If the answer to this question is yes, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Chinese company ZTE are planning to offer a few alternatives to the Galaxy Note. The company has recently been in the limelight due to their impressive-looking Era smartphone which packs a quad-core processor amongst other hardware delights, but now they have confirmed that they will be releasing not one, but two smartphone/tablet hybrid devices before the end of 2012.

At the moment, Samsung are out there on their own with their Note now commonly referred to as a Phablet. We’re glad to see that ZTE are planning to offer consumers another alternative though, and if the hardware specs are anything similar to the Era – it looks like we may be in for something special. We’re guessing that both devices are far from finished at the moment and if they are launching towards the end of the year, we would expect at a minimum a quad-core processor and Android 4.0 as basic specs.

Will we be seeing another 5.3-inch display from ZTE for their devices, just like the Samsung Galaxy Note? There has been plenty of criticism on how the Note’s screen is simply too big, but with over 5 million Notes shipped in just over half a year, it’s clear that many consumers are still willing to give the Phablet a chance.

Like all other interesting devices coming out of China, we’ll be keeping our eyes on these two models from ZTE. If you are looking forward to seeing another device similar to the Note, let us know your thoughts on ZTE as a brand.

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By seeing these three quad-core phones announced over the last few days, it’s clear that dual-core isn’t really good enough any more as consumers get more and more demanding. There’s no word on if Samsung, Motorola or Apple have a quad-core smartphone in the works, but with the likes of the ZTE Era, there is always going to be other options available to you.

Out the three quad-core phones announced so far, we expect the LG Optimus 4X to become available first within the next few months. If you don’t mind waiting a bit longer though, you may want to consider the ZTE Era as being a Chinese manafacturer, the smartphone will probably be available at a cheaper price but with still very decent hardware specs.

To give you an overview of what the ZTE Era brings to the quad-core table, there is an LCD-based 4.3-inch display screen which has a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. Like the One X and Optimus 4X, there’s an NVIDIA quad-core Tegra 3 processor on board combined with 1GB of RAM. There’s also an 8 megapixel rear camera, 8GB of internal storage and 1080p HD video recording capablities available.

While the ZTE Era may not be deemed premium in terms of build quality, one advantage that it will have over the Optimus 4X and definitely the HTC One X is that it will offer a stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich experience, which is what most Android fans crave for the most when buying a new handset. We spoke about Android 5.0 Jelly Bean earlier, so we’re hoping that the ZTE Era will also be compatible with the next version of Android, given that it is releasing later on in the year in Europe and China and Jelly Bean may be out this November.

To take a much closer look at the Era in intimate detail, it’s a good idea to check out one of the first hands-on look at the device, straight from the MWC show floor. This particular video has been uploaded by the guys over at Mobileburn, and it gives you a great introduction to the device and lets you see if the handset is deemed worthy of consideration when the time is right to fork up for a quad-core handset. Who knows, by the time the Era is out at retail we may already have a few more quad-core phones to tell you about.

Are you interested in the ZTE Era or are you a bit concerned that ZTE hasn’t really proved themselves yet as a big player in the smartphone industry yet?

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We also brought you some interesting news about another tablet that the company has on offer earlier today, as it was reported that the ZTE Optik is an Android 3.2 Honeycomb device that will be available for just $99 on a two year contract at Sprint, undercutting its fiercest rivals and closest competitors, who offer similar ecosystems, by a substantial amount.

Today’s news comes courtesy of online retailer Clove who has just announced that the ZTE V9A Light Tab 2 Android tablet will be up for pre-order as from the end of February. It will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which unfortunately is not the latest version of the OS although it is still impressive, besides for a 7” tablet at that price there can’t be many complaints. Clove describes the device as ‘a computing solution that offers performance and reliability at a price that we all prefer.’

As far as the specs are concerned reports are suggested they have improved since the tablet was first announced last year. As well as the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and its 7” capacitive touchscreen display, the Light Tab 2 will also feature a 3,400mAh battery, a 3.2 megapixel camera on the rear, 4GB of storage and a 1.4GHz processor. It also includes Wi-Fi as well as 3G and will be just 12.6mm thick making it a very attractive product for first time tablet buyers.

What do you think of the ZTE V9A Light Tab 2 tablet?

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SprintFeed’s recent article features a leaked promotional image which tells us a great deal about this particular tablet, before we delve into technical specifications let us tell you that it will become available online from February 5th and hit Sprint stores in March 11th. As for pricing you cannot ignore the fact that it massively undercuts Sprint’s HTC EVO View 4G, BlackBerry PlayBook, Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 prices, these cost $249.99, $299.99, $599.99 and $499.99 respectively (as part of a two-year deal), whilst the ZTE Optik on a two-year deal costs just $99.99.

