Zen Ultrafone 701 HD – Hands On Review

| Updated: Monday, July 29, 2013, 15:11 [IST]

Rating:

4.0/5

Few phones have quintessential qualities of being almost perfect, and by chance GizBot found such thing in the Ultrafone 701 HD. This is crazy. After spending almost 15 days; it is now safe to say that this very device truly deserves round of applause. Unlike other Android phones, the Zen Ultrafone 701 HD comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. With minimalistic home bakes apps except Zen apps store, the makers didn't fabricated with the appearance, which resulted in Nexus 4 like UI. In plain simple words at Rs.11,999, it should be considered.

Click Here For More Zen Ultrafone 701 HD Photos Gallery

Many of you might think - Is Zen a new player in the smartphone category. Surely, this tech vendor is not as popular as Karbonn, Lava or Micromax, but slowly and gradually making its own decisions. With Ultrafone 701 HD, Zen has finally broken its old image of being a subsided firm. The year 2013 could prove to be a game changer for Zen mobile. See our review of Ultrafone 701 HD to learn more about this device, its features, and of course benchmark details. Is it really worthy to invest Rs.11,999 to get a quad-core based Ultrafone 701 HD. By HD they say a 5-inch display with 720p resolution. Stay tuned to GizBot.

What's in the box?
• Zen Ultrafone 701 HD (handset)
• Adapter cum USB cable
• Noise cancellation earphones
• Flip cover and Back cover included
• User Manual
• Service Center List

Design, Display, and Aesthetics
There's a trend going on especially with the phone costing around Rs.12,000. Most of them either resembles to Nexus 4 or Samsung Galaxy S4 in terms of look and feel. The Ultrafone 701 HD felt like Micromax Canvas HD, when it comes to design. Noticeably, the curves and tilt factor around the edges, makes Ultrafone 701 HD look like Canvas HD. The former handset is rather bulky thus at one glance it is even more difficult to say whether Zen took inspiration from Canvas HD or tried to copy the design.

On the rear back you will get to see speaker grill in the lower bottom. There is a rear facing camera, an 8MP one along with LED Flash on the back. A 5-inch IPS HD display with resolution of 1280 x 720 produced natural colors in our lab tests.However; it was difficult to read texts under bright sunlight. The capacitive screen supports multi-touch.

Click Here For Zen Ultrafone 701 HD Photos Gallery

The touch response was also fluid in nature when tested. On the front panel you will see three standard Android capacitive buttons under the display, a front facing camera above the display accompanying proximity sensors, an LED indicator which turns Red while charging and turns green to denote any new updates.

The volume rocker button, on the left hand side, and 3.5mm headphone jack along with USB 2.0 port sit at the top. You will also see a power button the right hand side of the phone. When open the rear back case, you will see two SIM trays and a microSD card slot.

Even though, the device weighs on the higher side, it is way comfortable to carry around. Overall, the build quality is also nice. The changeable back covers added macho appeal. Surprisingly, the Zen Ultrafone 701 HD is indeed a great device with awesome display and decent build quality.

Processor, RAM and OS

The Zen Ultrafone 701 HD comes fitted with a 1.2GHz Mediatek MT6589 quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It has also has 4GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded 32GB via microSD cards. No lag was found in our test. Whether you play a heavy game like Turbo Boat or Temple Run 2; it just performed up to the mark.

The whole experience with the device went smooth. The phone is powered by Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. This has to be its biggest strengths besides build quality and 720p HD display. The makers tried not to fabricate with the user interface (UI), which resulted in Nexus 4 like appearance. There are added apps such as Zen store, color note, Flashlight, Zen update center, Skype and Saavn. Undoubtedly, the user interface is buttery. The Android 4.2 Jelly Bean features improved notification tray, buttery smooth UI, and Google Now to be precise.

Click Here For Zen Ultrafone 701 HD Photos Gallery

With quad-core processor built in and on the top - Android 4.2 Jelly Bean gave the device a chance to excel. Talking about Zen store, you can download apps. Of course the quality of apps is not great, but you can find download apps such as WeChat, and Opera Mini, amongst others. A special mention about Zen Update center: If ever there is an update need for the device, the folks over at Zen would push via Update center.

Here are the results that GizBot tested on Zen Ultrafone 701 HD. And the results are in. Have a look: -

Zen Ultrafone Benchmark Scores

AnTuTu Test Score - 13039
Quadrant Score- 4069
NenaMark 2 - 45.8fps
SmartBench 2012 - 3623
Linpack (Single -Thread)/ (Multiple-Thread) - 35.433/86.054mflops

Camera

In the imaging department, the Zen Ultrafone 701 HD is equally enticing. The device comes loaded with an 8-mega pixel rear back camera with LED Flash and Auto Focus. On the front side, a 3.2-mega pixel camera is given. In our test, both rear as well as front facing camera gave stunning images.

Astonishingly, the rear facing camera didn't disappoint us while taking shots in low light conditions. Being powered by Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the Ultrafone 701 HD has tweaked camera user interface (UI). Features like Photo sphere is missing from the device.

Click Here For Zen Ultrafone 701 HD Photos Gallery

Zen incorporated its own touch to make Camera UI more joyful. The rear back camera is also capable of recording video in 1080p format. You can even record videos in HDR (High Dynamic-range) format.

Multimedia, music player and more

The Zen Ultrafone 701 HD comes bundled with noise cancelation earphones. They aren't great still better in quality when compared to other cheap earphones offered by other tech vendors. The device passed with flying colors when GizBot tested video player--- 1080p HD videos played well without any errors or lag. The speakers embedded in the device are not powerful.

On a full charge, it gave 8-9 hours of talk time with average use. The device comes fitted with 2000mAh battery. You can use two SIM cards at the same time. It's a Dual SIM phone.

Conclusion

The Zen Ultrafone 701 HD is a mind blowing product. Priced under Rs.12,000, it should be grappled without any second thought. Many of us must be reluctant to trust on Zen. Why to purchase Ultrafone 701 HD? It has built in 5-inch display with 720p HD resolution, decent build quality, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, manageable 8MP camera, and long battery life.

Highlighted specifications

Let's again know the internal specifications. The Ultrafone 701 HD comes with a 5-inch IPS LCD display with 720p HD resolution, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of ROM (expandable), an 8MP rear facing camera with LED Flash and Auto Focus, 3.2MP front facing camera, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS with A-GPS and a 2000mAh battery inside.

Ups