Kazam has claimed the title of 'World's thinnest smartphone' with the Tornado 348, announced earlier today, which is the budget-friendly company's first attempt at a premium handset. Verified by Guinness, the 5.15mm smartphone will fit in the skinniest of skinny jeans pockets, and should look good doing it too. We've just had the chance to put an early model through its paces, in order to find out if svelte dimensions have come at the cost of other features.
There's no question the Tornado 348 is Kazam's highest quality handset to date. The aluminium-magnesium alloy frame, smooth Gorilla Glass on the front and back, metal volume and power buttons, and minimal branding all elevate the phone above the likes of the Trooper and Thunder, and give other mid-range smartphones from bigger brands a run for their money. With a SIM card tray you'll need a tool to open, a gold hue on the metal outer frame and plastic inserts for the antenna dotted around the edges, it's fair to say it looks more than a little reminiscent of Apple's iPhone 6 - except with capacitive Android shortcut keys in place of the single iOS button.
That being said, some sacrifices have been made in order to make the phone as thin as possible. Although you get 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4. there's no NFC, you're stuck on 3G networks as there's no LTE modem and there's no NFC connectivity either. We were told Kazam could have fitted a 13-megapixel camera, but opted for an 8-megapixel sensor instead to cut down on bulk. As a result, the still photos we took at the launch event (indoors in a not particularly well-lit room) looked rather noisy. We weren't able to take one outside, so we'll have to withhold judgement until we get one in for review. You can at least lock focus and exposure in the app, use the LED flash to improve low-light images and shoot video at 1080p.
There hasn't been much corner-cutting when it comes to the screen, at least. The 4.8in, 1,280x720 resolution display uses an OLED panel for vibrant colours, and looks very sharp for a 720p panel from the usual viewing distance. Colours were reasonably well saturated for an OLED screen, but not quite as bright as Samsung's Galaxy S5. Viewing angles were very good, though, and images had plenty of detail. A 1080p screen would have been nice, but it would have meant increasing the price of the handset.
Inside the phone, a Mediatek octa-core processor running at 1.7GHz made Android 4.4 Kitkat feel quick and snappy, although with only 1GB of RAM it may struggle when it comes to heavy multitasking or app switching. The GPU is also unproven, so although it will be fine for Candy Crush, 3D games might struggle in terms of frame rate. With only 16GB of storage and no microSD card expansion, you'll have to be selective with which apps and multimedia files you keep on the handset.
Although Kazam has opted to stick with the stock version of Android, the Tornado 348 isn't entirely vanilla; because it has used a Mediatek chipset, certain customisations are made out of the box. That means a different Settings menu, reskinned Quick Settings pulldown menu and custom camera app interface, but otherwise it feels just like Android as Google intended it - which includes full access to the Google Play store.
Kazam has always prided itself on the added value customer service extras it includes with every smartphone, and the Tornado 348 is no different. As well as a one year screen protection guarantee, where the company will collect, fix and return a handset with a cracked screen free of charge, it also includes a support service where customer service technicians can remotely access your phone to fix problems for you. As an added bonus, Kazam includes a free rubber bumper case in the box to protect the glass back and metal edges. The pre-production model we slipped on to the handset fitted snugly, but the plugs designed to cover the USB port and 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom of the phone wouldn't fit particularly well.
The Tornado 348 is set to go on sale from mid-November onwards from £250. That seems expensive when you focus entirely on the spec sheet, especially when compared to the current budget bargain that is the Motorola Moto G, but considering Kazam is looking to compete purely in design terms with even higher priced handsets like theSamsung Galaxy alpha and the iPhone, it's not entirely unreasonable. It feels like a well made handset, and there's no denying it's incredibly thin. Battery life remains our primary concern, as the 2,050mAh non-removable cell is deliberately small in order to reduce the size of the phone, but if it can last a whole day on a single charge it could still be worth a look in over more recognisable brands.
We're hoping to give the Tornado 348 a full review a little closer to launch, to see if Kazam has done enough to play with the big boys.
