Chinese cell phones in Barcelona
Chinese cell phone manufacturer ZTE has a sizable presence at the GSMA World Congress. Not only did it supply almost every show attendee with a canvas bag, but also its large booth in one of the main halls faced off with the likes of Samsung and Sony Ericsson. I toured the ZTE area to see the cell phones available in China and found a few that caught my eye.
The ZTE i766 is a candy bar phone with a 2.4-inch, 262,00-color touchscreen. Primed for multimedia, it plays broadcast TV, has an MP3 player, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and an FM radio. It also offers e-mail, a Web browser, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, and USB capability. To me, the navigation array was a bit cramped and the TV quality was just average.
The ZTE D800 is a keyboard-equipped smartphone that looks a bit like a cross a between a RIM BlackBerry device and a Samsung BlackJack. It offers dualmode GSM/CDMA functionality, a Linux OS, a touchscreen, a 2-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, push e-mail, a Web browser, and an MP3 player.
The ZTE F858 is a HSDPA flip phone, which somewhat resembles a Motorola Razr. Inside you'll find video streaming, Bluetooth, USB support, a 2-megapixel camera, an MP3 player, a Web browser, e-mail, and a microSD card slot.
The last model I checked out was the ZTE F912. It's a flip phone with a rotating display like the Samsung FlipShot SCH-U900. It offers HSDPA, streamig video, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, USB support, an MP3 players, a Web browser, and e-mail.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent.
