- Telephone
- Network adapter
- USB cable
- Headset
- Documentation
- Warranty card
Introduction
The presentation of this model took place quite a long time ago, at the beginning of this year, at the international consumer electronics exhibition - CES (“International Consumer Electronics Show”). Of course, a lot of time has passed since the announcement, but, nevertheless, this device is now more relevant than ever. By the way, we already wrote about the Grand S as part of the Mobile World Congress exhibition held in Barcelona. You can read this material, so I will only say one thing - this is one of the top gadgets from ZTE (we will assume that Nubia is a premium line): it uses the popular powerful APQ8064 chipset, 2 GB of RAM, an excellent FullHD IPS matrix screen, a good camera module from Sony - Exmor RS. Naturally, the main feature of the model is the minimum thickness of the case, which is only 6.9 mm. By the way, ZTE Grand S received the prestigious European design award iF Design Award 2013. This is such a nice “unexpected little thing” from a Chinese manufacturer!
Design, dimensions, control elements
As I said above, the gadget was awarded the iF Design Award in the field of design. The model was approved by 49 leading designers and selected from 4,325 applications from 51 countries. The Grand S smartphone was described as "clean" and "simple" with a black waterdrop on the slightly curved back panel. The design philosophy is interpreted as friendly, innovative and thoughtful. Hagen Fendler, chief designer of ZTE, said: “The device not only provides customers with the latest technological advancements, but is able to take into account the true needs of users.”
Dimensions of Grand S - 142x69x6.9 mm. The last figure suggests that the gadget can be considered one of the thinnest smartphones with a FullHD screen. The weight is also amazing - only 120 grams. For example, Samsung Galaxy S4 weighs 130 grams. The ZTE device is really light and comfortable, fits perfectly in the hand, despite the impressive diagonal.
The front panel is covered with durable glass and covered with an oleophobic coating: fingerprints practically do not remain on the display surface, and the finger glides across it easily. A thin plastic border runs along the edge of the glass, protecting the screen from external influences. The side edges and the back are made of milky plastic (most likely polycarbonate). The material resembles “soft touch”, but is slightly more porous. In general, it is pleasant to the touch, and the phone does not slip out of your hands, even if your hands are very wet. Fingerprints on the “back” are invisible, no scratches appeared after two weeks of active use.
Since the case is non-separable, there is no play or creaking, the back panel does not bend down to the battery, and the case does not crunch when squeezed strongly in the hand. In general, in many design parameters the Grand S resembles the HTC One X.
The presentation showed several color options for the panels. However, judging by the Market, only the white lid reached us.
On the top of the front part there are: an indicator of missed events (on the left, flashing green or red), light and proximity sensors (functioning correctly), a camera for video calls and a chrome “ZTE” logo. The speaker is located in the center. Its volume is very high, the interlocutor can be heard perfectly not only indoors, but also in a noisy place, for example, in the subway. The intelligibility is good, the timbre is pleasant (mostly mid and low frequencies are heard), there are no echoes or other extraneous sounds. The speaker does not wheeze or rattle.
Below the display are three touch buttons “Back”, “Menu” and “Home”. Without backlighting they are practically invisible.
At the bottom end there is a microUSB connector and the main microphone, at the top there is a standard 3.5 mm audio output for headphones or a headset and a power button. Considering the not very small dimensions, or rather the length, the button is inconvenient to use: each time you have to use your second hand to unlock the device. The stroke is minimal, the pressure is firm, a quiet “click” sound is heard.
On the left in the center there is a contact pad for connecting to the docking station, and just below, under the plug, there is a slot for a regular “large” SIM card. It’s a strange logic for developers to use this outdated standard in a modern flagship device.
On the right is a volume rocker and, which is important for a monolithic case, a slot for a microSDHC memory card. It is made in the same style as the screen lock/unlock key.
On the back side there is an oval-shaped black plastic insert (“a drop of water”). It is glossy, with a small pattern in the form of oblique lines applied to it. Overall, it looks good, at least unusual. It contains: a camera framed by a metal ring, a flash, a second microphone and a speakerphone hole.
