Tizen, the second-rung proprietary OS of Samsung, has been steadily progressing under Android's shadow. Yesterday, the company announced its latest Tizen-based smartphone, the Samsung Z2. At Rs. 4,590, it is inexpensive, but compared to other similarly priced Android-based smartphones, seems to be a bit rough and lacking finesse. That said, Samsung claims that the phone “caters to the requirements of new smartphone users transitioning from a feature phone”, so refinement may not be its game altogether.
On the outside, the Samsung Z2 looks almost similar to last year’s Z1, which was also a Tizen-based smartphone aimed at the average budget buyer. With a plastic build and an outdated Samsung design, the Z2 seems rather ordinary. The quality of plastics and the overall build quality seem sub-par, and the 4-inch, WVGA display looks really flimsy and lacks sharpness and good viewing angles.
The performance, on the other hand, seemed fairly snappy in the small time I spent with the device. It uses a 1.5GHz quad-core SoC, along with 1GB of RAM. Navigating through the OS felt quite smooth, and I didn't find any lags while opening or closing apps. 8GB of storage on the phone is quite limiting, but at such a low price, it is quite reasonable. The phone supports microSD cards of up to 128GB, which should be reassuring.
However, the biggest selling point of the Z2, according to Samsung, is 4G connectivity with VoLTE support. Samsung has even partnered with Reliance Jio to provide buyers with free 4G SIM cards and a complimentary offer allotting free voice and data service to users within the trial period. The phone will also come pre-installed with some streaming applications such as Jio Beats for music and Jio on Demand for video.
Other applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger have also been introduced in the latest version of Tizen OS v2.4 that this phone runs on. This is the same OS that Samsung introduced with the Z3 last year, but this time, it features its own app store. The new app store now features more than three dozen apps, but the number is still quite small when compared to the plethora of apps that Android’s Play Store can provide.
The 5MP rear camera on the phone seems pretty standard, and the overall app seems to work considerably smoothly. A 1500mAh battery is employed to take the phone through the day, and Samsung says that the battery life can be further extended using the “Ultra Power Saving Mode”. We leave that for our review, for now.
The Samsung Z2, like all sub-5K smartphones, is aimed at the first time smartphone buyer. Samsung claims that it has received good feedback from previous Tizen-based smartphones. Personally, however, I think Android can provide a better and more complete ecosystem to the masses. For the first time smartphone user, it will prove to be a better bridge towards the world of smartphones, and Samsung has the best brand recognition to do that.