ZTE Cymbal Z-320 - Review 2022
Elementary phones are at a crossroads. The reason you're not seeing a lot of quality not-smartphones on the market place is because carriers are starting to demand voice over LTE (VoLTE), a technology that former feature phone operating systems don't support. The $62.99 ZTE Cymbal Z-320 for T-Mobile is a starting attempt at working around that. Information technology uses a spectacularly pared down version of Android to deliver a elementary phonation phone with splendid VoLTE sound quality. Dial a number, and you'll connect a clear call. Unfortunately, that'due south about the only thing it does well.
Note that the T-Mobile Z-320 is quite different from Tracfone'south T-320, which is a fully Android-powered smartphone in a flip telephone body. For more on that phone, see our ZTE Cymbal-T review.
Physical Features, Call Quality, and Bombardment Life
The Cymbal Z-320 is a flashback of a phone. It measures 4.1 by 2.two by 0.7 inches (HWD) when airtight and weighs 3.8 ounces. Information technology'south decently sized and comfy to
There'south a greasy, plastic ii.8-inch, 320-past-240 principal display when yous flip the telephone open up, and a tiny monochrome OLED brandish on the exterior. The external screen shows the fourth dimension, point strength, and bombardment status.
The most innovative thing here is the network support, which leads to quality phonation calls. This is T-Mobile's starting time non-smartphone to support its 700MHz Band 12 LTE network, which has
In our calls, we heard much clearer, rounder voices with less scratchiness and fewer artifacts than on 2G vox phones similar the Blu Tank II. Unfortunately, though, the Z-320 doesn't accept Wi-Fi, so it can't make Wi-Fi calls when network reception is poor.
Earpiece volume goes quite loud, which is adept for the hard of hearing. The speakerphone, nonetheless, doesn't blast—it's fine for indoor employ, but wouldn't be great at an outdoor work site. You can use your own music files as ringtones, and you tin customize ringtones and notification tones per contact.
The calling experience was slightly marred by Bluetooth troubles. While the phone worked fine with a wired headset plugged into its iii.5mm jack, it couldn't connect via Bluetooth to my stereo Plantronics Voyager Focus UC headset or to my Windows 10 PC. It could connect fine with a mono Plantronics Voyager 5200 headset, though, and so the problem is probably that y'all need to utilize mono rather than stereo headsets.
Bombardment life is solid. We got ix hours, 9 minutes of talk time and more than a calendar week of standby on 1 accuse of the ane,500mAh battery.
Operating System and Multimedia
Boot up the Z-320, and the UI looks like an old school voice phone. There are quick action buttons at the lesser to get to your contacts, to the menu, and to messaging. But there's a secret deep inside: The phone'due south running a spin-off of Android Lollipop five.1.1 on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor. This lets it brand VoLTE calls on T-Mobile'southward network.
See How Nosotros Examination Phones
The phone has about 650MB bachelor for your media files, but a better bet is to add together a microSD card to a slot under the battery. Nosotros used a 64GB card, which worked fine.
Unfortunately, the Z-320 is missing features that were common on flip phones in 2005 that could really accept enhanced the phonation phone experience. Never mind apps. We're talking near the basic personal data management that phones have had for decades.
On this telephone, you have to type in every
The Z-320 offers text and picture messaging, with T12 predictive text or triple tap. Merely it doesn't have any email or IM options, the way flip phones did 10 years ago. The front screen doesn't offer whatever existent notifications when you receive a text. You get an icon, only no sender or preview information. The Ume web browser regularly got stuck on pages, preventing united states of america from scrolling. ZTE should have used Opera Mini or Chrome.
Fifty-fifty the mode the phone handles music and video falls short. It played MP3 and M4A files from a microSD carte du jour with album art, and the FM radio was very clear. But the FM radio doesn't capture RDS station proper name or song text data, and when y'all close the telephone, you don't come across any information on the outside screen to explain what's playing. The video player tends to distort wide-screen content to arrive fit on the screen.
The phone has a unmarried, 2-megapixel facing camera that records 720p video. There'south no forepart-facing camera for selfies. In skilful light, pictures are grainy and full of artifacts. Depression-light image quality is just plain bad. And 720p videos are jerky and wobbly, running at 20fps in skilful lighting and dropping to 12fps in low light.
The telephone also has an alarm clock and calculator. They piece of work.
Conclusions
At that place are very few skillful simple phones out there
If all you want to do is to make phone calls and text a very limited list of people, the ZTE Cymbal Z-320 is fine. That makes it a decent first phone for kids. Only the concept of an Android-based feature phone has a lot more than potential than is showing here. For instance: Why not sync contacts and calendar with a cloud account? Why not at least give y'all email notifications? And why don't any of the born apps show status data on the external screen?
Our favorite characteristic phone at the moment is the GreatCall Jitterbug Flip, because it makes using a phonation phone even easier with a service that will aid fill up your phone book for you. But the Jitterbug Flip only works on its own Verizon-based network, not T-Mobile's.
Because of its network support, the Z-320 is the best feature phone choice on T-Mobile right now. It'south just not a great time for characteristic phones, and nosotros're hoping that feature telephone innovation will improve soon. Working from an Android base like the Z-320 is a good start.
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/14426/zte-cymbal-z-320
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