MWC 2017: ZTE Blade V8 Lite and Blade V8 Mini hands-on

Introduction

ZTE introduced two midrange smartphones at the MWC - the Blade V8 Lite with focus on the design, and the Blade V8 Mini with a dual-camera setup for advanced photography experience.

The Blade V8 Lite is made of metal and is built around a 5" IPS screen of 720p resolution. The phone is powered by the MT6750 chipset, which may be aging and borderline mediocre, but is becoming quite a popular choice among the manufacturers.

ZTE Blade V8 Lite at a glance:

• Body: Metal, 8mm thick
• Screen: 5" IPS LCD, 720p resolution (294ppi);
• Chipset: MT6750, Octa-core Cortex-A53 processor at 1.5GHz, Mali-T860 MP2 GPU
• Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD slot (hybrid, uses SIM2 slot)
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat with ZTE launcher;
• Camera: 8MP, autofocus, LED flash, 1080p video recording
• Selfie cam: 5MP
• Battery: 2,500mAh
• Security: Fingerprint reader
• Connectivity: Dual SIM, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 + LE, FM radio

The ZTE Blade V8 Mini is keeping the nice design, but brings a Snapdragon 430 chipset, a bigger battery, and a dual main camera with a secondary 2MP sensor for depth information. ZTE promises a variable aperture up to f/8.0 and you should be able to snap some nice photos with bokeh backgrounds.

ZTE Blade V8 Mini at a glance:

• Body: Metal, 8.9mm thick
• Screen: 5" IPS LCD, 720p resolution (294ppi);
• Chipset: Snapdragon 435, Octa-core Cortex-A53 processor at 1.4GHz, Adreno 505 GPU
• Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD slot (hybrid, uses SIM2 slot)
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat with ZTE launcher;
• Camera: 13MP + 2MP, LED flash, 1080p video recording, variable aperture effects (bokeh)
• Selfie cam: 5MP, LED flash
• Battery: 2,800mAh
• Security: Fingerprint reader
• Connectivity: Dual SIM, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 + LE, FM radio

We spent some time with the new Blade V8 duo, and our first impressions follow right after the break.