CNET takes a closer look at the Gingerbread-baked ZTE Skate smartphone, which debuted at Mobile World Congress 2011.
Bonnie Cha
Bonnie Cha was a former chief correspondent for CNET Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
Announced at Mobile World Congress 2011, the ZTE Skate is a Android 2.3 smartphone that will ship in May 2011.
2 of 7 Bonnie Cha/CNET
Features
ZTE says the design of the handset was inspired by a skateboard (we'd say that's stretching it a bit) and features a 4.3-inch touch screen. It's lightweight at just 4.2 ounces, but it also feels quite plasticky.
3 of 7 Bonnie Cha/CNET
Left side
On the left spine, you'll find a volume rocker.
4 of 7 Bonnie Cha/CNET
Top view
Meanwhile, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack on top of the smartphone.
5 of 7 Bonnie Cha/CNET
Camera
In all, the Skate is a more midlevel device. It has a 5-megapixel camera and is running an 800MHz processor, compared to some of the higher-end devices with their dual-core processors and 8-megapixel cameras.
6 of 7 Bonnie Cha/CNET
Keyboard
The Skate's onscreen keyboard was rather difficult to use even in landscape mode, since the buttons were so small and squished together.
7 of 7 Bonnie Cha/CNET
Google Maps
Google Maps in satellite view looked quite nice on the ZTE Skate's 4.3-inch display.
