14 DAY TRIAL // Telecoms giant ZTE Corporation unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year a flagship Android-based smartphone, the ZTE Skate, and Softpedia's editors on the floor at the event managed to have a closer look at the device. The new smartphone is expected to hit the shelves sometime in May 2011 with support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 900/1800/1900MHz and HSDPA/UMTS at 900/2100MHz connectivity on board.
ZTE packed the new Skate phone with a 4.3-inch touchscreen display that boasts a 480 x 800 pixels resolution, and with a 800MHz processor complemented by the Adreno 200 graphics processing unit (GPU) for increased performance capabilities.
Moreover, the new device includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, EDR capabilities, as well as microUSB v2.0, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. GPS with A-GPS support was also added into the mix.
According to the handset vendor, the new ZTE Skate arrives on shelves powered by Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, and can offer support for a wide range of applications, which are available for download via the Android Market.
At the same time, it would provide users with access to various Google Mobile services, including Search, Maps, Gmail, or YouTube, as well as to social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter). It also enables fast web browsing,
The specifications list of the new device would also include a 5-megapixel photo snapper with auto focus, LED flash, and video recording capabilities. ZTE Skate should offer a series of multimedia capabilities as well, with support for MP4 / H.264 / H.263, or MP3 / WAV / eAAC+ file formats. The new device weighs in at only 120g, ZTE announced, adding that the smartphone would become available for purchase around the world starting with May 2011 (its specs show that it does not feature support for US networks at the moment).
Note: Fellow editors Cosmin Vasile and Alex Vochin are on the floor at the 2011 Mobile World Congress and are keeping us posted with pictures and live reports on the latest product previews and launches.
