Zopo Speed 7 Express Review: Good camera but falls flat on price

Zopo Speed 7 has a good camera but the competition offers better overall smartphone

Rating: 3 out of 5

Zopo is the latest Chinese manufacturer to enter Indian smartphone space

Almost every smartphone maker wants to grab a slice of the booming Indian market. The latest in the long list of little known manufacturers is the Chinese brand Zopo which has entered India with its first offering, Speed 7.

Zopo Speed 7

Zopo Speed 7 features a matte back that can get slippery at times

The Zopo Speed 7 enters a space that is already dominated by the likes of Lenovo K3 Note, Yu Yureka Plus and Panasonic Eluga Icon. And that is a pretty bold step for a relatively unknown entrant. So how does it fare against the competition? We put Zopo Speed 7 through its paces.

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Price: Rs 12,999

What is good?

Zopo Speed 7’s 13.2MP primary camera is capable of shooting pictures with nice detail in daylight

I liked the camera of this smartphone the most. It is undeniably good in this price range. The 13.2-MP rear snapper clicks great pictures in daylight, offering vivid colours and a very accurate white balance. The camera is not very fast, but it is always ready to shoot your next pic. Zopo’s engineers must be appreciated for making sure the shutter lag is not noticeable at all.

At night I did try clicking photos at ISO 1600 and the photo did not have much noice. That is something worth appreciation. Also the front 5MP camera does a decent job with selfies and video calling. You definitely won’t go disappointed. The extra camera options sweetens the whole experience.

In spite of being a 5-inch phone, Zopo Speed 7 is highly pocketable. It is compact enough for one-handed operation and doesn’t really feel heavy. Something rare among smartphones these days.

Clicking at night with ISO 1600 produced pictures with less grain

The OS on the Zopo Speed 7 is Android 5.1 Lollipop with Z-UI on top. This is a relatively light customisation where Zopo has only tweaked the app icons and added few productivity apps like Documents to Go. This little customization offers around 11GB space out of the box and should be easy for Zopo to upgrade this device to Android Marshmallow (I hope) when it launches.

The performance is pretty good. The octa-core MediaTek processor coupled with Mali-T720 GPU offers decent experience. Absolutely no problem watching full HD videos or playing Asphalt 8: Airborne on this device.

What is not good?

Zopo Speed 7 comes with a 13.2MP primary camera which is indeed the standout feature of the device

For this Mumbaikar, Zopo kept on reminding me to sleep. Does Zopo mean sleep? The brand name is something I didn’t really like.

The removable back of the device is plastic and has a matte texture which makes it slippery. Could be difficult to hold this during winters.

The battery on the Speed 7 didn’t last me a work day even with moderate usage. The battery optimisation and battery saving techniques need improvements.

Should you buy?

Zopo Speed is not a bad phone in any sense. But the Lenovo K3 Note is a better bet and is cheaper. It has a beautiful full HD display and a beefy 3000mAh battery that can last a day. Another honourable mention would go to Panasonic Eluga Icon which is light, offers battery life better than K3 Note but compromises on display.

Had Zopo Speed 7 been priced at under Rs 9,000 I’d have recommended it but at Rs 12,999 it falls flat.

First published on: 14-09-2015 at 11:53:31 am