Kingzone Z1 review style and physical build
The Kingzone Z1 is perhaps the most interesting looking mobile I’ve reviewed, and not in a bad way.
The textured back piece catches and plays with light, causing a dancing sheen which makes it seem soft and almost alive. The gold lip curves around to the back at the top and bottom. The classy, matte, gold sides which even when studied closely come off as machined-aluminum (though may be plastic). The red Knight Rideresque capacitive buttons. The charcoal, as opposed to black, top and bottom front. It all comes together to form a very unique and slick looking phone.
the Z1 is several mm shorter and narrower than both the iNew V8 and Mlais M52.
It may be too much for some, but I feel Kingzone has done an outstanding job that should have other manufacturers looking. I don’t just mean other China brands. I mean the major brands as well. Style wise, Kingzone has brought it to the next level with the Z1.
Physical build is solid. There are zero creaks from the back piece. The volume and power buttons give a tactile click when pressed. The sections of the phone all come together tightly. It’s also worth noting that the Z1 is several mm shorter and narrower than both the iNew V8 and Mlais M52.
Kingzone Z1 review RAM & storage
The RAM on the Kingzone Z1 is a true 2GB. Many users won’t notice the difference between the 1GB and 2GB and indeed my main mobile is a 1GB RAM phone, but some power users will notice a difference when multitasking, as 2GB RAM allows for quite a few apps to remain in memory at once and can give a smoother Android experience when switching between apps.
3GB is allocated to internal which should be more than enough for most users. For those who require more, apps can be set within Settings to install to phone storage, and many apps nowadays allow themselves to be moved over to SD without root.
Kingzone Z1 review OS
going between the App drawer and Homescreen and vice versa, triggering the keyboard, all of these actions are instantaneous.
The OS on the Kingzone is Android 4.4 KitKat. In Phone info, it shows 4.4.4.
The OS is very smooth and quick. Switching between apps in memory, going between the App drawer and Homescreen and vice versa, triggering the keyboard, all of these actions are instantaneous.
Fast typing goes off perfectly. There are no ghost touches or double-taps required. Scrolling in webpages and slow swipes show extremely smooth action, with no jumps or jitters.
The gapps included on the device all work without issue. Play Store connects, installs and updates apps flawlessly. Google Services also updated without issue.
Booting into recovery from a powered-off state was no problem.
The standard popular apps I use to test the phone with, Facebook / Skype / Chrome all worked without any problems and zero force closes. The Z1 goes into deep sleep quickly and without issue. Booting into recovery from a powered-off state was no problem.
Kingzone Z1 review external speaker / mic / earpiece
Interestingly, the speaker appears to be triple-ported, but this is for show more than anything, as with the bottom ports covered, loudness is unaffected. The external speaker on the Kingzone Z1 produced sound plenty loud enough for hands-free / movies / music.
The mic and earpiece were beyond adequate for conversations with both parties being heard without issue.
Kingzone Z1 review camera
The pictures from the Z1 came out great. Good dynamic range and good color. These pictures are unedited. The 1:1 crops of 5MP images are very usable.
I’ve also included an image taken at dusk. While the shadowed areas don’t hold up well to pixel-peeping, the overall image remains very usable.
[flickr_set id=”72157651631798575″]
It appears that they may be using a true 13MP sensor. The two crops at the end of the album came from the Z1 with the camera set at 13MP.
Kingzone Z1 review components
Auto-brightness unfortunately isn’t working properly. The hardware is detecting appropriate levels of brightness throughout the range of the sensor, but they do not affect the brightness of the screen. This is easily remedied with a 3rd party app and should be a relatively simple OS fix for Kingzone to implement in the future.
GPS is working great both indoors and out. A cold lock was obtained within a minute and subsequent warm locks nearly immediately. The SNR is normally staying in the mid-30’s for at least several satellites at a time.
The fingerprint scanner is finicky enough to be dubbed useless, but this has never been a feature I’ve utilized even when working quickly and easily.
It’s also worth mentioning that the notification LED is of the pulsing sort as opposed to blinking. Meaning that it fades in and out which is a nice touch.
OTG works without any fuss. Gamepad, mouse, keyboard and USB SD all work flawlessly with the Kingzone Z1. Bluetooth discovers and pairs with my generic smart watch and PC without issue. The compass is working fine, as is the proximity sensor. NFC was tested with another NFC enabled phone and file transfer was quick and painless using the NFC File Transfer app. The FM radio is tuning and working without issue.
Kingzone Z1 review frequency support
Excellent to see that according to the box, official specs and MTK Engineering Mode, the Z1 supports worldwide 3G (850/900/1900/2100) and bands 1/3/7/20 LTE/4G. As always, check your carrier’s frequency support prior to purchasing a mobile.
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Kingzone Z1 review WiFi
This kind of range is the match or better than any big brand phone.
The WiFi on the Z1 can be rated as excellent, reaching 225ft/69m and remaining strong and constant. The last couple of phones to reach this distance were the iNew V8 and THL 4000. This kind of range is the match or better than any big brand phone.
Kingzone Z1 review Antutu and 3DMark Ice Storm
The Z1 scored a healthy 40k on Antutu, with a great score of 11k on 3D (720p). It was interesting to compare the MT6732 GPU clocked at 500MHz and the MT6752 clocked at 700MHz and what a significant difference in clock speed produced.
To see how the MT6752 Kingzone Z1 matches up against other SoCs, and to see the 3DMark 1080p and 720p scores, check out this post (opens in new tab).
Kingzone Z1 review battery
The Kingzone Z1 reached 7 hours onscreen with low-brightness. 6 hours 45 minutes of that was straight playing of 720P video over WiFi through the YouTube app in full screen mode.
Possibly due to the phone needing to discharge several times before evening out it’s %, a large portion of juice remained in the lower 15%, playing the video test for nearly an hour on 1% before hitting 3.5V.
From 15%-100%, the battery on the Kingzone Z1 charges in about two hours. A very even charge with no jumps.
Kingzone Z1 review WiFi
The WiFi on the Kingzone Z1 can be rated as excellent. Walking back 225ft/69m, the Z1 maintained a strong, fast connection to a $20 home router. It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed a phone that would reach back as far as the iNew V8 and THL 4000 did and it’s good to see the Z1 has an outstanding WiFi antenna.
Kingzone Z1 review display
As mentioned in the preview, the display on the Z1 is 5.5″@720P. This gives us a PPI of 267. While not retina, the display looks very good.
The whites are clean and pure. Colors are quite good. There is very minor light bleed in the bottom corners from behind the LCD, but are far from being a bother. The screen is true OGS/IPS and color/contrast remain true from all angles. In bright sunlight the screen remains visible.
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Kingzone Z1 review conclusion
I’m impressed with what Kingzone has brought to the table with the Z1. It’s not without faults — The fingerprint scanner is effectively useless, the auto-brightness on my test unit requires a 3rd-party app, and the price of $200+ lends serious consideration to stepping up into the likes of Xiaomi and Meizu. Still, this phone looks awesome. The Kingzone Z1 is one beautiful, slick, unique looking phone. iPhone users will cower in shame when you whip this piece out.
With worldwide 3G support, a powerful SoC hitting 40k on Antutu, excellent WiFi strength, a good camera, good LCD and GPS, NFC, Bluetooth all working well, and it’s matchless style, the Kingzone Z1 can be added to your shortlist if you’re in the market for a $200 ballpark mobile.
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