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Taking a peek at the ZTE Prelude (pictures)

Available through AT&T's new prepaid network, Aio Wireless, the ZTE Prelude is a 3.5-inch entry-level smartphone.

Lynn La
Lynn La covers mobile reviews and news. She previously wrote for The Sacramento Bee, Macworld and The Global Post.
Lynn La
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1 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

Aio Wireless' ZTE Prelude

LAS VEGAS -- Currently priced at $49.99 and sold through Aio Wireless, the ZTE Prelude was showcased at this year's CTIA tech show in Las Vegas.

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2 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

A look at Aio

As an Aio handset, you'll get Aio-specific apps like My Aio, which lets you check your phone's usage info, and productivity apps like Kingsoft Office.

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3 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

The view up top

The left edge houses a volume rocker, while up top you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack and sleep/power button.

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4 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

Compact body

Measuring in at 4.6 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.43 inch thick, the Prelude is small and compact, and weighs 4.4 ounces.

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5 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

Starter with Android 4.1

For such a basic smartphone, I was pleased to see that the Prelude ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. In addition, you'll get your standard family of Google apps like Chrome and YouTube.

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6 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

Stylish battery door

The handset is powered by a 1GHz single-core processor and a 1,400mAh battery. Additional features include 512MB of RAM, 4GB of ROM, 32GB of expandable memory via a microSD card slot, and Bluetooth 3.0.

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7 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

A 2-megapixel shooter

On the rear, you'll get a 2-megapixel camera (with no flash, unfortunately) that's capable of shooting VGA video, and below that are two slits for the audio speaker.

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8 of 8 Lynn La/CNET

Basic touch-screen specs

The handset also features a 3.5-inch TFT LCD display (with a 320x480-pixel resolution), and three hot keys below it for back, home, and menu.

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