ZTE Blade Spark (Unlocked, Brand New)

Product Description

Smartphone manufacturers all too often fall into the trap of thinking they can charge any price for their devices. Fortunately, some do realize there’s a huge market for phones at prices more suited to the average person in the marketplace. ZTE is just such a manufacturer. Based in China but creating waves in the US thanks to its outstanding range of well-speced and superbly designed smartphones. They are proof that you can get value for money in the modern smartphone world. Now they have created the ZTE Blade Spark.

ZTE Blade Spark Specifications

We’ll get to a full rundown of the spec hardware shortly. Yet the ZTE Blade Spark has one or two things that set it apart from its competitors.

Usually, at this price point, compromises are made on certain aspects of the hardware. One of these compromises is usually the camera(s). If not the rear camera, then certainly the front, but not here. The rear camera is a whopping 13MP with LED flash, autofocus, geo-tagging, HDR, panorama, and much more. The front camera is also a very impressive 5MP and is accessible via a dedicated selfie button on the side of the Blade Spark. The button is also available when the phone is locked, making selfie-taking faster than ever. There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the rear, which is all but unheard of at this price.

More High Points

The Blade Spark’s impressive internal qualities don’t stop with the camera, though.

The 5.5″ display is at 1280 x 720px resolution. Protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, it has an ambient light sensor to automatically change the brightness according to the viewing light levels. The rear camera can also record video at 1080p FullHD resolution. The Quad-Core, 64bit processor is complemented by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. If that feels a little bit mean by today’s standards, there’s a MicroSD slot to take another 128GB.

Wireless screen-sharing is available with compatible devices and has haptic feedback where button presses are confirmed by a vibration under the finger. The Blade Spark is 4G compatible and has Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with mobile hotspot. A-GPS also brings ultra-accurate positioning for location services and navigation.

One significant change compared to similar devices is the use of a USB-C type connection. This is the reversible connector recently included in iPhones and other high-end devices. At long last, the little guy who flips the port round the other way when he sees the cable coming is no longer employed by technology manufacturers.

How Big Is Big?

Size-wise, the ZTE Blade Spark is 6.14 x 3.06 x 0.38, which is slightly bigger than average. You do need a phone this big to hold a 5.5″ screen, of course, and it never feels so big as to be unwieldy. The upside is that watching movies or gaming becomes a visual feast. Once you’ve used a screen this big for any length of time, it’s very difficult to go back to a smaller setup!

Speaking of big, where batteries in many smartphones tend to be around 2500mAH, the Blade Spark is a huge 3140mAh. This means talk time up to 17 hours and standby up to 240 hours. The bigger case does lend itself to a bigger battery, and ZTE hasn’t let us down when filling the extra room.

Summary

As we mentioned right at the top of the page, the ZTE Blade Spark is a ton of smartphones for very little money. Usually, when any mobile device is priced towards the lower end of things, it is because it is aimed at a particular customer demographic. This might be those who don’t need all the features of the flagships or those who just want something cheap and cheerful. The Blade Spark ditches that approach, instead choosing to provide a very well-specced phone as cheaply as possible. So cheaply, that it’s hard to believe they can do it to this level.

Take the plunge. You’ll be glad you did.