ZTE adds more options to its Blade series with the V8 Lite and V8 Mini

Why it matters to you

ZTE’s Blade series offer a wide range of options for under $300, helping bring high-level features like dual-camera systems to budget smartphones.

Following up on the Blade V8 and the V8 Pro, ZTE is offering even more options with two new devices in the same series — the Blade V8 Lite and the V8 Mini.

The Chinese company made the announcement Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Both the Blade V8 and V8 Pro were announced at CES 2017 in January, and are currently on the market, though only the Pro is available in the U.S. The Blade V8 is available in Russia, Japan, and Malaysia, but it will expand to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia in March.

Click here to learn more about the V8 Pro, and read on for everything you need to know about the rest of the Blade V8 series.

More: ZTE Blade V8 Pro: Our first take

Blade V8 Mini

The Blade V8 Mini is a 5-inch smartphone with a Full HD resolution. Like the regular Blade V8, it’s powered by the same Snapdragon 435 processor, but the Mini only comes with 2GB of RAM. The device offers 16GB of internal storage, but a MicroSD card slot allows owners to add more storage.

The Mini runs MiFlavor 4.2 UI, which is based off Android 7.0 Nougat. It sports a 2,800mAh battery, and it charges via a MicroUSB port. It doesn’t look like there’s an NFC sensor, but there is a fingerprint sensor on the rear.

The highlight of the V8 Mini, just like with the V8 and V8 Pro, is the horizontal dual-camera setup on the rear. One has 13 megapixels but the other only packs 2 megapixels — this is to help obtain depth and distance information to produce bokeh, or blur, for photographs. A refocus mode in the camera app lets you change the focus area of the picture, which is a feature also available on the V8 and V8 Pro. There’s also a 5-megapixel front-facing camera that comes with a flash for selfies.

The device makes no effort to minimize bezels — unsurprising for a budget smartphone — and the navigation buttons on the front are capacitive.

The Blade V8 Mini will come in white, rose gold, gold, black, and red. It will be available for select markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, but a concrete release date or price have yet to be announced.