QMobile Noir Quatro Z4 Review

Qmobile started out as a mid-range to low range device manufacturer, but has slowly and gradually entered the smartphone and quad-core market in recent times, implementing the features that are available on much high priced market competition, and that too at a much discounted and more affordable price range. The Quatro Z4 is also another such effort, with the device design, display, as well as the other list of features like the smart gestures, the 13MP camera, the improvement in connectivity features, among others, starting to put Qmobile on the cell phone manufacturers' map.

The Noir Quatro Z4, powered by a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, 32 GB ROM and 2 GB of RAM. The device has a sleek design, much similar to the iPhone 5, and a feature list that is very long. Qmobile has certainly put in the effort, and have made a bold statement on their own, that they are not to be taken lightly.

While unboxing the Qmobile Noir Quatro Z4, you will get everything inside the retail box that you need to get started with this phone.

• Qmobile Noir Quatro Z4 handset
• An A/C adapter (will use the USB cable for charging)
• MicroUSB cable connector for A/C adapter for charging/connectivity
• Earphones (pretty good quality, but missing volume controls)
• Flip Cover
• 2 screen protectors
• A stand for holding the device vertically
• SIM ejection tool

The Qmobile Noir Quatro Z4 has a 5" HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080, and a pixel count of 441 per inch. The colors are very vibrant, with good brightness, crisp display, and the viewing angles are pretty wide, which is for both the vertical and horizontal views. There is no pixilation at all. This combined with the slim and stylish layout, with one glass layer thanks to the fusion of the display digitizer and touchscreen, gives a nice projection towards the device.

The device has a support for static as well as live wallpapers, and we must say, with the vibrant colors and supreme display, we were impressed with the live wallpapers. There are themes with their own icons as well, and that makes the display all the more interesting.

The size and width of the device is a major attraction, and coupled with the mat finish of the device back, as well as the iPhone 5 like shape of the body, minus the back styling, iPhone having metal while this device having a matt finished glossy plastic back, this device seems to be designed with great detail.

The front is covered by Gorilla Glass display, and the top of that earphone, proximity and image light sensors, while the touch sensitive buttons reside near the bottom just below the screen other than that, the screen covers the front for the most part, which improves the device look. The battery on the device is also non-removable, which is becoming somewhat a trend in highend devices.

The bottom of the device has a microUSB port for charging/data transfer, along with the primary microphone, and speakers for the device on both sides of the port and microphone. On the right side of the device is the volume rocker, while the microSIM port resides on the left side of the device. The sides are clean, smooth and easy to grip, which is a plus, as devices of this size tend to slip out of grasp while being reached out to.

The power/lock key as well as the 3.5mm audio jack is present at the top of the Z4. At the back of the device, there is the 13 MP main snapper at the top left corner, along with the LED flash and secondary mike for noise cancellation.

The device is designed easy to grip, and fairly light but solid, and with easy finger movement on the screen. Also, the accompanying flip cover is of good quality, with the plastic encasing of the cover being pretty hard to protect the device. The cover is smooth inside, making sure there is no damage to the screen. There are cutouts at the right places, including for microphones, flash and camera, power/lock key, audio jack and the volume rocker. The cutout for the volume rocker is a bit ridged, so that there is no issue in case any other headphone is being used too.

The notification light on the front is also present, with the option to enable/disable it. There are also options to enable/disable when the notification light is to blink, like when the battery is low, for notifications, or for charging. The low power and charging notification lights are automatically set to the color red.

The device has 2 GB of RAM, and combined with a good quad-core processor, the device is geared up to never show signs of slowing down. The Z4 has the 1.5 GHz Cortex A7 quad-core processor based on the ARMv7, with 2GB RAM.

The Noir Quatro Z4 comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and with a quad core processor in place, this makes for a hassle-free device flow. The basic option for multiple home screens is present here too, though the range is between 5 and 7 home screens. Adding content is also consistent to Android defaults, using tap and hold or the pinch to zoom option – these can be used in case users want to add widgets or shortcuts on the home screens. The moving of shortcuts/widgets by tap and hold on the shortcut/widget and then moving it around is also consistent.

The lock screen also contains panes, with the panes on the left being able to display widgets, while the right pane launching the camera directly, inside a widget like panel. The home screen can be accessed by swiping from bottom up. The device does not have extendable storage space support, though the 32 GB of storage space present on the device may still be more than required for most users.

The press and hold on the Home screen launches the task manager, and using this the users can switch between open applications, or swipe any application upwards to close the application. The automatic brightness setting adjusts the screen display brightness level according to the environment.

The Z4 formally introduces the Smart Gestures in the Qmobile devices for the first time as well – this is the range of gestures that have been introduced and made common by Samsung. The Smart Dial, Smart Answer are generic features letting users dial or answer calls when the phone is raised to the ear. Pause Alarm smart gesture turns off the alarm once the device is turned around in the hand facing down, and then facing up again. Calls can be canceled too, simply by waving the hand on top of the screen. The Smart Scroll, Smart Play and Smart Pause are also implemented.

Another new feature is the Air View, the ability to sense your finger hovering over the screen. This feature is enabled for photo gallery viewing, as well as in other areas of the device.

Notification contains Sound, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Brightness by default, though more can be added and managed. The App Drawer is managed in a paged manner, with multiple sorting options present. The generic Android task manager is present also, allowing switching between open apps with the ability to terminate them as well. Also, the LED flash at the back doubles up as a flashlight, which adds benefit to the flash as well.

The device is also able to update to the latest version of Android while remaining on the device, and without the need to be connected to any computer.

