Blocky Cars Online: a blocky good time (app review)

Imagine Minecraft. Add a dash of racing, a dash of combat, and viola, you have Blocky Cars Online.

Blocky Cars Online overview

The first thing you do in Blocky Cars Online is build your car. They do give you a prebuilt starter car to use, but you can build and modify your car anyway that you see fit. There are various materials that you can use to build and modify your car and each material has its own properties. The reasons for using different materials will vary depending on the mode of game play that you are choosing. For example. you wouldn’t want to weigh you car down with weapons if you are racing and you wouldn’t want to use lighter materials in a battle.

Every time you increase a level, new items are unlocked for you to use in modifying your car. In order to use the new materials, you must purchase them using the in-game coins. You earn coins by participating in battles and races. You’ll also get bonus coins every day that you log in and of course you can purchase coins via in-app purchases. You’ll need to constantly update your vehicle(s) if you want to stay competitive when you change levels.

One of the things that annoyed me a little is that you can’t see the item stats when you’re building or modifying your vehicle. If you want to see the stats you’ll need to go to the store and look at the item(s) in question.

Once you are satisfied with your car you can choose from various game modes. As inferred by the title of the game, all modes are online. There are not really any single player modes. You can test your vehicles without other players, but that’s about it.

The first game mode is racing. It’s pretty simple. race through the checkpoints  as fast as you can. The races as well as the battles allow you to join and or create races online. There are seven tracks to choose from. You can also name the track and  limit the maximum players anywhere from 2-8 if you are the creator of the race. The race mechanics are hard. Your vehicle design will greatly impact the handling speed and other aspects. This will largely determine your success. I found that my vehicle was hard to handle, but then again, my impression was that everyone was having a hard time.

The second mode is team battle. Like the racing modes, you can either create your own game or join an existing game. You are automatically assigned to either the red or blue team. The object is simple. destroy the enemies vehicles with the turrets, rocket launchers, and other weapons available to purchase and equip. If your team wins, you’ll gain coins and experience. You’ll need experience to level up.

One of the nice things is that when you join a match in any mode you’ll be paired up with people that are on the same level that you are. There is a checkbox that will allow you to play with the big boys of you choose.

The third mode is a deathmatch.  The object of this mode is to be the last one standing.

Like many online games, this game features an online chat system. In the game, there is a microphone icon that will allow you to speak and out of the game there are chat boxes on almost every screen to allow you to chat with other players. Parents should be aware that the language gets a little crass and raunchy at times.

The music in the game is nice, but there is only one track and it gets old and repetitive pretty quick. A few more tracks would do wonders for this game.

One of the nice features of the app is that they have integrated Unity’s Everyplay. Everyplay is a Twitch like game recording service for your mobile. You can upload the videos to Everyplay’s servers and share it to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Here is an example of a video I recorded in game.

https://everyplay.com/player?id=19401366&autoplay=false

Blocky Cars Online setup

This game is initially fairly easy to setup. Just download it from Google Play. After that, you can start playing, but if you want to use the Everyplay recording you’ll need to set up an account or sign in if you already have one. Another thing I would recommend is to go to the store and look at the materials so that you’ll have an idea of what properties the various items will have when your’e working on your car.

Who will enjoy Blocky Cars Online

If you enjoy online games and competition, then you’ll like this game. If you like Minecraft, then you may also enjoy this game. If you like racing or shooting games then you may enjoy this game as well. If you like all of the above, then you’ll probably love this game.

What we liked

• Online gameplay
• Vehicle customization
• Everyplay integration

What could have been better

• At times, the game was pretty laggy
• Foul language in chat

Blocky Cars Online summary

I think if I could change anything about this game I would add parental controls over the chat. I wouldn’t allow my children to play the game as it is. However, if I could turn the chat off and protect it with a pin, I would have no problems letting my kids play this game.

Overall I enjoyed this game. Is it perfect? No. Is it fun? Yes.

