ZTE, one of the world’s largest handset manufacturers, held a press conference last July 23 to announce James Yap as the brand’s first Philippine ambassador while adding a little sneak peek into their new Nubia line of smartphones.
The 2014 Finals MVP of the PBA Governors’ Cup expressed his excitement as the mobile company’s foremost Filipino endorser, saying that he researched the brand’s quality, features, and product offerings before signing on. According to ZTE’s Philippine Distributor, MSI-ECS President Jimmy Go, they chose Yap as their endorser as he best exemplifies the company’s brand identity – a high-quality champion who consistently performs.
A relatively new smartphone player in the Philippine market, ZTE is looking to make an aggressive push as one of the top mobile choices of Filipinos. Besides getting a well-known and high-quality endorser in James Yap, the company is looking to bring in faster phones with better features while keeping the price tag at a comparatively low price. Quality need not be an issue as ZTE guarantees low defect rates because they themselves manufacture the phone using safety standards and certifications for strict quality control.
Featured at the conference were two of ZTE’s latest offerings – the Blade Vec Octa and Blade Vec 4G. The dual-sim Vec Octa, as the name implies, sports an octa-core processor, 1GB RAM, 5.0” HD display, 13MP back and 5MP front cameras, 2300mAh battery, and a slightly modified Android KitKat OS. Meanwhile, the Vec 4G is LTE-enabled, but is a step down in other specs; a quad-core proessor, 8MP main and 1MP front snappers, and space for only a single SIM.
Playing around with the two Blade Vec variants, I can say that they’re both snappy, easy to hold, and lightweight. There was no lag at all as I flicked through the screens and apps, and their camera was decent. I also loved the fact that they’re sporting a mostly unmodified Android 4.4 with minor changes in the app icons and notification bar. Yay for vanilla KitKats!
The highlight of the night was when they featured a short and beautiful cinematic clip of Europe’s countryside and landmarks. As it turned out, it was shot entirely with a new Nubia phone. If the video was anything to go by, then the Nubia may possess one of the better smartphone cameras I’ve seen in a long time. They also teased some of the Nubia’s features, including a sleek and slim body, high screen resolution, a quality front camera, and voice-activated controls.
No price accompanied the above phone models, but I’d put their tags anywhere between PHP 10,000 to PHP 15,000. ZTE’s reputation as one of the brands most trusted by telecoms should provide us an expectation as to what ZTE will come up with in the following months.
ZTE Blade Vec image from techshout.com