ZTE Blade A2 Plus First Impression – Plays By The Rules

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A massive battery phone is a concept reserved only for affordable phones. The added capacity also tags along added heft and extra millimeters: trade-offs that slick premium looking high-end phones just can’t afford. And incidentally, the formula has worked remarkably well for smartphone makers.

ZTE’s new offering, the Blade A2 Plus too tries its luck with a captivating 5000mAh power unit housed within. The handset is also competitively priced at 11,999 INR, which makes it a direct contender to phones like Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Honor 6X and Zenfone 3s Max. We briefly examined the new ZTE Blade A2 Plus at the launch today, and here is what we felt.

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ZTE Blade A2 Specifications 

Model ZTE Blade A2 Plus
Display 5.5-Inch, Full-HD IPS LCD
Processor 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750T octa-core Processor
RAM 4GB
Internal Storage 32GB, expandable up to 128GB
Software Android Marshmallow 6.0
Primary Camera 13MP rear camera, PDAF
Secondary Camera 8MP selfie camera
Dimensions and Weight 155×76.2×9.8mm and 189 Grams
Battery 5000mAh
Others 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5mm
Price Rs. 11,990/-

Design and Display

The ZTE Blade A2 Plus checks all conventional design boxes. As is the case with most metal unibody phones in this budget, there is metal on the rear with plastic trimmings on top and bottom. These plastic caps brandish a rugged texture (reminiscent of Honor 5X) which we would rather side with as against the plain ones. The Blade A2 Plus also has a fingerprint sensor on the rear right below the camera sensor, just where our index finger naturally rested.

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Whole of the white colored fascia is sheathed with a 2.5D touch glass that curves slightly around the edges, and on the chin, you will find Nubia style navigation bar (back lit). The primary highlight here is the 5.5-inch Full HD display.

This felt like a good quality display with high contrast, deep blacks, punchy colours and wide viewing angles. On the negative side, the overall brightness is quite low and thus the sunlight visibility takes a hit.

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The handset doesn’t feel chunky, however, the 5000mAh battery makes it unnaturally heavy, but not in a way that should be a deal breaker.

As far our initial reading goes, ZTE gets the design and display part just right.

ZTE Blade A2 Plus Photo Gallery 

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Performance Expectations and Software

The ZTE Blade A2 Plus is powered by MediaTek MT6750 processor which has four Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz and another four in power cluster clocked at 1.0GHz. This is the same chipset that we have earlier experience in phones like Asus Zenfone 3s Max, Oppo F1s, and Vivo V5. It isn’t by far the fasted chip around but has proved to sail through everyday tasks with ease when the software is well optimized. On Blade A2 Plus, it is paired with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage.

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The software is Android Marshmallow based Mifavor OS (sans App drawer), which felt quite interesting. We didn’t get to dive deep into OS features, but from the face of it, it felt like a light skin with more stock aesthetics visible than what we had expected. There are several customization options here, including the provision to resize dial pad, to pick home screen background color using the rear camera, and the choice between icon packs. We are excited to dig deeper and explore it further in our own space.

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The handset has a 13MP rear camera on the rear with PDAF and an 8MP front camera for selfies. Once again, we didn’t test them enough to pass any sort of verdict about the camera quality.

First Impression

ZTE is clearly not skimping on specifications with the new Blade A2 Plus. Whatever is in vogue is present, and add to that a reasonable price tag of 11,999 INR and a highlighted feature that consumers value i.e., the capacious battery, and you have a truly exciting product in hand.

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The existing competition, however, is ruthless. With Lenovos’, Redmis’ and Motos’ lurking in the same budget, ZTE will face an uphill task of convincing prospective online buyers in India. We will be watching out for chipset and camera performance when the reviews are out.

Deepak SinghDeepak Singh
Deepak has more than 8 years of experience in covering technology for several eminent publications in India. He currently leads an enthusiastic team of young writers at Smartprix and tries to uphold the highest quality standards.

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