ZTE Grand S and Samsung Galaxy S4
ZTE Grand S and HTC One
Display
This smartphone, following the tradition of almost all flagship Android devices, has a 5-inch diagonal display with physical dimensions of 62x109 mm. Resolution - 1080x1920 pixels (FullHD), density is 441 pixels per inch. Pixelation, naturally, is invisible at such a diagonal and such a resolution. The matrix is made using IPS technology, and it is of very high quality, since at certain angles it does not turn violet or yellow, as inexpensive IPs usually behave. The brightness is high, but fades in the sun.
The sensor is capacitive and handles up to 10 simultaneous touches. Sensitivity is average: there were cases when the screen did not respond to touches, which was not observed on the Nubia Z5.
If we compare the matrix of the Grand S with the matrix of the HTC One, the latter wins in terms of backlight brightness and slightly more saturated colors. The ZTE Nubia Z5 behaves approximately the same way, only its brightness is weaker, but color rendition is better.
In general, the Grand S display is pretty cool, but loses to some competitors due to the somewhat pale image that the matrix conveys. There are no detailed screen settings, as in Nubia, in the Grand - everything is standard.
Screen viewing angles
HTC One (left) and ZTE Grand S
ZTE Grand S (left) and ZTE Nubia Z5
Battery
The ZTE Grand S smartphone uses a non-removable (actually, like the Nubia Z5) lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery with a capacity of 1780 mAh. Once again we are faced with the problem of small battery capacities in powerful Android smartphones. Well, yes, but you can boast that the case is only 6.9 mm thick. It would be better not to show off, I apologize for the rude expression, but make a 7.6 mm case and install a battery of at least 2300 mAh.
If you use the phone for about 7 - 8 hours, the battery will be completely discharged provided: 15-20 minutes of calls per day, an hour of constant use of Wi-Fi Internet (Twitter, mail, downloading applications and installing them), about 5 hours of mobile Internet and an hour of listening to music.
You can listen only to music for 35 hours, watch only video (maximum screen brightness, high volume, movie resolution - HD 720p) - just over 3 hours. If you want to play toys (for example, GTA Vice City), the battery will run out after 2 hours.
Communication capabilities
The phone operates in 2G (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and 3G (900/2100 MHz) cellular networks. But LTE is not here.
Available Bluetooth version 4.0 (EDR, A2DP) for file and voice transfer. There is a wireless connection Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. The device, of course, can be used as an access point (Wi-Fi Hotspot) or modem. WLAN Direct is present.
USB 2.0 (High-Speed) is used for file transfer and data synchronization.
There were no connection problems, Wi-Fi sensitivity was high.
Memory and memory card
The ZTE Grand S smartphone has 2 GB of RAM - the de facto standard for all flagship devices in 2013. At the moment, this amount is enough for everything. Free by default is approximately 1 GB.
The device has 16 GB of built-in Flash memory. As always, no more than 11 GB is free. To the delight of users, manufacturers have provided for this, despite the non-separable case (ah-ta-ta Nubia Z5 for the lack of microSD, they could have also installed a slot). In the settings you can choose where to save the data.
Camera
The device was equipped with two camera modules: a main one of 13 MP, a front one of 2 MP. There is a single-section LED flash. The maximum photo resolution is 4096x3072 pixels, video - 1920x1080 pixels at 30 frames per second.
I was not pleased with the quality of the photographs. Firstly, a very narrow dynamic range, secondly, the exposure meter does not always work correctly (either low contrast or strong), thirdly, a lot of colored noise even under good lighting conditions. According to some information, the “Sonevsky” Exmor module is used here. Even if this is the case, then clearly either the developers made a mistake somewhere in the firmware, or the module is an old version. The Grand S camera is more or less capable of macro photography.
Video is recorded in FullHD resolution at 30 fps. The sound is clear, mono. The picture is not bad, but the white balance is off.
I found a bug: effects like “Create GIF animation” do not work. The phone unloads the Camera app. Apparently, the firmware is unfinished.
