ZTE Blade A2 Plus – Review – Easy to buy, easy to use, tough to die
ZTE Blade A2 Plus marks the re-entry of ZTE into the Indian mobile space. ZTE has been in the background as a OEM for many brands. ZTE has decided to enter the market with their own brand once again and the Blade A2 plus is a starting point. The ZTE Blade A2 plus is priced at Rs 11999 and for the moment it is an online exclusive buy. The key highlight of this mobile is its large 5000 mAh battery. Read the review to find out if the ZTE Blade A2 Plus, is worth the buy.
In the box
- ZTE Blade A2 Plus
- Micro USB Cable
- Wall Charger 1.5A variable voltage
- User Manuals
- Sim ejector pin
Design
The mobile has a metal body with curved back. The metal body gives the mobile a sturdy construction. It is just under 200 grams in weight, thanks to the massive 5000 mAh battery. The front display glass has 2.5D curves at the edges. The speaker grills and micro USB port can be found at the bottom. The 3.5 mm audio jack is on the top. Power and volume buttons are at the right while the hybrid dual SIM card slot is at the left. Nothing out of the ordinary here, until you turn over and closely inspect the back. The back has the 13 MP camera with dual tone LED flash. But the finger print sensor is a tactile mechanical button, like the one we saw in Honor 8. Also the navigation menu keys on the front are different. The home button is a circular backlit key with a nicely animated breathing light. This light also acts as the notification LED. The back and the multitasking keys’ orientation can be swapped to suit the liking.
The Blade A2 Plus is a sensibly designed mobile. It is thick and heavy, but for a purpose. The weight distribution is even. I have been using this mobile for a week now and I got comfortable using this mobile owing to its evenly distributed dead weight.
Display
Blade A2 Plus has a 5.5 inch IPS LCD panel. The display is bright both indoors and outdoors. It has good viewing angles. The colors are natural as the saturation levels are realistic, out of the box. However the display settings can be adjusted at a granular level in the settings. Contrast, Saturation, brightness, sharpness, color temperature can be set to the liking. Also the display has blue light filter for eye protection. It also gives the option to enable dynamic contrast while watching videos.
If you are not sure about the settings, there are a couple of presets to choose from. It is a full HD resolution screen and has sharp text and image rendering. Overall, the display is surprisingly good.
Hardware and Performance
ZTE Blade A2 Plus runs on MediaTek MT6750 processor with 4 GB RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. The 6750 is now the most common choice for many mobile manufacturers. The reason is that this processor can deliver optimal performance at low-cost. The mobile is able to handle the UI and your day-to-day tasks at ease. I installed my usual set of 40 applications and the mobile’s hardware took it under its hood, without complaining. Opening apps and a few UI interactions have a few micro-seconds of delay. This is not lag, but a delay by design. I don’t like this delay as I usually prefer instantaneous response from the UI. I played games like Asphalt 8, Mortal combat 5 and Nova 3 on the Blade A2 Plus and the mobile handled it without any frame drop or lag. However the graphics rendering was not upto to the mark. The mobile heated up just by 5 degrees after 20 minutes of game play. For a mid-range mobile, Blade A2 Plus impresses me.
Blade A2 Plus has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS with A-GPS, microUSB v2.0 port and USB On-The-Go support. It also has FM radio. The mobile supports 4G VoLTE on both the SIM slots.
Fingerprint sensor
The fingerprint sensor is placed at the back. It is fast and accurate. It is an active sensor and can sense a valid print from sleep screen as well. It can detect a valid print from any angle. Also the sensor is a button. In settings, under Smart key, the functions of this sensor can be managed. It is a tri-state button: touch, click and double-click. The Smart Key can be programmed to open camera, share an image, turn on flash light, snap a screenshot, open app or just go to home-screen on any of the tri-state action. This is one of few versatile fingerprint sensor implementation which I have seen and probably this is the only mobile in this price range with such a range of features on the fingerprint.
Camera
The primary camera is a 13 MP sensor with PDAF autofocus. At the front is the 8MP selfie shooter. The camera UI is very basic and easy to use. It does not have too many features and it does not have a pro mode. Apart from the auto mode and panorama mode, it can shoot the picture in picture shots, by having the frame from the front camera and rear camera in one shot. It has HDR mode and a few color filters. It can shoot in RAW mode and also the video has electronic image stabilization. The shutter can be activated with gestures.
When it comes to picture quality, the camera fails to impress me. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a good camera with decent shots on daylight and low light, but I am not a person to be easily impressed when it comes to camera, as I have high standards of expectation. The colors are good, but the shots lack sharpness, even in daylight. I would blame the software and also the slow shutter response. The front camera is good for selfies under ample light conditions. Overall, I would say that the camera on Blade A2 Plus is good for casual clicks.
Software
Blade A2 Plus is running on Android 6.0 with a custom skin on top. The visual design is very coarse and does not give you a premium feel while using it. It does not have many pre-loaded apps, but a few third-party applications have been integrated as native features on the mobile. Weshare, touchpal keyboard, wps battery, UC browser are a few to name, Other features like flashlight, gestures, easy mode, private space, activity tracker, super key for fingerprint management also get app status. They must have just been unders settings, instead of apps. Also the mobile is a bit slow to react. When apps are opened or an interaction is invoked, it takes a few milliseconds to react. This is quite annoying and gives a feel that the mobile is slow. I wish there was an option to turn it off and make the mobile snappy. But for your day-to-day usage, you may not find this sluggishness as a problem.
Battery
Battery is the key highlight of the Blade A2 Plus. It takes about 3 hours to charge from 0 to 100%, though they claim that it includes fast charging. But once charged, the device goes on and on for about 96 hours of normal usage. On intensive usage, I get a screen on-time of more than 10 hours. On top of this, the software stack also provides a bunch of power saving modes and options under settings. I am thoroughly impressed with the battery performance of the Blade A2 Plus.
Verdict
At Rs 11,999, the Blade A2 plus competes with Redmi Note 4, Honor 6X. But with a 5000 mAh battery, it is a direct competitor for Asus Zenfone 3S Max. The Zenfone 3S Max has better battery life than the Blade A2 plus but it is priced at Rs 15k. Also the A2 Plus scores better on benchmark test over the Asus Zenfone 3S Max. If you compare just the battery life, the Blade A2 plus is similar to Redmi Note 4 and Honor 6x, which are slimmer than the A2 Plus. At Rs 12k, the Blade A2 plus provides a good value for money. Also, it is relatively easy to buy one. You can just head to Flipkart and pickup one. With price and availability as its strength, the A2 Plus will provide some stiff competition to the others in this segment. The only problem I see with the A2 Plus is the clunky UI. If you are looking for a 5.5 inch mobile with a sensible UI and premium design at a price point of Rs 12k, go ahead and pick up the ZTE Blade A2 Plus.
