14 DAY TRIAL // Chinese handset maker ZTE has just announced it has teamed up with US-based carrier Cricket to launch the Grand XMax smartphone.
The huge device has been confirmed to hit shelves on October 10 for only $200 (€160) outright, which seems like a decent price considering the specs.
Obviously, at this price customers shouldn’t expect to receive a high-end smartphone, but ZTE Grand XMax offers a lot of value for the money paid. Now if only the build quality were at least on par with the amount Cricket will charge customers for it that would be great.
Anyway, ZTE Gran XMax, as we mentioned earlier, is a huge smartphone that boasts a large 6-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution. This is not bad at all for a $200 (€160) phablet.
We kind of expected the smartphone to be equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM. Furthermore, ZTE Grand XMax packs only 8GB of internal memory, but users can further expand storage up to 32GB via microSD card slot.
On the back, ZTE’s mid-range phablet runs an 8-megapixel photo snapper with LED flash, autofocus and only HD (720p) video recording. In the front, there’s a secondary 1-megapixel camera that doesn’t seem to be suitable for selfies, but you can use it for video calls.
Given the fact that is sports such a large display, ZTE needed to include a beefy battery as well, which is why the Grand XMax has a 3200 mAh removable battery inside.
According to ZTE, the phone’s battery should offer around 6.5 hours of talk time in 3G mode and no less than 860 hours of standby time.
Connectivity-wise, ZTE Grand XMax offers a wide range of options, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack and GPS with A-GPS support.
The phablet comes with various useful apps pre-installed, including Evernote
When it comes to software, ZTE and Cricket mention the Grand XMax ships with Android 4.4 KitKat operating system out of the box, as well as several useful applications and services like Evernote, Kindle and Kingsoft Office, which are pre-loaded on the smartphone.
Potential customers may want to know that Cricket also offers a $100 (€80) bill credit to all customers who are willing to switch to its network from T-Mobile and/or MetroPCS. However, keep in mind that this offer will only run through October 19, so if you plan to take advantage of it you might want to hurry.
