Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G Review

Smart Communications and global brand ZTE recently entered quite the surprising collaboration, and brought us the ZTE Blade A75 5G. This new, affordable smartphone comes in with the aim to deliver some solid 5G performance that one would otherwise find on pricier devices. Rocking quite the plethora of features and clad in a spiffy exterior, it wouldn’t be easy to determine its price range at first glance. Since the price tag doesn’t quite match the looks, it may garner a few questions.

As such, we’ve spent all the time necessary to see how well this this 5G collaboration works for the Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G. While this wouldn’t be the first time a budget smartphone arrived on the scene–and powered by 5G, this new smartphone definitely one of the more compelling options on the market, given its price. This rings especially true if one simply needs 5G connectivity without breaking the bank.

Just how does the Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G fare as a daily driver, though? As always, read on to find out.

Geeksthetic

Our Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G comes in the Diamond Black colorway, and it’s got the looks. Sporting a sleek, thin body, it’s light to the touch with just the right amount of heft in your hand. It has a glossy finish, so slap on that TPU case if you wish. While the backside comes in ZTE’s patented “Sky Mirror Glass” design, it feels like decent hard plastic–which isn’t a bad thing. It brings about a premium feel while still being lightweight–if that makes any sense.

To the sides, you get the usual volume rocker alongside the power button which doubles as a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The large, circular camera setup is quite eyecatching. It houses the 50MP camera which is flanked by a 2MP bokeh lens. More on those babies later.

Up front, the device features a 6.6-inch HD+ IPS LCD display, which looks clear and vibrant enough when you switch it on. The bezels aren’t necessarily chunky, but you do get a bit of a chin downstairs. It would have been nice to extend the display just a pinch to make it 6.7 inches, but this is fine overall. As mentioned earlier, the smartphone looks quite a bit more expensive than you’d expect. It’s a tad gaudy, but in a good way.

Binge-Watching Factor

Now, let’s talk about that display. The 6.6-inch HD+ IPS LCD display isn’t the best one around. But if you’re willing to set your expectations and see the smartphone for what it is, you’ll definitely find some viewing pleasure. You’ll get quite the decent amount of light if you crank up the brightness to maximum levels. It may not be 4000 nits, but you won’t have any trouble watching in the dark. The auto-brightness feature works well, too.

You get a surprisingly snappy 120Hz refresh rate which is quite smooth when it comes to navigating through the home screen, and settling down to catch your favorite Kpop music videos–which can go all the way up to 1080p. As for audio, we only get single-firing speakers up top which blast DTS-powered audio. It’s crisp enough, and doesn’t snap, crackle, or pop even at 100%.

Speaking of audio, we get the often forgotten 3.5mm headphone jack. Really, though. People need to stop dismissing wired cans as old tech. IEMs exist, and we sure love to plug them into our smartphones without USB-C adapters.

Gaming Prowess

Alright, here we are. One of the make or break features for a certain section of would-be customers: good ol’ gaming. In terms of juice, the Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G comes powered by a UNISOC T760 processor with up to 8GB of RAM via extension. Now, hear us out.

Yes, it’s true that you’ll struggle a bit with higher-end titles like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, but there’s a silver lining. If you’re into Zenless Zone Zero or Honkai: Star Rail, you won’t be struggling as much. It’s important to note that you should keep the game settings at default. It’s a non-negotiable.

At its lowest settings, we were able to get a couple hours of decent gameplay minus a few jitters and a bit of lagging here and there. We don’t recommend you use this smartphone as your supercharged mobile gaming rig. All we’re saying is you can–if you must.

As for any other game–be it MOBAs, FPS titles, or Asphalt Legends, you’ll be just fine. The processor and GPU do a decent enough job with keeping the graphics and performance balanced–like with Honor of Kings at max settings. The 128GB of storage kind of sours things, but looking on the bright side–it could’ve been 64.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

So, let’s talk about that 50MP camera coupled with a 2MP macro lens–the wombo combo that’ll raise the eyebrows of smartphone snobs everywhere. Sorry to disappoint that section of the audience, because the photos turned out rather fine.

The main shooter can capture up to 3X lossless zoom. Under proper lighting, you can capture photos with a decent amount of detail. Beyond that, expect a lot of grain. Once you start snapping photos under dimmer lighting situations, you can expect a dip in quality. It’s not egregious, but it will be noticeable.

As for the portrait shots, you get some sweet bokeh and a generous amount of detail, albeit at a default 1X zoom. It can be a bit tricky to work with the autofocus, but once you do get to lock in to your subject, things turn out nicely. The same goes for selfies, which don’t get any zoom or ultrawide, but produce some decent portrait shots.

Shooting video produces quite the conundrum, given the chipset’s limitations. You can shoot up to 4K 30fps–and rather adequately, at that. However, you’re limited to that same 30fps across the board. You won’t be getting any EIS/OIS either, so if you do choose to produce video content, use the main camera, keep it at 4K, and perhaps use a tripod.

Everyday Reliability

We’re talking about a smartphone in the budget range, which demands reliability by default. In this area, the Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G doesn’t disappoint. Aside from some neat quality of life features that are nice to have, it comes with the essential features that you’ll definitely need. For bells and whistles, we get a Live Island. While it doesn’t function on its own, it’s nice to have those extra bit of visuals for notifications and the like. For Spotify, it directs you to the app if you tap it, instead of having tactile features which you could manipulate on the fly.

Battery life is no issue, as you’re blessed with 5000 mAh and 18 watts to top it up once it runs out. That being said, don’t expect it to charge as quickly as most. In our case, it took around an hour to get back from 0%. It’s a good thing it takes a while to run out, though. More than a day, to be exact.

Now, in case you though we forgot–we haven’t. The 5G connectivity is fast, but only as fast as the coverage in your area. Indoors, we got just about 20MBPs–which was fine, but rather sad. Once outdoors, the jump in internet speed was tremendous. While it’s not the device’s fault, it’s something worth taking note of, especially if you live in an area that has difficulty with connectivity.

As for whether or not this should be considered a daily driver, we’re using the smartphone as this review is being typed down. It’s a decent productivity partner, and gets the job done. Given everything we’ve mentioned, it’ll now be down to personal choice.

Final Verdict

We’d say that the Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G is a successful first telco-tech brand collaboration in a long time. 5G connectivity is rather elusive in the budget range, with many, even more expensive devices limited to running on LTE. This new smartphone is a nice gateway for those who wish to utilize the burgeoning 5G benefits, but at a fraction of the usual price.

The device itself is objectively decent, while forgoing the flash and pizzazz and sticking to the bare essentials–and even then, it performs well. It’s also nice that they didn’t neglect aesthetics.

In terms of pricing, you can snag the Smart ZTE Blade A75 5G for the affordable price of PHP 5,450. It’s currently available online via Lazada, Shopee, and the Smart Philippines official shop page.

To learn more about the device, you can also check ZTE’s official website.