Screen
With most mobile devices cutting back on buttons and killing the notion of the feature-phone, you’re pretty much going to be staring at a screen here, and that’s not so bad.
While the Tough Max won’t win any award for its 720p (1280×720) 4.7 inch screen, it’s still not bad, pleasing enough to the eye, and offers a pixel quality not far off that of the iPhone 6 and 6S, with 312 pixels per inch compared to the iPhone’s 326.
That might seem like a bunch of numbers, but the easy way to explain it is this: the screen size on the Tough Max is spot on with the iPhone 6S and the details pop in much the same way, but the colors and brightness don’t feel quite on par.
It’s a good screen, not a great screen, but at least there’s no real reason to complain about this screen, and since there’s a degree of Gorilla Glass protecting it not to mention a severely thick plastic casing on the body, there shouldn’t be too many complaints.
Performance
At least there won’t be too many complaints on the screen, but you may find a few over on the performance side of things, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor not necessarily pulling its weight.
Let’s talk usability first, though, because while Telstra and ZTE have stuck with Android, it’s pretty much the bare minimum for what constitutes Android.
On the one hand, it’s stock with no overlay so close to what Google wants, but on the other, it’s not the same version of Android that Google brings to its Nexus devices.
Rather, this is more “vanilla”, with the same basic black apps and widget menu separation we saw when Android 4.0 first started appearing, supporting up to five widgetised home screens with very little control for quickly deleting the screens.
It’s a basic version of Android, that’s for sure, and we’d look into changing it as soon as you can with another launcher, all of which can be easily found on the Google Play Store.
System performance for this generic Android phone isn’t the greatest, and even our standard benchmark struggled to run on the phone, stalling in ways we hadn’t seen prior.
It worked eventually, but it didn’t leave a good taste in our mouths, delivering a performance index closer to a five year old phone than anything, well, new.
Fortunately, the noticed performance fared better than the synthetic benchmarks, because while you’ll likely see a bit of lag, it won’t be quite as traumatic.
You don’t need a tremendous amount of patience for the Telstra Tough Max, but you will need some, because while loading apps is fast, jumping between them isn’t always the same.
At least the 4G speeds are solid, and with a Category 4 modem here, a technical limit of 150Mbps down and 50Mbps is possible.
It is more likely you’ll find speeds closer to 40 to 80Mbps down and 30 to 40Mbps up, which still isn’t anything to sneeze at, especially since there’s a Blue Tick rating here, meaning you should get a greater reception as you make your way out of the city.
Battery
While the performance is a little all over shop, the battery handles its own, and one could even lay claim that this phone is a battler, not just in its ability to survive the world, but also a day to day existence.
We didn’t completely exhaust the battery, but we did find that after a day of texting, web surfing, taking pictures, emails, making phone calls, listening to music, and stopping to work (sorry, but we have to do that, too), the Telstra Tough Max provided a full 24 hours of life, offering enough for an extra half day if chose to push on.
Based on this performance, it is technically conceivable to expect two days is possible, though you’d want to use the screen and the modem inside less.
That’s not bad like for a touchscreen phone, though we suspect that underperforming processor has something to do with this.
Camera
Next up is the camera, and while the megapixels on paper are decent, the performance of this shooter is like the overall performance: all over shop.
Let’s get something straight here: decent images are achievable from the ZTE T84, just not most of the time.
In fact most of the time, the camera interface is either too simple or just plain ugly, but the results will always be a little blurry, with okay results in day and night, but very little detail, or very little sharp detail, at that.
So the camera here does the job, but isn’t quite the reason why you end up on the Tough Max.
No, there are better reasons to consider this phone.
Just hope you don’t crack the screen! Telstra charge $397 to replace and NO ONE else does. So it’s either Telstra or throw it out.
If you receive a text whilst making a call the phone will unlock and then all hell breaks loose as it changes settings ,makes or ends calls or any other madness it can embark upon ,have spoken to other owners and have same problem .ZTE have obviously used the village idiot to design operating system as it is diabolically stupid to use
Hubby’s lasted three weeks. There was an issue with trying to swipe and load so he tried to take the battery out to reset it. Back is locked – screen cracked to pieces. He dropped it on the corner first while trying to this and the screen cracked, which I think made the rest worse. He is renowned for dust ruining the sound. No chance to figure out if this phone was any good for that. Still 12 months to go on the contract. Bah humbug
Bought 15 months ago because I required an antenna port as I
live in rural area and need antenna on house and vehicles for coverage. Also
bought for reported ruggedness.
Surprise, surprise..ZTE don’t offer cable! Telstra stores offer cable, but ZTE
states using such a cable will void warranty. ZTE states if you want a plug as
part of car-kit, contact Telstra. Clearly Telstra don’t have system of feedback
to ZTE. Try for yourself – go to a Telstra store and ask for an antenna cable for
a T84 and they’ll sell you one that voids warranty! Or, you could contract ZTE
Support and they might respond in a similar tone “Patch
lead not currently available, we are still testing. Before you ask, no I don’t
have a time frame.” For coverage, I’ve
had to get one of the Telstra “warranty voiding patch leads” and have been very
careful when attaching it to phone.
Issues:
1. No authorised patch leads available
2. Telstra and ZTE have no effective feedback from customers – sure way to go broke! (what a waste – this phone design really is on the path to being a great phone)
3. Battery life after 12 months poor. Less than 12 hours
4. Cover for antenna plug broke off. Poor materials. No replacement available. Blutack to the rescue to maintain some form of waterproofness.
5. Light switch temperamental.
Positives:
1. Ruggedness
2. Waterproof to a metre. Really good.
3. Camera good once I worked out how to use it… odd focusing
4. Dedicated light switch
As a Computer and Phone repairer, I have been repairing/replacing these screens for months. Just $248. Am now once again finding it very hard to get anymore screens, currently have one left. I’m also staggered that there just isn’t any other parts available for them either, like SIM card/SD card reader etc. Just nothing anywhere. I think Telstra did a number on us all with these phones. If I can help. http://www.jchcomputers.com.au
Phone is hard to use and the screen broke within two months by dropping from hand onto the corner plastic. Telstra don’t care at all , the thing is it is advertised as being tough and it isn’t. The plastic surround doesn’t protect. Better to buy a good phone and buy proper casing. Only Telstra will fix and they are complacent. Don’t buy
I have just purchase the 23rd one of these phones for staff (mostly tradies) we had to send one back with service issues but the rest have been great. the tempered glass protectors have been changed a few times due to high impact incidents , but they cost a couple of dollars on ebay. These have saved the actually screen on a number of occasions. The staff have found these devices so much easier to use than the former devices.
Can anyone please tell me where to get a replacement screen that I can fit myself?
How do you screen print a text message on this phone