BARCELONA—The ZTE Blade V8 Mini and V8 Lite are midrange and entry-level versions of the Blade V8 and V8 Pro that we saw at CES. But just because they're budget phones doesn't mean they're not capable in their own right. We went hands on with both and found them to be solid devices with sleek metal unibody builds, Android 7.0 Nougat, and some interesting camera features.
Design and Physical Features
In terms of design, both phones share similarities due to their metal unibody builds and a visor-like rear camera panels. However, their dimensions are a bit different, measuring 5.7 by 2.8 by 0.4 inches (HWD) for the V8 Mini and a slightly smaller 5.6 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches for the V8 Lite. Both phones have a have a fingerprint sensor on the back and a build that lends itself to use with one hand. I had no trouble reaching across the width of either phone with my thumb, and if they hadn't been connected to security cables they could have easily fit into my pocket (drats!).
Both devices have a micro USB charging port on the bottom, a pair of volume buttons, a ridged power button on the side, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom. Even the screen size and resolution are the same. Both have 5-inch, 720p displays that seem to be equally bright and have the same viewing angles and color reproduction. Working out to 294ppi, they won't be as sharp as the 1080p panels on the new Moto G5 Plus, but you won't notice any pixelation unless you look closely.
That said, in the bright lights of the showroom they were reflective, so they may not fare well under direct sunlight.
When it comes down to telling the two phones apart, the main way to judge them will be from the camera sensor. The V8 Mini has a dual camera sensor setup on the back, while the V8 Lite only has a single one. Aside from that and the dimensions, you're looking at two largely identical phones.
Hardware and Software
Hardware is where bigger differences start to show up. Under the hood of the V8 Mini, you'll find an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor clocked at 1.4GHz with 2GB of RAM. The new processor gives the phone solid multitasking ability, and while I was opening and switching between the apps loaded on the device I never encountered any significant slowdown. There were no games for me to test, though, but generally speaking, midrange phones don't usually excel at games even if most are playable.
The V8 Lite, with its octa-core Mediatek MT6750 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, isn't likely to be as powerful as one of Qualcomm's chipsets, even if it only has 2GB of RAM. Of course, we'll have to wait till our actual benchmark testing to know for sure.
The V8 Mini has a dual 13-megapixel and 2-megapixel sensor on the back, giving it the type of bokeh effect we've previously seen on phones like the Huawei Honor 6X. It's a fun feature and one I tested out on ZTE's nifty still life setup. It worked well and I never had a problem with focus or taking sharp snaps in the well-lit showroom area. There's also a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter.
The V8 Lite's sensor isn't as capable. It only has a single 8-megapixel camera on the back and 5-megapixel one on the front, meaning no bokeh mode and pictures that aren't as sharp. When using the V8 Lite, I noticed it had more trouble focusing quickly and took softer shots than the Mini. Low-light conditions will be the real test we'll have to wait to perform at PC Labs.
See How We Test Cell Phones
Battery life should last you around the same time for both phones. The Mini has a 2,800mAh cell compared with the slightly smaller 2,500mAh cell on the Lite. The 720p display shouldn't be too demanding and you're likely to get an average day's use out of both.
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When it comes to software, you're looking at Android 7.0 Nougat, which is one of the most recent builds of Android. Unfortunately, both phones run ZTE's heavy Mi Favor UI, which revamps the interface by getting rid of the app drawer and splashing apps across the homes screen. You'll also notice redesigned icons, settings menu, and notification shade.
Both phones additionally come with 16GB of storage, can take microSD cards up to 128GB, and support standard connectivity protocols like 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1.
US availability or pricing isn't known yet. We expect them to hit Europe and Asia first.