Options:
Video file characteristics:
- File Format: MP4
- Video codec: AVC, 20Mbps
- Resolution: 1920x1080, 30 fps
- Audio codec: AAC, 96 Kbps
- Channels: 1 channel, 48 kHz
Examples of photos taken with the main camera:
Examples of photos taken with the front camera:
Photo while shooting video:
Panorama:
Performance
The ZTE Grand S smartphone was equipped with one of the most powerful chipsets Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064. The quad-core Krait processor (clock frequency of each core is 1.5 GHz), made using a 28 nm process technology, ARMv7, “works” here.
Each core, when necessary, works asynchronously, i.e. with its own clock frequency. This saves battery power, and energy (in theory) is not converted into heat. The device is really “cold”.
The powerful GPU Adreno 320 accelerator acts as a graphics accelerator.
Despite sharing the same chipsets, amount of RAM, and more, the Grand S isn't as lightning fast as the Nubia Z5. This manifests itself in everything: animation is a little slower, opening applications, functioning of the interface; it is not as smooth as in the Z5. I can’t imagine what else this “android” needs!
Software platform and user interface
The operating system is Google Android version 4.1.2. There will most likely be an update to 4.2, but beyond that is unknown. I won’t describe the shell, since it’s more of a mockery of the interface than an add-on to Android. It would be better to leave the “naked android”.
The phone lies quite comfortably in your hand and does not even slip. It’s just that the power/lock button is inconvenient to press, and you’ll have to stretch your fingers to work with the entire surface of the screen with one hand. But now the time is like this: a phone with a 4.5-inch diagonal is no longer considered a “shovel”.
Screen
The screen in the ZTE Grand Era, although formally IPS, does not live up to the stereotypical idea of high-quality IPS, although overall it looks decent: good viewing angles, pleasant colors (albeit with an overly warm yellowing white balance). Looking at this screen, you are once again convinced that Full HD resolution is not necessary - it is not so easy to notice pixels on this 4.5-inch HD screen unless you hold the phone very close to your eyes. It’s just a pity that the manufacturer skimped on the oleophobic coating. “Dirt” constantly remains on the surface, which interferes with pleasant work with the phone.
Interface
The ZTE Grand Era uses a proprietary interface, which, however, is not much different from the classic Android 4.0.4. Rather, it is not even a full-fledged own interface, but simply a set of some useful and not so useful widgets and applications.
Information about the make, model, and alternative names of the specific device, if available.
Design
Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Materials used, colors offered, certificates.
| Width Width information - refers to the horizontal side of the device in its standard orientation during use. | 69 mm (millimeters) 6.9 cm (centimeters) 0.23 ft (feet) 2.72 in (inches) |
| Height Height information - refers to the vertical side of the device in its standard orientation during use. | 142 mm (millimeters) 14.2 cm (centimeters) 0.47 ft (feet) 5.59 in (inches) |
| Thickness Information about the thickness of the device in different units of measurement. | 6.9 mm (millimeters) 0.69 cm (centimeters) 0.02 ft (feet) 0.27 in (inches) |
| Weight Information about the weight of the device in different units of measurement. | 110 g (grams) 0.24 lbs 3.88 oz (ounces) |
| Volume The approximate volume of the device, calculated based on the dimensions provided by the manufacturer. Refers to devices with the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped. | 67.61 cm³ (cubic centimeters) 4.11 in³ (cubic inches) |
| Colors Information about the colors in which this device is offered for sale. | Silver Red Blue White |
| Materials for making the case Materials used to make the device body. | Plastic |
SIM card
The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers.
Mobile networks
A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other.
| GSM GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is designed to replace the analogue mobile network (1G). For this reason, GSM is often called a 2G mobile network. It is improved by the addition of GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), and later EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technologies. | GSM 850 MHz GSM 900 MHz GSM 1800 MHz GSM 1900 MHz |
| UMTS UMTS is an abbreviation for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. It is based on the GSM standard and belongs to 3G mobile networks. Developed by 3GPP and its biggest advantage is providing greater speed and spectral efficiency thanks to W-CDMA technology. | UMTS 900 MHz UMTS 2100 MHz |
| LTE LTE (Long Term Evolution) is defined as a fourth generation (4G) technology. It is developed by 3GPP based on GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA to increase the capacity and speed of wireless mobile networks. The subsequent technology development is called LTE Advanced. | LTE 800 MHz LTE 900 MHz LTE 1800 MHz LTE 2600 MHz |
Mobile communication technologies and data transfer speeds
Communication between devices on mobile networks is carried out using technologies that provide different data transfer rates.
