Have you heard of Maze? Probably not, as it’s a rather new brand on the scene. They have been doing the public relations rounds, drumming up support and hype for their first phone, the Maze Blade.
The Maze Blade is the device they seem most interested in, which we put to test before publishing this review. So, let’s have a look!
The Maze Blade boasts specifications I’ve seen countless times before. To put this in perspective, one of the most popular MTK6753 phones, the Elephone P8000 was released almost two years ago today. Since 2015, we have seen countless reincarnations of the same specifications crammed into slightly different bodily shapes, drastic price drops (the Vernee Thor was one of the first to lead the charge on budget MTK6753 phones), and now what seems like a revisitation of the MTK6753 chip. I’m more excited by the renders of the bezelless Maze Alpha, but that is not what we have in our hands today, so let’s jump right into the review of the Blade.
Maze’s first phone
Processor | MTk6753 Octa Core |
Display | 5.5” 1920×1080 IPS LCD |
RAM | 3GB |
Storage | 32GB eMMC |
Operating System | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
Cameras | 13MP, 8MP Camera |
Battery | 3000mAh |
Physical Dimensions | 183g, 15.90 x 7.70 x 0.80 cm |
Big thanks to Maze for providing this review unit. You can purchase one here.
Really big
So I moved connectivity very high up in this review, and this is because i was not able to get my SIM cards to work, I checked the network bands and it should work so I think I just got a faulty device, but I reviewed the rest of the phone as is.
The screen here is not bad, its a 1080p panel that does its job well, colours are fairly vivid and vibrant, nothing special but definitely good enough. I do have a complaint about the screen and that is the quality of the glass, it feels really cheap, almost like plastic and there is actually flex. Touch sensitivity is actually OK, but it just doesn’t feel nice to touch.
Audio here is fine, audio volume is a bit above average, it does pump out some pretty good sound. Audio quality is below average, there is zero bass and audio is a little unclear as well, its still adequate enough for TV and music, but its not a great experience.
The 3000mAh battery has trouble keeping the phone going throughout an entire day, especially for a heavy user. I got about 3 hours of screen on time before the battery hit 12%, this was mostly web browsing, about 45 minutes of YouTube, and some social media as well. Even medium users might have a tough time here.
Average battery
Multitasking is not bad, with 3GB of RAM, it is harder to fill the RAM up but it is possible.
In terms of gaming you still can play the most intense games without stutter which is nice, this old chip still can drive intense games.
The rear camera is OK, its 13MP and it can take some OK photos in bright light, but it is more difficult to take nice photos than more expensive cameras. Low light is obviously bad, and the front camera is not that great no its not absolutely horrible, but its pretty bad.
Video quality is also not great, detail is the problem here, colours are actually OK.
almost average Camera
To be honest, the Maze Blade is a tough sell. The specs are not amazing for the price, you can get a lot of other better phones for the same price like the Vernee Thor. And this phone has a couple of issues, first its very big because of the large bezels, battery is average at best, and the camera is pretty weak.
I would put down my inability to get my SIM card to work to QC issues, as it wouldn’t take my Canadian SIM card, my father’s Canadian SIM card and my Mexican roaming SIM card either. I’ll update this if this does get fixed with a recent update.
Product link: http://www.mazemobile.com/maze-blade.html.
Tough Sell
62.1%
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