ZTE Blade A36

The ZTE Blade A36 has a standard, non-folding design with a height of 167.6 mm and a width of 77.4 mm, giving it a tall, slab-style form factor with a total volume of roughly 107.67 cm³. At 8.3 mm thick, the body sits within a fairly slim profile for its size. The device does not feature a rugged build and carries no water resistance rating, so it is not designed to withstand harsh environments or moisture exposure.

The ZTE Blade A36 uses an IPS LCD touchscreen measuring 6.75 inches, delivering a resolution of 720 x 1600 px at a pixel density of 260 ppi. The display supports a 90Hz refresh rate, which contributes to smoother on-screen motion during everyday use. It does not include branded damage-resistant glass, and there is no support for HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision, nor does it offer an Always-On Display mode or a secondary screen.

The ZTE Blade A36 is powered by the Unisoc T7200 chipset, built on a 12 nm process with an 8-thread CPU running at 2 x 1.6 GHz and 6 x 1.6 GHz using big.LITTLE architecture with HMP support, paired with 4 GB of DDR4 RAM at 1600 MHz and 64 GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage. The Mali G57 MP1 GPU runs at 650 MHz with 64 shading units and supports DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2, while maximum memory bandwidth reaches 12.8 GB/s and the platform supports up to 14 GB of memory. The chipset includes integrated LTE, integrated graphics, and ARM TrustZone security, and the 64-bit platform records a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 1391 and a PassMark result of 2663, with cache levels comprising 128 KB L1, 2 MB L2, and 1 MB L3, and a thermal design power rated at 10W.

The ZTE Blade A36 features a single 13 MP rear camera with phase-detection autofocus, touch autofocus, continuous autofocus during video recording, and a single LED flash, though it lacks optical image stabilization, laser autofocus, and optical zoom. Manual controls cover exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, and the camera also supports burst mode, HDR, slow-motion video recording, and in-camera panoramas, while RAW capture, manual shutter speed, 360° panorama, HDR10 recording, and Dolby Vision recording are not available. On the front, a matching 13 MP single-lens camera handles selfies without a front-facing flash, and neither camera supports 3D photo or video recording.

The ZTE Blade A36 runs Android 15, an open-source platform that supports multi-user operation, split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, widgets, dark mode, dynamic theming, theme customization, and an extra dim mode. Privacy features include clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not available. The OS also offers on-device machine learning, offline voice recognition, voice commands, live text selection in images, full-page screenshots, customizable notifications, a media picker, a child lock, battery health monitoring, app offloading, phone tracking, and the ability to play games while they download, while Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, direct OS vendor updates, and Quick Start are not supported.

The ZTE Blade A36 is equipped with a 5000 mAh non-removable rechargeable battery that supports 10W fast charging, and a battery level indicator is included to keep track of remaining charge. Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are not supported.

The ZTE Blade A36 includes a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a built-in radio, offering a couple of traditional audio conveniences. The device does not feature stereo speakers, and none of the advanced Bluetooth audio codecs — aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, or LDAC — are supported.

The ZTE Blade A36 supports dual SIM cards, Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and a cellular module, while 5G is not available. Wired connectivity is handled via a USB Type-C port running USB 2.0, and an external memory slot is also present. For navigation, the device includes GPS with Galileo support along with a compass and accelerometer, though a gyroscope, barometer, and heart rate monitor are absent. The fingerprint scanner serves as the primary biometric option, as 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are not included, and there is no infrared sensor, HDMI output, ANT+ support, DLNA certification, satellite SOS, crash detection, motion or optical tracking, built-in projector, or stylus. Download speeds reach up to 300 Mbits/s with upload speeds of up to 100 Mbits/s.

The ZTE Blade A36 includes a video light to assist with recording in low-light conditions. The display is flat rather than curved, and the device does not feature sapphire glass or an e-paper display.