ZTE Blade V8 Pro

Depending on where you’re from, ZTE might not be a household name. However, they’re expanding outside of their home market in China and establishing themselves as a household name around the world. Their latest mid-tier phablet—the Blade V8 Pro—looks impressive on paper.

But how does it fare in daily use? We’ve dug through reviews from around the world to see what they’re saying!

Making a budget-friendly phone often means making a few design sacrifices. The phone’s chassis is metal but the rear is a textured plastic. While none of the reviews were critical of the design or build quality, none praised it either.

Android Central said, “The Blade V8 Pro is not diminutive — it’s big, even by big phone standards.” So if you’re a fan of using your phone with one hand, this one might not be for you.

Phone Arena was more specific and their opinions reflected the thoughts of many other reviewers. They noted, “The Blade V8 Pro is put together quite nicely, and looks reasonably attractive. The phone’s just a little large, and doesn’t go quite far enough in terms of premium-feeling materials.”

Flip the phone over and reviews get better. The phone’s 5.5-inch 1080p display was a hit with most reviewers. ChipChick said, “[The] colors are a bit muted and the contrast ratio is somewhat limited, but the viewing angles are decent and it’s bright enough to read in direct sunlight.” CNet agreed, saying, “When I watched videos and swiped through my photos, images were bright and clear.”

You’ll also find a fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button. A few reviewers complained of accuracy issues. But, most had no problems and thought the ability to assign features to different fingers was a useful touch.

Powering the phone, you’ll find a 2Ghz Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 3GB of RAM. Reviews show the eight-core processor has no trouble keeping up with daily tasks or playing games.

For software, reviewers weren’t as pleased. The phone ships with an older version of Android—6.0 Marshmallow. There’s no confirmation from ZTE that it will receive updates to the latest version. However, reviewers praised ZTE for keeping the interface close to stock—something that many other Chinese manufacturers don’t do.

With 32GB of internal storage, there is plenty of room for your favorite apps and games. But if you want to keep your media on your device, you’ll want to use the microSD port. This means giving up the dual SIM feature on the phone.

One of the most hyped features on the Blade V8 Pro is its dual rear cameras. Pairing both a color and monochrome 13MP sensor, ZTE claims their camera offers improved depth of field and better detail. Reviews found this true in good lighting. Unfortunately, all reviewers agreed that as lights dimmed, so did camera performance.

Android Central summed up opinions well when they said, “Nighttime scenes, once focus is fixed, are muddled and grainy but usable in a pinch; daylight scenes, on the other hand, are remarkably good for a phone of this price.”

Battery life once again saw opinions swing upward. None of the reviewers had any trouble pulling a full day of use out of the 3,140mAh battery. Add the QuickCharge 2.0 support for full charges in just over an hour and you should have little worry about hunting electrical outlets throughout your day.

Reviewers loved many aspects of the Blade V8 Pro. The biggest concerns for most were about the size of the phone and weak low-light camera performance. Despite this, all reviewers agreed that the phone offers exceptional value and keeps up with similarly priced competitors.