Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

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

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.

Related Videos

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.

Blade V8 Lite

The Blade V8 series are budget smartphones, and the Lite sits at the bottom. The Lite still has a 5-inch display but it has a lower, 720-pixel resolution. It’s powered by a MediaTek 6750 processor which is somewhat comparable to the Snapdragon 435. It also only comes with 2GB RAM.

The V8 Lite also only offers 16GB of internal storage, though a MicroSD card slot allows for expandable storage. The Lite has a smaller 2,500mAh battery, as well as a fingerprint sensor on the back. It does not have NFC, and also lacks the dual-camera system on the rear.

More: ZTE scraps Kickstarter for Hawkeye, its crowdsourced smartphone

There’s only an 8-megapixel camera on the back, and likely the same 5-megapixel camera with flash on the front as the V8 Mini.

The Blade V8 Lite will come in gold, black, and silver, and it will only be available in Italy, Germany and Spain at launch.

Blade V8

The Blade V8 sports a 5.2-inch Full HD IPS screen, and it’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 435 processor with 3GB of RAM. It comes with 32GB of internal storage, but there’s a MicroSD card slot if you need more. There’s also a 2GB RAM configuration with 16GB of internal storage.

The V8’s MiFlavor UI is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and no timeline was shared for a Nougat release. Unlike the V8 Pro, the regular V8 has an aluminum back with a horizontal dual-camera system. It looks as though ZTE is using the same camera setup from the V8 on the Mini — a 13-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel one for bokeh capabilities. There’s an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with a flash as well.

The 2,730mAh battery charges via a USB Type-C port. The V8 comes in rose gold, silver, grey, and gold, and it’s currently available for purchase in Russia, Japan, and Malaysia, with more markets on the way.

We’ll update this post when we learn more about the V8 Mini and V8 Lite’s price and release date.

Editors' Recommendations

Google Pixel Fold: release date and price rumors, leaked specs, and more
Alleged schematic of Google's Pixel foldable in silver.

Folding smartphones are a staple of the Android smartphone world in 2023. And this year, we expect Google to join the foldable ranks with the long-awaited Google Pixel Fold.

Rumors of the Pixel Fold have existed for a long time, but all signs are pointing to 2023 finally being the year it makes its grand debut. And what a debut it's shaping up to be. From all of the latest renders, hands-on images, specs, and more, here's everything you need to know about the Google Pixel Fold.
Google Pixel Fold: design

Read more
The Pixel 8 just leaked, and it has one big thing I can’t wait for
Google Pixel 8 in depicted in white.

For another year, Google’s next-gen phones are out in the wild months ahead of their grand reveal at a fancy event. Just a day ago, the Pixel 8 Pro was unceremoniously leaked, and now, the standard Pixel 8 has also received the same treatment. OnLeaks and MySmartPrice have shared reported renders and a 360-degree video depicting the upcoming Google phone from all angles.
The design changes are subtle, but easy on the eyes. Just like the Pixel 8 Pro, the corners are once again more rounded on the Pixel 8. The frame is metallic, and there’s a horizontal camera strip at the back with a metallic luster on top. Akin to the Pixel 7, we get two cameras on the Pixel 8, sitting in a pill-shaped cutout.

Another small aesthetic tweak is the earpiece grill at the top, which is now more prominent than what we saw on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. If the current-gen Pixels are any indication, the Pixel 8 is going to offer an excellent in-hand feel. Talking about in-hand feel, though, it appears that Google is once again pandering to the small phone loyalists.

Read more
5 things we’d love to see at Google I/O 2023 (but probably won’t)
Google Pixel Watch on a wrist.

Google's annual developer conference, Google I/O, kicks off on May 10. Don't let the words "developer conference" put you off, though, as Google I/O is one of the biggest and most exciting shows of the year.

We've already covered what we expect to see at Google I/O 2023, and that list includes the Pixel 7a, Android 14, and even a Google Pixel Fold. But although those are all things we're really looking forward to and expecting to see, there are a number of reveals we'd also love to happen ... but are extremely unlikely to appear on the grand stage.

Read more