Most of us probably havent heard of ZTE? well the company have just released its first Windows Phone 7 handset, the ZTE Tania, which has just launched in the UK.
The device doesnt have the sleek design or best processors of the top-end smart phone, but it does have a good screen and is affordable, and excellent budget choice.
ZTE devices have so far offered smart phone functions without the usual sky-high price tag. The Tania is ZTE's first Windows Phone and it's hoping the large, clear screen and typically low price will attract those after some Windows fun on a budget.
The Display
The new phone features a 4.3-inch (the same size as Samsung Galaxy S2) TFT capacitive multi-touch display with an 800x480 pixel resolution and 217 pixels-per-inch pixel density. The phone has the same resolution as the might Galaxy S2, so when comes to browsing or reading your email you wont need as much swiping around to see everything.
Although the phone is not Super AMOLED Plus which found on Galaxy S 2, therefore dont expect to see the same vivid colours and deep contrast, lalthough it is bright and colourful in the eyes. The phone resolution is impressive and is good enough to display your photos, watching video clips
The Design
With a large display gives the Tania an overall length of 129mm and a width of 68mm. Those are pretty much identical proportions to the new Motorola Razr, which we found sat comfortably in our hands when typing in landscape mode or playing games, but was perhaps slightly awkward to hold and type in one hand. The Tania comes in at just under 11mm compare to Razr's 7.1mm and Galaxy S2 9mm. is not a chubby phone and it weighs at 158g, which is heavier than Razr but wont drag your trousers down.
Even though the phone is not particularly good looking but its perfect for a budget phone, the phone is dominated by the screen, below which are the three dedicated Windows Phone touch-sensitive buttons for navigating around. At the back is plain expanse of black, a camera and the Windows Phone logo at the bottom.
Power Engine
Powering Microsoft's colourful and unique operating system is a single core 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor on the MSM8255 chipset and loaded with an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit (GPU). With Comparison to the dual-core offerings of the higher-end smart phones, that's nothing special, but it's a fair chunk more firepower than the 600MHz offering on the HTC Explorer.
Storage
Tania has 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM, is not as good as the the phone which are coming out now but 4GB isnt bad either.
Camera
On the rear of the phone you'll find a 5-megapixel camera with a 2592 x 1944 pixel resolution, autofocus, flash, geo-tagging and 720p video capture.
Connectivity
Other features include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Hotspot and Micro USB connectivity as well as GPS an accelerometer and capacitive buttons.
Price
ZTE has said the Tania will be available on contracts at around the £10-£20 per month price point through carriers including Virgin Media, Brightpoint and GoMobile. Retailers will also be selling the phone for around the £250 mark.
Operating System
The Tania is the first ZTE phone to offer Windows Phone software rather than Android. It's packing the latest version of Microsoft's software, 7.5 -- codenamed Mango -- which fills the phone with big, colourful live tiles. The company seems pretty excited to be launching its first Windows Phone and director of ZTE's UK operation, Wu Sa, said the company was ‘delighted' to be working with Microsoft.
Of the phone's Windows capabilities, ZTE said:
‘The ZTE Tania comes fully equipped with Microsoft's latest release of Windows Phone. Windows Phone has a wide range of fully integrated functionalities such as a direct link to users' Xbox LIVE accounts, an intuitive and seamless sync for Microsoft Office Mobile, and Zune music streaming.'
‘The phone's Live Tile feature brings friend and family groups to life by delivering the latest updates and news from popular social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn directly to the home screen.'
Currently, Windows Phone lags far behind Android and iOS in the size of its app store. You can get most of your essentials, such as Spotify and the ever-popular Angry Birds, but it's got a long way to go before it challenges the hundreds of thousands of apps available to Android and iPhone users.
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