Operating system
An operating system is a system software that manages and coordinates the operation of hardware components in a device.
SoC (System on Chip)
A system on a chip (SoC) includes all the most important hardware components of a mobile device on one chip.
| SoC (System on Chip) A system on a chip (SoC) integrates various hardware components, such as a processor, graphics processor, memory, peripherals, interfaces, etc., as well as the software necessary for their operation. | Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 |
| Technological process Information about the technological process by which the chip is manufactured. Nanometers measure half the distance between elements in the processor. | 28 nm (nanometers) |
| Processor (CPU) The primary function of a mobile device's processor (CPU) is to interpret and execute instructions contained in software applications. | Krait |
| Processor size The size (in bits) of a processor is determined by the size (in bits) of the registers, address buses, and data buses. 64-bit processors have higher performance compared to 32-bit processors, which in turn are more powerful than 16-bit processors. | 32 bit |
| Instruction Set Architecture Instructions are commands with which the software sets/controls the operation of the processor. Information about the instruction set (ISA) that the processor can execute. | ARMv7 |
| Level 0 cache (L0) Some processors have L0 (level 0) cache, which is faster to access than L1, L2, L3, etc. The advantage of having such memory is not only higher performance, but also reduced power consumption. | 4 kB + 4 kB (kilobytes) |
| Level 1 cache (L1) Cache memory is used by the processor to reduce access time to more frequently used data and instructions. L1 (level 1) cache is small in size and works much faster than both system memory and other cache levels. If the processor does not find the requested data in L1, it continues to look for it in the L2 cache. On some processors, this search is performed simultaneously in L1 and L2. | 16 kB + 16 kB (kilobytes) |
| Level 2 cache (L2) L2 (level 2) cache is slower than L1 cache, but in return it has a higher capacity, allowing it to cache more data. It, like L1, is much faster than system memory (RAM). If the processor does not find the requested data in L2, it continues to look for it in the L3 cache (if available) or in RAM memory. | 2048 kB (kilobytes) 2 MB (megabytes) |
| Number of processor cores The processor core executes software instructions. There are processors with one, two or more cores. Having more cores increases performance by allowing multiple instructions to be executed in parallel. | 4 |
| CPU clock speed The clock speed of a processor describes its speed in terms of cycles per second. It is measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). | 1700 MHz (megahertz) |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) handles calculations for various 2D/3D graphics applications. In mobile devices, it is most often used by games, consumer interfaces, video applications, etc. | Qualcomm Adreno 320 |
| Number of GPU cores Like a CPU, a GPU is made up of several working parts called cores. They handle graphics calculations for various applications. | 4 |
| GPU clock speed Running speed is the clock speed of the GPU, measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). | 400 MHz (megahertz) |
| Amount of random access memory (RAM) Random access memory (RAM) is used by the operating system and all installed applications. Data stored in RAM is lost after the device is turned off or restarted. | 2 GB (gigabytes) |
| Type of random access memory (RAM) Information about the type of random access memory (RAM) used by the device. | LPDDR2 |
| Number of RAM channels Information about the number of RAM channels that are integrated into the SoC. More channels mean higher data rates. | Dual channel |
| RAM frequency The frequency of RAM determines its operating speed, more specifically, the speed of reading/writing data. | 533 MHz (megahertz) |
Built-in memory
Each mobile device has built-in (non-removable) memory with a fixed capacity.
Memory cards
Memory cards are used in mobile devices to increase the storage capacity for storing data.
