With two new phones, ZTE plans a return | News and opinions

ZTE is back. Or at least, he wants to be. The company, which was once the fourth largest smartphone vendor in the United States, was expelled from US carrier stores and was almost completely shut down, during a four-month drama over the violation of sanctions against l & # 39; Iran. Today, he launches cheap phones that fit seamlessly into Sprint's and Verizon's programs.–if they let their old partner back.

"Some carriers are cautious, and I do not blame them, we're about to prove to carriers that they can trust us," said Jeff Yee, ZTE's vice president of product marketing for many years. years.

For example, the new Blade Max 2S (above, right) and $ 179 Verizon-compatible Blade Max 2S (compatible above), at $ 199 USD (see above, right), will be visible at retailers in Canada. NewEgg line and B & H, as well as in independent Sprint affiliated stores, but not in stores where over 80% of US phones are sold. The company is trying to return to these stores, said Yee. (Both phones also work on AT & T and T-Mobile.)

"There is a cycle with the carriers where they make calls for tenders, bids are awarded to us, and six to twelve months after the award, we start shipping, we missed a cycle," did he declare. The current round of calls for tenders would put ZTE phones back into operators' stores in about six months.

Ugly Low by politics

The apex of ZTE arrived just before his crash. In November 2017, after years in the United States with affordable phones for prepaid operators, the company launched Axon M, an ambitious dual-screen foldable mobile phone, with AT & T and NTT DoCoMo. He was ready to follow up with his flagship product Axon 9 Pro in the United States this year.

To a large extent, ZTE was a child of the US-China cooperation. Unlike Huawei, its main rival in China, ZTE had a US-based staff and worked closely with US carriers. Also, unlike Huawei, he bought a ton of American components–Qualcomm modems and chipsets, optical connectors and other components of a wireless carrier. But all these American purchases made ZTE vulnerable if the US wanted to cut their parts inventory.

Since 2016, ZTE has been arguing with the Commerce Department over the fact that the Chinese parent company was selling devices made with US components to countries under US embargo, including Iran. The company paid a huge fine in 2017 and, at the time, most observers thought the drama was over.

But in April, the Commerce Department stepped up its sanction by banning ZTE's access to US components and software, which essentially resulted in the closure of the entire company. President Trump then suggested on Twitter that ZTE was in the process of being used as a currency of exchange in broader trade negotiations with China.

The 5G will provide an opening for the return of ZTE, predicts Yee. But even that has its dangers. ZTE plans to be one of the first phone makers to launch a 5G device, in part because it is developing a large network equipment business. 5G Technology. The bottom ZTE product sheets now show "Key innovations of 5G".

But this can create subtle political problems for ZTE. The company's troubles with the sanctions against Iran to have Huawei has ignored the political concerns that have depressed Huawei: the idea that Chinese sellers who also own network equipment companies will let their government spy through their cell phones. Yee rejects any possibility of this type, of course.

"In the United States, ZTE has sold more than 50 million phones and more over the years, and there is no evidence to support [spying]", he said." This has been said without proof, and it is not true. "

The company even uses a third-party security auditor, Gossamer, to ease carrier concerns over the safety of ZTE phones in the United States. Nevertheless, the structural similarities between ZTE and Huawei may lead US operators to fall back on partners that have no network activity, such as Motorola and OnePlus.

Hands on With the Max blade View and blade Max 2S

the Max blade View and Blade Max 2S, the two new phones from ZTE, have been clearly developed for Verizon and Sprint. They are slightly different. Yee has tried to present them as a bigger choice for consumers, but the air carriers have obviously asked that these differences differ.

Both phones have an image size of 6 inches, 2: 1, 2,160 by 1,080 screens and Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processors. Both feature large 4000 mAh batteries, 32 GB of storage and microSD card slots. Both phones cost less than $ 200 unlocked.

The Verizon phone, the Max blade See, costs $ 199. It has 16MP and 2MP cameras at the back (the 2MP is for depth) and an 8MP camera at the front. It also has 3 GB of RAM and two speakers. Horribly, he uses Android 7.1, but Yee says he'll get an update for Android 8 soon after it's launched. The Sprint phone, the Max blade 2S, priced at $ 179 and includes a single speaker, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP main camera and a 5MP front camera.

the Max blade View manages to shoot a convincing bokeh with his secondary camera, as you can see here.

They will compete with Motorola, LG, Samsung and Blu phones at a low price in our market. The Moto G6 Play, for example, has a similar processor and battery, a slightly smaller screen and a single camera, and costs $ 199. the Max blade View, in particular, is very competitive in its price range.

But if you buy specifications, you probably do not buy this type of phone. The fact is that they are giant phablets, inexpensive and appealing to the crowd, for people without a wallet.–the types of phones on which ZTE is made a name. And the people who buy these phones are often content to buy the biggest phone that they can afford in the store they go to most often, which makes it so essential for ZTE to join the operators.

What technicians will like is how ZTE calls Android skins again. Although they do not use Google's Android One brand, they are turning to Google's core Android software, which will provide the same experience and even quick updates as does Android One.

"Whether or not we have an Android One logo on the back, we're doing the same thing," said Yee.

The new phones are on sale online today.