Are you looking for a budget-friendly smartphone but still want to future-proof yourself by having 5G connectivity? The new ZTE Blade A75 5G might be the smartphone for you.
Local telco Smart Communications teamed up with ZTE to bring this affordable 5G device in the Philippines. Priced at under Php6,000, it’s undeniably one of the cheapest 5G phones you can get in the market.
But is that price too good to be true? What were the compromises done to achieve that low price tag? And, ultimately, is it a device actually worth getting? We’ll find out in our ZTE Blade A75 5G review.
ZTE Blade A75 5G Specs
- Android 13, MyOS 13
- Dual SIM, Dual standby
- 6.6-inch IPS HD+ display, 1600 x 720 pixel resolution, ~266ppi
- 120Hz refresh rate
- 2.2GHz 6nm UNISOC T760 octa-core processor
- Mali-G57 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 128GB UFS 3.1 internal storage, non-expandable
- 8-megapixel front camera
- 50-megapixel + depth sensor rear cameras, LED flash
- Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- HSPA+, 4G LTE, 5G
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-and
- Bluetooth
- GPS
- USB-C
- Dimensions: 167.4 x 76 x 8.3mm
- 5,000mAh non-removable battery, 10W charging
Design and Build Quality
The ZTE Blade A75 5G is an interesting-looking smartphone. It has a distinct camera island that’s really large — similar to other ZTE phones we’ve seen in the past. The look is quite intimidating and kinda over-promises the device’s actual camera performance (more on that later).
It sits in a shiny rear panel that looks and feels like glass. It can attract fingerprint smudges, but they are surprisingly not that noticeable, which is great if you don’t want to use the free case included in the box.
The Blade A75 5G has a black colorway, which has shining glitters that shimmers with light. This subtle effect adds a significant appeal to this entry-level device.
Like most phones today, the device has flat edges for a nice grip, but the sharp edges are a bit uncomfortable when using it for an extended period. It’s not the thinnest nor the lightest phone in its segment, either.
On the upside, it feels incredibly robust and sturdy. I did a couple of light bend tests and it stayed firm, with no worrying squeaks that hint it could easily break. Although it doesn’t have an official rating for dust and water resistance, I wasn’t expecting it anyway considering the price. However, I did notice a rubber gasket in the SIM tray, so it still has some type of water protection.
Taking a tour, we have a 6.6-inch IPS HD+ display, and it impressively managed to have a punch-hole cutout for the 8-megapixel selfie camera, instead of the waterdrop notch that most entry-level phones have. The bezels on top and bottom are quite large, but not a big deal.
The left side is the SIM tray for two nano SIMs. Oddly enough, it doesn’t have a microSD card slot for storage expansion, which is unusual for an entry-level device.
On the right, we have the volume controls and the lock/power switch that also works as the fingerprint scanner. The buttons are tactile, clicky, and feel very well made. It has a flat surface, which sits flush on the frame.
I also appreciate the red color of the power button, which is another subtle design choice that creates a big impact on the overall look of the device.
The top is clean, while at the bottom, we have the USB-C port, the microphone, and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
If you’re wondering where the loudspeaker is, it’s on top, possibly the same driver used for voice calls.
Overall, the ZTE Blade A75 5G is a well-built smartphone with interesting design touches that goes beyond its price tag.
Display and Audio
The ZTE Blade A75 5G comes with a 6.6-inch IPS display, with an acceptable HD+ resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels, 266 pixels per inch, and a surprisingly high 120Hz refresh rate.
Display quality is definitely not great, but passable for the price. Colors are acceptable and screen brightness is ample, but I do wish it can get brighter when it’s sunny outside.
No Widevine L1 support here, only L3, so no HD streaming on streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video. On the upside, the high refresh rate was felt, making social media browsing and other apps feel decently smooth — a rare feat on entry-level phones with 120Hz panels.
While I do get it’s an entry-level phone, the audio quality from the single loudspeaker still feels very disappointing. Apart from the odd placing (it’s on top, rather than on the bottom), the sound quality feels really bad, even for the price.
It appears that ZTE boosted the earpiece — usually only made for calls — to pass as the loudspeaker, resulting into audio performance that’s worse than most phones in this segment. Other brands actually do amp-up the top speaker, but only when it’s aided by a bottom-firing driver to provide a stereo sound.
Hardware and Performance
The ZTE Blade A75 5G is powered by a 6nm 2.2GHz UNISOC T760 octa-core processor, with 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. As mentioned earlier, there’s no microSD card slot for storage expansion. But 128GB is often more than enough for entry-level smartphones like this one.
ZTE Blade A75 5G Benchmark Scores
Performance is as expected. It feels laggy, but still very usable if you set your expectations right. Social media apps ran fine, as well as messaging, video calls, web browsing, writing documents, and other light tasks.
Bear in mind, this is a below-Php6,000 phone with 5G, so you really can’t have it all.
Even if it’s a budget phone, I was still curious to see how it performs in games. So, I ran our standard test games, and started right away with Genshin Impact. Unsurprisingly, the game was incredibly laggy, even under the Lowest (Default) settings. It also started to heat up instantly, with only about 3 minutes of gameplay.
Call of Duty Mobile, a more optimized game, was playable under Low/Medium, but make sure you’re patient, as frame drops can occur from time to time and overheating can be an issue. I got same results with PUBG Mobile under Smooth/Medium.
Farlight84, under Smooth/Medium, ran surprisingly better than the other two shooter games.
