Virgin Mobile, which seems to have been really getting its shit together of late when it comes to stocking more interesting smartphones, has started selling the Android 2.3 powered ZTE Kis direct through its web shop in return for £59.99. For that bargain bucket price the Kis gives you a capacitive 3.5″ display running at 480×320 resolution, a 3.2MP camera, with an 800MHz processor inside.
ZTE’s also put a 1,400mAh battery inside the thing, which is quite generous down at this budget end of the scale.
Virgin says the Kis costs you £49.99, but there’s a £10 compulsory top-up applied as well. And we always get in trouble when we don’t mention that sort of thing, so £59.99 is what we’ll put in the headline. Here’s the release from Virgin, rescued from the email avalanche of the past 10 days.
ZTE Launches Kis smartphone with Virgin Media
Virgin Media’s best value Android handset at under £50.00
11 July 2012, London, UK – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has launched its Kis smartphone, which will be distributed in the UK through Virgin Media from 11 July 2012. Available exclusively from Virgin Media at launch, the ZTE Kis is a feature-packed Android handset entering the Pay As You Go (PAYG) market as the best value Android available at just £49.99*.
In addition, Virgin Media is offering its customers 1GB data free per month for 12 months, making it ideal for customers who love to stay connected on the move and want to make the most of having access to over 600,000 Android apps through Google Play.
This is the second smartphone that ZTE has launched in partnership with Virgin Media, following the launch of the ZTE Tania Windows Phone earlier this year.
With a quality, high-end design, ZTE’s Kis is a great value smartphone that delivers on functionality at a cost-effective price for the style-conscious consumer. The 2GB memory card included allows for plenty of storage for photos and music files, while the 3.2MP Auto Focus camera with digital zoom provides the capability to take high quality pictures. Users can also share photos and tracks online using the smartphone’s Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities, and the handset’s fast 800MHz processor provides for swift operation and enables customers to enjoy smooth video playback and run apps with ease.
Jamie Heywood, director of mobile at Virgin Media said: “With the Kis, ZTE has designed a handset that meets customer requirements for a rich Android experience at a very affordable price for PAYG customers. With plentiful features and an abundance of apps to choose from through Google Play Store the ZTE Kis certainly delivers on that.
“We’re bundling in a huge amount of data to complement this Android handset for our PAYG customers. This is yet another example how Virgin Media is raising the bar in the mobile market because we know how much our customers love to be connected no matter where they are without worrying about expensive bills.”
“The launch of the ZTE Kis is a further demonstration of our commitment to building the ZTE brand in Europe and the UK across a number of price points and operating systems, which will continue with new devices throughout the remainder of 2012 and in 2013. It is also an example of our commitment to providing our customers with quality devices at affordable prices under the vibrant ZTE brand proposition,” said Wu Sa, Director of Mobile Device Operations at ZTE UK.Key functionality
· Display: 3.5”, HVGA 480*320, 262k colours, TFT, Capacitive
· Processor: 800MHz
· Camera: 3.2MP Auto Focus, 2 x digital zoom
· OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
· Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, GPS, WAP 2.0, Tri band
· Storage: Internal 512MB ROM, 256MB RAM. External memory up to 32GB, 2GB micro SD card included with device
· Dimensions: 114.3 x 61.6 x 11.5mm, 120g
· Battery: 1400 mAh Li-IonThe Kis handset will be available only at Virgin Media in store, on line and through telesales from the 11th July .
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
The HTC One V is HTC’s third entry in its high-profile new HTC One range, offering a smaller 3.7″ display running on a single-core 1GHz processor. It is is very much the “affordable” option in HTC’s newest Android series, but…
The HTC One S is the piggy in the middle of HTC’s 2012 line-up, offering a 4.3″ AMOLED display inside a very slim and stylish aluminium chassis. The end result is a phone that’s very, very slim and stylish.
HTC’s new quad-core monster, the 4.7″ flagship for 2012 that introduces the Tegra 3 processor to mobile phones, updates HTC’s range to Android 4.0 and brings us the supposedly streamlined version 4.0 of HTC’s Sense user interface.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
Tom Jackson
/ July 15, 2012Unless ZTE have changed the specs which, granted, wouldn’t be that unusual for ZTE, the ZTE Kis was supposed to offer Near Field Communication. If the specs still have NFC this has got to be the cheapest NFC device around, hasn’t it? Though they are not saying anything about an Android 4.0 update, I’m sure there would be an unofficial version of Android 4.0 for this phone – which could potentially introduce the luxury of Android Beam, I suppose.
Might be a nice little phone. I had the Orange Monte Carlo (before recently moving to a contract and getting the lovely little Sony Xperia U) and the worst part of that phone was the Orange Stuff, which this phone obviously won’t have. Considering the battery is almost the same size and the screen is so much smaller, this could be very good indeed. I never had any problems with the processor in the Skate – so it should speed this one along very nicely. Potentially a good phone. 1GB of Data for 12 months (If users actually use 1GB, which they probably won’t, as they’re the same users who spend £49.99 on a phone) has got to be worth more than the phone I’d have thought – so it could be a very good purchase.
Gary_C
/ July 15, 2012Great to see that 3.5″ capacitive displays are the new super-cheap standard nowadays, too.
Sebastian404
/ July 15, 2012I suspect that if Virgin’s ZTE Kis does not have NFC it could be yet another variant build.. like the OSF2 and Vivacity are the same device with different screen hardware/case..