ZTE Blade 3 review

The screen’s resolution certainly helps when it comes to web browsing. It has an 800×480 resolution, which isn’t huge but dwarfs the 480×320 of some similarly cheap handsets. This larger resolution also helps with apps such as the calendar and when composing email, showing that the Blade 3’s low price doesn’t make it any less useful to have in your pocket.

When set to automatic mode, we didn’t find the display bright enough for comfortable use, and it was almost illegible on a bright day outside. Things were better when we set the display to maximum brightness. This had an impact on battery life, but even with the screen at its maximum setting the Blade 3 still lasted 8h 55m in our video playback test – impressive for any phone, especially a budget one. At medium brightness we saw 11h 17m when playing back a video on loop, which is an excellent score.

It’s also not an astoundingly inspiring screen, with fairly low contrast and greyish blacks. It’s also susceptible to reflections, but even after all this complaining we still think the display is perfectly acceptable considering the Blade 3’s price.

Unfortunately, you’ll struggle to watch films on the Blade 3, as we found it just wasn’t powerful enough for smooth playback. 1080p H.264 films were right out, as were 720p variants. Even standard-definition videos showed the occasional jerk. We had no problems viewing YouTube content, though.

As budget cameras go, this is a good one

We were also pretty impressed with the Blade 3’s camera. While the ZTE Kis’s photos looked like something from five years ago, the Blade 3 takes outdoor shots with accurate colours. The only problem we found was that photos tended to be underexposed, leading dull British days to look even duller.

The ZTE is a good-looking phone with a reasonable screen and camera, and performance good enough for most Android tasks if you’re not fussed about using the phone as a portable media player or serious gaming device. Everything about it screams middle-of-the-road Android, until you look at the price. For £80 it really is a bargain, and that includes £10 of call credit. If you’re after a cheap prepay phone and you like the look of Virgin Mobile’s tariffs, it’s an excellent Budget Buy.