Having read all 31 pages of the "Best dual sim Android phone" thread, I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on a Zopo ZP500, 2000 mAh battery, screen protector and car holder plus asked for the rooting/chinese app removing service (I can't be bothered to learn Android rooting ). The phone arrived today and I managed to play with it for a few hours and set it up.
To put this review in perspective, my previous smart(est) phone was an Alcatel Onetouch 918D, as I am in dire need of a dual sim phone with at least one sim working with the biggest Australian carrier's (Telstra) 3G network on 850 MHz. So the ZP500 is predominantly compared to the Alcatel, as well as HTC Wildfire, also present in my household. I have seen and used for very short periods other smart phones as well, nothing long enough though to form anything but a superficial opinion.
The first impressions.
Firstly the specs:
MT6575 CPU at 1 GHz running ICS,
4" IPS multi-touch capacitive screen @ 800*480 pixels,
SGX531 graphics accelerator,
4G ROM and 512M RAM,
BT 3.0, b/g/n WiFi,
5 MP rear camera 0.5 MP front camera,
SD support up to 32 G,
micro USB charge/data port.
The phone booted in about half the time the Alcatel normally does, which I expected with the faster hardware. The screen really impressed me, to a casual iPhone observer it looks as good as the Apple device. Certainly much better than the price tag (US $170 currently) would suggest. Viewing angles are great.
The screen was very responsive, couldn't make it lag no matter what I did with it. Even with the screen protector installed, sensitivity only dropped by about 5 to 10%.
The shop (zopomobileshop(dot)com) rooted the phone for me and got rid of all the chinese apps that are included for their market. Play store worked as soon as I got the phone connected to my WiFi, which by the way was quick and easy. Took me longer to type in the phone's mac address into my router's access list, then the connection itself and IP acquisition.
I got all my usual apps again and this is where the second surprise surfaced. The app installations were VERY fast, also, moving them to the SD card with App2SD was quick too.
I have used ICS before on a tablet, so I was used to the changes from 2.3 (Gingerbread ?) present on the Alcatel. Setting up and customising the phone was easy. Due to it's origin, there was no English dictionary included, but a little browse in the Play Store got it sorted fast.
Nice to have a phone that is not locked to a carrier, so you can easily chop and change even your basic apps, like messaging and contacts.
Once all the setup was done, I got my Blueant Q2 and my car's BT radio paired and tested. The only issue I had was dialing from the car radio, but it was my fault as the car's older BT (and built in functionality) did not anticipate two sim cards to select from to make a call. Once I set a default sim (from the factory default of "make your choice when you dial"), the car stereo could dial the phone without issues.
The phone's audio is nice and loud, I had to actually turn it down a couple of clicks. Will see how it performs in noisy environments.
Over all I am very pleased with my new toy, also quite impressed with the shop mentioned above (looks like the factory's own outlet), as I asked them after the initial order if they could send me in the same package the car holder too. It was not a problem and they didn't charge extra for postage either. Communication was excellent as well.
This is it for now, I will chime back in a few weeks once I get some use out of the phone. Thanks for reading
To put this review in perspective, my previous smart(est) phone was an Alcatel Onetouch 918D, as I am in dire need of a dual sim phone with at least one sim working with the biggest Australian carrier's (Telstra) 3G network on 850 MHz. So the ZP500 is predominantly compared to the Alcatel, as well as HTC Wildfire, also present in my household. I have seen and used for very short periods other smart phones as well, nothing long enough though to form anything but a superficial opinion.
The first impressions.
Firstly the specs:
MT6575 CPU at 1 GHz running ICS,
4" IPS multi-touch capacitive screen @ 800*480 pixels,
SGX531 graphics accelerator,
4G ROM and 512M RAM,
BT 3.0, b/g/n WiFi,
5 MP rear camera 0.5 MP front camera,
SD support up to 32 G,
micro USB charge/data port.
The phone booted in about half the time the Alcatel normally does, which I expected with the faster hardware. The screen really impressed me, to a casual iPhone observer it looks as good as the Apple device. Certainly much better than the price tag (US $170 currently) would suggest. Viewing angles are great.
The screen was very responsive, couldn't make it lag no matter what I did with it. Even with the screen protector installed, sensitivity only dropped by about 5 to 10%.
The shop (zopomobileshop(dot)com) rooted the phone for me and got rid of all the chinese apps that are included for their market. Play store worked as soon as I got the phone connected to my WiFi, which by the way was quick and easy. Took me longer to type in the phone's mac address into my router's access list, then the connection itself and IP acquisition.
I got all my usual apps again and this is where the second surprise surfaced. The app installations were VERY fast, also, moving them to the SD card with App2SD was quick too.
I have used ICS before on a tablet, so I was used to the changes from 2.3 (Gingerbread ?) present on the Alcatel. Setting up and customising the phone was easy. Due to it's origin, there was no English dictionary included, but a little browse in the Play Store got it sorted fast.
Nice to have a phone that is not locked to a carrier, so you can easily chop and change even your basic apps, like messaging and contacts.
Once all the setup was done, I got my Blueant Q2 and my car's BT radio paired and tested. The only issue I had was dialing from the car radio, but it was my fault as the car's older BT (and built in functionality) did not anticipate two sim cards to select from to make a call. Once I set a default sim (from the factory default of "make your choice when you dial"), the car stereo could dial the phone without issues.
The phone's audio is nice and loud, I had to actually turn it down a couple of clicks. Will see how it performs in noisy environments.
Over all I am very pleased with my new toy, also quite impressed with the shop mentioned above (looks like the factory's own outlet), as I asked them after the initial order if they could send me in the same package the car holder too. It was not a problem and they didn't charge extra for postage either. Communication was excellent as well.
This is it for now, I will chime back in a few weeks once I get some use out of the phone. Thanks for reading