For a lot of users, the name “ZTE” is perhaps not high up on their list, but the Chinese brand is looking to change all of that. For a couple of years now, ZTE has been selling quality hardware in the United States that ticks a lot of the right boxes without breaking the bank with their ZTE Axon line of devices, and the partnership with the NBA is no doubt helping their brand presence, too. The firm has also been trying something a little different, too, Some time ago now, ZTE opened up their Project CSX contest, where they asked the community to design a product that ZTE would build in 2017. Now, the winner of Project CSX has been announced, along with the runner-ups and other ideas, too.
The winner of the Grand Prize – a trip to the Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas in January of next year – was the Team One Technology team which designed a smartphone with eye-tracking features, as well as being self-adhesive. The device would offer total hands-free operation using nothing buy a user’s eye movements and probably some voice commands as well, the total hands-free side of things comes with the inclusion of an adhesive backing that allows the user to attach the phone to whatever they want to make sure they don’t need to hold it to get anything done. As part of the Project CSX contest, ZTE say that they will put the new device into production during 2017, and whether or not the final product is like the winning design from Team One Technology remains to be seen, but it would be quite the achievement if they pulled it off.
Other designs included a stock Android flagship device, which got 19 percent of the vote, while the runner-up was a device with intelligent phone covers, in a manner not dissimilar to the Moto Z line of devices. This design got 21 percent of the overall votes. The winning design is pictured above, and the forum post from ZTE has more information surrounding the device that may, or may not be coming to market next year.