Zync Z605 review: Don’t make this an impulsive purchase

The designers seem to have used a hydraulic powered chainsaw to cut corners while drafting the Z605 design. Both the power and volume control buttons are pretty much of the same size and placed in close proximity to each other, making it difficult to adjust the volume in the dark.

The Z605 could also do without its welcome tune, which is a poor rendition of the one used by Chinese mobile phones, which continue to flood the Indian market. Something short and sweet and less jarring ought to have done the trick instead of something that always seems amiss every time you boot the phablet.

If you choose to ignore all of the above, then you certainly cannot look away from its screen. With a screen resolution of 800×480 pixels, the Z605 can easily be mistaken for the classic drawing toy Etch-A-Sketch. The display is poorly lit and the colours appear to be rather washed-out, something that obviously does not help it in the looks department.

Zync’s previous phablet variant, the Cloud Z5, also had similar problems with the display. It hit the markets in 2012, giving them a lot of time to improve on the failings of the Z5. Clearly, that does not seem to be the case, here.

Speaking of the Z5, the designers of the Z605 abandoned its wonderful textured rear for a black piano finish – making it a smudge-magnet. The only people who would cheer for something like this are those working in the forensics field, and that too not because they would want to use such a device, of course.

That being said, the phablet is great for web browsing. It doesn’t have any hiccups loading webpages as long as it is a mobile version. The text is aligned and the images load perfectly. However, that does not seem to be the case with apps downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram, which rely heavily on images, will disappoint you. The images don’t load and, more often than not, they can humble even the most patient users into submission.

Sound isn’t its best trait either. Play anything on the Z605 and it will sound like a banshee wailing through a megaphone, with the sound cracking irrespective of what is being played. The in-built Google voice search doesn’t seem to work at all, irrespective of how loud the vocal input is.

Sometimes, its 6.5″ TFT capacitive multi-touch screen doesn’t even respond to basic swipe gestures. At times, it felt like a tug-of-war between the finger and the Z605.

Another downside is that the Chrome browser kept auto-updating after every boot-up. A minor flaw, perhaps, compared to the many that outweigh it.

On the bright side, the Z605 doesn’t lag when you are multi-tasking; a surprise, considering that the RAM is a mere 512 MB. There are no complaints about the OS – Android 4.2 Jelly Bean – except that there was no update available at the time of writing this review. The phablet is powered by a 2500mAh battery that ensures there will be enough juice left at the end of a heavy day’s work. It comes with a basic 0.3 MP front camera and a very basic 2 MP rear camera. For the price, one would assume that Zync was not looking at a consumer base that would use both the cameras frequently and should hence have ideally gone in with just a better rear camera.

The jury is out on the Z605 and you shouldn’t let the Rs 7,999 price tag persuade you to make this device an impulsive purchase. All it offers is a 6.5 inch screen and an Android OS where popular apps don’t work as well as they should. For a phablet in 2014, the Z605 is well behind its time and is no match to other phablets like the Micromax Funbook P365 or the Dell Venue 7, which offer better features for devices priced below Rs 10,000.