In terms of technical specifications you get a 7-inch display, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 5 megapixel camera on the rear, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, Bluetooth connectivity, WiFi (b/g/n we presume), mobile hotspot functionality for up to 5 devices, stereo speakers, a 4000mAh battery and Android 3.2 – as you can see the specs are tempting considering the price.

There’s still a few things we don’t know about this intriguing Sprint tablet, firstly we don’t know what resolution it will display at, secondly we’re not sure if there’s a memory card slot for more storage, lastly and most importantly we have seen no mention of 4G connectivity – that doesn’t mean it definitely doesn’t boast it, but it seems strange to leave such an important detail don’t you think? Also we don’t yet know whether an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is coming, although it does seem likely.

If you don’t want to agree a contract you will be able to buy it outright for $349, however with tablets like the upcoming ASUS Eee Pad MeMO ME370T set to retail for just $250 we think it may struggle.

Will you buy the Sprint ZTE Optik?

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The company has just launched its first handset of 2012 for consumers in the UK, and according to a report on TechRadar it has many similar features as other smartphones on the platform. The handset is being aimed at the budget market and will be available via contracts that cost between £10 and £20.

For your hard earned cash you get a large 4.3-inch WVGA screen with an 800 x 480 resolution, along with a five megapixel camera that has a flash. It has a 1GHz single core processor with 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. It you fancy getting the handset SIM free online retailer Clove will sell the Tania to you for £249.99.

The handset will even turn into a Wi-Fi hotspot, which is something the much more expensive Nokia Lumia 800 can’t even do. The Tania is set to be only available on carriers such as Virgin Mobile and Go Mobile.

This news comes as Nokia is gearing up to release it cheaper Lumia 710, which if recent rumors are true could be priced at a similar level to the device from ZTE. It remains to be seen whether either device gains enough attention from the paying public.

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We have already told you about the Toshiba Excite which will be packing a quad-core Tegra 3 chip this year, as will a tablet from Lenovo which also features a quad-core processor. Now though, a new contender has entered the scene and it may be the most affordable Tegra 3 tablet available, and it comes from ZTE.

Their tablet, the ZTE T98 has been on show at CES 2012 and naturally there is a lot of interest since it packs a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, as well as the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.1. You’ll be interested to know that ZTE is a Chinese brand and they were given the permission to display their new 7-inch tablet directly at NVIDIA’s booth.

Other features of the ZTE T98 include a 1280×800 HD display, 16GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM. It has a thinness of just 11.5mm, comes with a 5 megapixel camera, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera and support for 1080p. There’s no word on when the T98 will be available or how much it will cost, but we imagine it will be available for the Asia market first, and will come in at a price that is significantly cheaper than the Transformer Prime.

If you want to see this live in action at CES 2012, we have found a video below for you to take a look at which gives you a brief run through of hardware specs and software. Considering how popular iPad alternatives are over in China, we have a feeling that this quad-core effort from ZTE may turn out to be a big seller as well. For those of you who are interested in importing, we’ll try and get our hands on one for a closer look.

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According to Joanna Stern over at engadget.com, the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer didn’t share any details about specific carrier partnerships, but it did reveal that the Style S smartphone and an LTE tablet would be arriving in the US in the second half of this year.

The ZTE Style S handset – which as noted by Vlad Bobleanta at unwiredview.com looks like it’s a rehashed ZTE Skate – runs on the Android 2.3 operating system and features a large 4.3-inch display, a 1350mAh battery, a 5MP camera on the rear and a 0.3MP camera at the front.

In the meantime, the LTE tablet is said to run on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and features a 10-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 x 800, two cameras, a 6800mAh battery and a 1.2GHz processor. You can view images of the upcoming devices via engadget.com.

Would you like to hear more information about these two ZTE devices?

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However, according to Chris Hall over at pocket-lint.com, ZTE has recently provided an update on the UK release date and although we still have not got a specific date, we do know that it will be arriving in UK stores in the early second half of this year. We guess that means around about June/July.

When asked whether the ZTE Skate – which features a 4.3-inch display, an 800MHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera – would appear as a ZTE-branded smartphone or re-branded by UK carriers, Wu Sa (ZTE UK’s director of mobile device operations) was unable to confirm the position with carriers.

However, the company did confirm that they are currently in discussions with all the tier one mobile carriers in the UK including O2, Vodafone, 3 and Everything Everywhere, who have all expressed a strong interest in ZTE’s Android run devices.

What do you think of the ZTE Skate? Would you consider buying this handset?

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