The post Blocky Cars Online: a blocky good time (app review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Angry Birds 2 review: how does it compare to the original?

The very first Angry Birds game was launched in December 2009. Since then, it has collected over 100 million downloads in the Google Play Store and currently holds almost 3 million 5-star reviews. This application is off the charts and continues to be one of the most entertaining casual games around, but we do have to say a successor was due after 6 years.

We have seen plenty of other Angry Birds iterations, but those were really just themed titles. Additional releases included Angry Birds Seasons, Space, Star Wars, Star Wars 2, Epic, Transformers, GO, Friends and even VR. But what about the true successor to Angry Birds? We finally saw it hit the Google Play Store last July 30th! It is plainly named Angry Birds 2 and I have taken the time (likely too much) to play around with it and gather my opinions on the game.

Is Angry Birds 2 a worthy successor to what could be the most popular mobile game in existence? We at least know it will probably be as popular, as it has been downloaded over 10 million times since its inception, last week. It definitely has its pros and cons, though, so let’s dig into the details.

Gameplay

You have played Angry Birds before, right? If you answered “no”, you really need to get out of that rock you are living under. The game is very similar to what we have seen from Angry Birds titles in the past. Those annoying green pigs are back at it, taking all your eggs for themselves. Your goal is to recover these unborn birds by flinging fowl at structures and oddly colored swine. Just take them on before running out of birds.

Your score will be based on performance (birds used and structure destruction), which, in turn, determines how many stars you receive (limit is 3). It’s also possible to unlock spells and easily beat any stage.

As with the previous iteration, each bird has its specific characteristics and abilities, which can be triggered by tapping on the screen when the bird is in mid flight. The red bird sends a blow to anything in front of it, the smaller blue bird splits into three, the white one throws an egg bomb, the yellow one can fly faster and the new gray character can fly drop straight down and smash its opponents.

There are 240 stages to play, so you won’t exactly run out of fun, especially considering there is now the addition of the Arena, in which you can play for as long as your birds will last you. Users can then compare high scores with friends and see who is the true king of the perch.

Angry Birds vs Angry Birds 2

You have probably figured out some of the differences in the new Angry Birds iteration just by playing it or watching some of the trailers. There’s quite a bit, though, so we thought it would be important to touch on them so you know what you are getting into.

Choosing bird order

Every time you start a stage, you will be given the ability to use all available birds. These will show up as cards in the lower-left corner. The real kicker here is that Rovio is no longer choosing which bird you use first and which after. The user now gets the freedom to pick which bird to use at any given fling.

Each stage has levels

Instead of playing only one scenario, Angry Birds 2 has multiple levels within each single stage. There’s usually 2-4 areas per stage, all with different structures and pigs. This makes it imperative that you choose your birds intelligently and form a good strategy. You don’t want to run out of birds before reaching other areas of the stage.

Red bird has an ability!

While we are used to seeing the red bird have no added ability, such is not the case in Angry Birds 2. The lead protagonist now emits a blow (or shock waves?) that will blast anything in front of it.

The new gray bird

Some say it’s silver, some say it’s gray, but whatever color you prefer to call it, one thing is for sure – this bird is awesome. Just send it flying in any direction and tap on the screen when you want it to swoop around and drop downward, smashing anything on its way.

Spells! 

The original Angry Birds did something similar with the “Mighty Eagle”, which allowed users to obliterate all green pigs whenever things got tough. The new spells are certainly not all as powerful, but they can be used to give you that added advantage you need during difficult levels.

You can do things like create a rain of yellow ducks, inflate pigs, convert all blocks into ice and turn pigs into bombs. And yes, the Mighty Eagle is still around.

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Bosses

Every few stages you will be presented with a boss. These larger pigs are especially harder to beat. You can’t destroy them with a single hit and will need to get creative with your surroundings. Drop bombs on them, throw boulders at it; just do what you need to do to give these tough guys some damage!

