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Kazuna eTalk Review: Simple and Good Quality Basic Phone

Verizon Kazuna eTalk Flip Phone review on design, performance, and network capability. Discover important apps and other features. Find out whether the phone is for you.

Verizon Kazuna eTalk Flip Phone Review

A reliable basic phone is still sought after in this day and age. Introducing smart flip phone Verizon Kazuna eTalk, a phone for customers who’d like to avoid using a smartphone for some reason.

Equipped with 4G, this phone offers call quality no less than any smartphone. But the phone is also more than just for calling.

Kazuna is a Japanese manufacturer. You won’t be surprised if you find the essence of Japanese world-famous craftsmanship on this phone.

Kazuna eTalk flip phone review takes a deeper look into its technical specifications. We’ll find out how this phone could be worth buying for customers. This review covers designs, hardware, features, and many more.

Key Specs

Verizon Kazuna eTalk specifications:

  • Weight: 107.7g
  • Dimensions: 113 x 58 x 17mm
  • OS: AOSP Based OS
  • Screen size: 2.8-inch (internal), 1.44-inch (external)
  • Resolution: 320 x 240
  • CPU: 1.1Ghz Quad-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210
  • RAM: 512MB
  • Storage: 4GB
  • Battery: 1500mAh, Removable
  • Camera: 2MP

Design

Kazuna eTalk
Verizon Kazuna eTalk Flip Phone

Kazuna eTalk is designed to fit your palm with its compact size. The exact dimension of the phone itself is 113 x 58 x 17mm. It’s a size that’s ergonomic for daily use.

The design features a black casing with almost no sharp edges. Every corner is smoothly rounded for extra comfort when holding the phone. The material used is hard plastic. It looks like it can withstand light drops and everyday bruises, while still being lightweight.

When it’s closed, you can only see the external screen and the logo on the cover. The camera is located at the back, along with the LED flash and the Verizon logo. It’s simple, elegant, and esthetically pleasing.

When opened, eTalk reveals a 2.8-inch screen along with the keypad below it. Although this phone is compact, it’s large enough to host what’s considered a big screen for a feature phone.

Above the display, a speaker for phone calls is installed. In short, the placement of the display and the speaker here is just like what you see in many flip phones out there.

The keypad on the bottom houses large tactile keys for easy to use. In addition to the numeric keypad, Kazuna eTalk also puts shortcut keys for the speakerphone and the camera. Both keys occupy the position where the Call and End call keys are usually placed.

We find the placement rather odd. The Call and End call keys instead lie above the numeric keypad. They have the same size as the numeric keys. When making a call or answering one, the key can be hard to reach sometimes due to its size and placement. But so far that’s the only inconvenience we found on the design of Kazuna eTalk.

Read also: Orbic Journey V vs Kazuna eTalk: Which should you buy?

Display

Kazuna eTalk Display

Kazuna eTalk Flip Phone has two ways of displaying information. The first one is through the main display, and secondly, through the external screen. Each type of display has its own purpose. The main screen is where you will do tasks mainly, while the second display is for alert and notifications.

The main display at 2.8-inch is considered small when you compare it to the smartphone, But among feature phones, this size is average. There’s nothing special as far as the spec concerned. It looks sharp enough for a basic phone. The size provides plenty of space for texting. It’s also still comfortable for reading emails.

Customization is available for the Home screen, such as changing wallpaper. There is a notification area that you can access using the Up Navigation key. Alphabets and numbers look decent on the display, although pixelated edges are present here and there. It’s not something unexpected for a feature phone.

The additional display helps more in preserving the battery. It’s because you don’t have to open the phone at all times. The external screen has a lower quality display. It also does only limited tasks, such as displaying Caller ID, showing unread messages icon, and displaying the battery level.

Read also: KAZUNA eTalk User Manual

Camera

Kazuna eTalk Back

Camera is never a priority on a feature phone. Kazuna eTalk is no exception. It features only one camera on the back with a 2MP lens. It’s certainly not much to keep up with today’s mobile photography demand. But anyone seeking a basic phone usually knows what to expect.

The good news is, the eTalk camera has an LED flash. So you can enhance image quality by turning the flash on. It’s not much but it’s better than nothing. Especially if you take a picture at night or in other low light situations. The difference can be day and night.

Kazuna eTalk also equips its camera with many features. It’s a fact that also distinguishes this phone from competitors.

The camera app offers various options such as HDR, white balance, and exposure. In addition, users can also choose image size and quality. Trust us when we say that it’s rare a feature phone has plenty of options like this.

As a result, users can tweak these settings as necessary to get the best shot. The camera might only 2MP, but with additional settings, a more than decent image result is possible. To conclude this KAZUNA eTalk review on the camera, we’d say the features make up the lack of resolution.

