Rating: If this ain’t intended as an iPhone killer …
inches really do matter
GoMobile News attended its first major Press conference at MWC 2013 which was introduced by He Shiyou, head of mobile devices division with Chinese telecoms manufacturer – ZTE. The occasion was to mark the announcement of its Grand Memo smartphone. Significantly, it claims to be the first smartphone to boast a Qualcomm quad core Snapdragon 800 processor which is why ZTE managed to have Raj Talluri, a senior vp for product management with Qualcomm , in tow.
Reading inbetween the lines, it wasn’t too difficult to work out why ZTE has produced the Grand Memo.
According to IDC, ZTE is now the fourth largest producer of handsets in the world. According to He Shiyou, it intends to reach the Top Three handset manufacturer slot by 2015.
And you can’t do that without at least one iPhone killer which the likes of Samsung already possesses.
So you build a smartphone with a 5.7 inch screen and Dolby Digital Plus built in. The first smartphone to use this sound engine.
ZTE had roped in John Coulding, a senior vp for e-media with Dolby to sput some stats.
Namely that around 70 per cent of handset purchasers fealt that audio is important but about 50 per cent think it is vital when buying one.
The device also has a 13 megapixel camera and features ZTE’s Mi-Pop UI to run on top of Android.
Given that smartphones now account for some 70 per cent of ZTE’s global revenues (or around 65 million phones), the Grand Memo fills the top slot in ZTE’s portfolio.
Its entry level smartphone will take the shape of the ZTE Open – see our separate story here.
The Grand Memo will be launched first ZTE’s home market of China. However, He Shiyou let another thing slip.
The Chinese characters is ZTE’s logo will be quietly dropped in global markets but retained in China.
Key specifications
Android 4.1 – Jelly bean
Thickness: 8.5mm
5.7inch, HD.TFT, 16M color, multi-touch capacitive screen
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with quad-core Krait CPUs
3200mAh super-long standby battery
Memory: 16GB Rom +2GB RAM
Mifavour UI user interface
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, gyro
LTE 100/50Mbps
13MP Intelligent AF Camera with face recognition and panorama,1MP front-facing camera, 1080p HD video playback
