ZTE Blade A1 News: ZTE's Cheapest Smartphone Features Fingerprint Scanner
Chinese device manufacturer ZTE has added another smartphone to its Blade series. The new phone called the ZTE Blade A1 joins the rest of the line which includes the Blade X9, X5 and X3. According to a report in Tech Times, the phone is expected to pack a fingerprint scanner despite it being a mid-range phone. The phone is also said to be priced at under $100, making it the first smartphone of this price to have the popular security feature.
The device was unveiled on December 3 and carries decent specs for its price tag. The phone is said to measure 142 x 70.2 x 8.9mm or 5.59 x 2.76 x 0.35 inches. With its very colourful plastic body, the report said that it looked like an iPhone 5c.
The ZTE Blade A1 has a 5-inch HD screen with a 1,080 x 720 pixels resolution. It is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor running at 1.3 GHz which is paired off with 2 GB of RAM. On-board storage is at 16 GB but is expandable via a microSD card slot.
The phone's connectivity options will be GSM, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also has dual SIM support which consists of two Nano-SIMs, according to Gadgets 360.
Camera-wise, the phone also has decent shooters. The rear camera is a 13 megapixel camera while the selfie camera is an 8 megapixel shooter. The phone will have a 2,800 mAh battery powering it. It will come pre-installed with ZTE's MiFavor 3.2 UI on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop.
The phone's fingerprint scanner is said to be the same as the one on the Axon phone. When used, it will take only 0.3 seconds to unlock the device because of its 360-unlocking technology.
There will be five color variants for the phone: Cool Blue, Vibrant Yellow, Dream Green, Smart White and Space Grey. It will be available in China starting December 11 through the retailer JD.com. The site is also accepting pre-orders for the device.
It will be selling for CNY 599 or about $94 in China. It is not yet known if ZTE will make the phone available outside of the Chinese market.