Compete against your friends in the Arena

Angry Birds is no longer a single-player game. Rovio has added the Arena to the second iteration of the series, making gameplay much more social. The only trick is that you will have to beat the first 25 stages before unlocking this special feature.

The Arena is an endless mode you can access once a day (for free). You can play a second time if you watch a commercial. The purpose of this endless stage is to get through as many levels (or rooms) as you can, only using a limited amount of birds. You will then get a score and have it compared to other fellow players.

Business model – cash money!

We thought this change was a bit more important, so we gave it its own section in the review. Rovio has changed things up quite a bit here. Instead of asking for a one-time payment or making the game free (with ads), the developer decided to make money by taking advantage of the addictive in-game currency system we are now so used to.

They also started doing something similar with the original Angry Birds, which allows you to buy the Mighty Eagle spell for actual money. Things are obviously a bit different this time around, though. Let’s go into detail about how it all works.

The new Angry Birds 2 game uses gems, which are quite important. Gems can quickly become necessary, depending on the level of difficulty or amount of time you play. It’s really easy to run out of lives if you don’t finish your levels successfully, for example. This starts happening very often after levels get more difficult. Getting more lives immediately, or repeating the lost game, costs gems. Alternatively, you can wait 30 minutes to keep playing.

There are ways to get free gems, but you shouldn’t depend on them too much, because the flow of free gems slows down after some time. You can get free gems by accomplishing objectives, watching ads and competing in daily challenges. Otherwise, you will have to pay real money for them.

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Conclusion

Overall, Angry Birds 2 is a very fun game that keeps its classic essence, yet adds enough improvements to keep it fresh and lively. The game looks good, thanks to its animations and improved graphics. It also plays very well. I personally love that Rovio is giving users more choice in bird selection and strategy. And game physics are as good as they have always been.

My one gripe is the new monetary system. Relying on in-game currency and limited lives is no surprise, as that is the proven way to make more money. But as a heavy user, I do feel like it crosses that line where it starts breaking my experience, especially when trying to binge fling past all these levels in one sitting. I personally would have much rather dealt with a larger one-time charge.

With that said, you probably won’t find any annoyances if you are truly a casual gamer. This system is great for those who play sporadically, in shorter sessions. If you are patient, you can get through the whole game without spending a dime. The one upside is that Angry Birds 2 is completely free to download and play, so it costs you nothing to go ahead and try it for yourself!

Give it a go and let us know what you think of the game in the comments below. Do you like the improvements? Where you hoping to see more changes? Do you like the new business model?

Download Angry Birds 2 from the Google Play Store!

Zettaly Avy review – the Android music box you didn’t know you needed

The folks at Zettaly have been busy in the last couple years, taking to crowdfunding to help get a few products to market. One device that has succeeding in finding its way to a retail outlet near you is the Avy, an Android powered 7-inch tablet built right into a speaker dock.

We’ve been playing with the Avy for the better part of the last month, and we are prepared to offer up our verdict, join us as we explore if the Zettaly Avy is the device for you.

Buy Avy at Amazon

Design

You will notice straight away that the Avy is not your typical tablet. Despite providing a competent 7-inch display and offering up the full Android KitKat experience you might find on an outdated Nexus 7, Avy is more music box than tablet.

A pair of speaker grills sandwich the display, creating an almost 14-inch by nearly 5-inch flat front surface. The large half circle designed casing of Avy is made more for optimal audio and posture, it is certainly not made for comfort in the hand, unless you count the convenient finger slot handle on the back side, which makes carrying Avy simple and comfortable.

The overall design gives the display and speakers a slight upward slant, making Avy ideal for setting on the table beside you. The back side houses an arrangement of ports you are not likely to find on a typical tablet, including a microSD slot and HDMI port. There is also a headphone jack, micro USB port and a power plug, but we’ll talk more about that later.

The back casing has a shiny plastic finish to it, which looks pretty nice in white, but we haven’t seen the black version up close just yet. As mentioned, there is a comfortable slot-style handle near the top of the back that makes carrying Avy very easy. The bottom of the device has three rubber pads to land on, providing a sturdy and quiet stance, but also allowing Avy to transfer sound vibrations into the table, enhancing the lower tones of your music.

