Shenzhen-based handset manufacturer ZTE on Tuesday updated their Blade series of smartphones catalogue with the launch of a new budget-oriented handset, called the ZTE Blade A2S in its homeland, China. The ZTE Blade A2S is the successor to the company’s previous Blade A2 and Blade A2 Plus, which were launched last year. Priced at CNY 699 (approximately Rs. 6,800), the new ZTE Blade A2S is currently listed on Chinese e-commerce website JD.com for pre-order, while the same will be going on sale starting September 8 (Friday) via the same online retailer in Deep Gray colour option. The Blade A2S carries the same price tag as the Blade A2 carried, but the variant comes equipped with a host of new features and upgraded specifications. As of now, the Chinese vendor has not revealed the smartphone’s international availability.
Design wise, the ZTE Blade A2S sports a full metal body with metal edges all around, giving it an overall premium look and making it a sturdy device. The new smartphone features capacitive navigation buttons on the front and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, located just middle of the back panel of the device. The volume rockers are placed on the left-hand edge of the device, while the power/lock button is situated at the right-hand edge of the smartphone. A 3.5mm audio socket is placed on the very top edge of the smartphone. Two speaker grilles are seen at the bottom edge of the handset along with a microUSB charging port sitting in the middle. The rear panel of the handset houses a 13MP camera, LED flash module, fingerprint recognition button and ZTE logo, while the top front panel features a 5MP selfie camera, sensors, and an earpiece.
As far as specifications are concerned, the ZTE Blade A2S comes equipped with a 5.2-inch full-HD display with a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a scratch resistance 2.5D curved glass protection on top of the display. The smartphone draws its all power and performance from a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor, which comes coupled with Mali T860 image processing unit to take care of graphics. In terms of memory, the ZTE Blade A2S is backed up by a 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 128GB with the help of a microSD card slot. Talking about its software (OS) front, the smartphone runs on Android (unspecified) operating system out-of-the-box.
For photography, the ZTE Blade A2S features a 13-megapixel rear camera with PDAF and an LED flash. The camera features also include HDR, Panorama and full-HD (1080p) video recording support. On the front, the handset sports a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter with an f/2.2 aperture for capturing selfies and making video calls.
In terms of connectivity, the ZTE Blade A2S supports dual-SIM dual standby using a hybrid dual-SIM slot (Nano-SIM only). Apart from this, the smartphone also offers various connectivity options including 4G with VoLTE (voice over LTE), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS, FM Radio, a 3.5 mm audio socket and a 5-pin microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data transfer. Sensors on the device include an Accelerometer, Fingerprint sensor (rear-mounted), Ambient light sensor and Proximity sensor. On the battery front, the new ZTE Blade A2S comes packed with a decent 2,540mAh lithium-ion battery. Dimensionally, the handset measures at 146.1 x 72.6 x 7.5 mm and weighs 138 grams.
