ZTE has been making the headlines lately with new arrivals in both the US and Canadian market landing mostly as prepaid devices or an entry-level device. It is not to say that ZTE does not make any high-end devices because they do. The successful ZTE Grand X model released last year is followed up this year as the Grand X 2, and can be found now on Bell and Virgin Mobile. It is very affordably priced at $149.99 outright or you can get it for $0 on a two-year plan.
The ZTE Grand X 2 comes with a 5-inch HD LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, covered with Gorilla Glass 3. Processing is handled by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 64-bit quad-core clocked at 1.2GHz. It comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, but also has a microSD card slot to expand the memory another 32GB. Power is provided by a 2480mAh battery and measures 145 x 72.8 x 9.3 mm and weighs in at 145 grams…and comes in your favorite color – black. It will be running Android Lollipop 5.1 out-of-the-box. For this low priced smartphone, even the camera area is acceptable – no VGA front-facing camera (FFC) here. ZTE put in an 8MP main sensor with autofocus and a 2MP FFC for social media selfies and video chatting. The camcorder can record video at 1080p and the Grand X 2 supports several video formats.
The ZTE Grand X 2 has LTE compatibility on Bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, and 17 with maximum download speeds of 150 Mbps. It comes with Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, although there is no NFC. On the Bell network, you can enjoy Bell’s Mobile TV with over 40 live and on demand channels, Tunes and Apps, MyBell App, Navigator and have access to Canada’s largest LTE network.
ZTE is one of the biggest OEMs in China and they would love to grab a piece of the North American market from the likes of Samsung and LG. They are having a tough go of it in the US, but the Canadian market has been more accepting of them. Hopefully, ZTE will be able to become a force worldwide because competition brings out the best in all manufacturers.