Connectivity features seem to be something to keep an eye on in this ZTE Blade Vantage 2 review. We discovered more pros and cons for you to consider.
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 smartphone was released in October 2019. It belongs to the budget category. As shown in its minimal specs, this phone is intended for basic use only.
It has a small 5-inch screen with an equally small battery capacity. The CPU is also a low-cost one, MediaTek Helio A22. The chipset works with 2GB RAM and Android 9.
The cameras are also simple. The rear one has a 5MP lens. On the other side, there’s a 2MP front-facing camera.
This ZTE Blade Vantage 2 review discusses the phone’s ins and outs, including its price. Discover whether it’s the phone you are looking for. Even though it’s a budget model, some customers may find this phone suits their needs just fine.
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Key Specs
ZTE Blade A3Y specifications:
- Weight: 150g
- Dimensions: 137.2 x 68.6 x 10.4mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size: 5-inch
- Resolution: 960 x 480
- CPU: 2GHz Quad-core, MediaTek Helio A22
- RAM: 2GB
- Storage: 16GB
- Battery: 2,050mAh, Removable
- Rear camera: 5MP
- Front camera: 2MP
Design
The design of ZTE Blade Vantage 2 is nothing phenomenal. If anything, it’s kind of old school. The 137.2 x 68.6 x 10.4mm device features a rectangular design with nothing like a notch or a full-screen display. It also uses the cheapest material from plastic.
The screen is perfectly squared with sharp edges. The bezels surrounding it are thick. At a glance, the phone looks stocky, but it’s actually light at 150g. It’s quite comfortable to hold due to its small size. Not to mention, the edges have rounded corners.
The back cover has an orange peel texture, which adds friction for anti-slip. It doesn’t look luxurious, however. The color choice comes only in black. Thanks to the texture, ZTE Blade Vantage 2 looks more matte than glossy. It also hides fingerprint marks well.
There’s only the camera on the back. No fingerprint reader insight. Other than that, the Verizon and ZTE logo are printed here. The camera itself is accompanied by an LED flash.
The phone’s build quality is just so so. It feels flimsy and cheap, thanks to the plastic material. In general, it looks reliable enough to withstand everyday wear and tear. But make sure you are aware that it’s not shockproof or waterproof.
Read also: ZTE Blade Vantage 2 (Z3153V) User Manual
Display
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 features a small 5-inch display with low resolution. At 960 x 480, the pixels here are categorized as QWVGA. It’s not a high-definition screen or an HD screen. Therefore, we think the display quality is poor on this phone.
The brightness often struggles to keep up with the surroundings. The display is too dark outdoors, while indoors, colors are not too vivid. You can still spot rough pixels on objects displayed on the screen. Among the examples are the edges of icons, small texts, and the corners of a picture.
Reading small texts, especially, can be an inconvenience here. The size of the screen doesn’t help either. At 5-inch, it’s not as expansive as we would like. When watching a movie, the screen feels too small.
ZTE Blade Vantage 2’s display is not for those looking for the ultimate media experience. There’s also a problem in other areas, such as the viewing angle. Up to a certain degree, you won’t be able to see what’s on-screen.
The only advantage of the size is when operating the device. ZTE Blade Vantage 2 is a phone that is easy to use with one hand. Because it’s compact, this product also doesn’t take a lot of space in your pocket or your bag.
Camera
For taking pictures, ZTE Blade Vantage 2 provides a 5MP camera on the back. The rear lens is only accompanied by an LED flash. There’s no secondary lens whatsoever (dual-camera.) On the other side, lies the 2MP front-facing camera.
This setup is so minimal on a smartphone. As expected, it produces low-quality pictures. The low resolution doesn’t surprise us, though. On the bright side, at least the back camera comes with autofocus. Other features include digital zoom, timer, Manual Mode, and Live filter.
The LED flash helps a bit in a low-light situation. Noises are still a lot, however. It is the same situation with digital zoom. The more you try to capture an object closer with zoom, the more grainy the picture would be.
For videos, the quality is capped at 720p. There’s no Full HD video recording on this phone. Results are also shaky because there’s no image stabilization.
