The ZTE Blade 20 is an entry-level smartphone you
can give to your parents or to your kids. It will go on pre-order soon and
shipments will start on the 28th. JD.com will be selling it for CNY 1,000 –
that’s around US$ 140/€ 125. The phone has a 6.49” LCD on the front with 720p+ resolution and
19.5:9 aspect ratio. ZTE claims 91.1% screen to body ratio, partly due to the
teardrop notch.
The phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 chipset
– the four A73 CPU cores (+ four A53) and a Mali-G72 MP3 GPU are more than fast
enough for casual gaming. The phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage
(expandable by up to 256GB microSD cards).
The camera department punches above its weight as
well. The rear features a triple camera with a 16MP main shooter, 8MP ultra
wide-angle cam (120°) and a 2MP depth sensor. Inside the notch in the screen is
an 8MP selfie camera. Both front and rear cameras feature HDR modes and AI
enhancement.
ZTE equipped the Blade 20 with a large 5,000mAh
battery that promises 2 days of battery life. After that, the 18W fast charger
(9V/2A) is quick to fill it back up. The Blade can even share its battery juice
with other phones and devices. The one downside of all this is the microUSB
port.
So, why is this a phone for parents and kids? The
remote care features enable quick tech assistance – e.g. you can control the
phone remotely to connect to a Wi-Fi network or disable data (to avoid charges
when roaming). That’s great for users who are not tech savvy as explaining
things over the phone isn’t always easy.
There’s also a timer that will alert you if your mom
or kid hasn’t contacted you in 12 hours. On their side, there’s an SOS feature
with 5 emergency contacts. You can also enable GPS or CellID tracking of the
phone.
The ZTE Blade 20 won’t excite power users, but it
offers interesting options for casual users – from long battery life to remote
assistance.
