Cheap and bright. ZTE Blade A530 - advantages and disadvantages

Just a few years ago, we literally did not know anything about Chinese brands of mobile phones, but for many years such companies as Huawei, Meizu, Xiaomi enjoy great success in our country. They proved to us that Chinese smartphones are not a "disposable" piece of electronic junk that should be sold in bulk, but good quality for a price that sets them apart from popular brands such as Apple or Samsung.

Popular models of their phones are firmly rooted in our store shelves. ZTE is also one of the best Chinese manufacturers. And not so long ago, a new budget smartphone of famous Chinese came to the Russian market.

Is the new product from ZTE, Blade A530, worthy of its place in the market segment of inexpensive phones? Let's figure it out.

Equipment

The box includes:

• The phone itself is ZTE Blade A530;
• Charger;
• USB cable;
• Headphones for 3.5 mm jack;
• User's manual;
• Warranty card.

Design and display

The phone came to us from the Middle Kingdom in a silver plastic case, the size of which is 146.4 × 69.2 × 8.5 mm. The plastic case, of course, does not add reliability to the phone, but it should not break from a couple of falls either. On the right are the volume buttons and the unlock key. At the top of the screen, of course, there is an earpiece and a front-facing camera, as in fact, in all phones.

The smartphone has a large enough HD + (1440 × 720) LCD display with a diagonal of 5.45 inches. The aspect ratio of the screen is 18: 9. This makes the screen look quite wide. Actually, this is what it is, as it occupies as much as 82% of the body area. The screen has rather thin walls, which provides a wide viewing angle, while the S-IPS matrix provides excellent color reproduction.

An interesting feature of the display is the ability to split the screen into 2 parts and run 2 applications at the same time

Let's take a closer look at the matrix. The screen matrix is ​​designed using S-IPS technology. Only S-IPS matrices can produce colors that are so soft and pleasant to the eye, looking very natural. They can only be compared with high quality CRT monitors. Naturally, displays with S-IPS matrix are devoid of all the disadvantages of these monitors. Such matrices are used in LCD monitors designed to work with graphics.

Main characteristics

We invite you to take a look at the technical characteristics of the phone

Memory

The amount of RAM - 2 GB - is what you need for this price segment, because 1 GB in 2018 does not look solid at all. The phone comes with 16 GB as standard. There is a slot for a microSD card up to 128 GB, which is not combined with a SIM card slot. So the phone can carry the proud title of Dual sim without any complaints. Also on sale should appear the version of ZTE Blade A530 3/32 GB.

CPU

This model uses MediaTek MT6739, on one die of which there are 4 Cortex-A53 cores of 64 bits each. As a result, the maximum clock frequency of this chip is 1.5 GHz.

To reproduce graphics, a PowerVR GE8100 video accelerator with a maximum frequency of 570 MHz is used. It was chosen for a reason, because it supports screens with a resolution up to 1440x720. The processor was released on September 27, 2017 and as if it was for this phone.

Performance

This processor is definitely not nimble. According to AnTuTu tests, he scored a maximum of 38,000, which is completely ridiculous if you remember what year it is. It was clearly not created for active games, and ZTE did not set such a goal for themselves when they assembled it. It can handle standard software, but you shouldn't expect much from it.

Battery

But the battery here is relatively good. Although the battery capacity is only 2,600 mAh, the power saving features are well implemented. All of this combined will definitely provide the phone with at least a day of autonomy.

Energy saving is carried out according to the following algorithm: The device analyzes the frequency of using phone applications, selects those that are used less often than others, but at the same time consume a lot of energy, and closes them.

The system also records the time of inactivity, and if nothing happens longer than a specified period, puts the phone into sleep mode.

Nothing particularly original, but it has always worked, and will work now.

Camera

The situation with the camera is quite interesting. Initially, the manufacturer, apparently to further reduce the cost, planned to supply a 5 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front camera. However, later, apparently, he decided that it would be quite overkill. As a result, the phone received 13 MP main and 5 MP front

The rear camera has autofocus, illumination and HDR (Hight Dinamic Range) mode This mode for photographing objects with different brightness ranges allows you to take high-quality images by superimposing images with different exposures.

The front camera can blur the background in real time to focus on the face of the photographer. Due to this feature, portrait photos should be sharper and clearer.

Both cameras support night mode, and the front one has a mode for retouching the face, in which you can slightly transform your selfies using a set of certain functions.

operating system

Visual part

The software of this mobile phone is based on Android 8.1 Oreo, which is the first addition to version 8.0.

In this global update, named after the famous cookie, there are quite a few visual innovations related to user interaction with the interface. They are mostly invisible and focused on improving the security level of the device.

