Most of the multimedia devices today have gaming as an important feature with a vast range for consumers. This offering from HCL that we received for review, the HCL ME Z15 is quite the opposite. It is a gaming device that focuses highly on its multimedia offerings to a large extent, if not completely.
The Z15 is an all black and very glossy device with only the ME logo etched in silver on the cover. The front is clear with two mini USB slots at the back and the 5 megapixel camera between them. The left hosts the On/Off key and the mini SD slot. The right has TV in and TV out/headphone slots. At the bottom are the media keys.
Once the top is flipped open, the 2.8-inch screen with the HCL logo above it is visible and the entire control panel or the game pad is at the bottom. On the left are the four arrow keys and to the right are the controller buttons. At the top middle part is the speaker grill and at the bottom are the Power and the Play Pause button. The fold has the LED indicator for power and battery life.
With the package comes a velvet pouch for the device, a TV out cable, headphone, charger and a USB cable. The device features an inbuilt battery that is to be charged with the provided charger and during this the LED indicator, both, on the device and charger will be red. To switch the device on, one has to turn the on of slider and then long press the Power button, which might become confusing initially. In case the battery is full, the Power/ Battery indicator will be blue and will turn red when on low power.
The device takes its own (and your) sweet time to start and gives way to a single screen menu with 12 icons, Photo, ebook, Recorder, Music, Camera, Video, Calendar, Game, Alarm, Settings, Radio and TV. Under the photo section, one can view photos on the device that are stored on the Mini SD card. In this case, OK opens the menu and the picture as well. With X, one goes back to the previous menu. With A, one gets options to view the folder in either List or Grid format and while in the view mode, it provides the options to either view the images in slide show, delete the photo, view photo info (Name, Date/Time, File Size, Resolution and File type) and exit the menu. B allows the full screen view or the menu oriented for next/previous or zoom in/out and X acts as the back button.
The recorder records easily and this recording is stored in the music folder under the unknown folder. The quality of recording is quite clear but the loudspeaker is not that great a performer and is just good enough for a single person. However, the in ear headphones are quite good, loud and clear. The music is to be transferred onto the device as a mass storage device. The radio works with the headphones on. It features Auto scan that did not work, however the sound on the device is quite clear. The read only calendar scrolling up/down goes to the same month in the previous or next year and left/right go to the next or previous month.
The 5 megapixel camera clicks images at a maximum resolution of 1600×1200 and goes down to 1280×960 and lowest to 640×480, all at fixed focus (we miss the zoom). Z15 clicks decent images at the best settings. However, the lack of flash is felt quite a bit. The camera clicks 4 multiple shots and one can play around with the capture type (single/multiple shots), resolution, night mode, white balance, quality and power frequency. The video shots are recorded in MPEG4 format and go to a maximum resolution of 640×480. The white balance and power frequency adjustments remain here as well. The video folder contains all the other videos and recordings in a separate folder.
The gaming includes, 25 inbuilt games that are quite interesting. From the basic tetris and pacman to games based on tank wars, racing and space adventures, the device has elements of all kinds of gaming. There is Smartblocks for making you create structures by moving the blocks and there are a few gambling games as well. The controls are quite simple and one can understand them easily. However, it is more enjoyable to play it with the headphones on as the sound is better.
The provided TV out cable connects to the TV and the game controller can be used to play the games on TV itself. The videos and audio can also be played the same way. This is almost similar to the previously reviewed ME K28, as the screen size is only slightly bigger. Another feature is the TV In where on being connected to the television, whatever is being played on the TV can be recorded on the device. So, incase you want to watch your highly awaited match that you missed, you do have an option on the move. However, we aren?t sure as to how many people would actually be interested in doing it. The inbuilt li-ion battery is not impressive and the device worked till full discharge for about a day and a half.
With Z15, HCL focuses on not actually creating a gaming only device, but a gaming console that also doubles up as your multimedia device. And at its price, the device is not a bad bet.
? CyberMedia www.LD2.in
Mail:talkLD@cybermedia.co.in