14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like ZTE is the second Chinese handset maker that has decided to enter the Canadian market after Huawei. The latter has a long-time partnership with WIND Mobile, which seems to be one of the few carriers in the country that offers Huawei smartphones to its customers.
Anyway, ZTE has picked Bell and Virgin Mobile to retail its Android smartphones in Canada. Both carriers are now offering the budget-friendly ZTE Grand X handset.
Potential customers can now purchase the ZTE Grand X for only $150 (€100) outright from either Bell Canada or Virgin Mobile. The smartphone can also be had for free on two-year agreements, so it’s up to each and every one to decide what’s best for them.
However, before making your investment, you should know that while ZTE Grand X has been priced in the low-end range, the handset offers quite decent specs.
Unfortunately, we’re not sure about the phone’s build quality, so we recommend Android fans to take it for a spin before actually purchasing it.
On paper, ZTE Grand X doesn’t look bad at all. The smartphone is equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor, a PowerVR SGX544 graphics processing unit and 1GB of RAM.
The device also packs 4GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 32GB via the microSD card slot. These are standard specs for a mid-range Android smartphone, so ZTE Grand X’s upfront price tag makes it quite a good deal.
Another selling point of the affordable ZTE Grand X might be the fact that it sports a large 5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution and features Corning Gorilla Glass coating. Even though it only offers 220ppi (pixel per inch), the size and the resolution supported are among the phone’s positive aspects.
The bad news is ZTE Grand X ships with the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box and it’s highly unlikely that the Chinese company will offer an upgrade to KitKat anytime in the future.
All in all, the smartphone also comes with some decent connectivity options as well, including LTE and 3G HSPA support, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB. The ZTE Grand X does not feature NFC (Near Field Communication), but it also provides GPS with A-GPS support and 3.5mm audio jack.
On the back, ZTE’s budget-friendly handset packs a 5-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, while on the front there’s a secondary 1-megapixel camera for video calls.