” comes to mind when describing the picture quality.  Text and pictures are both sharp and very crisp, with just the right amount of saturation, and should be enjoyable for all types of viewers.  Additionally, the video playback was extremely pleasant, again, as the preset saturation levels provide lively color reproduction without sacrificing that true-to-life feeling.  Accompanied with the Dolby Atmos audio enhancement and a beastly high-quality dac, sound reproduction from the earpiece or stereo speakers in a word was phenomenal.  I was always a huge fan of the HTC boom-sound experience, and this phone not only reproduces those old feelings, but gives a one-up with the simply sublime audio output full of great pitch, punchy bass and moderate mid levels.  If listening to music, radio or watching your favorite shows is your thing, prepare to be dazzled by this mamma-jamma.  Related to the audio output, call quality was fantastic, and became utterly amazing when the voice over LTE (VoLTE) was initiated from the setting menu.  Using this on the T-Mobile network, callers sounded extremely crisp and clear, with them saying I sounded like I was in the next room.  Nice job, ZTE!

A fast processor, great display, and fantastic audio quality, what else would you need?  Well, how about a stunning and sleek looking phone along with those other features.  Phones today are seemingly bland with every manufacturer seeking the “premium” look, usually composed of glass or metal.  Well, ZTE does the same, but the Axon 7 sets itself apart with its unibody aluminum frame full of smooth, blended curves and near-bezzless front.  Coordinated with nice rich and darker color options, this device may look like others, but when I went sans cases, many of my friends would marvel “…man, that looks really nice…” or “What phone is that?”.  So if style is something you look for when you spend your money, I think you will be quite pleased.

Accompanied by a 20MP back camera with f1.8 aperture and 8MP front selfie-shooter with f2.2 aperture, your quest in being the next Marinka Masseus may hit a snag, as the cameras provide a respectable experience.  As with any cellphone camera, in great lighting, the Axon 7 captures near flawless photos full of deep colors, but not so much in low lighting.  The tendency for overexposure or blowing out any available highlights most certainly is present, but more than acceptable for posting on social media.  HDR definitely negates most of these deficiencies, and I would also advise keeping this turned on most times.  The manual mode offers additional settings and features for those demanding more controls for that “perfect” shot, but being someone who was satisfied with the HDR representations, I did not find myself using this feature much.  Optical Image Stabilization and Dual-Tone LED flash are present and add greatly needed features for getting the best action photos or offsetting contrast ambient lighting.  Additionally, video quality taken on the rear camera was great, with my only complaint being for a device with OIS, I still observed some jittery frames at times, but nothing that would be a deal breaker.

Hitting nearly every pillar of a great smartphone, there is little objection from me for anyone wanting to buy this phone.  Oh, did I mention the $399.00 price tag?  Yeah…all this for under $400.00, easily making this an easy recommend for anyone, especially for audiophiles.

 

A Quick Look at the HTC 10

Posted on by ja3techreviews

HTC 10 Introduction – HTC YouTube

A phone by an other name would be just as sweet….not so fast!  As you all are well aware, flagship season, as I refer to this lovely time of year, is upon us.  We first were introduced to the gorgeous Samsung Galaxy S7 and its radiant glass design, and the the highly innovative and modular motif-based LG G5, both of which I will be discussing in my upcoming reviews.  Apart from the upcoming iPhone, the one device on many reviewers radar was the newest from HTC .  For many, this was more highly anticipated not because of the possible fanfare, but more-or-less, critics and fans alike were wondering what direction the struggling manufacturer would take needing a resuscitation of a brand grasping for continued relevance.  If you recall my article, Best Smartphones of 2015, I ranked the HTC M9, as one of the better devices from last year, but stated a major overhaul would be necessary for the company drowning in staganation.  Well, what we got is the HTC 10, a phone lacking clear direction and merely copying what others are doing, so much so it even dropped the “M” moniker.

First, I would like to clarify this is not a bashing of HTC or the HTC 10, merely the humble opinion of one reviewer who is not impressed by what I see.  I have been an avid user of HTC for many years now.  From time-to-time, I dust off my ancient HTC Amaze, and merrily go about my day with a phone I still love using.  And, I STILL feel like a boss when I pull out the fantastic M8, with those boom-sound speakers, in all its aluminum body glory.  Those phones were the embodiment and staples of the company.  A company resting its hat on a clean, user-friendly Sense UI and one of the greatest audio experience on a mobile device.  The camera was always a weak spot but what is beauty without a blemish.  Last year produced more of the same with the HTC M9, with the only deviations from previous versions being a shift of the power and volume buttons, which was largely unnecessary, and a continuation of the design of past M-series devices.  All-in-all, this was not bad, but in the fickle consumer world, buyers want continuous improvements as justification for spending money upgrading each year.  What we got was a case of, “If it ain’t broke, we probably aren’t going to put the time and effort to fix it”, as I was hard pressed in identifying an significant changes from M8 to M9.  As evidence by many other manufacturers, 2015 was the year of the fingerprint reader and Quad HD displays, none of which were present on the M9.  I read articles from fellow reviewers stating a shift to a higher resolution display, and minor augmentations of the body design and user language would make all the difference for what we believed would be dubbed the HTC M10.  Nope!  What we got was a Frankenstein clone in a hollow attempt to stay relevant.  Well, don’t color me impressed!

Because this is merely an initial thought and not full review, I won’t go through my standard review format.  However, I will tell the basics and specifications of the phone.  We now have the bump to a 5.2″ Quad HD resolution on a Super LCD display, with a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM, and expandable memory in addition to the 32/64GB on board storage.  Included is also a fingerprint sensor, a seamless metal body with chamfered edges, and Hi-Resolution (Hi-Res) audio outputs.  They cleaned up Sense UI, as its more vanilla Android Marshmallow with a few HTC tricks, but still very nice clean interface.  For those of you whom are audiophiles, be prepared to be underwhelmed.  As previously mentioned, I think of this as a Frankenstein clone phone, as only the body design is reminiscent of what I thought was the HTC calling card.  The dual front facing speakers from previous are replaced with one front speaker and a bottom facing “woofer”.  In all honesty, the sound was not as punchy for me, as highs were just okay, but bass sorely lacked, in my limited usage thus far.  Again, this was from someone expecting the same sounds from the M8 and M9, but I am feeling letdown so far.  The sound is good, but not HTC-esque sound.  And although they kept the same design language, I couldn’t help but think this phone looks like if the OnePlus 2 and LG G5 had a baby.  Seriously, that’s what it looks like to me!  Couple that with it went with near Nexus-like vanilla android, a la Motorola, and through in some Apple-compatible features; this seems like an attempt from a company whose back is against the wall, so they borrowed from everyone attempting to lure you in.  In my opinion, this is not a company re-inventing itself from its core characteristics, just throwing out something done before by others.  Also, did I tell you this phone will debut with a $699.00 price tag?!?!  No way, HTC!  Go sell crazy somewhere else because we are all stocked up here.

In being a reviewer, it’s my job to try and be as impartial as possible and help equip you with information as consumers.  Therefore, I reserve the right to change my thoughts and opinions as I give the the full review treatment.  But, I must attest to being a HTC fan, and thus keep asking myself the question, “Where did we go wrong”, but will keep vigilant during the review.  As is customary, my closing thoughts are for the price and what is available out there right now, I would not recommend this, but that opinion may change.  Please check back for the full review and have a great day!