Screen
The screen of a mobile device is characterized by its technology, resolution, pixel density, diagonal length, color depth, etc.
| Type/technology One of the main characteristics of the screen is the technology by which it is made and on which the quality of the information image directly depends. | LCD |
| Diagonal For mobile devices, screen size is expressed by the length of its diagonal, measured in inches. | 5 in (inches) 127 mm (millimeters) 12.7 cm (centimeters) |
| Width Approximate screen width | 2.45 in (inches) 62.26 mm (millimeters) 6.23 cm (centimeters) |
| Height Approximate screen height | 4.36 in (inches) 110.69 mm (millimeters) 11.07 cm (centimeters) |
| Aspect Ratio The ratio of the dimensions of the long side of the screen to its short side | 1.778:1 16:9 |
| Permission Screen resolution shows the number of pixels vertically and horizontally on the screen. Higher resolution means clearer image detail. | 1080 x 1920 pixels |
| Pixel Density Information about the number of pixels per centimeter or inch of the screen. Higher density allows information to be displayed on the screen with clearer detail. | 441 ppi (pixels per inch) 173 ppcm (pixels per centimeter) |
| Color depth Screen color depth reflects the total number of bits used for color components in one pixel. Information about the maximum number of colors that the screen can display. | 24 bit 16777216 flowers |
| Screen area Approximate percentage of screen area occupied by the screen on the front of the device. | 70.57% (percent) |
| Other characteristics Information about other screen features and characteristics. | Capacitive Multi-touch |
Sensors
Different sensors perform different quantitative measurements and convert physical indicators into signals that a mobile device can recognize.
Main camera
The main camera of a mobile device is usually located on the back of the body and is used for taking photos and videos.
| ISO (light sensitivity) ISO indicators determine the level of light sensitivity of the photosensor. A lower value means weaker light sensitivity and vice versa - higher values mean higher light sensitivity, i.e. better ability of the sensor to work in low light conditions. | 100 - 1600 |
| Flash type The most common types of flashes in mobile device cameras are LED and xenon flashes. LED flashes produce softer light and, unlike brighter xenon flashes, are also used for video shooting. | LED |
| Image Resolution One of the main characteristics of mobile device cameras is their resolution, which shows the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in the image. | 4096 x 3072 pixels 12.58 MP (megapixels) |
| Video resolution Information about the maximum supported resolution when shooting video with the device. | 1920 x 1080 pixels 2.07 MP (megapixels) |
| Video - frame rate/frames per second. Information about the maximum number of frames per second (fps) supported by the device when shooting video at the maximum resolution. Some of the main standard video shooting and playback speeds are 24p, 25p, 30p, 60p. | 30fps (frames per second) |
| Characteristics Information about other software and hardware features related to the main camera and improving its functionality. | Autofocus Digital zoom Digital image stabilization Geographical tags Panoramic photography HDR shooting Touch Focus Face recognition White Balance Adjustment ISO Setting Exposure compensation |
Additional camera
Additional cameras are usually mounted above the device screen and are used mainly for video conversations, gesture recognition, etc.
Audio
Information about the type of speakers and audio technologies supported by the device.
Radio
The radio of the mobile device is a built-in FM receiver.
Location determination
Information about the navigation and location technologies supported by your device.
WiFi
Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for transmitting data over close distances between various devices.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a standard for secure wireless data transfer between various devices of different types over short distances.
USB
USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard that allows different electronic devices to exchange data.
HDMI
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a digital audio/video interface that replaces older analog audio/video standards.
Headphone jack
This is an audio connector, also called an audio jack. The most widely used standard in mobile devices is the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Connecting devices
Information about other important connection technologies supported by your device.
Browser
A web browser is a software application for accessing and viewing information on the Internet.
Video file formats/codecs
Mobile devices support different video file formats and codecs, which respectively store and encode/decode digital video data.
Now mobile phones and smartphones are developing quite dynamically. Many people replace their devices every two to three years, or even annually. It’s hard to surprise with a new model, and yet companies around the world continue to literally churn out mobile devices. Peculiar if you will. Smartphone manufacturers compete in three parameters at once.
This is, firstly, energy efficiency. Everyone wants to have a smartphone that holds its charge consistently even with active use. Many companies are striving for this. The second parameter is the thickness of the phone. It is much more pleasant to hold a flat and light phone in your hand than a real “brick”. And, of course, the battle is for the most productive hardware in the smartphone.
