Bonnie Cha

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ZTE Expands U.S. Offerings with Nubia 5, Grand S

Looking to continue its expansion in the U.S., Chinese cellphone manufacturer ZTE today announced the upcoming availability of two new Android smartphones, the ZTE Nubia 5 and ZTE Grand S.

ZTE Grand S (left) and Nubia 5 (right)

Preorders for both handsets will begin on Oct. 5 through various retailers, including Amazon. The Nubia 5 is priced at $450 unlocked, while the Grand S costs $400. The smartphones can be used either on AT&T or T-Mobile’s network.

With a focus on imaging and entertainment, the Nubia 5 features a 13-megapixel camera with a Konica-Minolta lens and three different shooting modes. “Fun” mode lets you add different filters to your images, Auto mode adds features like HDR and smile recognition, and Pro mode gives users more control over light, focus and gradient.

The phone also offers a five-inch, 1,920 by 1,080 pixel touchscreen, Digital Dolby Plus audio technology, and specially designed earbuds to enhance the multimedia experience. The Nubia 5 ships running Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 and has a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor.

Meanwhile, the Grand S claims to be the slimmest smartphone in the U.S. (stop me if you’ve heard this before) at just 0.27-inch thick. It also has a five-inch, 1,920 by 1,080 pixel touchscreen, a 13-megapixel camera, and quad-core Snapdragon processor.

While new to the U.S. market, both handsets have been available globally for quite a while. The Grand S, for example, was announced at CES in January, and went on sale in March in China.

ZTE says that it is committed to bringing more of its higher-end devices to the U.S.

“The launch of the ZTE Nubia 5 builds on our ongoing commitment to the U.S.,” said Lixin Cheng, chairman and CEO of ZTE USA, in a statement. “ZTE will be working closely with our customers to makes devices like this available in the U.S.”

Building its presence in America is something the company has been working on for some time. While most of its offerings so far have been entry- to mid-level devices for the prepaid segment, the strategy seems to be working for the company. ZTE is among the Top 5 phone makers in the world and, according to a recent report by Strategy Analytics, it was the fastest-growing smartphone vendor in the U.S. over the last year.

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik