Chinese mobile manufacturer ZTE unleashed its latest Android handset in the UK yesterday. The ZTE Blade 3 is available right now at Virgin Mobile for £80 including a £10 top-up and it’s quite an impressive device for the money, sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm processor and Android ICS fresh from the box.
To see exactly what you get for the money let’s have a look at the ZTE Blade 3 specs.
- Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7227A Snapdragon, Adreno 200 GPU paired with 512MB RAM
- Display: 4-inch Multi-touch TFT capacitive touchscreen, 480 x 800 pixels
- Storage: 4 GB (2.5 GB user available), microSD up to 32 GB
- Connectivity: HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1, microUSB 2.0, GPS, mini-SIM
- Camera: 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus with Geo-tagging
- Battery: Li-Ion 1600 mAh
- Dimensions: 123 x 63.5 x 10 mm, 130 g
- OS: Android OS v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – Jelly Bean coming “later in the year”
ZTE is well known for its budget range of handsets, the original ZTE Blade was rebranded as the very successful (in the UK) Orange San Francisco, the ZTE Blade 2 which succeeded it was predictably rebranded by Orange as the San Francisco 2. However the new Blade, despite its Virgin Mobile exclusivity will remain a ZTE branded smartphone.
Have a peek at the first-look video from KnowYourMobile below.
As well as this PAYG deal the ZTE Blade 3 is also available on Virgin’s £18 a month starter tariff. However at £18 for 24 months for 200 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of internet I think there are much better deals to be had. At that price over two years you are approaching Samsung Galaxy S3 territory.