Google Now is also implemented, and it has its own group of features available for the user’s benefit. This includes weather conditions, any recent search related updates like sports or movies screening nearby, user taking a routine traffic route to display traffic condition, among other things. It also has voice integration for multiple usage like message taking, call launch, directions, or opening up a website being some of the many features.

The Google Chrome comes pre-installed in the device, refined to a decent level by Google. Tab switch, and resize is the standard option, available here also. Chrome allows users to be able to sync their browsing session between the device and PC, creating a more attractive and well-rounded experience.

The messaging application is almost the generic application, with minor adjustments to it, with the word suggestions also present – however, the Swype is not present, which will be a disappointment for some users. The phone dialer is also routine, absent the ability to make video calls. The calendar and notes control is pretty standard with the ability to backup or restore. Backups can be made of the apps, respective data of apps as well as any other files, media or otherwise.

The speaker for the Quatro Z4 performs surprisingly well, which is a refreshing experience for us, as we have been looking at many recent releases which have below par speaker performance. Also, this combined with the HD display, watching videos especially HD videos will surely be an experience to remember.

The gallery is the generic Android gallery, with images sorted date wise, and location wise. The video player has a great UI, custom made, and had no issues playing 1080p and 720p videos, with the speed never coming up as an issue. The audio player is the generic Android player as well, and works very smoothly, without any kinks.

The FM radio is available on the device, with the ability to ID the track being played on the radio, as well as the option to post a status on Facebook. The FM this time around is much more stable than with previous devices.

The Quatro Z4 has Kingsoft Office Suite by default, which makes document view and editing that much simpler. Plain text files, along with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files can be viewed and edited.

Qmobile noir Quatro Z4 comes with a 13 MP backend camera and a 5 MP front facing camera. The camera UI is pretty clean, with the toggle, shutter and gallery buttons on the right, the flash and front/back camera toggle at the top right corner, while the settings button is present on the left bottom side. The settings option includes HDR, camera shutter click sound toggle, face detection, among others. There is also the option to apply different color effects to the images, as well as the ability to manage the white balance on images as per environments.

The capture action option is another interesting option present, which can capture images in a regular manner, touch shot which snaps image if any area of the screen is touched, and the gesture shot, shooting in a predefined gesture, while the smile shot works in its traditional manner. The camera supports different image modes, like the Panorama mode, the Best Face, Face Beauty (with 12 beauty effects), Eraser (which allows removing unwanted objects when snapping in a crowded environment) and the Best Shot. The level of detail that the images capture is so fine, with the perfection in the colors, and light balance, that this may be one of the better cameras that we have seen in the recent times. The auto focus, touch focus, and fast tracking options are also present for the camera.

The front facer, being a 5 MP snapper, has a pretty decent resolution, and a crisp display, and is more than sufficient for excellent quality video chats. The front facer has a F2.4 aperture, and this works pretty well to provide the best image quality. The camera though is fixed focus, so only self-snaps are possible, and not actual images.

Qmobile Noir Quatro Z4 records video at an amazing full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution at 30 FPS, which gives you a very good video quality. The video result is pretty sharp and the light balance is also great.

The Qmobile Noir Quatro Z4 provides the regular options in connectivity as per any Android phone in the mid to top tier category of course, this means all of the prominent connection options are present and accounted for, including Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity however, NFC, DLNA and 4G are absent from the list. The device also enables users to make their devices a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

The Quatro Z4 has a load of 2G connectivity, and some 3G, though LTE bands is missing from the picture, as is DLNA. The presence of GPRS and EDGE, though routine, increases the device connectivity, and Bluetooth 4.0 is a nice addition to the device.

Local connectivity is provided in the form of Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, so that content sharing is easy. The device can also be made a Wi-Fi hotspot, and USB tethering is also supported on the device.

MicroUSB is used for charging and PC connectivity purposes, though we found the absence of the USB On-the-go support somewhat confusing, as this is becoming somewhat a norm in recent devices. Also, an app for file management provides an easy way to access any files you get to your phone without having to search.

The Qmobile Noir Quatro Z4 has a 2, 020 mAh battery which does not seem to be suitable for a quad-core smartphone with a bright HD display, but turns out to be quite reasonable.

After almost a complete day of moderate usage, including some web browsing, a little gaming, some calls and emails and messages, the phone still had a bit left to cover an additional two to four hours. However, heavy usage will drain out the battery just short of 24 hours. It would greatly help if the the power saving modes, already present through the settings, are utilized at their optimal settings, as this will allow even better usage of the battery for the device.

As is visible from the above review, below are some shortcomings that the device does possess:

• Battery is non-removable
• Among the peers, the video recording is not up to expectations
• Company appeal is not too great at this time
• Over a longer period of time, the device seems to reduce quality much quicker than other competing devices.
• Non-extendable storage space
• There is no support provided for LTE or NFC

With every new device, Qmobile has been improving its reputation and the list of offerings. With a wide variety of devices, all for different market segments, it is fast becoming the most widely used device brand. And, with the Noir series, especially the recent releases like the A900, the A6, and now the Z4, the brand is being taken to a whole new level, coming into the major league and competing with the big guns. Although Qmobile does not have the level of creativity at this time to outgun its competition, it certainly has been improving by leaps and bounds, and may be targeting big things in the very near future.

The cool 13 MP back and 5 MP front cameras, providing the ability to record in 1080p modes, with the wider aperture providing better light access, and improved color productivity, is something Qmobile will have put in a lot of effort into. Also, the 5” full HD display, with outstanding colors, give a very nice look of the device, and this coupled with the classic design, make the device into a winner.

In short the Noir Quatro Z4is highly appealing as a device, combined with the laundry list of features that Qmobile has released the device with. The phone has a nice balanced set of offerings. Qmobile is winning the respect of many from this device and the major manufacturers now feel they may have another new addition to their ranks very soon.