After HTC Desire 500 we were sure that quad core processors will come to cheap smartphones. And here we are, holding ZTE Blade V, the super cheap quad core smartphone with 4 inches display and 5MP camera. Is this phone a must buy? Is it the best 4 inches phone? No it is not. ZTE Blade V is the successor of previous successful Blade smartphones but it remains a really cheap alternative to other more valuable devices at 4 inches. So lets take a look at the specs and compare them with other device to help you decide if you want to buy this device.
SCREEN
ZTE Blade V has a 4 inches screen with 233 pixels per inch. It is not the best screen of the market, it’s just a moderate screen. At 4 inches you can find better screens (like the 275PPI screen of Sony Xperia P or the 245PPI screen of Sony Xperia J). There are also other phones with the same screen and between them we can find ZTE Blade 3, the previous model. So we could say that ZTE took the same screen but this is not true as ZTE Blade V has many more colors but this is not enough.
CAMERA
The camera is 5MP and this camera is normal for the specific category. You can find a lot of phones with 5MP and 4 inches screen, the best is Samsung Galaxy S3 mini which has a lot of camera apps to make the final result look even better. You can find autofocus and LED flash on the camera of ZTE Blade Z and you also can take videos and videochat with the front VGA camera.
PROCESSOR
Yes the processor is quad core. And this phone is the cheapest Android quad core phone right now on the market. Is this enough for a device to be quick? No. This phone has 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB or 3GB that other quad core devices have so it’s not as fast as them. The quad core Qualcomm MSM8225Q Snapdragon at 1.2GHz can make scrolling smooth, can handle bigger videos and make the whole experience much better. This is definitely the fastest cheap phone ZTE ever created.
BATTERY
ZTE Blade V has a 1.800mAh battery that is only 200mAh bigger than the ZTE Blade III model. This is a mistake from ZTE as quad core phones need more power. It is a bad choice to have a quad core phone without enough battery as the phone quits very soon the online world. This may be a matter of size as other 4.0 inches phones have bigger batteries like the 1930mAh battery of Huawei U8860 Honor. The truth is that ZTE Blade V has one of the biggest batteries of the 4.0 inches category, but is this enough? No it isn’t.
SOFTWARE
You can find Android 4.1 on ZTE Blade V and this version is one the latest, not the last one. There are no 4 inches devices with newer versions right from the start. You can also find Android 4.1 on Huawei Ascend Y300, Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2, L5 Lii and Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. The problem on ZTE Blade V is not the software version but the small memory of only 2GB that is very easily full. If you download a bunch of large apps, your memory will be full. You can buy a microSD to store your photos and videos but you cannot store apps in there so this is a problem.
SIZE & DESIGN
ZTE Blade V is not the slimmest phone of the market, not even the 4.0 inches category. You can find most elegant phones with just 9.2mm width compared to the 10.9mm of ZTE Blade V. The ZTE device is not light either as it weights 130g compared to 103g of LG L5ii. So this is not the lighter device and neither is the most beautiful. In this category you can find a lot of plastic devices and ZTE Blade V is one of them.
VERDICT
We agree that this is a cheap smartphone with a quad core processor. That sounds good and this is definitely a marketing trick. A phone with a quad core processor is not necessarily a good phone. And this device has a moderate screen, a moderate camera, a moderate battery not good for a quad processor, less RAM than other quad core smartphones and it is not a cheap premium phone but a cheap 4 inches device with a better processor than competition. As other phones have an 8MP camera instead of 5MP or better screen than average like Sony Xperia P, or lighter body than average like LG L5ii, ZTE Blade V has better processor than average. If this is all you care about, this is your phone.
Which phone should I buy?
1. If you want the cheapest phone with quad core processor, buy ZTE Blade V
2. If you want the best phone with 4 inches screen, buy Samsung Galaxy S3 mini
3. If you want the best ZTE low budget smartphone ever made, buy ZTE Blade V.
COMPARISON CHART
| Spec | ZTE Blade V | Compared to: | with spec: | Score | Buy now: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Width | 10.9 | Sony Xperia Z Ultra | 6.5 | 32% | ZTE Blade V |
| Weight | 130 | HTC Desire C | 100 | 70% | |
| Screen PPI | 233 | HTC One | 469 | 50% | |
| Camera MP | 5 | Nokia Pureview | 41 | 12% | |
| 2nd Camera | 0.3 | Sony Xperia Z | 2.2 | 14% | |
| Processor | 4 * 1.2 | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | 8 * 1.9 | 32% | |
| RAM MB | 1000 | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | 3000 | 33% | |
| Battery mAh | 1800 | Huawei Ascend Mate | 4050 | 44% | |
| Android | 4.1 | Google Nexus 4 | 4.3 | 67% | |
| Release Date | 2013-09 | - | Today | 100% | |
| Our view | 50% | - | 100% | 50% | |
| AVC rating method | Date Rated: | 2013-09-24 | Total Rating | 45.8% | Cheap ZTE Blade V cases |