The top edge of Avy houses three buttons, simply your power and volume controls.

Display

The 7-inch display offers up 1024×600 screen resolution, which is again fairly comparable to your first generation Nexus 7 tablet. Display brightness ranges from not too bright when viewed in the dark of night, to slightly visible in direct sunlight.

Although the brightness abilities are a little lacking as compared to modern tablets, the viewing angles are right on the mark. That is, viewing side to side and from the top down is crystal clear, but viewing from the bottom up does fade out a bit. Assuming you have your Avy sitting in its proper position, this shouldn’t cause you any problems.

Performance

The Zettaly Avy is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core SoC made of ARM Cortex A7 chips. Combined with 1GB of RAM, Avy is capable of processing 3D acceleration and up to 1080p video. I did put 1080p video to the test and it performed flawlessly, even if the display is not 1080p itself. The same can be said when pushing the same video over HDMI out to a proper 1080p external monitor, making Avy a surprisingly good set-top box.

Now, to the point of Avy, music playback. With the built-in 10 Watts of power pumping to two speakers, audio is crisp and clear. The device is more than capable of pumping out your favorite mp3s for hours on end. This performance does not change when you are plugged to the wall or running off the internal battery, which is enough to keep your screen on for a couple hours, or music playing for over 5 hours at a moderate volume, at least in my testing.

It is important to note that we all have different tastes in sound when determining quality. For me, Avy is a wonderful device that pumps out pleasant sounds at lower volume levels, it sits beside me now playing my normal ‘thinking’ playlist of instrumental and low-impact music.

I choose to plug my favorite headphones into Avy when I need to listen to my ‘get-stuff-done’ playlist, Avy’s built-in speakers distort more than I’d like when you really push them, and overall bass output is less than you might find from the more expensive Sonos or Bose speaker systems.

I suppose those conclusions are to be expected, Avy is a unique device with no real direct competition from mainstream manufacturers. So, allow me to say that, as a gut reaction, I would rank Avy as good as a typical $50-$60 Bluetooth speaker dock, in terms of sound quality.

Hardware

In the hardware department, Avy rocks that 7-inch TFT display, quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. As this is a music player, it is good then that you can expand storage with up to 32GB microSD.

Audio is driven by 2x5W speakers, and a built-in microphone. Enabling video conferencing from the device, Avy packs a front facing VGA camera. Do not expect miraculous quality out of it, but it is more than enough to say hi to mom.

Rounding out the specs list is that HDMI port, headphone jack, microSD slot, and micro USB port. The device is powered by a proprietary plug, leaving that micro USB port exclusive to OTG connections for peripherals or external storage. On the inside you’ll find Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity.

Finally, and possibly something I should have mentioned much sooner, Avy comes with a 15 button remote control. Control your music, volume and more with a single press, or use the directional buttons to manually navigate your device. Speaking for myself, I use the remote a lot more than I thought I would, and I think you will too.

Software

We’ve already mentioned that the Zettaly Avy is powered by Android 4.4.4 KitKat. This version of Android did not change during a very recent OTA update, but the smattering of bugs proves the company is backing their device. They informed me that Android 5.x Lollipop is in the works for the device, but no ETA was provided.

In addition to your standard Android KitKat experience for tablets, Avy adds a few little tricks. Hidden in the Settings menu you’ll find a HDMI section, to take control of your external display settings. You will also find a Screenshot Settings entry. Avy does not take screenshots by way of pressing physical buttons, instead there is a software button that lives with the added volume control buttons alongside your Home button and more in the navigation bar.

The folks at Zettaly have been very receptive and responsive to a few little concerns I have had with Avy. Bug reports have been submitted for a little issue with Android’s Daydream feature not keeping the display turned on. Just one of those cases where the default actions of Android are not good enough. Considering how great of a digital photo frame Avy makes, I am happy to see this update sooner rather than later.

