Gadgetory

ZTE is trying to break into the u.s. smartphone market but can its latest oversized smartphone help I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is our full review of the boost max by ZTE over the years we've come to expect poor hardware and budget devices okiya and motorola have done wonders to change that and ZTE wants in on the notoriety from a short distance the boost backs closely resemble some older HTC devices thanks to the two-tone backside composed of a soft touch plastic and a metallic Center however the boost max does not feature an aluminum build even if it looks like it it's made almost entirely of plastic any phone this size will have a considerable amount of heft to it put the boost max is notably weighty hitting the scales at 201 grams and it's dimensions are expansive compared to save the note 3 which has the same size display this is due to the large vessels on the top and bottom but we must say the boost max feels a lot better in the hand than you might imagine it feels extremely solid with no notable squeaks when gripping the device tightly however there are some odd aspects of the Max's design worth noting the microUSB port is found near the bottom along the left edge which makes the device more difficult to hold and use while charging and the hardware shutter key something we're normally jazzed about isn't a 2-step key like most also the microSD card slot is oddly only accessible via removal tool like many SIM cards the boost Max's internals are about as modest as they get it ships with only 8 gigabytes of fixed storage though that's offset with a micro SD card slot Ram is only one gigabyte and the Snapdragon 400 SOC is a combination of a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core Krait CPU and Adreno 305 GPU the camera around back is 8 megapixels and the battery is an impressive 3200 million powers the most upsetting feature of the Boost max is the display instead of the 1080p resolution we've come to expect on such large devices the max comes with a 5.7 inch 720p display which is understandable for a $299 phone those who aren't pixel junkies won't mind it but after taking a close candor at the display we quickly noticed pixelation in the corners of icons and text light bleeds at the bottom edge of the display porvis bility from wide angles and an unmistakable warmth to the color of the display whites appear more cream-colored than true white when you consider the price as is advisable for a phone of this caliber the boost max isn't bad on paper boost back ships with Android jellybean version 4.1 - already two versions behind the current 4.4 kitkat update but on a lighter note it's a very near stock version of Android at least as far as appearances go you can tell some things have been tweaked like the homepage indicator dot above the dock the custom settings toggles in the notification shade and even the giant signal indicator and there are some few additions such as ZTE s own apps in the place of stock ones as well as widgets and wallpapers but outside those few slight changes the visual appearance of the software is very close to the original there is some bloat but fortunately it's minimal and most if not all pre-installed apps can be uninstalled and ZTE has tried its hand at some value adds tossing in a Dolby Digital Plus eqf which noticeably improve the media playback quality and what ZTE calls Smart viewer or its take on the split pane multitasking feature we've seen on other like size devices the really cool feature in this one however is a window specific mute switch also any installed application will work with smart viewer to boot the effects of running jellybean over KitKat stretch further than just missing features however it affects the performance since the boost max isn't equipped with the most impressive internals the Snapdragon 400 has proven in the past to be a worthy budget SOC but performance on the boost max is really hit or miss sometimes it works just fine but about 60 percent of the time with the boost max it's been abysmal there is noticeable lag in switching between home screens or flipping between app pages opening and closing apps will cause the device to freeze at times and loading web pages or videos even a Wi-Fi can literally take minutes for no apparent reason and benchmarks only tell us what we already know the Snapdragon 400 in the max is nothing to get terribly excited over but it has managed to power through some games even asphalt 8 without a hitch signal has been an issue here in the Charlotte metro area we've been jumping back and forth between one or two bars of 3G and LTE and data speeds have been very poor in fact we've spent the vast majority of the review period on Wi-Fi that said call quality has been passable and we haven't dropped or had trouble making calls despite the spotty service on a more positive note battery life has been quite impressive often lasting upwards of two days on a single charge at the very least it is typically lasted a day and a half through moderately heavy usage on a single charge we'll go into further detail in the written portion of this review the camera is not noteworthy either the 8 megapixel sensor manages to capture a fair amount of detail in optimal shooting conditions but photos are notably cooler than they should be muting colors and sucking the life out of photos we also had trouble with the autofocus mode on the boost max it had trouble locking on closed objects and not having a two-step shutter button made the switch between tapping the focus and pressing a hardware button to capture a bit strange the camera should suffice but it's not quite on par with flagship smartphones so what do we make of the boost max from ZTE for a prepaid option at $299 it isn't a bad smartphone the camera is passable the display is large and great for multimedia consumption and gaming and the battery life is phenomenal it may not be our top choice in smartphones but if Boost LTE data coverage is more readily available in your area the boost max is a fine bargain and one of the better picks and boosts smart phone options we just can't help but wonder how much better the phone's performance would have been if we're running KitKat instead of an old version of jellybean for a more in-depth look at the boost max and for our final score of the device be sure to check out the site for the forthcoming full review that's going to do it for this review if you enjoyed it be sure to click the thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more reviews and other videos from the rest of the PocketNow crew be sure to follow us on all the usual places twitter facebook and google+ at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time