ZTE V5Review in pictures

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A typical design with a dash of blue…

Features a candybar design, just like most smartphones these days

The Android navigation buttons in blue attract attention

The home key at the center also doubles up as notification light

Sadly, the capacitive keys aren’t backlit

The power button is on the right, while the volume rocker is on the left

edge. A 3.5mm jack and a micro-USB port can be found on top and bottom

sides respectively

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.. that’s unusually heavy

There are blue accents here and there

However, it tips the scale at 165g, making it equivalent to some of the

phablets out there in terms of weight

It’s also quite thick at 8mm

The back panel has a smooth finish, making it prone to slippage or

fingerprints

Removing the rear cover gives you access to the battery, two SIM slots and

microSD

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Lovely is the word to describe the display

The V5 gets its name from its 5-inch display panel

It sports a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels, resulting in pixel density

of 294ppi

The display reproduces excellent colours and sharp text

Viewable even under direct sunlight

Gets a protective layer of Asahi Dragontrail glass

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Android flavoured with Nubia UI

Comes with Android

4.4.2 KitKat

Heavily customised by

ZTE’s Nubia UI, version

2.5

Unifies the home screen

and an app drawer into

one with all apps

stacked on the home

screens

The lockscreen shows

notifications, but only

limited to calls and

messages

Calls and messages also

indicate missed

notifications via

superscript

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The UI has some really thoughtful features, but there are gimmicks too

Notification panel is

also different, with all

the quick toggles

showing at bottom

Default apps like File

Manager and Music

player are also

completely

customised

Supports numerous

gestures to capture

screenshots, pick a

call automatically,

etc.

The biggest problem

is that there’s no

multitasking menu

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The shooter packs in a lot of bells and whistles…

Equipped with a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor RS sensor at the back, along with an LED flashA custom camera app with various modes like Auto, Pro and FunThese modes give you full control of settings like ISO, exposure as well as some interesting shots such as At the front, the ZTE V5 flaunts a 5MP cameraThe rear shooter is also capable of recording videos at 1080p resolution

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… but feels blue at most times

In terms of camera quality, the images suffers from a blue tinge, in case of long shot, while other images have dull coloursImages don’t seem sharp enoughNot everything is bad and macro shots and low-light shots are decentFor selfie lovers, the phone is a great option with its high-quality secondary shooter

Close up

Long shot

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Snappy Snapdragon halted by poorly-optimised UI

Draws power from a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor,

helped by a gigabyte of RAM

Rendered graphic-heavy games like Beach Buggy Racing smoothly,

without any trace of lag

However, the UI isn’t optimised properly and you’ll notice severe lags

even with basic navigation

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Storage is its sore point

Loaded with only a

4GB of flash storage

That too, is further

partitioned with the

first chunk offering

2GB to the user and

the other only having

500MB of free space

For some reason, the

second chunk is used

to store camera

images and videos,

and thus fills up very

quickly

Thankfully, there’s a

microSD card slot and

support for USB OTG

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Offers a decent battery life

Sips juice from a

2,400mAh battery

Able to give you good

results and can last a

day even with heavy

usage

Battery can be

extended further, by

enabling different

modes like

In our video loop test,

it was able to play

back a 720p video for

close to 10 hours

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At a glance…

5-inch display, 1,280 x 720 pixels resolution (~294ppi) 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor 1GB RAM 4GB storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card 13-megapixel primary camera with LED flash 5MP secondary camera Dual-SIM with support for 3G on first SIM slot Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS 2,400mAh battery Android 4.4.2 with Nubia UI

Pros and cons

Great display Good configuration Decent battery life Selfie-centric camera

Quite heavy for its size Average camera Poorly-optimised OS Low storage

Pricing & verdict

Price: Rs 10,999

“The ZTE V5 is placed in a fiercely competitive budget segment. It offers a gorgeous display and decent configuration, but there are a few glaring flaws that can’t be sidelined, such as poorly-optimised interface and average camera. In its price range, smartphones like the ASUS Zenfone 5, Xiaomi’s upcoming Redmi Note, Micromax Canvas HD Plus and the slightly pricier Moto G (2nd gen) comes across as better options”