ZTE Kis review

Battery life

We've always taken that a day's use is about what you can expect from a modern smartphone, with a nightly charge being the norm.

Therefore, we were hesitant given the smaller, 1400mAh battery provided in the ZTE Kis.

ZTE claim that this should be sufficient for 250 hours of standby time, and 280 minutes of call time, and we have found no reason to suggest that these are inaccurate.

The smaller screen and the low processing power may prove to be a blessing in disguise for the battery, as both require less metaphorical juice.

After using the phone, we are happy to report that the Kis will stand up to a normal day's use: just over eight hours' use, with screen set to the brightest level, running a couple of YouTube music videos, 30 minutes of web browsing and Wi-Fi on and off, and we've gotten the phone down to 44%.

We have a standard test when it comes to battery testing, as we mentioned earlier. This is running our 90-minute HD NyanGareth movie on full brightness, with all sync settings on.

Whilst the movie was very poor, we found that the battery diminished by 39%.

Connectivity

Connectivity wise, you obviously won't won't find 4G, but there is HSDPA and HSUPA, alongside GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 2.1.

These are all controllable either via the Power Control widget, or the quick settings in the notifications bar.

We were a little surprised to find that the ZTE KIS can double up as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot if you search through the Wireless & networks settings page.

Getting media onto the KIS is done via the microUSB cable provided, turning the phone into an external USB device, with no external software to speak of.

Alternatively, you can download and buy/rent media off of the Google Play Store.