Slimmer casing, improved camera, recent Android, still very cheap
Sub par screen and processor, not very distinctive
The ZTE Kis 3 Max does indeed improve on the original Kis 3.
Unfortunately, that's not really saying much.
The Max version of the Kis 3 a little bigger than the original though it's managed to get a little thinner, slimming down from 11mm to just 9mm. Otherwise, it looks much the same, with a fairly thick bezel surrounding the screen and three touch-sensitive buttons beneath it. The back is rubberised plastic which feels warm and reassuringly grippy to the touch.
Screen & chassis The screen has stretched from 4in to 4.5in, though the resolution has barely increased, delivering 854x480 pixels (326ppi). It can't match even a standard HD display for sharpness but it's bright, with vibrant colours and looks reasonably good overall. It suffers in sunlight though and viewing angles aren't very wide.
It's running Android 4.4.2 KitKat -- not the very latest 4.4.4 but for a handset at this price, it's good to see that the version is at least fairly recent. ZTE has added its own light skin to the interface, including a lock screen that you touch and hold rather than swipe to activate, but there's nothing that's likely to put you off.
Software & processor The processor has been beefed up just a teensy bit but in truth you'd barely notice. Now clocked at 1.3GHz rather than 1.2GHz, it's still backed by the original's measly 512MB of RAM. It will do the basics, running several apps at once, and even allow you to play HD games like Real Racing 3 -- just about. But it's sluggish in general use and you can often find yourself subjected to painfully slow delays while waiting for apps to load. Our AnTuTu benchmark test gave it a score of 12,068, just a little above that of the original.
Photography
The 5 megapixel camera includes autofocus and an LED flash, as well as several useful modes and features including face detection, smile shot and HDR. It's a step up from the original's 3 megapixels and is a bit better than we expected, with reasonably accurate colours and a fair degree of detail. As a quick snapper, it's really not bad at all, especially at this price. There's also a 2 megapixel camera on the front for selfies and video calls.
There's still only 4GB of memory to hold your pics and vids, which is a shame, though you can add a microSD card for a further 32GB.
While battery life can often be the saving grace of low-end handsets, that's not really the case here. We got around a day and a half out of it, which is okay, but not exceptional.
Conclusion Yes, the ZTE Kis 3 Max is a little bit bigger, and a little bit better than the original Kis 3. It's still very much a budget smartphone though, with a frustratingly slow processor and so-so screen, though the camera is better than we'd expect for the price. As a spare phone for yourself or a first phone for the kids though, it offers a fair spec for the money.
Software: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
