In its bid to penetrate the US market, ZTE has been launching budget-friendly phones that will appeal to the price-conscious customers out there. The Anthem 4G for MetroPCS is no different.
The problem with ZTE and their phone is that though it comes with a low price, the spec sheet does not really excite and major brands have better offers that should be considered first before them.
To prove my point, let us take a look at the ZTE Anthem 4G:
Hardware
If there is a word that describes the phone’s design, it would be non-descript. The 5.11 inch tall phone is crafted from black plastic with silver trim on the side. It doesn’t really standout and looks like an average phone. It is also a little heavy at 5.64 ounces. What is good about it, however, is that it is comfortable to hold and the buttons are easily reachable by your thumb if held by one hand.
Screen
The Anthem 4G sports an LCD screen with 800×480 resolution. And as expected, the image is not as sharp and vivid as we want it to be. The low resolution results in dull colors with some bluish hue. The responsiveness of the screen is also an issue. There were instances where the phone would not respond to multiple touches. It might be the screen or it might be the chip and RAM lagging, either way, the response was not great.
Camera
This phone has a 5MP shooter that takes adequate, but not great, pictures. If you are expecting some advanced camera features, you will be disappointed. Aside from letting you set resolution from 1 to 5 and the ISO from 100 to 800, there is not much else you can do with the camera. No panoramic mode, no burst shot and not HDR mode. Video is no better as there is a noticeable skip once in a while on footage taken.
OS
This device does not even have Ice Cream Sandwich. It is still running the outdated Gingerbread 2.3. So do not expect anything fancy about this phone aside from the basic Google staple of apps like Gmail, Maps, and Navigation. Metro PCS also added some of their pre-installed apps like MyMetro for checking accounts and MyExtras, for news and other updated information. It has no folder support and of course, do not expect NFC capabilities. Gingerbread is already two years old, why ZTE did not go for ICS is beyond me.
Performance
The phone is great for regular calls. Voices were clear on both ends and there were no drop calls. That is because despite having a dual-core chip and 4G connection, the phone struggled with its Internet connection. The 512 MB of RAM is not enough and the old OS is no help either. And as said above, there is a response problem with the phone. Whether it is because of the screen or if the phone is lagging, we do not know. But it is an issue that buyers will have to contend with.
Conclusion
The ZTE Anthem 4G’s underwhelming spec sheet does not make it worth buying even at its modest price. I am pretty sure that there are more affordable options than this phone in the market that has better features for users.
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