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 ranking of quality manufacturers. Smartphones in China ZTE very popular along with devices Meizu and Xiaomi. ZTE models have good build quality and modern features. New models of the Nubia and Axon families have become popular outside of China.

Consider the advantages and disadvantages of the new 2018 ZTE Blade V9 (32GB and 64GB). This will help you choose which smartphone model is better to buy. The article will not contain information about 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 functionality of the smartphone you need.

Equipment

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

• black;
• blue;
• gold.

Let's open the package and see there, 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, 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 were used in the design. The front and back are made of glass. The side faces are completely metal. Looks spectacular. The structure of the back cover consists of many reflective small dots. It shimmers beautifully, especially in the sun. The back side, unfortunately, is likely to go under the cover, otherwise it will sooner or later get scratches, despite the tempered glass. The smartphone in blue color looks especially cosmic.

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

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

On the right side there is a corrugated power button and a volume rocker. On the left, there is a tray for two nano-SIM cards. Tray combined: only 2 SIM-cards or 1 SIM-card and a 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 on the bottom.

On the front side is a 13 MP camera. Usually, these phones have a large 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 top, due to which it looks compact.

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

Specifications

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

Screen

The display diagonal is 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 brightness range, and 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 will turn yellow, which is comfortable for viewing in the dark. This reduces eye fatigue due to the reduction of the blue component. You can set up night mode on a schedule or manually.

The viewing angle is very good, with a strong deviation the screen only darkens a little.

Unfortunately, there is no color temperature setting. But you can adjust the font size, auto-rotate the screen, the time to go to sleep. Another interesting mode is “in a case”. When it is turned on, if the cover is closed, the screen is blocked, 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 in some games, the picture is obtained with noticeable distortion.

Operating system

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

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

On-screen navigation buttons can be swapped or automatically hidden.

The developers left time for the smartphone user to play games. Four are 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 smart processor that confidently holds almost all games and applications. This device is not for active games, and they will not come with a maximum resolution.

Benchmark 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 phone battery is not very powerful, but due to the fact that the processor is energy efficient, the charge lasts for a long time, for sure for daylight hours. The smartphone plays video for almost 10 hours. This is a very good indicator for such a battery. Charging is done via the usual microUSB, not the trendy Type-C. Some will consider this a disadvantage, others a virtue. In any case, micro USB cables are still much more common and you can choose almost any length of cord for them.

There is no fast charging, the battery charges in about 2 hours. In the first half hour it is charged 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 megapixels with an aperture of 1.8, which is good for a mid-range smartphone. In good lighting, the camera takes excellent pictures. Very rich and natural colors. Good sharpness and detail. In low artificial light, the white balance may suffer.

Camera is good at night too. Of course, there is more noise and detail drops a little, but the color reproduction remains at its best. The smartphone brightens too dark places in the photo, but at the same time the color balance is maintained and the result is quite decent.

Amateur photographers can set the desired ISO themselves and further improve the quality of the pictures. In general, in Pro mode, you can set all the parameters manually. But shooting in RAW format will not work in any mode.

The second 5 MP module is used to blur the background and to change the focus point. This allows you to take portrait shots of good quality, without large perspective distortions.

In Portrait mode, the blur does not always look natural, and sometimes just bad. Blurring can occur in the most unexpected places, for example, on parts of the face. Moreover, neither blur nor focus can be adjusted in this mode.

Everything looks much better in the "Blur" mode. There is also a second camera involved. 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.

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 panoramas.

In night mode, you need to use a tripod, because the shooting is done at a slow shutter speed.

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

Supports 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 camera that shoots better both day and night.

Selfie camera

Selfie camera - 13 MP, 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 organization of the face, as 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. 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 defects: wrinkles, pimples, bumps, etc. With this camera, you can take blurry selfies. Blurring is completely software, therefore low quality.

Photo examples:

Wireless interfaces

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

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

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

Sound

The smartphone has decent volume and speaker quality. At maximum volume, there are no wheezing and distortion. Watching videos 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 amazing, but it is quite consistent with smartphones in this price segment. The sound is clear and bright, but lacks volume and depth of bass. The phone player is equipped with DTS Sound system, which allows you to improve the quality of music playback. You can use the preset equalizer settings or create your own.

Voice quality is good. You and your interlocutor are perfectly audible.

There is a standard FM radio.

Comparison with other popular models comparable in price

• Honor 9 Lite has similar specifications, but the Kirin processor and its own shell;
• Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus also has similar characteristics, an aluminum body, 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 scanner on the side.

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

Summary: Advantages and Disadvantages of ZTE Blade V9 (32GB and 64GB)

• stylish appearance;
• good performance;
• decent autonomy;
• large solid screen;
• excellent camera;
• good sound in headphones
• the presence of an NFC module;
• modern clean Android 8.1.0;
• face unlock.

• slipperiness and soiling of the back cover;
• lack of dual-band Wi-Fi.

The first reviews from smartphone owners are also positive. It's great that a smartphone with such good characteristics comes 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.