Thursday, August 8, 2013

ZTE Open: Mozilla as a smartphone hit - News

Photo: Kirill Semenov

on the market of “smart phones” after leaving Symbian and so did not really recover after the crisis Blackberry OS left three players: Android, iOS and Windows Phone – in that order, according to reconquer market shares. Each operating system has its advantages and disadvantages, and it is doubtful whether the current picture will change dramatically in the near future. However, the output devices on the Firefox OS, the brainchild of the infamous Mozilla, to a certain extent affect the situation: alternative platform gives choice to the end user and does not allow manufacturers to relax current decisions.

What happened with Mozilla, we have learned, tested ZTE Open, the first smartphone on the Firefox OS. Frankly, the handset itself is of little interest both externally and internally – no wonder the official website you will find only a minimum of information. So let’s start with an overview of the operating system.

anything new to see in Firefox OS interface is difficult. Loading lasts half a minute, and then in front of us there is the lock screen: at the top – the information bar (status bar) with the name of the network and charge the battery in the main field – the time and date at the bottom – the area unlock and turn on the camera (activated by double-clicking.)

Photo by Kirill Semenov

Desk in the smartphone alone, and when you first turn it can be distinguished from the lock screen only on four application shortcuts at the bottom of the screen. About any widgets or icons placed on the table is not out of the question – nothing could be easier. The status bar shows the shortcuts when deploying wireless modules, information on the use of mobile data and user notification.

If whisk screen to the right, you get access to online services and search bar – you can work with network applications and mobile versions of sites. If you hold your finger to the left, you can access local applications: you can change their location relative to each other, but will not create folders.

Among the pre-installed software and utilities – telephone, SMS, email, contacts (only supports synchronization with Facebook), calendar, calculator, alarm clock, radio, and music and video players.

app store, without further ado, called the Marketplace. There is a wide range of categories (many of them are empty), a list of popular and new applications. All applications are free – for certain this is due to their small number and novelty of the operating system. Store settings will allow to select the region to see the installed applications and leave a response.

Photo by Kirill Semenov

And briefly on the phone. Materials used – bright blue or red plastic soft touch, complemented on the edge matt black insert and transparent protection on top of the display. Assembling the imperfect: there is a gap, while squeezing heard the creak – as expected for a budget device.

The shape resembles a remnant of ZTE Open and good in the hand, even though the user with a large palm small and lightweight smartphone is unlikely will be thrilled.

The Hardware – CPU Qualcomm, released half a year ago, 256 MB RAM and 512 MB of flash memory (expandable through microSD). Smartphone nimble not name – we could not even find models with similar characteristics in the competition. During the tests, the device had to repeatedly restart due to complete lockups, there were smaller, but still annoying “bugs”.

weakest elements – the screen and the camera. 3.5-inch display with a frankly low resolution (320×480) fades when exposed to direct sunlight, has a minimum supply of brightness and small viewing angles. Camera with 3.2 megapixel sensor deprived settings, gives footy snapshots and video microscopy.

Photo by Kirill Semenov

Removable battery is rated for about one and a half days in the “calls, messages, social networks, sleep.” Constant use of Wi-Fi reduces the time – in this sense smartphone is no different from devices running Android.

ZTE Open today available only in Spanish at the operator Movistar – purchase cost € 75 (20 of them will fall to the account) – in Russian networks smartphone does not work will. Buy “unlocked” version of the procedure or to unlock itself will not work (at the time of publishing on the Internet such information was not available).

Even after a short acquaintance with ZTE Open can say that Firefox OS makes its first steps and still can not seriously compete with any of the existing mobile OS. This is a young, developing platform, which now may be of interest only programmers and gadzhetomanov. Some of his chips in the system was not found, and for borrowing ideas from competitors, as we know, many do not mind. You could wish for good luck in the development of Mozilla and to postpone the gadget in a long box – not comfortable to use, or sufficient number of applications to date is not observed.

Screenshots interface Firefox OS

No comments:

Post a Comment