ZTE has made its foray into Singapore with a trio of low-cost smartphones that promises to challenge rivals from the likes of Xiaomi and Asus.
At a launch event this week, the Chinese smartphone maker showed off the ZTE KIS 3, Blade L2 and Blade VEC 4G. Powered by Android 4.4 Kit Kat, all three models sport FM radios that are absent from most smartphones today.
There’s also a Family Mode that offers a tile-based interface with shortcuts to commonly-used features like the phone, camera and music player. Many of these features are skinned with larger buttons to make the phone easier to use for seniors and children.
Outside Family Mode, the user experience is pretty close to that of stock Android. That may be the reason why ZTE, the world’s sixth largest smartphone maker, is able to offer the latest Android flavour, ahead of Samsung, Xiaomi and HTC which tend to customise their phones with their own skins.
The flagship Blade VEC 4G (S$299) is the most impressive of the lot. With support for 4G LTE — a rarity among low-cost handsets — and a bright 5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS screen with little colour shift, the VEC 4G ticks all the right boxes for a handset at this price. Its 8-megapixel rear camera takes good indoor shots, too.
Performance wise, its Snapdragon 400 processor is capable of running games smoothly, though things slow down a little while scrolling and loading apps. Either the software needs more optimisation or ZTE could have packed in more than a gig of RAM.
The KIS 3 (S$99) is the cheapest model, featuring an average 4-inch TFT (800 x 480 pixels) screen, 512 MB RAM, a 2-megapixel rear camera and no front camera. It is targeted feature phone upgraders new to the world of apps and mobile web browsing.
The phone’s curvy 126g frame is comfortable to hold. Its Quick Charge feature makes up for its modest 1,400mAh battery capacity by letting you charge the phone 40 per cent faster than comparable 4-inch smartphones on the market.
The Blade L2 (S$169), on the other hand, is aimed at style- and budget-conscious youth. Sadly, its 5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) screen is low in resolution even among budget phones. Its TN panel also means you can expect some colour shift when viewing the screen off-centre.
I also had the chance to test the 3D photo capture feature of the Blade L2’s 5-megapixel rear camera. While you can create a somewhat 360-degree photo via a slider in the built-in photo gallery, the photo is no more than individual panoramic JPEG files arranged in a folder when viewed on a computer.
The Blade L2 looks prettier than the KIS 3, but it’s also hefty at 166g. Thin as it may be at 8.95mm thin, I probably wouldn’t go for this phone in view of its other weaknesses.
All three models are now on sale, with the KIS 3 and Blade VEC 4G also available through SingTel Shops.
