Introduction

CES introduced a couple of new notable smartphone entries into the ultra-value segment (sub-$300) of the US market, both from Chinese phone makers: The Honor 6X and the ZTE Blade Pro. Honor had already announced the Honor 6X a few months before it brought the 6X to the States at the CES announcement.

Honor's 6X was announced with a Kirin 655, 3GB of RAM, 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 3,340 mAh battery, and a dual camera setup. Since the 6X was technically released earlier than the Blade V8 Pro, ZTE had a glimpse of what Honor was offering and immediately took a chance to one-up the Huawei-owned brand.

ZTE's product checks more boxes on paper: NFC, 5 GHz Wi-FI, USB-C, and Quick Charge 2.0. The 6X has none of these and costs $30 more than the Blade V8 Pro. In addition, the Blade V8 Pro has a dual-13MP camera VS the Honor 6X's 12MP+2MP setup. This will definitely be an interesting comparison.

Honor 6X at a glance

5.5" LTPS IPS LCD - 1080 x 1920px ~403 ppi

Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 655 - 4x2.1 GHz Cortex-A53 + 4x1.7GHz Cortex-A53 & Mali-T830MP2 GPU

32GB of storage (expandable) / 3GB of RAM (64GB / 4GB model available in markets outside US)

Dual camera: 12MP + 2MP depth sensor, PDAF, 1.25 micron pixel size, 1080p @ 30fps

8MP front-facing camera

Slim and lightweight construction with metal backing

HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps

Hybrid DualSIM support via microSD slot

MicroUSB 2.0

Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner

3,340 mAh battery

No NFC, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi a/b/g/n

ZTE Blade V8 Pro at a glance

5.5" IPS LCD - 1080 x 1920 px ~401 ppi w/ Gorilla Glass 3

Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 - 8x2.0GHz Cortex-A53 & Adreno 506 GPU

32GB of storage (expandable) / 3GB of RAM

Dual 13MP camera setup, PDAF, 1080p or 2160p @ 30fps video

8MP front-facing camera

Metal-reinforced construction with soft-touch textured backside

HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps

Hybrid DualSIM support via microSD slot

Quick Charge 2.0 support via USB-C charging port

Fingerprint scanner embedded into physical home button & capacitive nav keys

3,140 mAh

NFC and 5GHz Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac

Both devices are shipping with Android Marshmallow, but Honor's 6X is in line for Nougat before the Blade V8 Pro's (Honor is currently beta testing the Nougat update). Only time will tell how both of these devices will stand up to the user experience once they are updated. But for now, we'll focus on hardware design, displays, battery life and performance. We'll also be comparing the two dual-camera shooters head-to-head.

Does the ZTE Blade V8 Pro stand a chance against Honor's online retail presence? We'll start with hardware and design and go from there.