ZTE had a press conference at the Mobile World Congress on Day one of the event for the announcement of its new phablet device known as the ZTE Grand Memo. It was presided over by ZTE executives as well as Qualcomm executives who shared that the Grand memo will be the first device to sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core processor. So, we were intrigued and wanted to take a closer look at the device, and hence we did a photo gallery initially but now, here is the hands on video below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oaoMfEoZD4
The ZTE Grand Memo was announced twice at the MWC, but the second time it was announced, it was revealed that the phone will be using the latest and most powerful Snapdragon 800 processor, which was quite a surprise as this was going to be the first device with that processor. It will come with LTE in the European markets. It has a 5.7 inch 1280×720 HD display and a lot of other specifications that you usually see in most high end smartphones. The specs in detail are –
- 5.7-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display
- 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm 800 processor with Adreno 330 GPU
- Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS with Mifavour UI
- 13MP auto focus camera with LED Flash
- 1MP front-facing camera
- 8.5mm thickness
- 1080p Full HD video playback
- Dual MIC for noise reduction, HD Voice
- 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory
- 4G LTE up to 100 Mbps / 3G HSPA+, WiFi (2.4G, 5GHz ) 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, WiFi Direct, GPS
- Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HDMI via MHL
- 3200 mAh battery
With regards to our impressions. The Grand memo had a plasticky build, which is totally not to our liking. It is also very huge, so huge even our big hands couldn’t handle it. The plastic is also a finger print magnet, with some uninspiring design adding to more frustration. The screen is decent, offering ok-ish viewing angles and real estate. But in the midst of all the 1080p screens, it was a bit underwhelming to be honest.
Overall, we think the ZTE Grand Memo is a beast only in terms of performance. Otherwise, it’s kinda uninspiring in our limited hands on time with it. We do hope our opinion changes when we try out the device for longer. Let us wait till then.