ZTE Score M Review

Introduction:

Trying to get their foot into the heavily coveted high-end smartphone spectrum, Chinese manufacturer ZTE has been focusing its efforts in this lucrative part of the market, but at heart, they’re still known to pump out inexpensive low-end devices. Rightfully so, that’s we’re seeing with the $50 no-contract ZTE Score M for MetroPCS, which is gearing to try and snatch some attention from comparable models with its low cost and deep set of features.

Design:

To say it bluntly and to the point, the ZTE Score M is the epitome of a cheap phone. There, we said it, and we’re adamant about that! From its cheap plastics to its hollow feel, it doesn’t necessarily instill us with much confidence about its durability. But then again, its bland design doesn’t help either in trying to garner some kind of attention from onlookers.



You can compare the ZTE Score M with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

We’re thrilled that we find a dedicated shutter key to launch the camera, but much like its physical volume control and power button, it’s difficult to feel out since it’s flush. Also, taking a peek around its sides, we finds a 3.5mm headset jack, microUSB port, microphone, and microSD card slot.

In the rear, there’s a 3.2-megapixel camera surrounded by a metallic plate, but since cost is somewhat a concern, it doesn’t surprise us that it lacks auto-focus and an LED flash. Finally, taking off its soft touch rear cover grants us access to its unexpected 1,500 mAh battery.

Display:

First thing to come to mind with its display is wow, well, not the good kind of “wow” that some people would associate to be a positive thing. Rather, this “wow” is more akin to being a dissatisfaction remark as our eyes cringe in pain looking at its 3.5” HVGA LCD display. No doubt soft and faint with its details, things don’t get any better because of its extremely poor viewing angles and distorted colors. Dreadful in every way imaginable, this is on there for purpose – and not to impress our eyes.

Interface and Functionality:

Hardly unexpected, the ZTE Score M is running MetroPCS’ customized interface on top of Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread. Seriously, we’ll overlook the fact that it’s not ICS, but it’s essentially the stock experience with a few enhancements on board – like its animated app launcher bar and MetroPCS specific widgets. Far from offering a complete or immersive experience, it still has all the breadth of functionality and personalization of any other Android smartphone, but don’t expect anything pretty.


Unfortunately, its single-core 600MHz processor doesn’t help things out when everything is taken in slow strides. In fact, it’s horribly slow to the point that we can see individual frames of animation when the gallery is populating images to display. Considering we’ve seen some other low-end devices that maintain a tolerable performance, we’re really repulsed by this one.



Internet and Connectivity:

The more we play around with the ZTE Score M, the more we realize that it can’t catch a break – and it shows immensely in the web browsing experience. For starters, it’s not 3G enabled, so pages excruciatingly take forever to load. Furthermore, it doesn’t help when it’s detrimentally plagued by unresponsive navigational controls to not only annoy us, but to make the entire thing nearly impossible to endure.


Luckily, if slow as molasses 1x data speeds aren’t your kind of thing, then you’ll find comfort in knowing that it has Wi-Fi as an alternative. Additionally, it features Bluetooth and aGPS.


Camera:

Nowhere close to being a masterpiece, we’re accepting of the images produced by its 3.2-megapixel camera – even more considering it’s an entry-level prepaid device. Naturally, snapshots taken in sufficient lighting look rather tolerable, but taking it into low lighting conditions, it’s obviously diminished by some distracting noise and graininess. However, its VGA (640 x 480) video recording is utterly horrific with its super faint details, distorted audio recording, and heavy artifacting – so yeah, you’ll want to stay away from shooting videos.


ZTE Score M Sample Video:

Performance:

Mainly due to its weak earpiece and speakerphone, it’s almost impossible to hold conversations in areas where there is a lot of background noise. Making matters worse, it doesn’t help when voices on our end are rather monotone in quality.

Strangely, the ZTE Score M appears to have a general weak connection to the network as its signal strength is usually around the -102 dBm mark. Compounding the headache, it has never managed to obtain full bars during our usage.

Taking into account that it doesn’t even offer 3G connectivity, we were expecting to see it excel in the battery life department. Sadly, that isn’t the case, as we find ourselves having the need to charge it every night. Specifically, after a single day of normal usage, its battery level is dangerously low at 10 percent.

Conclusion:

So, what did we see with the ZTE Score M? Essentially, this is one of those kinds of smartphones where the notion of “you get what you paid for” is its perfect summation. Indeed, it’s wonderful that it’s priced at $50 without a contract, but even with that, we know it’s possible to find something that whips up a decent overall experience. Unfortunately, this isn’t that device, and instead, it’s the epitome of cheap in every way, shape, and form. For an additional $40, you’re better off picking up the HTC Wildfire S for MetroPCS.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android Version: 2.3.4
Software Version: X500M_TA_16
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.7

ZTE Score M Review: