ZTE Star 2 Review

ZTE Star 2 officially announced, features Hardware Based Voice Controls

ZTE has finally made the ZTE Star 2 official. The device will have top of the line specifications and is reportedly the first smartphone capable of full voice recognition controls.

Design wise, ZTE Star 2 retains most of the features as its predecessor. So, the edges on top as well as the bottom are smooth and curved as opposed to the other two sides which have sharp cuts. The front as well as the back are made of glass, which gives it a premium look. The 6.9mm slim profile further adds to its beauty.

Inside, the ZTE Star 2 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz with 2GB RAM and storage options starting from 16GB. You even have a memory card slot to expand the storage. On the front, there is a 5.0-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080p OGS (One Glass Solution) display. There’s also a 5MP 88 degrees wide angle camera above the screen. The back is adorned by the 13MP camera sensor with dual LED flash. Interestingly, the single speaker on the device is not on the front or the back, but on the left side. As for connectivity, it supports 4G LTE networks too. All these tech specs are powered by the 2300 mAh battery onboard. Star 2 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat OS with MiFavor 3.0 UI on top.

The voice recognition system on the ZTE Star 2 is not just an app, it  integrates voice controls deep inside the device’s hardware. So, you have a number of commands and interfaces which you can use to complete operations just using your voice. This system level integration allows seamless voice control over a wide range of applications. The company claims that the phone can open up multiple apps together using just voice commands.  To make these controls possible as well as practical, the voice recognition system on the device can recognize commands perfectly around 90% of the time. Moreover, its quite fast too as it responds in just 1.2 seconds. The system is smart enough to identify different kinds of voice, such as lyrics of a song, or the commands given while driving.

Given the specifications and the features, ZTE Star 2 does look like an innovative device. Some reports even say that ZTE has incorporated over 1000 pieces of patented technology into this device.
ZTE has also priced the device appropriately. The Star 2 will go on sale for 2499 Yuan which comes to around $400. Although this isn’t the cheapest device you’ll find in the market with such specifications, the voice recognition tech (if it works as promised) should definitely give it an edge over other competitors.