14 DAY TRIAL // We reported less than two weeks ago that Sprint planned to launch a cheap ZTE Android phone, and now it looks like the carrier has made the device official.
Dubbed Sprint Force, the 4G-enabled smartphone is now available for purchase in Sprint brick and mortar stores and online for just $50/€40 with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement after a $50/€40 mail-in rebate.
Manufactured by ZTE, Sprint Force comes with pretty decent features when it comes to hardware.
The smartphone is equipped with a more than decent 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 processor, which is complemented by 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory.
Users will be able to further enhance storage up to 32GB via microSD memory card. The only downside for some users might be the fact that it ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box.
Overall, Sprint Force offers pretty solid features for what you pay. It comes with a 4-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 800 pixels resolution and 16 million colors.
There’s also a 5-megapixel camera on the back, which features autofocus, LED flash and video recording. A secondary 1-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls is available as well.
Obviously, it comes preloaded with Sprint ID service, allowing users to customize the phone with apps, widgets, wallpapers, ringtones and more.
Sprint Force offers 3G/4G LTE mobile hotspot capability supporting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously and provides access to more than 600,000 apps, millions of songs and books, and thousands of movies via Google Play Store.
Other highlights of the LTE-enabled smartphone include NFC (Near Field Communication), Bluetooth 4.0, Scout GPS Navigation, Sprint Music Plus, Sprint TV and Sprint Zone.
Last but not least, Sprint Force is powered by a decent 1730 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated by the manufacturer for up to 9 hours of talk time.