Introduction
Perhaps, at present, the best option for people who do not have an impressive budget would be smartphones from Chinese manufacturers. They are practically not inferior in performance to the world's leading companies, but at the same time, they are an order of magnitude cheaper. One of the most trusted suppliers of mobile equipment to the world market is the Chinese company ZTE. Grand S2, which will be reviewed in this article, is a good model from the brand.
Equipment
The ZTE Grand S2 smartphone, reviews of which will be summarized in this article, comes in a box along with a removable battery, charger, cable and instructions in Chinese. Well, the set is quite modest, one might say. There are no headsets, no headphones or other “bells and whistles” included. But this is not so important.
Battery and charger
So, the smartphone battery has a capacity of 3,100 mAh. Charging actually produces 1.6 A, although according to the documents it is written 1.5 A. It operates with a voltage of 5 V. The USB cable serves as a means of synchronization with a personal computer or laptop and is integrated into the charging unit of the device.
Appearance
Grand S2 16 GB black is designed quite simply, but at the same time tastefully. The smartphone body is nothing more than a candy bar. The screen is, of course, touchscreen. Its dimensions are almost identical to a smartphone. It is worth noting that this is not the only thing included in the list of similar parameters: the models and shape are similar to each other. If you look closely, you will notice that the ZTE Grand S2 16 GB, which is reviewed in the article, has rounded corners.
Side faces
A silver plastic edging runs along the side edge. It is painted in a metallic style. The glass sides do not protrude above the surface of the smartphone, which is good news. So, the phone looks quite attractive and presentable. But it should be noted that there is also a bad side: the device does not have additional protection against mechanical damage. Therefore, falling the device onto a hard surface can have fatal consequences for itself.
In any case, we will hope that this does not happen, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 is installed for a reason, the technology will still protect the device from damage. The screen frames are approximately three millimeters, so there is no need to talk about their thinness. It should be noted that the 5.5 smartphone ZTE Grand S2, which is reviewed in this article, is made quite reliably. The assembly is high quality, not a single part creaks. The model fits well in the hand. But after the smartphone was increased by only half an inch, users have to get used to the device again.
Top end
Above the display you can see the brand name. The speaker is also located there. The front camera is located slightly to the right. There is an LED indicator that notifies the phone user about events (this could be incoming text messages and voice calls, for example). By the way, you can change the color of the event indicator (red, blue, green colors are available to choose from).
The design includes a built-in device for automatically adjusting the brightness and backlight of the screen, as well as a proximity sensor (when you approach your ear, the screen will turn off so that you don’t have to press buttons during a phone conversation). Testing has shown that the sensors work more than tolerably.
The ZTE Grand S2 phone, which is reviewed in this article, has touch buttons. These are “menu”, “back” and “home”. The buttons are backlit, so the user will never make mistakes in navigation in the dark. The backlight, by the way, is pleasant to the eye. We can say that the golden mean: it highlights the main elements and does not blind the eye. This is much better than what was done in the previous model.
Bottom end
The bottom panel of the smartphone housing accommodates a MicroUSB connector. The main microphone is also located there, through which the user can conduct a conversation on the device. The back cover of the phone can be removed quite easily. To do this, just click on the special cutout located on the left side of the ZTE Grand S2 model.
On the opposite side there are buttons that allow you to adjust the volume of the device. There is also a power on and off button. This arrangement is quite convenient, since the size of the smartphone is impressive. The buttons do not stick, they press quite well. In general, they were made to perfection.
At the top end of the device there is only a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack. ZTE has an advertisement that mentions the presence of an additional microphone next to the headphone input. In fact, there is nothing like it there.
Backside
The back cover of the device is also well made. It is made of plastic. Painted in silver-gray color, “disguised” as polished metal. Experts have repeatedly noted that this move is similar to the move applied to the LG G3 smartphone. The back panel houses the camera surrounded by a silver bezel. Nearby is an LED flash, an audio speaker grille, another, now active microphone and the company logo.
