SINGAPORE, Aug 18 — Cheap yet good smartphones from China are threatening to erode the dominance of manufacturers such as Samsung and Apple, and ZTE hopes to contribute to this trend with its flagship smartphone, the ZTE Blade Vec 4G.

The Blade Vec 4G features a slim and glossy profile like Sony’s Xperia Z2, though it does have a plasticky feel. It’s 7.8mm thick, weighs 131g and sports a 5-inch IPS LCD, 1,280x720 screen. The screen pales — literally — in comparison with the flagship phones of other manufacturers, but this smartphone does cost a lot less.

What’s commendable is that it runs on the latest Android 4.4 KitKat operating system and supports 4G LTE, unlike some other budget phones.

However, the Blade Vec 4G’s 1.2GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM do not quite keep up with the competition.

The 1-megapixel front and 8-megapixel rear cameras also weren’t too impressive, but you won’t be storing too many photos on this phone anyway: What really ticked us off was the lack of a memory slot to bolster the 16GB internal storage it offers.

Still, it boils down to prudence and practicality of this smartphone: If you’re just browsing the news or watching YouTube videos, why get a thousand-dollar device?

Smartphone makers such as Oppo, Xiaomi and ZTE are quickly catching up in specifications with the top smartphones, yet keeping prices low, so paying double- or even triple-fold in price for the usual suspects when you don’t need it seems questionable.

That said, the Blade Vec 4G is a device that doesn’t match up to the more popular competition. Furthermore, Xiaomi’s Mi3 smartphone has better specs at the same price — but is only sold in batches online, while Xiaomi’s newer Mi4 has just recently launched in China. Still, with that price tag, you might be surprised to find that your expectations can accommodate the ZTE Blade Vec 4G’s shortfalls. — Today