From there, they were very patient helping me diagnose a frequent audio skipping issue, turns out it was my fault, I must have just had a corrupt file on my microSD card. Of course, it possibly relates to a headphone audio routing issue that they are already working on repairing.

Expanding on your expectations, I will specify that Avy provides access to the full gamut of Google software. This includes Google Play Services, the Google Play Store and everything in between. My point is, whatever your other Android devices can do, Avy can also handle.

When all else fails, try ignoring the fact that Avy has its own operating system, connect to it via Bluetooth and stream your favorite music straight from your phone.

Pricing and final thoughts

The Zettaly Avy is a very respectable first entry from a new company. Especially one that found its start on Kickstarter and is now producing gear on scale to sell through Amazon. As I can best describe Avy as a dream product from and for its designers, it is easy to see the passion that has gone into it, but I can also see the acceptance of some lower-end hardware to make this product a financial viability.

Despite the compromises, Avy is a solid unit that provides a complete and fluid Android experience as well as providing great sound for your small audience settings. The going price is $199.95, and can be had from Amazon.com or Amazon EU.

Purchase Avy on Amazon

Bottom line, if you are picky about your audio quality and accustomed to high-end audio gear, please give Avy a listen before you expect it to perform as well as similarly priced portable speakers. Remember that Avy includes a display and all the benefits of Android, in addition to being a set of speakers, which makes the overall package well worth your consideration.

Have you seen the Zettaly Avy in action yourself, what did you think of it? Are you willing to buy an all-in-one Android tablet and music player?

For more details, visit http://www.zettaly.com/avy/

This post originally appeared on our sister site TabTimes.

Statistexts app review

The average person sends over 3,000 text messages per month. That’s a lot of information being sent in a short amount of time. Whether you are letting your parents know that you are going to be late or breaking up with your significant other over a text message (yes, that did escalate quite fast), the advent of texting has made it easy to communicate with one another with nothing more than a simple line of text.

Screenshots

With so much information on your device, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see some data that would allow you to see how long it usually takes you to respond to a message? Turn that around and it would be nice to see how long it takes your friend Jim to reply to all of your crazy late night messages. Well, if you said yes to either one of those scenarios, then Statistexts is going to find a happy home on your Android device.

Design

The design of the app is very simple and straightforward. No fancy graphics or distracting animations. Statistexts instead opts for a nice dark theme with colors that complement one another and make using it easy on the eyes.

When you first open up the app you are greeted with two buttons, one in the middle and one on the bottom right. The one in the middle is the main button which starts the apps data analyzing algorithms. The one on the bottom right is the menu button though it only has one setting, clear stored data. This way you can use the app and then delete all the information afterward, for those that don’t like to have too much information about them lying about.

Functionality

After you click on the aptly named “Load Texts” button on front page of app, you will be greeted with a plethora of information that will give you an insight into various aspects of your texting life. From the average response time of each contact, the amount of messages sent to them to the average amount of words they use, Statistics is a cornucopia of information.

After loading up the app, it quickly showed me the number of messages that I had received and sent. It then allowed me to sort through the information using a variety of filters. To name a few; Sort by fastest response, slowest response, most positive, least positive, and most messages. While most of these made sense and we could easily see how the information could be retrieved from our messages, it was not quite clear how the app determined the positivity and negativity percentage. We assume it compares the text in the messages to a database of positive and negative words, whatever those might be.
Statistexts also allows you to click on a specific contact to be able to all of the collected data about that contact in one page. One of our favorite being the ability to see when they are most likely to respond to your message. Nothing groundbreaking but that’s the beauty of Statistexts. It does a simple task of giving you information regarding your contacts and it does it beautifully.

Final Thoughts

As we said before, Statistexts does not do anything revolutionary or groundbreaking. It takes data that is already accessible to you and just organized it is a way that is both visually appealing and easy to read. Now you can know how long it takes your friends to reply to you without you having to actually go in the app and figure that information out on your own. Information mind you that would take hours if done by hand while Statistexts does that and more in a matter of seconds. Statistexts is a fantastic, well-designed app that anyone who treasures information should download.

