Videocon Zeus V7500 [Review]

FULL REVIEW

Videocon’s Zeus finds itself in the heat of the budget-Android category, facing stiff competition from Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson; LG, all of whom have an offering that is more or less in the same league, specs wise. Does the Zeus have the zing to be counted as a contender against these titans? Read on to find out. 

Package: Loaded with extras

It takes a lot to convince an average penny-pinching Indian to part with his moolah, the Videocon makes a convincing pitch at the point of purchase - The Zeus bundles in a spare battery, an 8GB Micro SDcard, Car Charger kit, carry case, along with the manual and warranty card. Videocon has put a fair bit of effort into the package and presentation, the extra battery is especially welcome considering how notorious Android phones can be with 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, and data-intensive background apps running in the background.

UI, Battery Life, OS, Specs

The user interface is pretty much stock Android with a minimal amount of customisation - you can swipe across five panels that accomodate widgets and shortcuts, the center screen has widgets that let you turn on or disable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Data synchronisation and toggle the brightness in three levels. As a battery saving measure it is simple and effective to have this in the foreground, and lets you stretch Zeus' 1230 mAh battery for a day or more. And then there's that extra battery that can do a standby job. 

While the official specs says that the Zeus runs Android 2.1, our test unit shipped with Android 1.6, which is a long way still from its Froyo-toting cousins. We asked Videocon if the Zeus is likely to run Froyo at some point in the future - there has been no confirmation on the same. At best, you can expect this phone to run Eclair.  I called customer support on more than one occasion but have yet to see any clear instructions on how to go about it. TweetDeck and Google Sky Map worked splendidly but the selection of apps are limited. (FYI, all of these must-have Apps worked) At first there was no sign of Angry Birds, but a week later it showed up on the Android market.

We wanted to do a double-take on the specs, and felt wiser for doing so: Android System Info, a system diagnostic app on the Android market reveals that this phone has 172 MB of internal memory and 153 MB of RAM. The Zeus also has a magnetic sensor, orientation sensor, light sensor, and a proximity sensor. 

Plus and Minus Points

The Zeus is a well designed phone, but the build quality could have been more rugged. The USB port can be accessed by flipping open the cover that is strung to the phone with a flimsy plastic cord. A few hard tugs, and It'd be detached from the phone for good. The plastic cover is easy to flip open, the battery, SIM, and SD card easily accessible, but the plastic cover itself is thin and doesn't inspire confidence. Would the body survive for a couple of years, the occasional drop to the floor or pavement? I'm not sure. Small design touches deserve a mention - it has a raised metallic strip that protects the camera lens from touching the surface.

The touchscreen on the Zeus is one of the best selling points - it’s a 3.2-inch capacitive HVGA resolution (320x480) display, and manages to register all taps and swipes without a fuss. Watching YouTube videos over Wi-Fi was a pleasure - battle units from HD Starcraft videos were animated well, and the framerates gave no reason to complain. As far as playback formats support is concerned, the phone failed to play an Xvid file, but had no issues playing an MP4 video. The Browser does not handle flash content, but loads webpages quickly and lets you pinch-to-zoom, and supports kinetic scrolling. The Technoholik homepage loaded in under 5 seconds over Wi-Fi. The screen is responsive and tactile and gave no reason to protest. At one point, I was chatting on Google Talk with two thumbs, and managed to hold a conversation without thinking about it - when the interface fades into the background and lets you do what you want to do - that can only be a good thing. Flipping the phone to landscape mode however, presented a wierd two-tap keyboard that I wanted to disable. I was unable to do so but I'm sure it can be done - this is Android after all, highly customisable and hackable. 

Camera Performance

The Zeus has a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, but to be honest, I've taken better quality shots out of the LG GW 620. The camera can take pics at maximum resolution of 2560x1920 pixels, and record VGA(640x480) quality MP4 videos, these can be instantly mailed or uploaded to YouTube. Photos once snapped can be instantly uploaded to Picasa, Gmail, Twitter or Facebook. With a bit of finesse and still hands you can get a decent shot out of the Zeus.

Conclusion

Videocon is one of the first Indian manufacturers to have integrated Android on their handsets, having used dual-sim phones with pathetic UI and functionality, I have to say, this is a welcome development. The Zeus is way better than most entry-level Androids, which have resistive screens, QVGA screens, Android 1.5 or 1.6 with no future upgrade path, or have a cripplesome amount of RAM. The Zeus is a contender for sure, but to really be counted a few months or a year down the line, we need to see Froyo running on it. 

Zeus V7500: Key specs and features
Display: 3.2-inch HVGA screen (320x480)
CPU: 600 MHz Qualcomm Microprocessor
Camera: 5 megapixel camera with geo-tagging
Connectivity:  3.5G, Wi-Fi, A-GPS
OS: Android 1.6, 2.1 Éclair upgrade likely
Memory: 172 MB ROM 153 MB RAM, 32 GB expandable memory via MicroSD
Bluetooth: A2DP, GAP, HFP, HSP
Sensors: Magnetic sensor, orientation sensor, light sensor, and a proximity sensor.
Battery:  Two1230 mAh batteries
Car Charger, Carrying Pouch, 8GB Card
Price: 12,900
Warranty  - 1 year
Customer care no.: 1800 - 1025 - 111, 0124 - 4969999

support@videoconmobiles.com
http://videoconmobiles.com/