Review ZTE Blade L5: ultra-budget smartphone for unpretentious users
The production of cheap smartphones is handled by many Chinese manufacturers. Buy large companies are in no hurry to join the competition in this niche. However, periodically they also release cheap devices, at a price of up to $100. One of these devices was introduced in April 2016 – ZTE Blade L5. Now you can buy a smartphone for $75-80.
A low price tag corresponds to the equipment level of the device. There is nothing outstanding in it. It is a typical ultra budget smartphone with the parameters of a basic level. Hold on to the market, which presents various Doogee, UMI, Oukitel, offering for the same money stuffing is more serious, it is not easy. Our review ZTE Blade L5 helps you to know more about smartphone.
ZTE Blade L5: Design
The smartphone ZTE Blade L5 is made in a plastic casing with a removable lid. It is made of plastic with soft-chach coating, but does not stand out. The layout of the smartphone is familiar, it’s assembled well, but not ideally. There is no exact adjustment of details, which, however, is not surprising in this price category. ZTE Blade L5 does not look thin, it’s a heavy block with dimensions of 142×72 mm, with a thickness of 8.9 mm. The weight of the device is 144 grams.
The back cover is made of matte plastic, it is removable. At the top there is a camera lens, from below – a mesh of dynamics. Under the cover – a removable battery, two slots for Sims, and one for a USB flash drive. All of them come to the front of the battery, that is, hot replacement is not provided.
The front panel ZTE Blade L5 at the bottom contains a proprietary round touch button and two touch buttons in the form of dots. They are configured, but do not have a backlight. Above the screen is a speaker and a camera.
The side frame is part of the lid.On the left, it does not contain functional elements, on the right there is a volume rocker and a power / lock button. On the upper end is taken out a jack for the headset.And on the bottom – the microUSB port and microphone.
ZTE Blade L5: CPU
Chipset ZTE Blade L5 is a budget MediaTek MT6572. This is the simplest dual-core chip, which is actually a “half” from the MT6580 / 6582. It contains a pair of 32-bit cores Cortex A7 with a frequency of 1.3 GHz and one core of the graphic module Mali MP400. This is a very budget solution, which is suitable only for Internet surfing, music and video viewing. The chip is not suitable for games (although on the most trimmed settings, even the tanks must go), which is confirmed by only 16 thousand points in AnTuTu.
ZTE Blade L5: Memory
The capacity of RAM in ZTE Blade L5 is 1 GB, and for this Chinese thanks. And they could have installed 512 MB in the name of economy. About 600 MB is occupied by the system, the remaining space is enough to collapse the browser with a couple of tabs, run the player, keep a couple of instant messengers in the background. Built-in memory of 8 GB, about 4 GB is allocated to the user. Expand the memory with a microSD card up to 32 GB (you can try and 64 GB, if the file system – FAT32).
ZTE Blade L5: Battery
It is naive to wait for a large battery from an ultra-budget smartphone, so 2150 mAh is still normal. In the mode of web surfing the charge goes for 6-7 hours, the game is put in the battery for 4 hours, in standby mode, the ZTE Blade L5 will last up to 2 days. The complete charging has a power of 1A, with it the capacity is restored from 0 to 100% for slightly longer than 2 hours.
ZTE Blade L5: Cameras
On cameras in ZTE Blade L5 the manufacturer also saved. The front has a resolution of 5MP, is equipped with autofocus, flash. Pleases that there is no interpolation (which in competing devices, such as Doogee X5, only spoils an already bad picture), but it does not save much. The camera features – about the same as a front-end smartphone for $ 150. But the front camera here is even more modest, at 2 MP.
Counting on a good photo from these cameras is not worth it, their vocation is video calling and fast fixing something (for example, text). The video is shot in HD resolution, its quality also leaves much to be desired.
ZTE Blade L5: Screen
ZTE Blade L5 is equipped with a 5-inch display based on a cheap TN matrix. In addition, he also has a very low resolution, only 854×480 pixels. This gives a pixel density of 196 PPI. Not pleasing and viewing angles, traditionally for cheap TN matrices are very limited. The brightness is slightly higher than 300 cd / m2, which is clearly not very much, in the bright sun the picture is read badly. Finally, multitouch – just two touches. In general, the display is clearly not a ZTE Blade L5.
ZTE Blade L5: Communications
Modems of 32-bit MediaTek chipsets do not support 4G networks, so the smartphone is able to work only with GSM and HSPA 3G networks. There are two slots for the sims on board, both independent and both are micro format. The network module is able to connect to Wi-Fi networks broadcasting at 2.4 GHz (802.11b, g, n). The satellite navigator is available, it works only with GPS (this is also a limitation of the morally outdated chipset). There is Bluetooth 4.0, but other communications can not be said.
ZTE Blade L5: Sound
The smartphone ZTE Blade L5 is equipped with a speaker that provides a decent level of volume. It is enough for both calls and for an alarm clock. On the broad frequency range, it remains only to dream, because neither bass nor clear tops he has. This is a typical “peep” cheap smartphone, the same as other Chinese for this (or lower) price. In the headphones you can listen to music, but the owners of a thin ear can not like the sound much.
ZTE Blade L5: Operating system
The smartphone is running Android 5.1 with the MiFavor shell. As for modest iron, the system works well, but everything is learned in comparison. And against the background of more efficient devices, the performance of the ZTE Blade L5 seems to be minimally acceptable: there are no frank brakes, but nothing flies either. The shell interface is slightly redesigned (in comparison with the standard Android), supports customization. There is no separate menu with all programs in MiFavor, according to the Chinese tradition.
ZTE Blade L5: Features
The features of ZTE Blade L5 can be attributed except that individual functions of the software. The smartphone supports setting the functionality of the buttons under the screen, has a special “tiled” variety of desktops (hello, Windows 8). You can change the start screen and other varieties.
Alternatives ZTE Blade L5
Searching for an alternative ZTE Blade L5 is a simple and complex task. Simple because the same Doogee, UMI, Oukitel, Prestigio, Blackview for the same money already offer 4 cores and HD screen on the IPS matrix. A complex – because it is difficult to choose a suitable model among this abundance. But even if you do not want to get involved with a little-known China, you can report a little and buy a Huawei Y5 II with an HD screen on an IPS LCD panel. Also there is Xiaomi Redmi 4A, also a more interesting HD-display and a modern chipset.
Pros and Cons of ZTE Blade L5
Advantages:
- low price;
- Removable battery;
- A separate slot for microSD;
- Good OS shell.
Disadvantages:
- Weak specs;
- Modest cameras;
- Cheap TN screen;
- A mediocre communication module.
Our conclusion ZTE Blade L5
Summing up the review of the smartphone, it becomes clear: ZTE Blade L5 – it’s just a Chinese budget with uncharted characteristics. From the products of smaller companies, it is advantageous to have only an official guarantee, since ZTE has representative offices in many countries. In the rest – the minimum opportunities, at not the lowest price.
Wide masses, ZTE Blade L5 definitely will not do, but beginners familiar with smartphones, as well as people who rarely use the “smart” functions of the mobile phone – may be interesting. True, for a short while, as the software requirements are constantly growing, and soon two cores will clearly be small for everything.
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