Samsung Z2 first impressions: Could make for a feature phone replacement

While Tizen OS is still not very popular, Samsung is betting big on it, as it is utilising it on multiple platforms including wearables, smart TVs and smartphones. The company launched a new entry level Tizen based smartphone today in India called the Z2. The device doesn’t sound big on paper, but it comes with a variety of features as well as the new preview offer from Reliance Jio. Here’s a quick look at the device. Build and Design Considering the price of Rs 4,590, the Z2 has a plastic build. It feels a little thick but it is a compact device with a 4-inch display. It has a textured back and comes in three colours including gold, black and wine red. The finish is pretty decent for an entry level phone and one would be quite satisfied with it for the money paid.

There is a considerable amount of area around the display and the bezels are not that slim. Below the display is a home button with two capacitive buttons on each sides. Above the display is the earpiece and the front facing camera. We couldn’t find any light sensors on it.

Around the edges on the right is the power button, the top has the 3.5mm audio jack, volume rocker keys on the left and the microUSB port with a microphone at the bottom.

The back panel is removable that reveals the battery and the microSD card slot. Removing the battery reveals the two SIM card slots. The back also has the 5MP rear camera with an LED flash as well as the loudspeaker. Display The smartphone features a 4-inch WVGA display which means a resolution of 800x480. Samsung hasn’t mention about the panel but it seems like an IPS based one. The touch response is surprisingly smooth and even the low resolution doesn’t seem all that bad. Colours are vivid, although there is a considerable amount of shift when seen from an angle. Hardware The smartphone runs on a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz coupled with 1GB of RAM. The specific make of the SoC is unconfirmed although the handset felt quite snappy for the few minutes that we tried it. For storage there is 8GB of storage which can be expanded further using a microSD card for up to 128GB. The smartphone is 4G LTE enabled and offers a dual-SIM option. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and USB OTG. In terms of battery you get a removable 1,500mAh unit inside. OS The smartphone is running on Samsung’s in-house OS Tizen which is also used on its wearables, smart TVs and smart refrigerators. The overall UI on the smartphone looks similar to TouchWiz UI seen on Android devices. It isn’t a slow device, and we noticed a bunch of apps preloaded on the device. It also comes with Jio apps including Jio Beats, which offers HD songs in over 20 languages as well as Jio On Demand which gives access to latest movies, TV shows and other video content across genres and languages. Of course, this isn’t Android so we are yet to see the variety of apps that are offered on the dedicated app store. Camera

The smartphone features a 5MP rear camera and a front camera with a VGA resolution (640x480). The camera is fast and takes quick pictures but the quality is just about okay. We weren’t amazed by quality and it isn’t for avid photographers. The rear camera can however take 1080p full HD videos, but again the quality is sub-standard.

Conclusion The smartphone will cater well to tier-2, tier-3 markets especially for consumers looking to experience 4G connectivity at a cheap price. It offers a good feature set for a sub Rs 5000 phone. Also the Jio Preview offer may attract a lot of consumers eager to test high speed internet on the affordable Samsung Z2. The real challenge lies in the app ecosystem on the Tizen platform.