Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE has today announced two new mid-range handsets at MWC in Barcelona; the Blade V8 Mini and Lite.
ZTE only recently launched the premium mid-tier Blade V8 Pro in January. It seems likely that these two devices will fill gaps in the cheaper end. Each handset has a full metal body at a bargain price, though the design of the Lite is a composite design versus the full unibody on the Mini.
The ZTE Blade V8 Mini is the more expensive of the two, offering dual camera performance on a budget. You get a 13 and 2 megapixel combo shooter on the rear, which gives the ability to create bokeh effects when used together. The front camera is 5 megapixels. It’s powered by the latest Snapdragon 435, the only budget chipset to support two rear cameras. This is backed up by 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory. This can be expanded by a further 256GB using the microSD slot. The display is only a 5-inch IPS HD panel. Other notable features include dual-sim, micro-USB, rear mounted fingerprint reader and a 2,800mAh battery.
The ZTE Blade V8 Lite takes a different approach, dropping the dual-camera in favour of a FullHD 5-inch display. The processor in this version is a MediaTek MT6750 paired with 2GB RAM. Internal memory is once again 16GB, though this can be expanded via microSD. The rear camera on the Lite is a lesser 8 megapixel shooter, while the front camera remains the same at 5 megapixels. Other notable features include dual-sim, micro-USB, rear mounted fingerprint sensor and 2,500mAh battery.
Both handsets run on Android 7.0 Nougat with ZTE’s Mifavor 4.2 and will be available in the following colours: black, silver, gold and red. No word on availability just yet but ZTE are saying they will be released region specifically sometime in spring. Both are expected to debut in Asia and Europe at a cheaper price than the Blade V8 Pro, which means they will be sub-£180 handsets.