Since it's made of plastic instead of aluminum, it's also lighter than the iPad Mini 2. The ZenPad Z8 is ahead of the curve, housing a USB-C port for fast charging. Performance-wise, it outshines its comparable Wi-Fi only counterpart, the Asus ZenPad S 8.0. Unsurprisingly, the cameras on the tablet take underwhelming photos. You're better off using your phone. The buttons on the tablet are located on the top right edge. If you're a Verizon customer who wants to play Hearthstone on the go on a bigger screen, the Asus ZenPad Z8 is a great option that won't break the bank.
We'd known for weeks that the two phones might share a manufacturer: according to FCC and Wi-Fi Alliance certification filings, the BlackBerry DTEK50 comes from TCL, the same Chinese electronics giant that owns Alcatel, Left: BlackBerry DTEK50, Right: Alcatel Idol 4, But it's only now after the DTEK50 unveiling we can see how nigh-identical the two phones really are -- the same design, same specifications, same basic Android operating system, same JBL stereo speakers and even the same 8 iphone cases programmable "Boom Key" that Alcatel was so proud of..
Left: Front of the Alcatel Idol 4. Right: Front of the BlackBerry DTEK50. The only notable differences are that the BlackBerry has a textured plastic back instead of a glass one, which makes the phone a hundredth of an inch thicker, and that it comes with BlackBerry apps and software tweaks instead of Alcatel ones. (You might think that the BlackBerry's black color might be a differentiator, but the Idol can come in the same black as well.). Note that the Alcatel Idol 4 (click to enlarge) can come in the same black color.
There's nothing really wrong with BlackBerry tapping TCL to build its phone, No one company builds any smartphone, really, Apple's iPhones are built in China, just like all the others, The chips all come from different companies, And many famous consumer electronics weren't originally sketched by in-house artists, but rather boutique 8 iphone cases studios like Frog Design or IDEO, Plus, it could still be an excellent phone, It's not like BlackBerry's trying to hide something, either: in a Q&A session following the DTEK50's unveiling, BlackBerry design director Scott Wenger admitted the phone was based on a reference design from TCL..
That's what we need to figure out in our upcoming reviews of both phones. BlackBerry didn't immediately have a comment. Alcatel declined to comment for this story. Note: some reports suggest that the Idol 4 processor runs at 1.7GHz instead of the same 1.5GHz as the DTEK50, but the company's US spec sheet disagrees. And here are the pictures to help prove it. BlackBerry is pretty proud of its new phone, the DTEK50. But it's less a BlackBerry phone than any BlackBerry phone that's ever come before.
