ZTE Grand X

Smartphones are no longer a luxury item anymore and ZTE proves that with the Grand X. As a mid-range device, the Grand X didn’t blow reviewers away with its spectacular design. They describe very functional and solid looking, albeit chunky at 110 grams. It sports the standard curved edges and rounded corners of many other smartphones and, as to be, sports an all plastic chassis. While it is fairly slim at 0.37 inches, it is overall quite large measuring in at 5.7 x 2.87 inches.

The large size is to compensate for the 5-inch, 540p display. The resolution of the screen might be better than other smartphones in its class, but experts still found it lacking mainly in the brightness and color vibrancy department. Tech Radar notes, “…there’s a slightly washed-out feel evident in pictures and videos…” Other critics also noticed the viewing angles were very narrow and they quickly experienced washed-out colors when they tilted the screen. Besides this, many also experienced issues with touch responsiveness noting it occasionally took several taps or swipes for an action to register.

At the handset’s core are the 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. No reviewer would label the phone as a speed star, but they were able to execute basic tasks smoothly though not necessarily instantaneously. They add that gaming, even with more graphics intensive apps, was also fairly smooth with hardly any lags and no crashes. Unfortunately, it only comes with 4G of internal storage so there isn’t much room to download too many apps. Due to the lower resolution screen and less powerful processor, reviewers were able to eke out around 11 hours of life during moderate usage from the Grand X’s 2,300mAh battery.

The kindest thing reviewers could say about the 5MP rear camera is “passable.” They describe the camera overall as slow with it taking a few seconds to start up and several more seconds to actually take a picture. While slow, experts still were able to take sharp and clear images in decent lighting, though they add that colors were fairly muted. The app itself is fairly barebones with just a couple scene modes, face detection, x4 digital zoom and panorama mode. There is none of the familiar advanced effects or HDR modes that many competitors are adding, so it isn’t the best option for the enthusiastic phoneagrapher.

Reviewers are split over the ZTE Grand Max. Trusted Review states, “…pound-per-pound you get more for your money…” On the other hand CNET notes, “Although the ZTE Grand X is inexpensive…[there are] many other Android phones that perform faster and better at the same price or less.”