The front camera is not an ultimate selfie-taker. At 2MP, it also suffers the same problems as the back camera. Taking clear photos in low light can be tricky. To conclude, the camera on ZTE Blade Vantage 2 is for practical use only. It’s not intended for photography enthusiasts.
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Storage
There is only 16GB of built-in storage on ZTE Blade Vantage 2. The space available for use is much lower at 9GB. You can install several dozens of small apps here, but be careful to not go crazy with it. It’s easy to run out of space with ZTE Blade Vantage 2.
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 welcomes an SD card to be installed on its system. This additional storage can bump up space to up to 256GB. It’s quite a lot to store photos, music, and videos. This expandable option is the solution if you think 16GB internal storage is too small.
Performance
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 runs on MediaTek Helio A22 MT6761 chipset with 2GB of RAM. The low-cost setup is something we’re not surprised about. In general, Helio A22 is a decent performer for everyday tasks. However, it should be common sense that you can’t expect a jaw-dropping performance here.
For a phone like ZTE Blade Vantage 2, 2GB RAM can be considered generous. It allows smooth multitasking, like when we’re switching between apps. It’s also possible to use two apps on one screen with this phone. The difficulties lie more in the small screen. There’s simply not much space.
We put an emphasis on everyday small tasks on ZTE Blade Vantage 2 for a reason. This device may be capable of running heavy games, but you will notice obvious lags. Data-heavy apps like Amazon also give you jitters. It’s important to clear the RAM every now and then.
If having a slow phone is not for you, then you should skip ZTE Blade Vantage 2. On top of that, this phone also runs on an older model of Android, Android 9. There’s no indication that an update will happen.
The good news is, the Android comes in its vanilla form without any modification. There’s no space wasted for custom design and the phone can perform faster. We also don’t spot bloatware here.
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 has several notable sensors. Among them are the Ambient Light sensor and the Proximity sensor. We also got Accelerometer with this phone.
However, this device is missing the important one. There’s no fingerprint sensor included. As a result, this device is less secured and you’ll miss some shortcut features as well. For security, you’ll have to depend on older tech like PINs and passwords.
It’s clear what kind of phone ZTE Blade Vantage 2 is in terms of performance. Lies in the budget category, you can safely expect budget performance too. To conclude, the performance level suits casual users more. It’s a big no for the tech-savvy.
Connectivity
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 is a phone supporting 4G LTE. It further adds features such as HD Voice on top of the LTE support. Having 4G on your phone should give you access to a seamless call experience. However, this phone seems to be lacking in this department.
This phone suffers from dropped calls too often. We found that many users also have the same complaint. It’s a big bummer for ZTE Blade Vantage 2, since this is a mainly-for-call smartphone. The biggest caveat in our ZTE Blade Vantage 2 is probably this connectivity issue.
Wi-Fi doesn’t have a significant issue, but Bluetooth does. Problems when pairing occurs occasionally. It’s also something you should consider. Lastly, ZTE Blade Vantage 2 comes with GPS and the USB port is a MicroUSB one.
Battery
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 comes with a 2,050mAh battery. This capacity may not look like much, but it claims 12 hours of talk time. On standby, we noticed the phone can turn on for 14.5 days before requiring charging. Make sure to know that real-life performance is significantly lower than that.
Charging is done through the USB connector on the bottom of the phone. No fast charging or wireless charging is available. This phone also comes with a removable battery. You can replace the battery yourself without asking a trained technician to do it.
Is the ZTE Blade Vantage 2 a good phone?
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 could be a decent option, but the connectivity issues is its biggest drawback. After all, a budget phone’s main purpose is mainly for calling. At the price of $59.99, it’s too expensive considering the features a buyer gets. We believe there are other products that are worth your money.
That’s our verdict for the ZTE Blade Vantage 2 review. It turns out this phone has more cons than pros. Aside from call issues, we also got no fingerprint reader, and the camera is of low quality. Only buy it if there’s more discount and there’s no other choice.
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 Pros
- Compact design
- 4G support
ZTE Blade Vantage 2 Cons
- Connectivity issue
- Poor camera
- Poor display
- Older android
