Skip to main content

ZTE unveils the Blade Force, an affordable phone for the Boost Mobile network

Cricket Wireless
Kārlis Dambrāns/123rf
ZTE has taken the wraps off of its latest Boost Mobile-destined smartphone, the ZTE Blade Force. Like some of ZTE’s other recent launches, the phone is aimed at offering decent specs at a reasonable price, and will cost $130 from Boost Mobile.

So what are those specs? Well, for starters, it’ll offer a 5.5-inch HD display with a 3,000mAh battery — which should be plenty to get most people through the day, even heavy users. It also offers an unspecified Qualcomm Snapdragon chip with 2BG of RAM, and comes preloaded with Android 7.1.1 Nougat. While that’s not the latest version of Android, the phone is still relatively up to date.

Recommended Videos

The camera has become increasingly important in a phone over the past few years, and the camera on this phone doesn’t look to be all that bad. It sits at 8-megapixels, with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. A good amount of storage is also important, and the ZTE Blade Force comes with 16GB of it — though that can be expanded with the microSD card slot.

Perhaps the most important thing about this phone is that it’s the cheapest to support Sprint’s High Performance User Equipment, or HPUE, which basically allows for LTE connection speeds of up to a massive 1Gbps. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll hit those speeds, but it does mean that if you live in an area where it’s supported, you may be able to get some pretty fast speeds in the right conditions.

Sure, the phone isn’t a flagship, but it seems to offer some pretty great value for money.

“The ZTE Blade Force continues to demonstrate how ZTE seamlessly blends innovation and affordability into our lineup, while remaining true to what consumers want most in their smartphone,” said Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices, in a statement. “The Blade Force packs big features, Sprint’s HPUE technology, and a lot more into an affordable price point.”

To get the phone, you’ll need to be a Boost Mobile customer or willing to switch over to the mobile virtual network operator. As mentioned, it will set you back $130. Check it out for yourself on the Boost Mobile website.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Everything you need to know about the OnePlus 13
Official OnePlus 13 product renders showing rear panel colors.

OnePlus is an excellent brand that offers powerful flagship phones at a great value compared to some of its competitors. We followed every rumor about the OnePlus 13 for months, but now it's here — and it's everything we hoped for. It might not be available in the Western market yet, but it will be soon.

So, what makes the OnePlus 13 so special? Here's everything you need to know about OnePlus' latest flagship.
When is the OnePlus 13 being released?

Read more
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite vs. MediaTek Dimensity 9400: the race is on
Comparison of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek Dimensity 9400 processors.

The flagship mobile silicon race has entered its next phase, one that will dictate the trajectory of Android hardware heading into 2025. Merely weeks after MediaTek wowed us with the Dimensity 9400 system on a chip (SoC), Qualcomm also pulled a surprise with the reveal of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

But this time around, the battle is not as straightforward. Where MediaTek is working closely with Arm and adopting its latest CPU and graphics innovations, Qualcomm has firmly put its faith in custom cores. These are no ordinary cores, but a next-gen iteration of the same fundamental tech stack that powers Windows on ARM laptops.

Read more
Discolored line on your new Kindle? You aren’t alone
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition on a table.

The new Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is the first full-color e-reader, and a lot of bookworms couldn't wait to get their hands on it. Sadly, many people are reporting the display has a discolored yellow area at the bottom of the screen. The problem is so widespread that the Kindle Colorsoft dropped to an average review rating of 2.6 out of 5, although it does remain the bestselling e-book reader at the moment.

The cause of the discoloration isn't clear. Some users report that it only happens when using the edge lighting feature on the Kindle, while others say it appeared after a software update. Either way, the yellowing is a problem, especially on a device that Amazon has marketed as being great for comics and graphic novel fans. It's hard to enjoy the colorwork in a comic when it's distorted.

Read more