ZTE originally announced the Blade V8 Pro at CES earlier this year and shortly afterwards we started to hear about rumors of the existence of other variants in this series.

Along with many other companies in Barcelona for this year's Mobile World Congress event, ZTE was there to show off a couple of new smartphones. One of these new devices is called the ZTE Blade V8 Lite, and as the name implies, it's a less expensive version of the company's higher end Blade V8 Pro. The second of these new devices is the ZTE Blade V8 Mini which supports "3D shooting" thanks to its dual rear camera setup.

ZTE says the Blade V8 Lite offers "competitive features at an unbeatable price" though we'll have to wait and see for it to be released before we can really judge that claim. But one promising aspect of this new phone is that it will launch with Android 7.0 Nougat. With Nougat being released last year, this shouldn't be a surprise, but it's shocking how many smartphones and tablets are still being launched with Marshmallow right now.

ZTE explains that the design of the Blade V8 Lite was inspired by French upholstery and its curved design was able to keep it at 8mm thick too. The Blade V8 Lite has a metallic design with a No.205 Zircon-sand blasting cover to help give it that industrial look.

On the hardware front, we're looking at a smartphone with a 5" 720p display, 2GB of RAM and a MediaTek 6750 SoC. There's a "3D" fingerprint scanner on the back of the device, with an 8MP camera with autofocus sitting right above it. It also has a 5MP front-facing camera, a 2,500mAh capacity battery, 16GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot.

Next up, the ZTE Blade V8 Mini has a 5" 720p display as well, but this one is sporting the Snapdragon 435 SoC. It has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 5MP front-facing camera, and a 2,800mAh capacity battery. Other than the Snapdragon chip, the big difference here is the design and its two rear cameras. The V8 Mini has a 13MP sensor paired with a 2MP camera on the back to give you that 3D shooting mode as well as a refocus mode.

We haven't been told when the new ZTE smartphones will be launched, or at what price the company will be selling them for. The V8 Lite/V8 Mini are targeted at the entry level market though, so we're expecting them to be on the inexpensive side. Lastly, ZTE tells us the Blade V8 Lite will be made available in Italy, Germany, and Spain. As far as the V8 Mini in concerned, the device is set to launch in various markets across Asia Pacific and Europe.

How much do you think ZTE should charge for these devices for it to be competitive with the rest of the market?


Source: ZTE (1)

Source: ZTE (2)