The popularity of mobile devices has led to the fact that in recent years a lot of new, previously unknown players have appeared on the smartphone market. The bulk of the companies are immigrants from China, high-tech companies with cheap labor and potential that can bring the brand to leadership positions around the world.
One such company is ZTE. Earlier, probably, no one had heard of her in our country due to her activities in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, the brand has existed since 1985, and now it is already operating in 160 countries around the world. Moreover, budget phones, which will be discussed in this article, brought fame to the brand. How worthwhile can be called the company's products, what are the advantages and disadvantages of smartphones manufactured with the ZTE logo - we will tell in this article.
The lineup
So, the company's models that have ever been produced and put on sale are in a special list posted on the official website. Here you can find the names, photos of devices, as well as their full technical specifications.
The general impression about ZTE phones (which we will publish further reviews in the text) is that we have before us - an exhibition of copies of Samsung, HTC, LG, Apple, and other devices. It is immediately obvious that the company was not engaged in the development of individual designs for its equipment - everything was copied from the most successful models of competing companies.
However, this is not news for Chinese manufacturers. You can verify this by looking at Lenovo, Zopo, Huawei and the same ZTE phones. Customer reviews demonstrate that people are especially unable to distinguish between these phones. In addition, a clear focus on the more well-known companies (concerns Samsung), which are the guides in the world of device design (unless you talk about copying Apple's style, of course), is obvious.
Market positioning
Although the Chinese themselves obviously do not disclose this. The company positions itself as an individual manufacturer of affordable devices, which can be counted on the market a lot. It feels like the factories that make ZTE devices are trying to release as many different models as possible. By the way, they are not original with the names here either - ZTE phones (reviews of them you will see later) are called the same as the models of those companies that originally developed them. See for yourself: ZTE S6 (Galaxy S6), Grand S3 (like Samsung Galaxy Grand), Star (like Galaxy Star) and many others. It can be seen that the Chinese developers are hoping, therefore, to "chop off" a little the authority of the Korean company, to nail the glory of its products.
The above leads us to the conclusion that the design and names (that is, in essence, form) of ZTE are like a carbon copy. Therefore, to understand how its models are generally interesting to the buyer, we will consider some of them.
Flagship models
To begin with, we identify a circle of “top-end” or “flagship” devices that are worth our attention first of all. The best ZTE mobile phones (reviews prove this) are the latest generation versions of Blade, Grand, Star, Kis, V. These are exactly what we will analyze.
At the moment, for example, the version of Grand S6 costs about 200 euros. This allows us to classify ZTE phones in a budget class, which we will undoubtedly take into account in our reviews. We will start with them, because these are the best phones from ZTE. Reviews about them and characteristics will be studied in the framework of this article.
Review Blade S6
Externally, the model is very similar to the iPhone 6. According to customer reviews, from afar it is difficult to distinguish it from the "apple" representative. Only, unlike Apple, ZTE is much cheaper, due to which the finishing materials of the case, as well as all the quality of its fit, is one level lower. So, at first it may seem that the device is made of metal, but with a more detailed palpation, it becomes clear that this is plastic.
The phone pleases with interesting design solutions in some details, for example, a round button to return to the home screen. It glows with a pleasant blue color, and in order not to blind from it at night, you can reduce its brightness in the settings.
The technical equipment of the device is of particular interest to gamers. So, Blade operates on the basis of an eight-core processor, 4 cores of which give a clock frequency of 1 GHz, and another 4 - 1.7 GHz. Due to this, in the Asphalt game, for example, the device is capable of reproducing graphics in the “average” mode.
The phone can be called quite nimble in work. As for the screen, it shows the picture quite clearly, although at a certain viewing angle pixels are visible. The camera on the Blade S6 leaves much to be desired, despite 12 megapixels.
Grand S3 review
This device can be called advanced when comparing all ZTE cell phones. Feedback from fans of the company indicates that it has not yet been widely sold, but it was announced at the exhibition of affordable Android devices. An interesting feature of the device are heart rate sensors and a retinal scanner, with which you can recognize the person who looked at the phone display. They say that it is even more reliable than a fingerprint.
