[CES 2017] ZTE Blade V8 with dual-rear cameras, 3D shooting, Nougat announced

ZTE is not yet done with the phone announcements at CES 2017. After announcing ZTE Hawkeye and ZTE Blade V8 Pro, ZTE has now officially announced a lower-end variant of the Blade V8 Pro smartphone, called the ZTE Blade V8. The announcement of Blade V8 was quite expected, considering that the Pro variant of the device was already official.

ZTE Blade V8 is a mid-range Android smartphone with great camera features and amazing design. ZTE is targeting the Blade V8 at younger crowd. The smartphone will be available in 4 stylish colors to choose from: Rose Gold, Silver, Dark Grey and Champagne Gold.

According to ZTE, the Blade V8 will be released in Russia and Japan by February 2017, followed by Germany, Spain and China by March 2017.

Physically, the device comes with diamond-cut metallic body equipped with 2.5D curved-edge glass. On the front we have a fingerprint scanner with volume rockers and power button on the right side. The SIM slot sits on the left and the speakers are on the bottom of the device with USB Type-C port in-between them.

Also Read: [CES 2017] ZTE Blade V8 Pro with 5.5" display, dual 13MP rear cameras announced for $229.98

The key feature of Blade V8 is dual-rear cameras which is capable of taking Bokeh photos and 3D-shooting. The configuration of rear cameras are 13MP primary + 2MP secondary which is used for detecting depth and distance of the surrounding to produce special effects like blur backgrounds (bokeh effect).

[CES 2017] ZTE Hawkeye with eye-tracking & self-adhesive case announced for Kickstarter

Along with ZTE Blade V8 Pro, the Chinese manufacturer has also announced another smartphone at CES 2017 called the ZTE Hawkeye. This smartphone from ZTE is a completely crowdsourced phone. The device name "Hawkeye" was selected from over 540 community submissions under project name CSX.

According to ZTE, the phone is currently in development phase and is expected to ship later this year in September. ZTE has started a Kickstarter campaign of Hawkeye with goal of $500,000 pledges. The device is currently available for preorder on Kickstarter for $199.

ZTE Hawkeye - Download

The two key features of Hawkeye is eye-tracking (similar to Samsung's Smart Stay feature) and self-adhesive case.

Talking of each of them in detail, the eye tracking feature will detect motion using front-facing camera on the phone. This will allow users to scroll through pages and navigate left and right in applications using movement of eyes. Voice command can be used to navigate between pages. This will give a complete hands-free user experience.

On the other hand, self-adhesive case gives the ability to stick the phone on most vertical surfaces, resisting the forces of gravity. 

[CES 2017] ZTE Blade V8 Pro with 5.5" display, dual 13MP rear cameras announced for $229.98

At ongoing CES 2017, ZTE has officially announced a new mid-range Android smartphone under its Blade series called the ZTE Blade V8 Pro. ZTE smartphones are popular for offering great features at affordable price. The Blade V8 Pro follows the same legacy.

The key feature of Blade V8 Pro is its dual 13MP rear camera. ZTE has priced the V8 Pro at $229.98 in the United States. The device is now available for pre-order from Amazon, B&H, Newegg and zteusa.com in Black Diamond color option.

ZTE Blade V8 Pro - Download

ZTE Blade V8 Pro is a mid-range device featuring a 5.5-inch Full HD display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Powering the device is 2GHz octa-core 14nm Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU and 3GB RAM. The device runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, with no word on whether or not it will be updated to Nougat.

Talking of physical appearance, the Blade V8 Pro measures 156 x 77 x 9.1 mm and weighs 185g. The device hosts a physical home button on the front which doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

Also, the V8 Pro comes with hybrid dual-SIM support, allowing users to use either two SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card.