As expected, Mobile Legends ran smoothly under High, as well as Asphalt Legends Unite under High Quality.
| Game | Graphics Settings |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Low • Frame Rate: Medium |
| Farlight84 | • Graphics Quality: Smooth • Frame Rate: Medium |
| PUBG Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Smooth • Frame Rate: Medium |
| Genshin Impact | • Graphics Quality: n/a |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | • Graphics Quality: High • Frame Rate: High • HD Mode: On |
| Asphalt Legends Unite | • Visual Quality: High Quality |
Software and User Interface
Sadly, the ZTE Blade A75 5G still runs on Android 13, with ZTE’s MyOS 13 interface on top, which is disappointing, especially with Android 15 already on the horizon.
The interface is fine and I got easily used to it. It’s not safe from bloatware or preinstalled apps, but almost all of them can be uninstalled. I also appreciate the search tab on the app drawer and how you can easily sort them alphabetically, new to old, or by the frequency that you use them so the most used apps are always on top.
There’s a section in the settings called SyncMind that contains two things: There’s the 5G Smart Communication that shows which network you’re connected with (WiFi or 5G), see the signal strength, link speed, and real-time network speed. It can also automatically switch between SIMs as it analyzes signal strength quality, data usage, and network congestion.
Also here is the Live Island feature which can be easily enabled or disabled. It shows a Dynamic Island-like feature that shows dynamic notifications when you pair earphones, charging, run a timer or voice record.
You can also adjust the sensitivity of the Screen-edge mistouch prevention and enable/disable Mistouch prevention in your pocket. I really don’t think anybody should disable it, but it’s there in case you don’t want it.
The camera app is quite nice and lets you choose between 27mm (1x zoom) and 81mm (2x zoom) equivalents, despite having only one usable rear camera.
I was curious when I saw the “Camera-family” on the line-up, but was let down when I found out it only contained standard camera features like Panorama, Document scanner, Full Size (Full resolution shooter), Time-lapse, and Multi-exposure.
The side-mounted fingerprint scanner worked incredibly fast. So fast that it would instantly unlock the device when I was just trying to wake the device to check the time or notifications.
It also has face unlock, which worked well in good lighting but, unlike most phones I’ve tested, it struggles in pitch-black room the majority of the time.
Cleanup is a nice app that does a scan of your device so you can free up space by deleting junk files, infrequently used apps, and more. I uses Emoji Keyboard by default, but if I was using this as a daily driver, I’d switch it to Google Keyboard. It’s not to say that the default one is unusable, but Gboard is free and better in every way.
Despite the budget limitations, I still would have preferred to see a newer version of Android on this thing. Can’t really complain with everything we’re getting, though, so I’ll give it a pass on that.
Cameras
The ZTE Blade A75 5G has a 50-megapixel main camera, depth sensor, and 8-megapixel on the front for selfies. Considering the price, I wasn’t expecting much from the camera. That’s why when I saw the sample photos I had taken, I was not surprised by how mediocre they looked.
Daylight shots have decent sharpness and details, but I noticed a yellowish hue in some of the shots. I also saw inconsistencies in the saturation, which suggests issues with post-processing. Dynamic range is just straight-up bad.
Low-light shots suffer the same issues. The yellow hues are more prominent, even in well-lit indoor locations. Some of the reds in the shots are being exaggerated, but the details are surprisingly decent.
In addition, I’ve noticed a significant delay in the shutter the most of the time, regardless if it’s a daylight or low-light shot. It resulted in the shots being extremely blurry. As a workaround, make sure to hold still for a few seconds after taking shots to give the phone ample time to process it.
The 8-megapixel front-facing camera is decent for selfies and video calls. Sharpness is ample, albeit skin tones look a little pale. It also suffers from slow shutter speeds most of the time, which kinda expected from a device at this range.
Bottom line is, image quality is fine, but definitely needs some tuning. Hopefully, a software update fixes the post-processing issue and the annoying shutter delay (or at least lessen it a bit).
Battery and Charging
The ZTE Blade A75 5G comes with a 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging. Nothing special.
Battery life was below average. PCMark’s battery test loops synthetic workload until the battery drops from 100% to 20%. With the screen brightness and volume at 50% and the WiFi and Bluetooth off, the device lasted for 13 hours and 17 minutes, which is lower than the average score we get of around 14 hours and 30 minutes.
On the other hand, it lasted 12 hours and 36 minutes in our 1080p YouTube video loop test, which was also ran with the screen brightness and volume at 50%. That’s around 2.5 hours below the average score of around 15 hours.
The 10W charger is forgivable for the price, but do expect long charging times on this one. A 15-minute top-up only provided 0-11% charge, while going to full 100% takes around 2 hours and 24 minutes. See the full test results below:
- 15mins: 0-11%
- 30mins: 23%
- 45mins: 34%
- 1hr 15mins: 57%
- 1hr 45mins: 79%
- 2hrs: 89%
- 2hrs 24mins: FULL
Verdict
The purpose of the ZTE Blade A75 5G is simple and straightforward: to provide 5G connectivity for a very low price. And to be honest, it does that right.
Sure, it does not have the fastest performance, battery life, and camera. Still, the 5G support is a big deal for the price, making consumers futureproof and have fast mobile internet access if work, school, or entertainment needs require it.
As a bonus, you’re getting a large display, a premium-looking design that looks above its class, and a speedy fingerprint scanner. Plus, there’s a free Smart 5G SIM, so you can take advantage of its main feature right away.
ZTE Blade A75 5G pricing and availability in the Philippines
You can get the ZTE Blade A75 5G on Smart Stores for a price of only Php5,450 and comes with a Smart 5G SIM with free data.
You can also get the device via a 6-month 0% installment plan for Php908.33/month.
Pros
- One of the cheapest 5G phone in the market
- Premium-looking, well-built design
- Fast fingerprint scanner
Cons
- Still on Android 13
- Disappointing speaker
- Image post processing could be better, significant shutter delay
- Below average battery life