Smartphone ZTE Blade V9 (32GB and 64GB) - advantages and disadvantages

Not many people know about the ZTE brand, although it is a large manufacturer from China, and it deserves to be included in the rating of quality manufacturers. In China smartphones ZTE very popular along with devices Meizu and Xiaomi... The ZTE models have good build quality and modern features. The new models of the Nubia and Axon families have become popular outside of China.

Consider the pros and cons of the 2018 ZTE Blade V9 (32GB and 64GB). This will help you choose which smartphone model is best to buy. The article will not provide information on how much it costs and where it is profitable to buy a phone at the moment. The current price can be easily found on the websites of online stores. This review should help in determining the selection criteria and the smartphone functionality you need.

Equipment

Let's start with the configuration of the smartphone. The device is packed in a stylish black box. The phone can be in one of three colors:

• the black;
• blue;
• gold.

Let's open the package and see, in addition to the smartphone, the following:

• charger;
• microUSB cable;
• a device with which you can remove the SIM card;
• instructions and warranty card.

Appearance

By design, the ZTE Blade V9 can even be attributed to the top models, although it has an average price. The smartphone looks bright and expensive.

Modern materials have been used in the decoration. The front and back are made of glass. The side edges are completely metal. It looks impressive. The structure of the back cover is composed of many small reflective dots. It shimmers very beautifully, especially in the sun. The back side, unfortunately, will most likely go under the cover, otherwise, sooner or later, scratches will appear on it, despite the tempered glass. The smartphone looks especially cosmic in blue.

The device has NFC, fingerprint sensor, face unlock (fase ID). The smartphone looks great, but if you find fault, then you can note the easily soiled and unprotected case from dust.

The device is comfortable and fits comfortably in the hand. The ergonomics are good, but the case without a cover is a little slippery. No matter how you hold the phone, your finger immediately hits the fingerprint scanner. This is very convenient, but it seems that the sensor does not work as clearly as on the Xiaomi and Huawei models. It works fast enough, but it is critical to the reading angle. The dual camera protrudes somewhat. This will be a problem if you do not use a case.

On the right side there is a grooved power button and a volume rocker. On the left there is a tray for two nano-SIM cards. Combined tray: only 2 SIM-cards or 1 SIM-card and memory card. You have to choose. Below is a micro USB connector, two slots for the speaker, although the speaker itself is one, there is no stereo here. There is also a microphone below.

On the front there is a 13 megapixel camera. Usually these phones have a big selfie camera, but here it is tiny, which looks neat. There are no touch buttons at the bottom, they are software.The smartphone has narrow bezels both on the sides and on the top, due to which it looks compact.

The build of the smartphone is good. There are no gaps, no backlashes, no creaks. Everything is well fitted, easy to disassemble and assemble.

Specifications

Let's summarize the main characteristics of the smartphone in one table

Screen

Display diagonal - 5.7 ”, resolution FULL HD + 2160 × 1080 pixels. The aspect ratio is 18: 9. The screen is very good for an inexpensive smartphone: with natural color reproduction, a good range of brightness, with an excellent oleophobic coating. The picture on the screen is clearly visible even in the sun. You can turn on the night mode, while the screen turns yellow, which is comfortable for viewing in the dark. This reduces eye fatigue due to reduced blue content. You can configure the transition to night mode on a schedule or manually.

The viewing angle is very good, with strong deflection the screen only darkens slightly.

Unfortunately there is no color temperature setting. But you can adjust the size of fonts, auto-rotate the screen, the time to enter sleep mode. Another interesting mode is in the case. When it is turned on, if the cover is closed, the screen is locked, and if opened, it turns on.

There is no 18: 9 screen compatibility mode. All applications run in full screen mode and display correctly in most cases. But on some games, the picture is obtained with noticeable distortion.

operating system

The smartphone has an almost reference modern firmware version Android 8.1.0. But there are some tweaks here, nice little things from ZTE that will make life easier for users. Pleasant smoothness and animation are noticeable, the shell is not overloaded.

The operating system is completely Russified, but the translation is not performed adequately everywhere. The interface is flexible: you can adjust the size of the grid and icons, the speed of the effects. You can also activate shortcuts and shortcut notifications.

The navigation buttons on the screen can be swapped or hidden automatically.

The developers left time for the smartphone user for games. There are four preinstalled: Little Big City 2, Magic Kingdoms, Sonic Runners, and Asphalt Nitro.

Performance

The smartphone has a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor (a slightly stripped-down Snapdragon 625, very similar in performance). The frequency is only 1.8 GHz, but this is a nimble processor that can confidently hold almost all games and applications. This device is not for active games, and they will not run at maximum resolution.

Performance test results are good, but not outstanding:

• AnTuTu - 71735;
• 3D Mark - 439;
• GeekBench - 768 (1 core) and 3915 (all cores);
• Injustice 2 - 25 FPS;
• WoT Blitz - from 33 to 57 FPS (depending on the mode).

Autonomy

The non-removable 3200 mA battery of the phone is not very powerful, but due to the fact that the processor is energy efficient, the charge lasts for a long time, for sure. The smartphone plays video for almost 10 hours. This is a very good indicator for such a battery. Charging is done through the usual microUSB, not the fashionable Type-C. Someone will consider this a disadvantage, someone as an advantage.In any case, micro USB cables are still much more common and the length of the cord can be chosen for them almost any.

