ZTE Blade 11 Prime Review

The ZTE Blade 11 Prime offers a standout feature in the area of ​​roughly sub- $ 200 phones: wireless charging.

In the smartphone trickle-down economy, wireless charging is guaranteed on any flagship-level phone, but it is still a hit-and-miss among midrange phones and absent from the budget class. You are likely to get a really big battery on a $ 200 phone compared to wireless charging.

Outside of that feature, the $ 192 Blade 11 Prime specs are similar to competing models such as the Galaxy A12 and Moto G Play. Like those models, it offers a 6.5-inch 720p LCD, although it includes slightly more RAM (4GB compared to 3GB) and slightly less battery capacity (4,000mAh compared to 5,000mAh).

Choosing a phone priced under $ 500 means that you need to choose your preferences carefully, and this is even more true of a $ 200 phone. If wireless charging is your chosen priority, then I have good news: the ZTE Blade 11 Prime is the budget-priced phone for you. If it is not a major priority and not a good-to-have item, I would like to look elsewhere. You will not very Like a better screen or camera on any personal feature, but you can Little its better.

ZTE Blade 11 Prime Screen, Battery and Display

The Blade 11 Prime is on the larger side with a 6.5 inch display. Its 720p resolution is a bit thin here, and if you look closely, you’ll see some pictures. The screen gets nice and bright, but its auto-brightness setting is very low to my liking. I also noticed the lines on the dark parts of the screen repeating the vertical lines on the sign of a low-quality panel – not a huge distraction, but visible.

It does not have the largest battery in its class, but the performance of the Blade 11 battery is generally good anyway. I got about two days of light, mostly using Wi-Fi on a single charge. Spending the whole day outside and on LTE drains the battery quickly, but most people can expect to get at least a full day of heavy use before needing to charge again.

Blade 11 Prime’s marquee feature, wireless charging, works a little slowly; The phone supports Qi charging at 5W. It took about two hours to charge 50 percent full, during which time the phone became hot but there is nothing to worry about. Wireless charging is a convenient option on the Blade 11 Prime unless you expect incredible speeds, especially if you’re the type of person who charges your phone overnight.

We don’t expect flashy processing speeds from a $ 200 phone, but the ZTE Blade 11 Prime falls a bit short given its price. It uses the MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 chipset with a relatively healthy 4GB of RAM, but this combination struggles with lightweight tasks such as scrolling through Instagram or Twitter.

The apps open quickly enough, but there was significant stutter and hesitation in browsing my normal social media timeline or scrolling through the home screen app drawer. Some sluggishness is to be expected in this price bracket, but I have not seen that much in recent times using the Motorola Moto G Play.

The ZTE Blade 11 Prime ships with Android 11, which is good – some of its less recent competitors still await 10 updates. ZTE says it has no plans to offer any additional Android OS upgrades, only that it will offer security patches as needed. This is not too surprising given the price of the phone; Blade 11 Prime is not designed for longevity for just a few years of use. There is also 64 GB of built-in storage, which is not much. If you don’t download too many apps or store too many photos on your device, you’ll be able to get by, otherwise it’s a good idea to add a microSD card for extra storage to your purchase.

ZTE Blade 11 Prime Camera

The rear camera system on the Blade 11 Prime includes a 16-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel ultravide, as well as a 2-megapixel depth sensor. This is a basic setup, and it fixes in good lighting conditions. It is slightly more prone to very bright spot clipping in photos than other recently used systems, but it does a good job overall with exposure to high-contrast scenes. In medium indoor lighting, some detail-smoothing noise reduction is seen, and low-light photos are also smeared at lower image sizes used for social sharing.

For other cameras, they are just fine. Ultrawide does not handle high-contrast scenes as well as the main camera, with some noticeable noises appearing in the shadows. There is a small delay after pressing the shutter button before you can take another photo that is not present when using the main camera. The selfie camera thankfully avoids a more greasy face, and the photos look good as long as there is plenty of available light.

If your budget is strict and wireless charging is necessary, then the ZTE Blade 11 Prime is the right phone for you. But if you can do without wireless charging, I would encourage you to look elsewhere. Iffy performance with basic functions would be more than an inconvenience to charge it every night to plug into your phone for long periods of time.

This year’s Motorola Moto G Power will be a worthwhile option if you can afford a little more; You will get a faster processor and better battery life, although you must plan to buy a microSD card to supplement its 32GB storage. The G Play is a good option, too, with a processor that is slightly slower than the G Power.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Reporter Door