The ZTE Grand S2 battery, reviews of which we will consider at the end of the article, is located precisely under the back cover. There are also slots in which memory cards (MicroSD standard) and SIM cards are installed. Important: the device only supports MicroSIM. You can notice the contacts in the design. At first glance, they look more like contacts intended for But the seller assures us that these contacts are nothing more than test points, so, alas, you can immediately forget about wireless charging.
Display
ZTE Grand S2 has a high-quality display with a diagonal of 5.5 inches. The display device uses IPS technology, which reduces eye strain, making screen reading more comfortable and safer for the user. The display resolution is 1920 by 1080 pixels. Density - 401 pixels per 1 inch. By the way, the Grand S2 is equipped with screens from three different manufacturers at once. The screen manufacturer is different in different batches of devices.
For example, the company previously purchased displays manufactured by LG. They were quite readable in sunlight, and there were significantly fewer dead pixels. But the products of Tianma and Yassi companies are much worse. There are already dead pixels and incorrect display of content in the sun.
The user can see which manufacturer's display is installed in his device. However, this will require root rights. ZTE Grand S2 supports glove operation. Everything works correctly, but with one caveat: the gloves should not be too thick, otherwise the heat sensors will not work. Otherwise, the display boasts decent viewing angles; when rotated, the image contrast does not drop much. Yes, and this is typical for a display that uses OGS technology.
Working in natural light
In the sun the screen behaves quite weakly. Although the screen brightness is quite high, it is very, very difficult to get a high-quality display picture in the sun. If it's even doable. An exception will be if the brightness is turned up to maximum. You can use a utility called “Lux”, which will allow you to set a comfortable brightness for the dark. The thing is that standard automatic adjustment does not allow you to configure everything so accurately.
Screen settings allow you to set the level of color saturation. According to the standard, there are three options. They all differ from each other. The first mode allows you to see colors as they really are. The second mode makes the colors a little more saturated. Well, the third option is provided for users who love AMOLED.
The touch screen supports the multi-touch function. However, it can only handle three touches at a time. Heavy users who spend a lot of time playing games on their smartphone may say that this is not enough. This may be true, but let's not forget that the device was designed for general use, and not for various toys created for devices running the Android operating system.
Operating platform and hardware
The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 801 processor. It has four cores. Each of them has a clock speed of 2.3 GHz. At the same time, the hardware platform of the device includes a graphics accelerator of the Adreno family, model 330. Its operating frequency is 578 MHz. OpenCL 1.2 technologies are supported, as well as OpenGL ES 3.0. RAM is set to 2 GB. This, in principle, is enough for the lion's share of applications. You can free up space by deleting Chinese programs that we absolutely do not need. After this, up to 800 MB can be freed. It should be noted that the interface works really very smoothly. No friezes, no lags.
Working with mobile networks
The device supports 4G mobile networks. What actually happens? In fact, it turns out that 3G works stably everywhere. That is, you can be located either in Europe or on the territory of Russia - you will not notice any problems with 3G. This is very important, since many Chinese-made smartphones, without exaggeration, suffer from incompatibility with this standard. 4G works stably both in Russia and in Europe, but not with all operators. There are few places where there is a decent level of coverage for this standard, but the companies Beeline, MTS and Megafon are making some progress in this area.
The device works well with wireless networks via the Wi-Fi module. The signal passes through just fine, there are no connection breaks. OTG function supported. You can always connect an external USB drive to the device. Having previously formatted it into the FAT32 file system, of course. Otherwise, the external media will not be read by the phone.
Navigation
GPS works just as well. Signals from different types of satellites are consistently perceived. The American GPS system, the Russian GLONASS, and the Chinese Beidou Navigation work. But with the latter the device works a little worse than with the first two. The explanation is very simple: firstly, there are not enough Chinese satellites. Secondly, most of them are still cultivating their own territory. In Russia, using a phone you can see the work of only 4 Chinese satellites.
But what we can’t say a bad word about is the speed of searching for satellites. You can find them in just a couple of minutes, or even in one minute. If you compare the operation of the device with the same Mediatek model smartphone, the advantage of the former immediately catches your eye. The thing is that Mediatek searches for satellites for about 10 minutes, no less. However, he may not find anything at all.
