Shenzhen-based handset manufacturer ZTE has expanded its Blade series of smartphones catalogue with the launch of a new budget-oriented smartphone, christened as the “ZTE Blade Force” in the US tech market. Carried a sticker price of US$ 130 (approximately Rs. 8,400), the new ZTE Blade Force is now already made available for purchase in the US exclusively via US mobile carrier Boost Mobile in Blue colour option. Sadly, the Chinese vendor has made no official announcements about the pricing details and availability of the ZTE Blade Force for other markets including India.
The key highlight of the smartphone is its inclusion of Sprint‘s High-Performance User Equipment technology or HPUE. High-Performance User Equipment or HPUE allows users to get a massive LTE connection speeds of up to 1Gbps. According to a report by The Business Wire, “HPUE-enabled smartphones are designed to give customers a better overall experience with streaming videos, mobile gaming and other online apps and services.”
In terms of design, the ZTE Blade Force comes with a plastic body and a textured back panel for easy and comfortable grip. The smartphone features a trio of capacitive navigation touch buttons for controlling back, home-screen and multitasking. The volume up-down keys and the power/lock button are all placed on the right-hand edge of the device, while the speaker grille is situated on the rear end of the device.
In terms of specifications, the ZTE Blade Force flaunts a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels and a scratch resistance glass protection on top of the display. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 quad-core processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. Now, users can store videos and photos, download/update applications, and install the latest games without worrying about their storage space running out. Talking about its software (OS), the smartphone runs on Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system out-of-the-box.
For photography, the ZTE Blade Force features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and an LED flash. On the front, the smartphone sports a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter for capturing selfies and making video calls. Connectivity options offered by the ZTE Blade Force include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/A-GPS, a 3.5 mm audio jack and a microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data transfer. Sensors on the device include an Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor and Proximity sensor. On the battery front, the new ZTE Blade Force comes packed with a decent 3,000mAh lithium-ion battery that is rated to deliver up to 23.5 hours of talk time. Dimensionally, the handset measures at 155.9 x 77.9 x 9.14 mm and weighs around 170 grams.
