Zopo ZP500 Libero review

[oldcpu]

Possibly the only negative comments that I currently have on my ZP500+ is the auto white balance (if any) on the phone's camera does not work well. And every now and then either the phone's hardware or the phones Android 4.0.4 implementation loses the mount of the 32 GByte class 10 SD card (San disk)forcing a quick phone reboot to remount the SD card.

Overall I am still pleased with the phone. A couple of days ago I used Skype on this phone to chat with my 86+ year old mother, with her in Canada and me here in Thailand.

 

[Hati]

My troubles started a few weeks ago when the phone started to tie itself into knots, often a reboot wasn't enough, needed a power down too. This is despite me clearing the call log about once a week (I found the phone slowing down noticeably when the call log grew too big) and only having a handful of apps installed from the Play Store.

Two days ago one of my sims stopped working, dropped out conveniently in the middle of an important business call. I swapped slots to try to prove a faulty sim, but even the other sim (different carrier) wasn't always working properly.

I got a new sim yesterday, but no luck in either one of the slots. So off I went to get the Duos and surprise, both sims (old ones) are working perfectly in the new phone.

The phone still has all the original software/os, has not been changed at all. Unlucky for me that the Duos wasn't available when I was shopping for a dual sim phone...

 

[oldcpu]

.
Two days ago one of my sims stopped working, dropped out conveniently in the middle of an important business call. I swapped slots to try to prove a faulty sim, but even the other sim (different carrier) wasn't always working properly.

I got a new sim yesterday, but no luck in either one of the slots. So off I went to get the Duos and surprise, both sims (old ones) are working perfectly in the new phone.
...

It reads like the problem with one (and possibly both) of the SIM slots is highly repeatable. ie others with same unrepaired phone would experience the same. For the return cost of shipping (about $34 each way or $64 total) it may be worth your while to ship back for repair or replacement. Once you have a functioning phone back you could give it away as an inexpensive gift.

Best wishes with your new Samsung.

 

[Hati]

It's not worth it, it's much more than $34 from here with some sort of tracking, plus I would be back to two phones with me at all times, that is just unacceptable.

The S Duos has an amazing screen, the AMOLED really is something else. 4" just like the Zopo. Plus Samsung's tweak of the standard Android interface makes it so good for my needs that I didn't need to get any after-market apps for calls and messaging. Has a decent Garmin based navigation app for free, the GPS works without assist (lock in less than 30 seconds from cold with Wifi and data off) and manages the two sims better than anything I have ever heard of, including true dual on mode, simultaneous calls on both sims.

Having said all this I am still thinking that I got unlucky with the Zopo, I would be surprised if the majority of the phones sold have faults like mine. I was prepared for this anyway right from the word go, so no major disappointments, scratch it up to learning

 

[oldcpu]

The S Duos has an amazing screen, the AMOLED really is something else. 4" just like the Zopo.

I considered the S Duos, but where I live I could almost get two Zopo-500s for the same price and the Zopos offer 3G 850Mhz and the Duos does not, which for me was a major deal breaker, aside from the additional cost of the Duos.

Glad to read thou, you are happy now wih your Duos.

 

[oldcpu]

Overall I am still pleased with the phone. A couple of days ago I used Skype on this phone to chat with my 86+ year old mother, with her in Canada and me here in Thailand.

I am now back in Europe after using the ZP-500+ successfully in Thailand for ~ 1 month.

I used both SIMs (one local Thai SIM and one German roaming SIM) while there, and also used the wireless significantly at many different wireless spots. Thus far the phone is still working well for me.

 

[oldcpu]

I used the Bluetooth functionality for the 1st time today with my ZP500+.

I don't normally use bluetooth, but a friend of my wife's came by with a Bluetooth headset that she does not want to use, and asked my wife if we wanted it. My wife attempted to use it with her iPod but it failed. It failed to pair with her Lenovo laptop. It also failed to function with our Asus TF101 transformer tablet. But my ZP-500+ picked it up, we paired the two devices (headset to the ZP-500+) and were able to use it with the ZP-500+ telephone functionality. We did not get the headset functioning with audio players on the ZP-500+, possibly due to our lack of understanding of Android. But it does work well with the ZP-500+ for talking on the phone.

The headset is a Callstel PX-8134.

 

[amacg]

ZP500 is my favourite Chinese Smartphone. I'm a HTC One X, I've got iPhone 4S but ZP500 is my third best device. Zopo are doing good work.