Maze Alpha hands-on: A bezel-less workhorse with a 6-inch screen

The Maze Alpha Android phone reminds me strongly of the Doogee Mix I reviewed earlier this year. It has a similar look and feel out of the box, and both have bezel-less screens and run Android. But there are some subtle differences in the Maze Alpha that are not immediately apparent.

top picks

The 10 best smartphones right now

It's easy to find a great phone today. In fact, current flagship devices are so good you really don't need to be replacing them every year.

Read More

The phone has a CNC-machined slim metal frame with an 83 percent screen-to-body ratio. It has a 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution bezel-less screen, 16:9 aspect ratio, 376 PPI, and Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

It is larger than the Doogee Mix at 159.8 x 82.5 x 8.1mm, and it's heavier at 225g due to the higher capacity 4,000mAh battery.

Inside the phone the CPU is a MediaTek Helio P25 (MT6757) with eight cores. Four ARM Cortex-A53 run at 2.5GHz and four at 1.4GHz.

Graphics are powered by a ARM Mali-T880 MP2 900MHz processor, which Maze says gives 25 percent better performance to previous-generation chips.

Unlike Meizu and Doogee, the Alpha runs stock Android 7.0 as the OS with no manufacturer-specific additions or tweaks. Model options are 4GB or 6GB memory with 64GB storage.

Top ZDNET Reviews

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic

8.5

Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G UW

8.3

Keychron Q1 QMK custom mechanical keyboard

9.5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3

8.2

There are dual Samsung S5K3L8 sensors for the rear cameras, which are 13 megapixel and 5 megapixel, and there is a 5-megapixel camera at the front. And, like the Doogee Mix, when taking a selfie, you need to turn the phone upside down to get the best image, as the camera is at the bottom of the screen.

The phone supports two nano SIMs -- one slot can be used for an expansion SD card up to 256GB. It has an audio jack and a USB C port.

For under $200, the Maze Alpha is a nice-looking, large-screen phone that can be used for work and home, and, with a large battery, it will last you through the whole day.

The UI is nothing special -- and I could find no fancy features from the manufacturer worth a mention. It is so similar to the Doogee suite of phones, but with fewer features. The Alpha is very much like a Doogee clone. Even the somatosensory feature appears as standard on the Doogee BL5000.

Read also: 10 best smartphones: Starting at half the price of an iPhone X | Best cheap smartphones: $300 (or much less) buys a great holiday gift | Best gifts: Great smartphones in every price range

Yes, it has fingerprint recognition and a quick touch feature that provides shortcuts to return, play or pause music, and play or pause video.

A long-touch on the button returns the screen to the home screen, enables multi-tasks, invokes the camera, or answers calls. It also has soft navigation icons that can be hidden from the screen real estate.

I struggled to find any further differentiating features worth calling out. However, the Maze Alpha is a no-nonsense, solid, and affordable phone with a fabulous sized screen and a good quality camera. And, for less than $200, you can't really go wrong with it.

Related stories:

• Doogee BL5000 smartphone hands-on: A low-cost workhorse with curves
• Doogee Mix smartphone hands-on: Great performance with a fabulous screen
• Doogee BL7000 smartphone hands-on: An affordable phone with enterprise ambitions