Josh Hendrickson
While flagship phones easily steal the show, not everyone wants to spend $1,000 or more on smartphones. If you’re willing to settle for less, you can pay a lot less in the process. The ZTE Blade 11 Prime offers many features for just $192—if your carrier supports it.
Inexpensive Android phones often come with outdated versions of the OS and don’t see many updates. While ZTE doesn’t always provide reliably or speed updates, as its name implies, the Blade 11 Prime starts on Android 11. At least you won’t be on old software out of the gate.
It also offers wireless charging, a feature we think should be standard even on inexpensive phones but all too often isn’t. But it can also pull off reverse charging through its USB-C port, so in a pinch, it’s a portable battery when you need on. It houses a 4,000 mAh battery, which should make the prospect of reverse charging a little more viable.
The display is a 6.52-inch 1600×720 “waterdrop” screen, which isn’t even close to the highest resolution, but decent enough considering the price range. The ZTE Blade’s camera system is a triple-array affair comprised of16 MP, 8 MP, and 2 MP lenses. An 8 MP shooter serves as the front-facing camera.
In theory, it should run well enough, thanks to 4 GBs of RAM and 64 GBs of storage, along with a MicroSD slot that supports up to 2 TB cards. But its MediaTek 6762 might be a bottleneck. It supports LTE, but no 5G, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and fingerprint sensor unlock.
You can buy the ZTE Blade 11 for $192 through Visible and Yahoo Mobile.
