ZTE rolls out two budget-friendly Blade V8 phones at MWC
The Blade V8 Mini and Lite are 5-inch phones from ZTE that are expected to go easy on your wallet.
Cost-conscious buyers take note: ZTE's budget-friendly phone family is growing.
At the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona today, ZTE took the wraps off two mid-tier phones from its Blade series. Though neither handsets are particularly noteworthy in terms of specs and features, they promise to be easy on the wallet.
The first in the pair is the Blade V8 Mini. It features two cameras: a 13- and 2-megapixel shooter on the back. Similar to the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, the dual-camera setup lets you shoot photos with blurred backgrounds, for an artsy "bokeh" effect. You can also refocus an image with this effect after you've already clicked the shutter.
The two cameras can also render "3D" images by combining two photos together. We'll know more about how these tools work once we get our hands on the device. Other specs include:
- 5-inch HD display
- 5.65x2.76x0.35 inches (143.5x70x8.9mm)
- 1.4GHz octacore processor
- 13- and 2-megapixel rear camera; 5-megapixel front-facing camera
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB of internal memory with the option to expand with a microSD card
- 2,800mAh non-removable battery
- Android 7.0 Nougat
- Fingerprint reader
The Blade V8 Lite in various colors.
ZTE also announced the Blade V8 Lite. Apparently inspired by "French upholstery" (whatever that means), the phone comes in black, gold and silver. It also has a 5-inch display but its lower battery capacity and standard 8-megapixel camera mean its specs are a bit scaled down compared to the Mini. Additional features are:
- 5-inch FHD display
- 5.65x2.79x0.31 inches (143.5x71x8mm)
- Eight-core processor
- 8-megapixel rear camera; 5-megapixel front-facing camera
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB of internal memory with the option to expand up to 128GB
- 2,500mAh non-removable battery
- Android 7.0 Nougat
- Fingerprint reader
These phones aren't particularly exciting given their mid-range specs, but they're expected to be competitively priced and may be good if you're in the market for a cheap Android phone. The V8 Mini will be available in countries in Asia Pacific and Europe, while the V8 Lite will roll out to Italy, Germany and Spain.
Neither phones will come to the US, though we do have one the Blade V8 Pro, announced this year at CES, which features slightly better specs.