The post Statistexts app review appeared first on AndroidGuys.

NUU Mobile Z8 review

Buy now on Amazon

Until very recently, the norm in the Android world was that there was a very clear distinction in every aspect between the high-end, mid-range, and the entry-level, be it with regards to build quality, specifications, features, and sometimes even the version of the Android OS the device would be running. While the big names in Android fought hard in the high-end arena, smaller companies had the opportunity to make a name for themselves in the affordable smartphone segment.

This may be the status quo no longer, particularly in 2015, but there are still some good devices on offer from some lesser known brands. One such company is Hong Kong based NUU Mobile, with the company bringing an affordable, 4G LTE-enabled device intended for the US market. Does this smartphone manage to stand out in the ever-growing crowd? We find out, in this full review of the NUU Mobile Z8!

Design

As far as the design language is concerned, the NUU Mobile Z8 doesn’t stray too far from the standard, offering a familiar look and feel, albeit without an obvious inspiration. The glossy plastic rear cover comes with a faux metallic finish, that helps keep it resistant to fingerprints, and its tapered edges allows for the device to fit snugly in the hand. The back cover is a little difficult to remove though, which is a slight concern, given that you have to to access the microSD card slot, dual SIM card slots, and the replaceable battery. With a thickness of 9.4 mm and weighing 146 grams, the device does feel solid in the hand as well.

Looking around the device, the volume rocker and the power button are on the left and right sides respectively, and the buttons do offer a solid tactile feel when pressed. Considering the larger overall footprint of the device though, a slightly lower placement of the power button would have made for a better handling experience. The capacitive navigation keys are found below the display, and depending on which device you are switching from, the placement of the Recent Apps key on the left and back button on the right can take some getting used to. The headphone jack is up top, and the microUSB port can be found along the bottom of the right side.

An unique design aspect with the Z8 is the inclusion of a notification light integrated into the chin of the device, similar to what was seen with the OPPO Find 7, but in a slightly different implementation. There’s no denying that the breathing effect that this non-traditional notification light allows for looks great, and is a great addition to an otherwise uninspired design.

Display

The NUU Mobile Z8 features a 5.5-inch gapless IPS LCD display, with a 1080p resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 401 ppi. Quad HD may be all the rage nowadays, but Full HD certainly more than gets the job done, especially when considering the mid-range nature of this device. The display performs very well, with excellent color reproduction and great viewing angles. The maximum brightness is still relatively dim though, which does negatively affect outdoor visibility.

This particular review unit arrived with an LCD bright spot out of the box, and while NUU Mobile confirmed that you will be able to pick up a replacement under their standard 2-year warranty, it does raise some concerns. Further, this screen is quite the fingerprint magnet, which can be annoying to some users. A tempered glass screen protector will be available in a few weeks for the Z8 however, which will hopefully make this less of an issue.

Performance

Under the hood, the NUU Mobile Z8 packs an octa-core, 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 processor, clocked at 1.7 GHz, and backed by the Mali-T760 GPU and 2 GB of RAM. This processing package proved to be a solid and reliable performer, and handled day to day activities with relative ease. 2 GB of RAM allows for some comfortable multi-tasking, and the device also handled gaming very well.

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The overall experience felt just as fast as the Asus Zenfone 2, with its arguably superior processing package, and this similarity is reflected in the benchmark scores as well. Of course, some of the credit for this smooth performance has to be given to the stock Android software, which does allow for a very fluid and stutter-free experience.