There is no fast charging, the battery takes about 2 hours to charge. In the first half hour, it charges by a third, in an hour - by two thirds.

Cameras

Cameras in a modern smartphone are very important. Let's figure out what characteristics the main and rear cameras have. Let's see how the device takes pictures, including how it takes pictures at night.

Main camera

The main camera consists of two modules. The main module is 16 MP with an aperture ratio of 1.8, which is good for a mid-range smartphone. In good light, the camera shoots perfectly. Very rich and natural colors. Good sharpness and detail. White balance may suffer in low artificial light.

The camera is good at night too. Of course, more noise appears and detail drops a little, but the color rendition remains at its best. The smartphone brightens too dark areas of the photo, but at the same time the color balance is preserved and the result is quite decent.

Photographers can set the desired ISO themselves and further improve the quality of pictures. In general, in Pro mode, you can set all parameters manually. But you can't shoot in RAW format in any mode.

The second 5MP module is used to blur the background and to change the focus point. This allows you to take good quality portrait shots without much distortion in perspective.

In Portrait mode, blur doesn't always look natural, and sometimes just bad. Blur can occur in the most unexpected places, for example, on a part of the face. Moreover, neither blur nor focus can be adjusted in this mode.

Everything looks much better in the "Blur" mode. The second camera is also involved here. This mode can be used for portraits, close-ups and subjects. You can adjust the settings before shooting, or you can edit the finished photo. Thus, a good result can be achieved.

The high dynamic range mode works clearly, the pictures are not darkened and at the same time natural.

Panoramas are made with good quality, the gluing points are almost invisible. You can make 360 ​​degree circular panoramas.

Use a tripod in night mode as the exposure is slow.

The smartphone does not write video in 4K due to processor limitations. Nevertheless, the quality in FULL HD is good, but there are some flaws in digital stabilization. The recording is done with stereo sound.

Supported slow motion mode with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and augmented reality mode.

In general, in this price range, it is difficult to find a better camera both day and night.

Selfie camera

Selfie camera - 13 megapixels, with the help of this particular camera you can unlock the phone with your face. Fase ID works in much the same way as on other Google phones. There is no 3D face organization like in Apple. You need a backlight to identify you, i.e. the screen must be on. The smartphone itself increases the brightness of the screen in low light conditions. The identification process takes about two seconds. In complete darkness, unlocking will take longer than during the day. In the settings, you can reduce the recognition time, but then the smartphone will start to make mistakes. There is a risk of unlocking with a photo.

The rear camera does not have a flash, but this is compensated by the fact that the screen becomes as bright as possible when shooting.

The camera itself is of good quality and allows using effects to remove various facial imperfections: wrinkles, pimples, irregularities, etc. Selfies with blur can be taken with this camera. The blur is completely software, therefore of low quality.

Sample photos:

Wireless interfaces

The smartphone has an NFC module, i.e. payment by phone is supported. The presence of such an option in the budget segment is great. ZTE is great for not saving on this. But saved on something else: dual-band Wi-Fi is not supported. And this is strange for 2018.

There is an interesting function for saving Internet traffic.You can mark individual Wi-Fi networks as charged, and then when you use them, the economy mode is automatically turned on. This can be useful in some cases.

Navigation works well: the location is determined accurately, when turned on, the satellites are located after 3 seconds. Both GPS and GLONASS are supported.

Sound

The smartphone has a decent volume and speaker quality. At maximum volume, there are no wheezing or distortion. Watching a video with sound without headphones is quite pleasant. It is better to listen to music with headphones (however, this applies to all phones).

As for the sound quality in the headphones, it is not striking, but it is quite consistent with smartphones in this price segment. The sound is clear and bright, but lacks the volume and depth of the bass. Your phone's player is equipped with DTS Sound, which improves the quality of music playback. You can use the preset equalizer settings or create your own.

Voice quality is good. Both you and your interlocutor are perfectly heard.

There is a standard FM radio.

Comparison to other popular models with comparable prices

• Honor 9 Lite has similar specifications, but the Kirin processor and its own shell;
• Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus also has similar characteristics, an aluminum case, no NFC module, but a more capacious 4000 mAh battery;
• The Meezoo M6 S has a lower resolution screen, but it has a premium aluminum body, fast charging support and a side scanner.

It is difficult to say which device is better, the popularity of competitors' models is not accidental. But the ZTE Blade V9 has many advantages. We hope this article helped you in answering the question of how to choose a smartphone.

Bottom line: advantages and disadvantages of ZTE Blade V9 (32GB and 64GB)

• stylish appearance;
• good performance;
• decent autonomy;
• large solid screen;
• great camera;
• good sound in headphones:
• the presence of the NFC module;
• modern pure Android 8.1.0;
• face unlocking.

• back cover slippery and soiled;
• lack of dual-band Wi-Fi.

The first reviews from smartphone owners are also positive. It's great that a smartphone with such good features is coming to the budget segment. He has few competitors. The smartphone can be safely recommended to those who are looking for an inexpensive, reliable and productive phone with a good camera and excellent appearance.