ZTE has teamed up with AT&T and TracFone to offer the ZMAX 2 phablet at a price tag of $149.99, without a contract.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the Chinese smart phone maker announced that the second-generation ZMAX phablet will get a new design and improved specs in comparison to its predecessor.
"The original ZTE ZMAX set the stage for the phablet market as it was the first large screen Android device with high end features at an affordable price. With the ZMAX 2, we will continue deliver the best low-cost Android phones in the U.S. that people actually enjoy using," says Lixin Cheng, chairman and CEO of ZTE USA. "Together with AT&T, advanced phone technology and design is now affordable for more U.S. consumers."
Market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reports that the demand for phablets has been growing in the U.S. since the last few years.
"Phablets claimed 21 percent of all US smartphone sales in Q1 2015 - nearly quadrupling their 6 percent share from the first quarter of 2014," states a Kantar report.
Apple iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 5 are some of the most popular phablets in the market. While most of these phablets have a premium price tag, ZTE will hope that a pocket-friendly ZMAX 2 will be able to attract many customers who are looking for a bigger phone.
The ZTE ZMAX 2 sports a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with 1,280 x 720 pixels resolution. A quad-core Snapdragon 410 clocked at 1.2GHz and Adreno 306 GPU powers the smartphone.
The latest ZTE offering comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Users can also use a microSD card to expand the memory to 32GB. The handset is equipped with an 8MP rear-facing camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera.
The phablet will come running on Android 5.1 Lollipop straight out of the box. A 3,000mAh removable battery will fuel the device. The ZMAX 2 will have 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity.
The upcoming mobile phone will measure 154 x 76 x 9.4 mm and weigh 170 grams, or about 6 ounces.
The ZMAX 2 will hit the shelves on Sept. 25 and will be available only in black.
