It's totally unfair to Kyocera that we played with its new
Zio M6000 mid-tier Android smartphone mere hours after our first look at the
HTC EVO 4G, but while we were excited to see a cheaper phone with an 800 x 480 screen, the end result is pretty disappointing. The device crams that resolution into a 3.5-inch screen, which wouldn't be so bad if the capacitive touchscreen element wasn't so low-end. It seemed both unresponsive and lacking in accuracy -- at times we had trouble even dragging open the notification tray. We were told that we were looking at a prototype of the device, but the crumminess seemed pretty uniform across multiple Zios we tested. The device also seemed just generally sluggish -- we'd think the 600MHz Qualcomm processor could handle Android 1.6 just fine, but perhaps there's some optimization left to do. Kyocera told us that the phone is easily upgraded to 2.0 or 2.1, based on carrier wishes, and that they don't have any plans for skinning it. Ironically, running 1.6 on this high res display actually ends up looking worse than a regular low-res screen, due to the blurry icons and UI elements. The cheap looking capacitive touch buttons aren't much out of the norm for Android, but interesting the phone doesn't have any haptics to let you know if you've clicked one. Meanwhile, the haptic feedback for touchscreen typing is cranked to 11 and significantly unhelpful.
In one final negative note, the phone takes one of the worst pages out of the Palm book and put plastic doors over not only the USB plug but the microSD slot and side-mounted headphone jack as well. On the plus side: this is an incredibly thin and light phone, and we doubt the price (less than $200 or so unsubsidized) probably will be beat in the US for a while. Expect to see it on a low-end CDMA carrier (like Virgin Mobile or Cricket) near the middle of the year. Check out a video after the break!
posted March 23rd 2010 9:40PM
Too bad. It looked like it could have been a good, low-cost solution for a lot of people.
@InspectorEngadget nah! even engadget has become an spoiled brat by the HTC EVO
@InspectorEngadget It looks like it still is. Once you say "low-cost", the "good" part becomes subjective.
@scioncas lol,my sentiments exactly,they should've tested this before the Evo,they got spoiled
@ndrwme True enough. Touche.
@InspectorEngadget
Actually, once I can see some vid of a finished product or maybe play with it, I might just switch out my Shuttle for this if it goes to VMobile... even though I'm pissed I don't even get the suggested 3G when I have the only one that they say is 3G... Save for their Helio line.
But, really, that price is pretty good, and if it's sluggishness and inaccuracy get fixed, or rather bettered at least, may just end up buying one.
You generally do get what you pay for. I still have a feeling that the final production model will be solid for the loot.
Please, my dear friends over at engadget, stop making all the other android devices look like nothing cuz EVO is it. I advise you to stop all posts except EVO posts.
THANKS
Relax people this probably hasn't been niffed up for final release.
The video says it all. No love from me Kyocera.
@hated one I shall make your name a reality...downranked.
I mean, c'mooonnn. $200 unsubsidized! That's a pretty decent price for a smart phone, and 1.6 is fine. Throw some cooked ROMs on it and the kids will love it.
Is that the same phone as this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqrtEj4cX_4
@jhaja59
Wow. Thank you for linking that!
What a contrasting user experience. The guy in that video had no problems whatsoever navigating with the touch screen.
Engadget, is it possible that whoever you had handling the phone didn't know what they were doing?
@hated one
Your comment has to be the most ignorant comment I've ever read on engadget.
@hated one It's about openness & choice, something Apple has yet to comprehend.
@hated one
...and price. :-)
@hated one obvious flame is obvious
A shame it isn't just unlocked GSM. My local-sized carrier could really use an Android handset, especially one so cheap, even if the lag makes me convulse a little ...
Well that was fun while it lasted...
que fanboy rampage
@hated one
Oh dear, are you actually saying that Android is not offering quality? After seing the EVO 4G, a phone that, and I'm sorry, beats the living shit out everything the iPhone has to offer?
Poor HTC competition.
Virgin Mobile.
800x400 resolution 3.5" touch screen on a sub $200, no contract smartphone?? Wow, never thought I'd see the day...
Damn.. I was kind of excited about this. :( Still, shows how much the carriers rip you off when they make you pay more than this for a flip phone off contract.
@yulebellow
I assume he meant "sets them (Apple) aside"
Frankly, I'm more than happy to set Apple aside.
Why not show how normal usage would be? (Stress testing the touchscreen isn't normal, nor showing the sides all the time). As long as you can get from A to B it's fine, even if it lags a little. If possible I would be more interested in seeing how video would run as that's one thing where lag is not fine.
When the phone does come out I really hope you guys will be fair towards the phone.
@Schmich
Being fair will probably make it turn out even worse.
Are you sure this is capacitive? My guess is that for $169 unlocked, it be resistive. Nothing is wrong with resistive. Especially when that helps bring down the price 3x lower than the Nexus One unlocked pricing.
Wow, that's absolutely horrid. It was an exciting pricepoint and design... but it's obvious that you just can't cut corners on producing touch-screens. I'm sure a cheap smart phone will come eventually... but this doesn't look like the solution...
"...the phone takes one of the worst pages...and putS plastic covers."
You can say took/put or takes/puts. Verb tense agreement!!
Anyway, this device looks craptastic....
I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of bugs fixed upon the released version. This makes me wonder what happened to the Zii Egg? That was going to be one of the first cheapest android phones out on the market.
I hope these issues are fixed.
I would never use a device like this (love my N1) but it would be amazing to have as an option for people a great-looking Android device like this at such a great price.
Kyocera should try going into Canadian market... We have 6 smartphones available with Android: Motorola Milestone (DROID), Google Nexus One (since a week), Samsung Galaxy, HTC Magic, HTC Hero and HTC Dream.
A few more couldn't hurt!
*eyeing HTC EVO and Samsung Galaxy S*
I got a Kyocera Slider in December...*2003*
Keep Kyo where it belongs, in the wayback machine!
I'm so sick of these Android phones with the same specs and they already look cheap as **** please go away Android!
@iPad2010
It's much better than buying a cheaply made and overpriced iPad with zero percent of customization without jail-breaking.
I wonder how this compares to the Nokia Nuron in real world use? I don't think anyone can make a good sub $200 device better than Nokia, but Android makes it close.
@Kinte Kunta
Actually the average unsubsidized price for an android phone is roughly $400-600 bucks. Do you call that cheap? If so wanna hook me up with some money?
The screen seems to work better than the author of this piece suggests. Let the video speak for itself.
This has Metro PCS written all over it.
lol @ blindly trusting this obviously biased review. 1) most of you weren't even gonna consider buying this phone to begin with, and if you were, then wait for the official release. 2) this hardly reflects poorly on Android's quality. htc just announced one of the best-spec'd smartphones in the world (supersonic/evo). 3) this is a good thing. smartphones should be more accessible. Android should be more accessible. 4) some of you are acting like cheap smartphones are sacrilege as opposed to being a natural progression. to make a comparison, a $400 laptop has the same general capabilities as a $2000 laptop. the world didn't stop revolving just because low-end compaq presario's and hihg-end sony vaio's can both run Windows 7--Kyocera making an Android phone won't stop the Earth's rotation either
I think this is not the final release. This is just a tester version. The end-user release will be much more touch-responsive I suppose...