Back in early August, ZTE announced its CSX crowdsourcing program, which was designed to collect ideas from ZTE’s fans in order to help design one of next year’s flagship devices. As part of the program, people could submit any ideas that they may have had or simply a feature that they’d like to see on an upcoming smartphone. Once the program entered the second phase, users of what ZTE called the “Z Community” could vote for their favorite ideas, with the three most popular ideas being announced shorty after. Once the ideas had been chosen, the program moved into the third phase which allowed members of the community to submit sketches based on any one of these three concepts, with the best designs chosen by ZTE.
Fast forward to today and the third phase is now officially complete, meaning the program will now move in the fourth and final phase, which allows members to vote for any one of the chosen designs. Looking into the chosen designs, it’s clear that whichever one is created will certainly make the device stand out from the crowd. Regarding the first design, this one depicts a phone with an adhesive rear that would allow it to stick to a wall while users would be able to scroll up or down based on their eye movement. The second concept is that of intelligent covers, such as ones that provide an e-ink display or a gamepad on flip covers. The third idea is the one that could improve the user experience the most. It depicts a ZTE device running stock Android, with zero bloatware included, while also featuring an improved camera as well as other hardware features.
Moving on to the final two concepts, this is perhaps where things get a bit more futuristic. The first concept of the two envisions a smart glove of some sort that would allow the user of the device to control the device’s navigation and apps with their fingers, without the need to touch the device. On the other hand, the final concept is a waterproof VR mask, that would allow ZTE’s customers to swim in the pool while using the headset. Arguably, all of these features have their pro’s and con’s, but it’s yet to be seen which one the members of ZTE’s community will decide on. Regarding when the final product will be announced, ZTE will confirm the final chosen concept by the end of this month and the end product will be revealed on stage at CES 2017 in January.
