While I tend to ignore most of the handsets that come out of China, mainly because they’ll never be sold outside of China, there is one particular device family that deserves some attention: ZTE’s Blade.
The first Blade hit Europe in late 2010 and it was a hugely successful product. I remember seeing a ton of them in the hands of teenagers while riding Helsinki’s subway. It was one of the first sub 200 EUR smartphones worth buying. A little over a year later the Blade II came out, sportting a tiny bit more horsepower, though sadly the same boring look. ZTE’s Blade III was announced in September 2012, and it currently retails for 170 EUR (roughly $220). It has the same guts as the Blade II, but ships with a larger 4 inch screen.
Which brings me to today’s news, the Blade G. ZTE France showed the Blade G to FrAndroid, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this excited over a budget smartphone. It’s easily the biggest upgrade the Blade series has ever received.
So what’s so special about it? The screen is an even larger 4.5 inches, and it puts out 854 by 480 pixels. It has a dualcore 1.2 GHz processor from Qualcomm, the MSM8225. That means it uses ARM’s Cortex A5. There’s only 512 MB of RAM, which is kind of frightening, but let’s see how it performs. And lastly, it has a 5 megapixel camera and a 2,000 mAh battery.
The Blade G will hit Europe during “late summer”. No pricing information has been revealed, I have a gut feeling it’s going to continue in the path of the previous Blades: 200 EUR or less.
