CTIA show

ZTE C79

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

ZTE is certainly trying to get into the ground floor in the U.S. market this year, with two brand new handsets -- the C78 and the C79 -- debuting at CTIA, mostly for the entry-level market. The C78 is a fairly basic handset with a VGA camera and Bluetooth, while the C79 is a slightly more advanced clamshell with a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot. The C79 even features external music player controls right on the front surface. Check them out in our brief ZTE photo gallery.

ZTE C78

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

Chinese manufacturer ZTE is making further headway in the U.S. market with two new simple phones, the ZTE C78 and the ZTE C79. The ZTE C88 for MetroPCS was its first ever handset offered in North America, and these two handsets are part upgrade, part downgrade. They're both among the first in the country to operate via AWS frequency bands, which theoretically let users have access to data and multimedia applications if the carriers allow. The C79 is the more advanced model; it's a flip phone with a MP3 player, a 1.3-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot. The C78 is a more affordable one; it's a candy-bar handset with only a VGA camera and Bluetooth. As yet, there's no news of pricing and availability.

ZTE D90 has a Fastap keypad

(Credit: CNET Networks/Nicole Lee)

Earlier this year at CES, we promised you that Digit Wireless would release a new Fastap phone in the U.S. before the end of the year. As you might recall, Fastap is this unique keypad layout that incorporates raised and lowered keys into a single keypad to facilitate quicker text entry (The first U.S. Fastap phone was the LG AX490 for Alltel). Well it's almost the end of October, and it hasn't happened yet. The ZTE 90 (also known as the ZTE D90) that we showed you in January is only available in Canada (via the Telus network) and the Ukraine (via Peoplenet, sold as the ZTE Evolution).

The ZTE D90 is a 3G phone with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, a microSD card slot, and stereo Bluetooth. Digit tells us they're working on getting a U.S. carrier to carry the device, but makes no promises for now.

Concept phones with Fastap

(Credit: CNET Networks/Nicole Lee)

Digit did show us a few interesting Fastap concept phones with raised access keys instead of a raised alphabet. As you can see, these keys can be customized according to the needs of the manufacturer or the carrier. They can be mapped to the camera, the music player, music-player controls, messaging, or any other function. It's a shame that these were only concept phones; we would've liked to have seen them in action. However, Digit is again saying they're trying to convince U.S. carriers to carry some of these phones. We're not entirely convinced of the usability of these keypad layouts, but it's good to see some innovation in cell phone design that isn't all about making thin phones.