A couple of months back I reviewed the Blackview Omega. That phone looks great and had a good camera, but for an MT6592 SoC phone was too expensive in Q2/Q3 2015. Blackview has now done a complete reversal and released a sub-$100 mobile with the MTK6592M SoC.
Blackview Zeta review style and build
The physical build of the Zeta is solid. There are no creaks in the back piece, the buttons give a tactile click when pressed. Because of it’s thin profile, it fits in the hand well. After switching back and forth between my THL 4000 and the Blackview Zeta, the Zeta was refreshingly light and thin.
The style is not a style that will have people saying ‘Wow’, but looks fine. There are several colors available — pink, green, black, white, and yellow.
Blackview Zeta review SoC RAM ROM
6GB free for installing apps
The SoC included with the Zeta is MT6592M. This is an 8-core 1.4GHz SoC with the Mali-400MP2 GPU. This, along with 1GB RAM is easily enough to push Android smoothly, as well as play modern 3D games. The 3D Antutu 5.7.1 score was just under 7k (720p display), which isn’t too shabby.
The storage is smartly all relegated to internal, so there’s 6GB free for installing apps. This is easily enough for hundreds of apps. If it’s still not enough, most apps can be moved to external SD to create more space on internal.
Blackview Zeta review display
The display on the blackview Zeta is IPS 5.0″@720p which gives us a ppi of 294. This is easily enough for a very pleasant viewing experience and is an excellent choice of resolution for a 4.7″-5.5″ displays.
There is some evidence of where the LEDs are situated, as the lower 10% of the display is slightly brighter than the rest, but this really is not a big deal. There is some contrast and color change from extreme angles, but not from normal viewing angles and the display can still be clearly seen from all angles. Overall the display is very good, giving strong whites and deep color.
Blackview Zeta review frequency support
Frequency support on the Zeta is quad-band GSM and 900/2100 WCDMA. A great phone for Europeans and most of Asia. As always, check your carrier’s frequencies prior to purchasing a mobile phone.
Blackview Zeta review WiFi
WiFi on the Zeta is great, staying strong up to 150ft / 45m. This result is even more substantial when we consider that some phones costing more than 2x as much aren’t reaching nearly as far.
Blackview Zeta review GPS
GPS on the Zeta is very strong, obtaining a cold lock indoors within 20 seconds. Outdoors several satellites are staying strong at mid-30’s and occasionally reaching even up to 40 SNR.
Blackview Zeta review OTG
OTG on the Blackview Zeta is working great, connecting with USB keyboard, mouse, thumb drive and gamepad without issue.
Blackview Zeta review camera
The camera on the Zeta is reportedly 8MP, but in my tests the 100% crops show strong signs of interpolation. Nonetheless, the images come out quite good. Crops up to 50% show signs of heavy sharpening but remain usable. Images in good light are beyond adequate for digital sharing.
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In these test shots, note the first image I’ve given a single crop of 100% from 8MP to show you what I’m talking about in regards to strong interpolation. The rest of the crops are at 50%.
Blackview Zeta review battery
The battery on the Zeta is 2200mAh. This may not sound like a lot, but prior to a couple months ago, this would have been considered above average size in a 5.0″ phone. Charging takes about 3-3.5 hours, but in a budget phone this is to be expected.
Battery % is decreasing smoothly and slowly. The battery lasted 5 hours 10 minutes before running a 720p movie over WiFi through YouTube at lowish brightness.
Blackview Zeta review OS
The OS on the Zeta is KitKat 4.4.2 and this isn’t a bad thing at all. The OS is stable and smooth. There were zero force closes. All of my testing apps ran without issue. Play Store is installing and updating apps no problem.
Rapid typing is flawless. The auto-brightness is working great with the system smoothly and responsively transitioning display brightness appropriately
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Blackview Zeta review closing
The Blackview Zeta is a phone I easily would recommend to a close friend or family member.
I’m very impressed by the Blackview Zeta. It’s powerful enough to run Android smoothly and to play 3D games. The screen is impressive. The images from the camera are beyond adequate for digital sharing and small prints. Battery life, GPS, OTG, Bluetooth are all good and it has great WiFi signal strength.
China brands should take note of this inexpensive mobile, that while not quite as powerful as many of the new releases, runs circles around some of them in terms of quality.
The only thing it’s missing is a compass and 850/1900 for 3G in the Americas. Other than that the phone is one you should jump on if you don’t require very large amounts of RAM or a huge battery.
The Blackview Zeta is a phone I easily would recommend to a close friend or family member.
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