Budget smartphones! The two words that send shivers up Apple’s spine and usually result in great big smiles across Stuff Magazine’s faces. While ZTE has launched a few products in South Africa in the past, perhaps most notably the first 5G indoor router, the brand has been fairly absent in our sunny country for some time now, but that’s about to change in the near future. The company is re-entering South Africa with the launch of the ZTE Blade A3 2020 smartphone.

This is obviously a budget device so don’t expect the kind of specs you’ll find in an iPhone 12 but given what you’re paying for this device (more on that in a second), it’s not a terrible smartphone. According to the press release sent out by ZTE, the Blade A3 2020 sports all the features you’ll need if you’re in the market for a budget phone or a spare phone in case of emergencies. So what exactly are we working with?

ZTE Blade A3 2020 specs

Fortunately for us, ZTE sent along with a handy breakdown of what you can expect to find in this device. So why waste your time with paragraphs of text (blegh, reading) when you can get everything you need in a neat little table:

ZTE Blade A3 2020 Key Specifications
Screen Size	5,45” HD+
Screen Resolution	1440 x 720 with 18:9 Aspect Ratio
Chipset	Unisoc SC983E
CPU	Quad-Core 1.4GHz
OS	Android P (Go Edition)
Battery	Li-Ion 2600 mAh
Main Camera	8MP (physical 5MP interpolated to 8MP)
Selfie Camera	5MP (physical 2MP interpolated to 5MP)
Memory	16GB ROM + 1GB RAM

The Blade A3 2020 will also include all the apps you could possibly need, including access to all of Google’s services as well as GPS and calendar services.

Yet what about the price? The ZTE Blade A3 2020 will retail for “below than R1,000” for the first half of 2020, which is actually fairly impressive given what you’re getting for that kind of money. According to the press release, ZTE will be launching four more phones in the first half of 2021 so if the Blade A3 2020 doesn’t tickle you, maybe something else will!