Of the visible innovations, it is worth noting a few particularly striking ones:

• Panel "Play Music" learned to change the color of its background and text depending on the design and color scheme of the album cover.
• Non-critical shade alerts now roll up into a pinstripe, giving more space to more important ones.
• The color of the curtain itself also changed, it became light.
• The function switch rows change automatically to match your phone brand.
• Notification timer. Now you can set a display timer for the notifications themselves. In the settings, you can set the time for which notifications will disappear. You can defer the display by 15 minutes, 1 hour, 2 and 3 hours.
• Categories of alerts. Now notifications from applications are displayed depending on the category to which they belong. You can see these categories by sliding the notification to the right and clicking on the gear icon. Here you can also configure them.
• Picture-in-Picture. One of the most interesting innovations. It allows you to minimize the playing media into a small window that is displayed on top of all windows on the desktop. This feature allows you to work with applications without interrupting video viewing.
• "Smart" selection of text. Quite a useful tool for working with the context menu. It allows the system to analyze the selected piece of text and immediately apply a suitable sentence to it. For example, by highlighting the address, you can immediately open it in google maps or Yandex maps, and by selecting the phone number, you can immediately call without copying it to the "phone".
• Updated emoji. Android0 finally has normal emoji. Now they do not look like they were properly shoved on top, as in version 7.1.

Safety

Most of the OS changes did not affect the visual component. Many of the changes in Oreo are about phone security. Let's take a look at them.

• Google play protection is a new service designed to protect your browser, scan applications, and protect your smartphone from theft. Basically, it just combines the capabilities of Verify apps and Android Device manager.
• Permission to install unsafe software. Previously, this permission was issued with one switch in the settings. In the new system, this process is complicated, and you will have to issue permission to each tool with which you try to install programs without using the Google Play service.
• Now the system itself analyzes programs running in the background and selects those that look suspicious in order to draw the user's attention to them.
• You can password protect the developer features.
• It is now almost impossible to get information about the device and registered user accounts without his permission.

Useful features

ZTE was going to implement the NFC support function in the phone, with which you can use the phone as a contactless bank card for payment or, for example, as a pass.

There were also rumors about the possible presence of a fingerprint scanner, but the version for the Russian market, apparently, will not have these two interesting features. It's a pity, making NFC mode would be nice.

So let's take a look at what was actually implemented.

DualSIM—DualLTE

The phone's compatibility with 4G + networks gives it access to VoLTE technology (Voice over LTE / voice over LTE). You can use one SIM card for 4G + Internet, and the other for communication via VoLTE.

This technology is already quite developed in Russia and almost every provider provides access to 4G communication technology.

Its advantages over the usual 3G communication format of UMTS networks and even more so 2G ​​GSM are undeniable:

• No conflict between calls and internet usage. You can talk and at the same time browse the path on the navigator, surf the Internet or read social networks.
• Connection quality. You hear the voice of the interlocutor clearly and without interference, as if talking face to face.
• Almost instant dialing. Connection time is usually 2-4 seconds.

Calls via VoLTE do not differ in cost from calls via less advanced networks, does not consume Internet traffic, and in general, nothing but the quality of communication does not differ from calls via 2G and 3G networks.

Z—backup

An incredibly useful feature that allows you to transfer all information from your old phone to a new one. Saying everything, I mean absolutely everything: photos, videos, music, even contacts.

The presence of such a function in a state employee is quite an unusual and very pleasant surprise.It will save you tons of time, which would be taken up by routine and tedious transferring files from your old phone.

The cost

Now let's look at how much this model, which calls itself a budget smartphone, costs.

At the time of release, on August 24, 2018, the approximate price in stores is 7,500 rubles for Russia. For other CIS countries, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan, prices are still unknown.

Advantages and disadvantages

Since the phone has just come out, there are practically no reviews allowing us to compose a detailed description of its pros and cons, so let's try to form our opinion based on the information already available.

• First of all, this is the price. For a cost of 7,500, this phone has some pretty impressive specs;
• The phone has an excellent display with good color rendering and wide viewing angles;
• Long lasting battery with a good energy saving system;
• Access to 4G + networks;
• Z-backup program that allows you to easily transfer information from an old phone to a new one.

• The plastic case is a clear drawback of the phone, and the assembly of cheap smartphones also often leaves much to be desired. Therefore, you should be careful with him.
• Weak processor. Despite the novelty, with fresh applications of 2018, he copes with difficulty.
• Far from the best camera. Having a standard set of parameters, without the ability to adjust even the light sensitivity or white balance, and cheap optics, you won't make especially good photos.

conclusions

In conclusion, it should be said that if you are not going to play heavy 3D games with very good graphics on this phone or try yourself in the role of a professional photographer, then you can fully consider this option.

For light applications, Internet surfing, social networks, correspondence and watching videos, it is well suited. Especially for watching videos given its wonderful display.

It definitely deserves its place in the market niche it claims to be and if you are choosing an inexpensive smartphone for work, it should be considered as an option.