After an incredibly tumultuous year, ZTE has made its way back into the United States. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer released two new budget phones at the end of 2018. One of them, the ZTE Blade Max View, makes its way into a very crowded budget phone market. Can it compare? We put it to the test to find out.
2018 has been a rough year for ZTE. The Chinese manufacturer was banned from using U. S. equipment in its smartphones after the U. S. Department of Commerce claimed it violated U. S. trade sanctions on Iran and North Korea. After paying a billion-dollar fine and cleaning house, ZTE managed to smooth things over. The company closed out its tumultuous year with two new budget phones.
The ZTE Blade Max View is one of those phones. Coming in at $200, it packs an ample screen and great battery, but can it compete with other similarly priced budget phones like the Nokia 6.1 or Honor 8X? We put it to the test to find out.
When it comes to design, you’ll never have to worry about the ZTE Blade Max View being mistaken for a flagship, or even a midrange smartphone, for that matter. It is a perfectly respectable, if not ho-hum, budget phone.
On the front there’s a six-inch display. The side bezels are nearly non-existent, but there’s a prominent chin. The top bezel is chunky as well and is home to the selfie cam.
Flip the phone over and you’ll find a matte polycarbonate back that provides a little extra grip. It may be a little more durable than glass sandwich budget phones, like the Honor 8X, but don’t expect it to hide fingerprints any better. We found it to quickly pick up smudges that were impossible to remove without lens cleaner. In addition to the pesky polycarbonate back, there’s also a fingerprint sensor that sits center on the top third of the phone, along with a dual camera array.
The top of the phone is home to a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the bottom sports the USB-C charging port and bottom-firing speakers. You’ll probably want to take advantage of that headphone jack, since we found the speakers to be plenty loud, but unbearably tinny. There’s also Bluetooth 4.2 on board for external speakers or headphones.
On the right side you’ll find the volume rocker and a textured power button. Both are clicky and responsive. A hybrid SIM slot is on the left side of the phone.
When it comes to durability, the ZTE Blade Max View has a few hits and a significant miss. On the plus side, the polycarbonate back and Gorilla Glass display should stand up better against accidental drops than all-glass budget phones like the Honor 8X. The absence of any sort of waterproofing, however, is a definite miss, though there are few budget phones that offer it.
Coming in at six inches, the IPS LCD display on the ZTE Blade Max View performs surprisingly well. With a full HD, 2,160 x 1,080-pixel resolution, it’s plenty sharp enough. We found surfing the web and streaming YouTube or Netflix to be an absolute pleasure.
