ZTE

BARCELONA, Spain--The cell phone manufacturers have been bringing it at MWC, and ZTE is no exception. The Chinese manufacturer announced several Android handsets and hinted at others in the weeks leading up to the show, and today, revealed the rest of their global plans.

Out of the 15 smartphones and tablets is ZTE's flagship phone for the year, the ZTE Era. It runs off an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 1.3GHz processor, has a 4.3-inch qHD display, and a profile of just 7.8 millimeters thick. It will launch in the third quarter of the year.

Android phones … Read more

Over the last month, CNET has written a lot about an upcoming trade show called Mobile World Congress. And over the next week, we'll be writing even more about it.

If you've never heard of the event before, I don't blame you. Indeed, Mobile World Congress doesn't have the same name recognition that CES commands in the United States, but for the wireless world, it's almost as big and just as significant. Each February, folks from all corners of the industry and around the world meet in Barcelona, Spain, to make deals, demonstrate the latest technologies, and show off the latest and greatest phones and tablets.

This will be my fifth year at the show, which begins Monday in Catalonia's Gaudi-obsessed capital city. Though a possible transit strike threatens to make getting around a little difficult, there's guaranteed to be a (metric) ton of new devices, from the very fancy to the strictly functional. It will be a massive amount to cover, but CNET will have a large team on the ground, including editors Jessica Dolcourt, Roger Cheng, Maggie Reardon, and Stephen Shankland. And thanks to CNET TV producers Jamie Yee and Mark Licea, the new handsets will get their star turns on video.

Android avalanche So what exactly will we see?… Read more

Chinese phone company ZTE plans to make a big splash at Mobile World Congress with a Windows device and a slew of Android handsets.

ZTE isn't exactly a household name, at least in the U.S. The smartphone maker aims to change that by dropping an as-of-yet unannounced handset running Microsoft's Windows Phone software along with eight advanced Android devices described as "multi-core." … Read more

ZTE's Android efforts will continue with the ZTE Mimosa X, a mid-range Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone that we can expect to see in the second quarter of 2012...somewhere. ZTE hasn't announced a market just yet, but this is a phone we should hear more about at Mobile World Congress next week.

The Mimosa X will have a 4.3-inch qHD screen (that's a 960x540-pixel resolution) a 5-megapixel camera, a front-facing camera, and an expandable memory slot capable of 32GB.

It will also include HD video capture and playback are also on-board, along with … Read more

If you've been dreaming of Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones, the 2012 Mobile World Congress promises to be quite the party.

Early this morning, ZTE announced that it would reveal two Android 4.0 devices at the annual wireless trade show, which begins February 27 in Barcelona. On the outside, the candy bar designs don't appear to be particularly noteworthy, but the photos show an Ice Cream Sandwich interface.

The ZTE PF200 promises a 4.3 inch QHD capacitive touch-screen, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1080p front-facing camera for video calling, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, and HDMI-out. LTE … Read more

Apple won last year's smartphone wars, according to data released today by Gartner.

Other reports have pointed to Samsung as the leading vendor in 2011, but the research firm placed Apple on top with a 19 percent market share overall, barely half a point higher than Samsung's share.

Driven by the iPhone 4S, the fourth quarter was especially strong for Apple with a 23.8 percent share amid sales of 37 million iPhones. And many of those sales came outside the U.S., helping boost the industry as a whole.

"Western Europe and North America led most … Read more

ZTE and Sprint hope their new $99 Optik tablet's rock bottom price can lure buyers eyeing the Kindle Fire.

Amazon certainly created a hit with its low-cost $199 Kindle Fire, which aggressively undercut the iPad 2's steep $499 starting price. Now Chinese electronics maker ZTE has stepped up to try to burn the Fire at its own game. With a much-reduced $99 sticker price and February 5 availability, the 7-inch slate runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, plus two HD cameras (5-megapixel rear, 2-megapixel front).

I do like that the Optik's display has a sharper resolution (1,280 by 800 pixels) than the premium Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (1,024 by 600 pixels), another compelling 7-inch Honeycomb tablet. Of course the Tab uses an LCD with Plane Line Switching (PLS), which typically offer higher contrast and wider viewing angles than their standard LCD cousins. No word yet on just what type of LCD the Optik ships with. … Read more

Details for Sprint's next Android-powered tablet have leaked online and if you thought the carrier was going high-end you'd be completely wrong.

According to a leak obtained by SprintFeed, we can expect to see the ZTE Optik arrive in early February with a $100 price tag. You'll still have to sign a two-year agreement with a minimum rate plan, but things could be worse.

Hardware for the 7-inch ZTE tablet is impressive for the money and includes a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 16GB storage, and 1GB RAM. Running Android 3.2 Honeycomb, its additional specifications include a … Read more

A year from now, you may be coveting a flashy new ZTE smartphone.

At least, that's what ZTE is hoping for. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Lixin Cheng, the head of ZTE's North American business, said he plans on introducing high-end smartphones in the U.S. By 2015, he expects the U.S. to be the largest market for ZTE.

ZTE, which makes mobile devices and telecommunications equipment, is a growing power in the mobile-handset business. Globally, the company is the fifth-largest handset maker by market share--just behind Apple, according to Gartner. But … Read more