[Android General] KloNom:
Like usual, you can read the whole review in a nicer format with all pictures in high quality on my blog ;):

http://klonom.com/cubot-zorro-review/

The Cubot Zorro is a budget smartphone with the Snapdragon 410 SoC, 5″ HD screen, LTE (with all relevant bands for Europe), 1 GB RAM and 8 GB ROM. We kindly received the Cubot Zorro from the Comebuy Online Shop. You can get the Cubot Zorro 001 for roughly 122€ plus sending and tax here at Comebuy at the moment.

Like usual, lets start with the specifications.

Specifications:

-Snapdragon 410 SoC (with quadcore processor, each up to 1.2 GHz)

-Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS

-1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM

-MicroSD Slot

-13 MP back camera, 5 MP front camera

-5″ HD screen (1280×720)

-GPS

-Sensors: Accellerometer, Light, Proximity, Magnetic Field

-2200 mAh battery (measured)

-WiFi, Bluetooth

-2G Bands: GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz-3G Bands: WCDMA(UMTS) 900/2100 MHz

-4G Bands: LTE 800/900/1800/2600 MHz

-Dual SIM (both micro SIM, one slot 2G, one slot 4G)

Items delivered:

The Cubot Zorro 001 is delivered in a black box which gives a very high valuable impression. On the box there are several letterings like “Keep in touch” which are written with a black shiny paint, which can only be seen when in direct light reflexion. In the box the folllowing accessoires are given beside the actual device and battery: A screen protection foil, a half transparent pastic back-shell, a quick-start guide, a USB data-/charging cable and a USB wall plug (5V, 1A). A small overview you can see in the next picture.

Unboxing Video:

[YOUTUBE]mgEIM4uX8PY[/YOUTUBE]

First Impressions:

You directly notice the clean and simple design of the Cubot Zorro 001 already while unpacking it: The mobile has clean straight edges which are just slightly radiused. Also the Zorro is kept in a plain black design overall (at least at my black version ;) ). The phone leaves a serious impression – no optical gadgetry or radiusments. It feels comparably valuable – no slits are recognizable in the cover. On the bottom front side the three capacitive buttons Menu, Home and Back (from left to right) can be found. These buttons have a backlight – unfortunately a bit unsymmetric lighted at our model (this is the only found deficit in the outer appearance so far).

The distinctively simple design is also applied to the volume rocker as well as to power button. These two are placed on the right side.

The left side is completely without any connectors or buttons.

The 3.5 mm headphone jack is found on the top side.

The MicroUSB is placed on the bottom side. This is always a small plus point for me since a USB jack on the top side often makes the mobile phone hard to use while charging.

On the back side you can find the camera lens together with the flash, openings for the loudspeaker and the Cubot logo. The backside feels slighty smooth with a silky-like covering. Unfortunately this material seems to attract fat from fingerprints nearly “magically”.

Underneath the backcover you can find the battery (what a surprise :D ), as well as the both Micro-SIM-Slots and the MicroSD-Slot.

UI/Android:

The Cubot Zorro 001 is delivered with an Android 4.4.4 KitKat stock rom. I personally like phones which are delivered with a vanilla Android. From one side because own modifications are probably less stressfull (like e.g. Xposed), from the other side because modified launchers are often delivered unready.

Performance:

To roughly determine the performance of the Cubot Zorro 001 the Antutu Benchmark V5.5 was executed. The benchmark returned a score of roughly 20000 points. Therewith the Zorro joins the “typical” performance group of upper class budget phones. The 20K score is not a high-performance score, but according to own experiences should be way enough for the majority of daily used apps, also in (of course somewhere limited) parallel using).

Memory:

The Zorro has an 8 GB ROM. The division between internal and phone memory, as well as the percentage of actually usable memory looks like the following:

-Internal Memory: 1.94 GB (1.76 GB usable)

-Phone Memory: 4.20 GB (fully usable)

-Total: 6.14 GB (5.96 GB usable)

The phone does not support USB OTG. It has a microSD-Slot to extend its memory.

Camera:

To check camera sample pictures and an evaluation of them, please visit my blog post ;):

http://klonom.com/cubot-zorro-review/

Sensors:

The Cubot Zorro 001 has four sensors in total: Light, Accelleration, Proximity and Magnetic Field. All sensors have been tested and are functioning. The light sensor is remarkably fast and also the automatic brightness from Android works well – in contrast to many Mediatek SoCs based smartphones.

GPS:

The first GPS fix was done in about 20s out of the cold state, while the accuracy improved up to 3 m in the next minute. The GPS Test app showed a nice GPS receiption: From the 18 used satellites nearly all of them showed a good SNR ratio. The test navigation confirmed the first impressions: The Cubot Zorro can be used very well to navigate. The GPS locations nearly never drifted off the course and also the “after-drifting” is neglible small. All in all: Thumbs up!

Battery:

According to specifications the Zorro 001 has a battery with a capacity of 2200 mAh. This was confirmed with the help of an own measuring of the battery capacity, the Cubot Zorro really has a battery capacity of 2200 mAh. The battery life is over a day with “average” using.

WiFi Receiption:

No special attributes at the WiFi receiption could be noticed, neither positive or extraordinary positive ones. The WiFi receiption is stable and no connection losses were experienced. To compare the receiption with other phones, the signal strength was measured with two other devices (NO.1 Mi4 and eFox Value C6) at the same spot with the app WiFi Analyzer.

From left to right: Cubot Zorro 001, NO.1 Mi4, EFox Value C6

Misc:

The Cubot Zorro 001 has a notification LED which works out-of-the-box as a such. It supports the colors Green, Red and Orange/Yellow (Green and Red at the same time). Google Apps are preinstalled. The phone is delivered in a non-rooted state and until now (16. Jan ’15) there are none known possibilities to me to root it.

Review Video:

[YOUTUBE]pSxuzxDTW7k[/YOUTUBE]

Conclusion:

All in all I am very convinced by the price to value ratio of the Cubot Zorro. It has a serious and not too playfull design and enough power to use it as an everyday phone. The phone has a nice build quality and seems valuable. The camera is average, although for the price passable. In total it is a recommandable LTE phone in the lower price class.