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ZTE’s Blade S6 Plus is cheap at just $300, but it’s got great mid-range specs and a swanky design

ZTE continues to march along in its quest to take over the global smartphone market. The company, whose devices are sold primarily in its home country of China, has been moving into Europe and the U.S. one phone at a time. Now it’s put a larger version of its recently released Blade S6 on eBay in various countries around the world.

The ZTE Blade S6 Plus has many of the same specifications as its smaller sibling, the Blade S6, but it’s got a few key differences. The most obvious change is the screen size, which has been jacked up to 5.5 inches, though it’s only got a standard, 720p HD pixel resolution, just like the regular Blade S6. Fortunately, ZTE packed in a 3,000mAh battery to power the bigger screen.

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The phablet version is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, and the same 2GB of RAM, as the smaller version. The 16GB of built-in storage is expandable via a MicroSD card slot on the device. ZTE’s Blade S6 Plus runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with ZTE’s MiFavor 3.0 user interface built on top of it.

In our review of the original Blade S6, we noted that the latest version of Android runs incredibly smoothly on the device, and we loved the overall look and feel of the phone. Seeing as the phablet-sized model has the same design, and many of the same specs, it’s likely to be just as nice as the 5-inch Blade S6.

ZTE’s Blade S6 Plus can even function as an infra-red remote control for many appliances and devices in your home. The remote feature works with select TVs, set-top boxes, air conditioners, DSLR cameras, and more. It’s also got two fairly high-resolution cameras, including a 5-megapixel selfie cam and a 13-megapixel shooter on the back.

The Blade S6 Plus supports dual SIM cards as well, and works on multiple bands, including the following:

  • 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
  • 3G: WCDMA 900/2100MHz
  • 4G: LTE: B3/B7/B8/B20(1800/2600/900/800MHz)

Perhaps the best thing about the Blade S6 Plus, though, is its bargain price point of $300 unlocked. To make the offer even sweeter, ZTE will offer a limited-time price of $270, though it’s unclear when that promotion ends. If you’re interested, you can find the ZTE Blade S6 Plus on eBay in the U.K., France, Spain, Italy, and a number of other countries.

Malarie Gokey
As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…
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