Read also: Alcatel GO FLIP V Review: Compact, Intuitive, and Reliable

Storage

Kazuna eTalk Right Side

After a good review with the camera, sadly the phone does not keep up when it comes to storage. You’ll get 4GB of internal storage. It is not a lot of space even for a feature phone. The number includes the space used for the system. You are left with less capacity to store personal files.

Kazuna eTalk offers an external storage option as a solution. Although it means you’ll have to spend money again for an SD card. Users can insert an up to 32GB SD card to this phone. Also not a lot of capacity, at least it’s better than nothing.

Performance

Kazuna eTalk Front

Verizon Kazuna eTalk Flip Phone runs on a 1.1GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm chipset. This setup allows the phone to take advantage of the latest technology while keeping the battery consumption low. The processor is a popular choice among entry-level phones.

On eTalk, it seems the processor does its job fairly average. The overall performance is not remarkably different from any other basic phones. We experienced a delay in operations at times. Lags occur especially when typing messages. You have to wait before pressing the next key. It can be annoying sometimes.

Theoretically, the processor should be fast enough for a simple task like texting. However, delays occur because Kazuna eTalk has a small memory. With a 512MB of RAM, eTalk lags behind most of its competitors with larger capacity (the average is 1 GB). You will need extra patience when using this phone.

For its software, Kazuna eTalk uses a customized version of Android based from AOSP. It has the essentials of Android but without the unnecessary features. You will get the intuitive Android experience, clean looking icons and menu, and the OS stability. But don’t expect anything fancier such as mobile games. You won’t find Google apps either.

Instead, Kazuna eTalk software is packed with essential apps. You’ll see Calls, Contacts, Messages, and the Internet. The Internet app is where you can find Email, Weather, and the browser. We find it very limiting. It’s better if eTalk has a standalone email app instead of this all-in-one Internet app.

Aside from basic communication services, eTalk also offers tools and entertainment apps. They range from Music, Gallery, to Calculator and Notepad. There’s no FM Radio, unfortunately. And you can’t download a new app since there is no app store.

Kazuna eTalk doesn’t have a lot of sensors like a smartphone does. No gyroscope or accelerometer to be found here. The only sensor this phone has is A-GPS, which integrated into the emergency features. It’s more for location finding than for navigation. Don’t expect to use some kind of Google map on this phone.

Although lacking sensors, at least the phone is equipped with proper accessibility features. You can utilize helpful services such as Screen reader, Real-Time Text, and Hearing Aid.

As far as the basics goes, eTalk will get you covered. It has what customers would expect on a feature phone. The phone is certainly not perfect performance-wise. There’s still lags here and there. But in general, it will do its job well.

Read also: Verizon Kazuna eTalk Flip Phone Troubleshooting, Tips & Tricks

Connectivity

Kazuna eTalk Left Side

For Wireless & Networks features, you won’t find something to complain about on Kazuna eTalk. It provides you with everything, from a fast 4G network to hotspot and tethering. Call quality is decent even when used indoors. There is an option for HD voice call for better quality sound output.

For the internet connection, you can connect to a Wi-Fi network or use mobile data. You can also set up a VPN and use Bluetooth.

Tethering on eTalk can be done in three ways: USB tethering, wireless mobile hotspot, and Bluetooth tethering. Basically, connectivity on Kazuna eTalk is at the same level as a smartphone.

Battery

Kazuna eTalk boasts impressive durability for its battery. The phone has a 1,500mAh removable battery. It is not a small number for a feature phone. The battery requires 8.4 hours of constant use to drain empty. With normal use, you can easily survive one full day without any charging.

For very casual usage or when on standby, the record for the battery is around 5-6 days without charging. The fact that it’s removable means you can carry a spare battery if you want. Charging also doesn’t take a long time. The phone uses a MicroUSB slot you can find on the left side.

Is the Verizon Kazuna eTalk a good phone?

Verizon Kazuna eTalk is one of the options for a basic phone on the market today. As explained in the previous points of this Kazuna eTalk review, there are some pros and cons.

You’ll get a simple phone with nice camera features, long battery life, and 4G LTE capability. But you have to be patient because the phone can be laggy at times.

For additional consideration, the price of eTalk falls into an affordable category, even compared with competitors.

You can bring the phone home with $79.99 or $3.33/month on a 24-months installment. In the end, the choice is yours. Would you like to embrace its flaws in exchange for its convenience? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Kazuna eTalk Pros

  • Complete wireless and network features
  • Two display screen
  • Long-lasting battery
  • Has LED flash

Kazuna eTalk Cons

  • Small RAM
  • Basic apps only
  • Small camera resolution

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