ZTE, believe it or not, is actually a pretty big player in North America. The majority of their success has come from launching low-end to mid-range smartphones on Cricket, MetroPCS, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. ZTE’s ZMAX series has been a big part of their success. Launching smartphones with pretty decent internals and a huge battery for under $100 (or the ZMAX Pro for under $200). Makes plenty of sense as to why they have had success in recent years.
Now it looks like a new ZMAX smartphone is heading to the US. A new device has landed at the FCC for certification. The device has been certified by the FCC, but that doesn’t mean that it will be launch anytime soon. Plenty of smartphones come to the FCC but never actually become available or even get announced. But it is the first step to becoming available. According to the FCC documents though, it appears to be a slightly updated ZTE Grand X 3 which AT&T’s Cricket has been selling for quite some time now, and it is priced at $79. The Grand X 3 sports a 5.5-inch 720p display, with the Snapdragon 210 processor inside and 2GB of RAM. It also has 16GB of storage, and a 3000mAh battery. Surprisingly enough it does also have a USB Type-C connection, and a somewhat decent 8-megapixel rear-shooter.
As is usually the case with FCC filings, the specs of the device have not been outed. But we should expect something similar to the Grand X 3, both spec-wise and price-wise. And if that is the reality, then it is also possible that we may see it launch on GoPhone, AT&T’s other prepaid brand. Seeing as it’s very similar to the Grand X 3, it wouldn’t make sense for Cricket to offer both models at relatively the same price tag. Since this is a relatively low-end smartphone, this will likely just appear on AT&T’s website, without a formal announcement, that is typically saved for the more high-end smartphones, and ones that aren’t specific to a particular carrier or operator. It is a bit interesting to see the ZMAX 3 heading to AT&T though, seeing as the ZMAX brand has always been on T-Mobile and MetroPCS.
