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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Review: Zen Cinemax 2 is a big screen on a budget
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Review: Zen Cinemax 2 is a big screen on a budget

This phone is doing a lot of things well, but struggles with typical issues

The attractive price tag and the big screen experience are the real highlights of the Zen Cinemax 2. Photos: Priyanka Parashar/MintPremium
The attractive price tag and the big screen experience are the real highlights of the Zen Cinemax 2. Photos: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

If you want a smartphone around the 5,000 price point, Zen Mobile’s Cinemax 2 ( 4,199) could be an interesting option. It offers a big screen, which is a rarity at its price, but does it suffer from the usual inadequacies of a typical budget smartphone?

Design: Big and ordinary looking

The Cinemax 2’s slab-like design looks similar to some of the earlier Microsoft Lumia phones, particularly the Lumia 540. Though the back panel has a rugged matte finish, it hasn’t done much to keep the size in check. The bezels are too wide and the phone itself is quite big, and hard to operate single-handedly. Even though it doesn’t fit into one’s hand easily, it does feel lighter (157g) than many big-screen phones.

Display: Looks dull and washed out

The smartphone’s 5.5-inch display has a screen resolution of 960x540 pixels. The screen size is apt for users who rely more on their smartphones for reading, watching movies and playing games. The lower resolution gives the screen a slightly dull appearance in terms of sharpness. But the colours are okay and the wide viewing angles are also good.

Software: Old Android with plain user interface

The Cinemax 2 runs Android 5.1 (Lollipop). It’s an old Android version, but there aren’t many smartphones below 5,000 that run the latest Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). In fact many are still running an even older Android 4.4 (KitKat) version. We liked the phone’s plain user interface, which almost looks like stock Android interface and is much easier to use compared to custom interfaces seen in many Chinese smartphones.

Performance: Strictly for casual users

Powered by a 1.3GHz Spreadtrum quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM, the Cinemax 2 can handle individual apps and some casual games such as Temple Run well. It became sluggish when we had six-eight apps running simultaneously.

There is 8GB of storage, which is expandable to another 32GB. Though the internal storage isn’t much, it is sufficient enough for installing apps.

The phone supports dual SIM and has a slot for both micro SIMs and the big-sized standard SIM. The Cinemax 2 is powered by a 2,800mAh battery which lasts over a day and half quite comfortably.

Camera: Average even in daylight

The camera has been a bane in most budget smartphones and the 5-megapixel camera of Cinemax 2 is no different. We didn’t notice any lag while taking a shot and the colours looked natural in the photos we clicked. But it is not good in terms of detail reproduction and sharpness. Even in daytime shots, one can see the noise without zooming in. Low-light shots look even more blurry. There is a front camera which is good for individual selfies at most.

Verdict

The attractive price tag and the big screen experience are the real highlights of the Zen Cinemax 2. Apart from that, the phone suffers from the usual budget phone issues. If you can extend the budget a bit beyond 5,000, the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 ( 5,799) offers a better design, sharper 1280x720p display, and a better camera.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhijit Ahaskar
Abhijit writes on tech policy, gaming, security, AI, robotics, electronics and startups. He has been in the media industry for over 12 years.
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Published: 24 Feb 2016, 01:49 PM IST
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