ZTE has recently made an announcement that their newest smartphone for the U.S. market will soon be made available. The ZMax, which will be exclusively sold by T-Mobile, will be available to customers starting Sept. 24.
The 5.7-inch phablet will come with a price tag of $252 or, when purchased through T-Mobile's installment plan for 24 months, will cost $10.50 per month, as reported by Daily Tech.
Despite an ordinary and casual design for a phablet, the ZMax is incorporated with a 3,400 mAh battery, 8-megapixel camera, 720p display, quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, and 16GB of internal storage. The gadget also runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, which others have speculated to be in line for an upgrade to Android L soon.
According to ZTE, the ZMax comes with Dolby Digital sound enhancements and can support the LTE network and Wi-Fi calling features of T-Mobile. As such, the device is expected to perform well compared to other available entry-level smartphones and phablets from competitors this year.
ZTE has integrated mostly Android software on the ZMax, although it has also featured the camera app from Nubia that provides increased manual control as opposed to the standard camera app by Android.
Although the company has long been known as a reliable manufacturer and provider for smartphone users, ZTE is now focusing on offering only ZTE-branded smartphones and other devices to carriers in the U.S.
Furthermore, similar devices have been recently launched, such as the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus being made available at a starting price of $749 or $299 with a two-year deal with mobile carriers, or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge that are expected to come with costly prices both on- and off-contract. As such, ZTE, by offering a more affordable smartphone and by collaborating with T-Mobile, is increasing the chances of their brand appealing to the U.S. market and being recognized alongside their competitors.