Hardware

The NUU Mobile Z8 comes with 16 GB or 32 GB built-in storage options, with the latter available now, and the former being released early next month. Both versions come with support for expandable storage, via microSD card, by up to 64 GB. The device also comes with a standard suite of connectivity options, including MediaTek’s take on NFC, which is the HotKnot data exchange feature, which is limited to just smartphones and tablets featuring MediaTek processing packages. There were some noticeable connectivity issues however, with the Wi-Fi not very strong, leading to a lot of dropped connections, along with the GPS failing to find a lock indoors, and requiring some time when outdoors. Once connected, there were fortunately no issues after that.

The device does come with full HSPA+ support on the AT&T and T-Mobile network, and while the dual SIM phone does allow for 4G LTE connectivity, it might be difficult to get because of some particular LTE bands not supported. That should change soon though, as NUU Mobile did mention working closely with the network carriers to add these bands, and should be activated soon, which users will receive via an OTA update.

As far as the rear speaker is concerned, the single speaker on the Z8 does get plenty loud, but can sound a bit distorted, which is disappointing. As is the case with any rear speaker setup as well, it is easy to muffle the sound when the device is placed on a flat surface.

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On the battery front, the NUU Mobile Z8 packs a removable 2,650 mAh battery, that unfortunately didn’t provide the best in terms of battery life. In my initial testing, the device lasted for just 7.5 hours with a screen-on time of 2.5 hours, which is below average by any standard. A software update that followed did result in a slight improvement, with the total time being pushed close to 10 hours, with the screen-on time jumping to 3.5 hours. As such, even average smartphone users will have a difficult time getting a full day of use comfortably out of this device. NUU Mobile did mention that they will continue to improve in this area with future updates, and for now, you do have the option to carry around a spare.

Camera

The NUU Mobile Z8 comes with a 13 MP rear camera which did allow for some nice looking shots. Autofocus can be a little slow, but capturing the shot after that is fairly quick. There can be a lack of saturation in some images, especially when compared to other similar camera setups, like the Asus Zenfone 2, which actually does tend to oversaturate pictures. Some exposure issues came up as well, where tapping on a light object drops the exposure significantly, and vice versa.

All of the images, however, were very sharp and not lacking in detail. Understandably, the camera does struggle in low light conditions, even when the flash is on. Once again, NUU Mobile confirmed that they will try their best to improve image processing that will be made available to users in future firmware updates. As far as the camera application is concerned, it is the standard open source MediaTek app, and doesn’t really pack a whole lot, apart from a few modes, as well as some granular control over aspects like white balance and ISO.

Software

On the software side of things, the NUU Mobile Z8 runs a near-stock iteration of Android 5.0 Lollipop, which provides an excellent software experience. Some additions over stock Android include a few gestures, as well as a Clear All Apps button in the multi-tasking screen, which is certainly a very useful addition. The launcher is very similar to the Google Now launcher, except without featuring Google Now, and the Google keyboard is also the default out of the box. What is particularly refreshing is the fact that there is absolutely no bloatware to be found anywhere.

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Some of the gestures added include double tap to wake, drawing an “o” to launch the camera, shaking the device to turn the flashlight on, flip to mute, and wave to mute. All these gestures work very well, but the one to activate the flashlight is limited to only the lockscreen. This functionality will also be improved upon in future updates. Speaking of updates, NUU Mobile promises that this device will receive an official update to Android 5.1 Lollipop, but there is some uncertainty with it going beyond that.

Specifications

Gallery

Pricing and final thoughts

The NUU Mobile Z8 is available officially through the company website, as well as via various re-sellers like Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and HSN. The 16 GB variant, when released, will be priced at $249, and the 32 GB version is currently available for $299, with the included color options being white and black.

So there you have it for this closer look at the NUU Mobile Z8! The device is certainly a solid offering in the affordable smartphone space, from a company that is relatively new to the US market. There are some positives here, like the excellent display, smooth performance, and fluid software experience. Of course, there are notable drawbacks as well, with its connectivity issues, distorted audio, and poor battery life. There is a lot that can be resolved with future updates, but for now, the Z8 does feel like a work in progress, and given the intense competition in this space, with other fantastic, but similarly-priced, smartphones, this phone is difficult to recommend, at least for now.

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