Kazam is one of the newest smartphone brands on the block,
and last month we provided you with a world-first review of its Thunder Q4.5
handset. It was a solid mid-range entry and a good first effort for a new name
in an already crowded marketplace. Now the British firm is back with three
upcoming ranges, all operating on the Android platform.
Life
Every cheaper-end smartphone brand worth its salt offers a
set of feature phones, and Kazam is no different. The Life range, consisting of
the B2, B4, C4 and C5, has been designed with ease of use in mind. Naturally,
the number of features are limited and the specifications are heavily scaled
back. If you’re the sort of person who cares about PPI and GHz, then these
won’t be for you. They also run a reduced version of the Android operating
system.
Our salute to the
classic feature phone
B2 & B4
The B2 is a standard ‘bar’ build, with a simple 1.8-inch TFT
touch display and enough memory to store text messages and pictures captured by
its VGA camera (that’s the equivalent of 0.3 megapixels). It has a built-in FM
radio, as well as the capacity for expandable memory, which are nice touches.
These reduced specs mean the B2’s standby battery life extends to a massive 214
hours. The lack of wi-fi means there’s not much else you can do with this
handset, but if you only need the basics, it should serve you well.
The B4 ups the ante a little, with a greater berth of
features. Its screen is 2.2 inches and it features three dedicated buttons that
you can assign contacts to for speed dialling. It also has built-in games,
unlike the B2. On-screen buttons are larger to aid visibility, and there’s also
a ‘Smart SOS’ button on the back; with a press of this sizeable, easy-to-access
button, a trusted contact is alerted. It’s also available in two colours, dark
grey and white, as opposed to the B2’s plain black.
C4 & C5
The C4 and C5 are both clamshell devices, and ‘flip-phones’.
It’s an entertainingly old school style and gives the handsets a bit of
character. The C4 shares largely the same specifications as the B4, although it
doesn’t have a calendar app. It enjoys a longer standby battery life at 240
hours, and has internal storage expandable up to 16GB, rather than 8GB. It’s
only 17.7mm thick when closed, while the C5 is 1.3mm thinner. It also has a
1.44-inch display on the outside, meaning you can see the time and
notifications when it’s closed. It comes packing a 1.3-megapixel camera,
considerably better than the other three handsets in the range. A desktop
charging cradle is available for ease of use too.
Trooper2
The Trooper2 range is designed for entry-level smartphone
users. But while most brands settle for one such handset in their range, Kazam
has released four devices. Each uses the same hardware but boasts a different
display size, so there should be something for everyone.
All four handsets feature a 1.3GHz Mali-400 dual-core
processor outputting 512MB of RAM. They’re not the fastest handsets, by any
means, but they’re likely to be priced accordingly. There’s a microSD slot for
up to 32GB of expandable memory and each device has two SIM card slots. On the
back you have a 5-megapixel camera, while the whole range runs Android 4.2
Jelly Bean.
The Trooper2 4.0 has a 4-inch display with a resolution of
480 x 800 pixels, and supports two regular SIMs. The Trooper2 4.5’s 4.5-inch
display packs in 480 x 854 pixels and can hold both a normal and micro-SIM
card. A lower display quality might be noticeable with the 5.0, as its screen
is half an inch larger again, but with the same 480 x 854-pixel resolution.
Again, its dual-SIM function allows one regular and one micro-SIM card.
Kazam Trooper - Smartphone,
smarter prices
Finally, the Trooper2 6.0 is a fully fledged phablet. It has
an enormous 6-inch display, although its 480 x 854-pixel resolution equates to
just 163 pixels per inch – not the highest ppi for a device you would expect to
be optimised for watching video and gaming. It supports two regular SIMs.
All four devices are available in black or white, while the
6.0 also comes in a dark blue model.
Thunder2
We were introduced to the Thunder Q4.5, and now comes the
Thunder2. While the Thunder2 4.5L might not seem too different to the Q4.5 on
paper, apart from its 4G LTE capability (a first for Kazam), the Thunder2 5.0
looks like Kazam’s best mid-range offering.
The demand for
LTE-enabled phones continues to grow across Europe
Thunder2 5.0
As the name implies, the most noteworthy feature of the
Thunder2 5.0 is its ample 5-inch display. Being a 720 x 1,280-pixel HD screen,
it has a pixel density of 294 pixels per inch – an impressive total that rivals
any mid-range device currently available. The Thunder2 5.0’s camera punches
above its weight too, with a 13-megapixel lens and 1,080p HD video capture.
With a 1.3GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, it should be fast enough to comfortably
handle day-to-day use. Its 2,000mAh battery claims to offer 400 hours of
standby time, and it comes in a choice of black or white.