As for the technical characteristics of the device, the Grand S3 runs on a 2.5-GHz processor, is equipped with a 3100 mAh battery, as well as a 16-megapixel camera.
Star II Review
The phone is also a novelty, so there is no sufficient information about it yet. It is expected that it will operate on the basis of a processor with a frequency of 2.3 GHz, have a camera of 5 megapixels, and a screen resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The device will receive a memory capacity of 16 GB, but it is still unknown whether it will have support for a memory card slot. However, most often, ZTE phones (reviews confirm this) have such slots. In this smartphone, the developers promise to use some unique voice control system, similar to Siri, installed on the iPhone.
Review Nubia X6
An interesting ZTE product is the Nubia X6, equipped with a 6.4-inch screen. The device is made in an attractive, smooth style in white. The back cover is covered with gray metal, due to which the device looks quite expensive.
The hardware on it is typical for the “top” models of the manufacturer - the 8-core Quallcomm processor, a camera with a resolution of 12 megapixels, RAM of 3 GB - all this allows you to make the Nubia X6 work pleasant and fast enough to play medium-sized games.
The advantage of the model is a capacious 4250 mAh battery. It allows you to work with the phone for tens of hours without recharging. Plus, in addition to the voluminous battery, the developers took care of the economical charge of the device itself. Due to this, Nubia of this version can be confidently called the “hardy” flagship of the model line.
Review ZTE ZMAX
Another popular ZTE representative is the ZMAX. The device is presented in the class of “phablets” (something between a smartphone and a tablet) due to the large capacious battery, as well as the balanced operation of the cores with a clock frequency of 1.7 GHz. This means that most of the games and applications on it will work flawlessly, due to the latest races and shooters with complex graphics. In general, in the tradition of ZTE. Reviews of phones of this model note that, as a whole, device management is quite efficient. The device responds quickly to touch, does not slow down. There are no freezes even after prolonged use.
The cost of the phone, like other models of this manufacturer, does not exceed the "average" price segment and is equal to 250 dollars. At the same time, the phone looks solid enough, despite such a low cost.
ZTE ZMAX is reliably protected from mechanical influences - its case is made of dense matte plastic, on which even deep scratches can hardly be seen. Regarding the screen - it is covered with Gorilla Glass 3, which, again, makes it reliably protected from any troubles.
Overview of the V family models
In addition to the advanced (most powerful and interesting phones), ZTE also has a “middle” class. We are talking about the V family, which is represented by several models at once. This, for example, is a ZTE V815 phone. Reviews about him go like an affordable budget device that "claims nothing." At the same time, the Android operating system is on the phone, which means that you can do some of the most common basic actions with it, such as working with the browser, reading any materials, watching movies. The screen here, like other elements, is very simple - the phone can be positioned as an inexpensive toy for a child.
The same applies to other models of the V family - very simple, cheap, but it works. For the most part, the rest of the ZTE phones work this way. Customer reviews, at least, convince us of this.
Other ZTE Phones
This is now the company is engaged in the production of touch smartphones that copy the "top" phones of other brands. And before there was a time when even keyboard devices came out under the brand. Of course, they had nothing to do with smartphones and the Android operating system. Such is, for example, the ZTE S207 phone. Reviews call it an "elementary" and simple device without unnecessary difficulties. Thanks to the controls on the buttons, everyone can cope with it; and due to the reliable housing and ease of operation, the device turned out to be quite reliable. By the way, it costs only 1,490 rubles. For this money you can get a reliable tool for calls, SMS and the simplest organizer.
conclusions
What about the ZTE manufacturer as a whole? What do the phone reviews say about ZTE? First of all, this is a typical Chinese company that produces affordable devices of medium and low price class, which have “loud” technical characteristics and average performance in fact. However, as the latest developments of the company show, some models may leave this niche of the “Chinese” and enter an independent segment. Therefore, it is possible that very soon the manufacturer will become something like Meizu or Huawei - a potential niche leader.