The ZTE Blade A73 5G was recently unveiled towards the online and telco channels as an affordable solution towards further embracing the 5G era. Therefore we just receive our device from ZTE Malaysia for a review on the phone and this will be a casual one on how it can fit your use case.
Design
The base of the ZTE Blade A73 is basically all round phone made of plastic and the materials used from it is a durable one, with no worries over smudges or scratches concerns over it, as long its not pocketed together with your keys or coins. Its back is slightly curved on the both side making it easy to hold and meant for single hand operation use.
Measured at only 8.5mm thickness and weighted around 170 grams (estimated), the ZTE Blade A73 5G does not stress your pocket or bag at all, and its classic design profile makes it a simple looking yet highly functional where ever you carry it to. The rest such as a modern USB type C port is present along with a classic 3.5mm headphone jack opening up possibilities of using your favorite headphone together, if not there is still Bluetooth connectivity for using TWS.
Display & Audio
Lets get on the display of the ZTE Blade A73 5G, well you get a 6.52 inch water drop display with 90Hz refresh rate, HDR10, but resolution is only max at 720P+. However for the most part the display may not the most sharpest one, but still be able to reproduce out good reading level and manage to give out a passable color and contrast, while brightness is not mention in the technical specification, we bring it out for a test and it is still visible outdoors, albeit not as bright as other phones we tested. Other than that the touch panel is responsive as usual, but still for what you are expecting, and paying, its a pretty good phone.
No dual speakers or any specific settings for your audio equalizer or tuning there, but even so, the single speaker on the phone is decently audible and it is meant for rudimentary usage with no muffles or distortion, good enough even if you are outdoors or indoors, you be ensured that you will still get to your tunes and music, or some short dramas on the go.
Camera
There is a pair of 13MP AF + 2MP Depth sensor assigned as a rear camera with flash while front there is a 5MP camera for all your selfies.
I see this setup, I mean on the camera point of view as an essential part for this phone, it is not meant for your all beautiful imagery photorealistic shots, but the use case I am seeing here is a quick, fast, somewhat point and shoot type of camera setup that we are looking at. However being said, the results are still within my expectations and still presentable even if you wanted to extract it for a quick social media post, your quick PowerPoint presentation report, or a short video that you can quickly upload over to your messenger such as WhatsApp, serving a purpose for the workforce that needed a quick recording and snaps.
For video you can go up to 1080P at 30FPS max, and as long with some light conditions as minimum, you should be able to get your video captured with some degree of details at night, day time its not an issue for this phone apart from very minor stutters.
Performance, Experience, Benchmarking
Equipped internally, within its heart of the phone is the Unisoc T760 5G SOC with Octa Core Processing that is arranged in 4 power saving core and 4 performance cores, along with 4GB of RAM + 4GB Virtual Fusion RAM and 128GB internal storage, the ZTE Blade A73 5G focuses on reliability on usage with power saving and some performance you can get out of it, with it’s 5000mAH power battery, it is expected that you can get by around 2 days if your purpose is just focusing on calls, messages, some social media scrolling and a couple of short clips.
With that, we tested out games like temple run and Mobile Legends, and indeed it does run, and still can provide some fun factor towards the user, especially if you are sitting down somewhere just to relax and pick up a few game sessions, this phone can do it reasonably ok.
Software wise, its running on Android 13 with almost stock UI experience from ZTE’s MyOS, and just a few bloatware here and there, nothing serious or intruding apps. Most of the base features are AOSP with Google Services ported over to this phone with ZTE’s own Adaptive 5G feature, gesture and motion and dual app duplicator, so basically you are enjoying an almost pure Android experience with close to no compromises.
Here comes the benchmark, to put it simply, it stands somewhere between a budget level outcome but still be able to multitask, somewhere along the competitions from the low mid tier Snapdragon or MediaTek SOC
Technical Specifications
| Processor | UNISOC T760 Octa Core Processor with 5G |
| RAM/ROM | 4GB + 4GB Virtual RAM/128GB Internal Storage |
| Display | 6.52“ HD+ 90Hz Display |
| Camera | Rear: 13MP + 2MP Front: 5MP |
| Speaker/Audio | Single Speaker with 3.5mm Audio Jack |
| Battery | 5000 mAh with 10w charging |
| OS | Android 13 with MyOS + GMS |
Verdict, Conclusion & Pricing
The ZTE Blade A73 5G is a phone that serve its very purpose and reason, giving the best of 5G connectivity for the masses without breaking the bank or burning a hole in a pocket, and it does met most of the objectives of being one with some compromises, however looking at the whole thing, it does provide the essentials what a phone has, and therefore it is offered as a Free Phone for certain Telco Carrier Plan as a start to spearhead towards fast data surfing. If not, buying it outright for RM749 is great too for the young ones, or as a company phone, especially those working on site, gig, freelancers that doubles as a good hotspot device as well.