The Blade series is ZTE’s line of affordable smartphones. This year, they have announced four Blade phones already: the ZTE Blade V8, Blade V8 Pro, Blade A2 Plus, and the ZTE Blade A610 Plus. They don’t seem to be done yet as they have announced the ZTE Blade V8 Lite and Blade V8 Mini at MWC.
Blade V8 Lite
The Blade V8 Lite is inspired by French upholstery. It sports a curved design and a slim metal body with Zircon sand blasting finish. There is a 5-inch HD display, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB ROM with SD card support (128GB max.) It is powered by an MTK6750 octa-core processor.
The V8 Lite has an 8MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP fixed focus camera up front for selfies. There is a non-removable 2500mAh battery under the hood,a fingerprint scanner, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The Blade V8 Lite comes with Android Nougat out of the box, has Bluetooth 4.1, FM Radio and VoLTE support. It supports Bands 3, 7, and 28 FDD LTE.
Blade V8 Mini
The Blade V8 Mini is the more sophisticated one of the two. Like the V8 Pro and V8, the V8 mini also comes with dual cameras. ZTE says it is aimed at photography lovers who want to take bokeh pictures without buying a DSLR. The Blade V8 Mini also supports 3D photos. What it does is combine two pictures taken by the dual cameras into a single 3D image.
The ZTE Blade V8 Mini has the same 5-inch 720p display as the V8 Lite and even the same RAM and ROM. The processor however differs. ZTE has settled for the now popular Snapdragon 430 which is present in the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Moto G5 The dual rear cameras are a combination of a 13MP sensor and a 2MP sensor. The front camera is a 5MP shooter but has a moonlight flash to brighten up your selfies.
There is also a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner that does more than unlock your phone. You can configure it to open a certain app when you touch it when the screen is off. The V8 Mini also lets you create a sort of private space that encrypts your pictures, documents, messages and apps.
There is a 2800mAh battery powering the Blade V8 Mini. It runs Android Nougat with ZTE’s MiFavor 4.2 overlay and also supports VoLTE.
ZTE has not mentioned the price details for both phones or when they plan to hit the shelves.
READ MORE: ZTE Blade A2 Plus Released in India
At MWC, ZTE is showing off quite a number of things such as its plans for 5G Evolution and advanced cloud computing. There is also an area where you can experience the Axon 7’s new Daydream feature and the Axon 7 Max and Blade V8′ 3D photography. Just head to booth 3F30 in Hall 3 to see for yourself.
