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ZTE Era and PF112 HD: two Android 4.0 smartphones that should be just one (hands-on photos and video)

ZTE Era and PF112 HD: two Android 4.0 smartphones that should be just one (hands-on photos and video)

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ZTE announced a very, very large number of phones today at Mobile World Congress, but the two that are actually notable are the Era and the PF112 HD

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Gallery Photo: ZTE PF112 hands-on pictures
Gallery Photo: ZTE PF112 hands-on pictures

ZTE announced a very, very large number of phones today at Mobile World Congress, but the two that are actually notable are the Era and the PF112 HD. The Era is ZTE's flagship, sporting both a quad-core Tegra 3 processor and a brand name that ZTE is not afraid to use in a pun on its new Android push. The Era has a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 display and is 7.8mm thick, with 8GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. It's designed for HSPA+ networks, but is not going to have LTE.

Despite being the so-called flagship, the Era managed to get shown up by the PF112 HD in at least one category: the screen. Of all of ZTE's phones today, the PF112 stands out the most with its 4.5-inch 1028 x 720 screen. It's not the best screen we've seen here at MWC, but it's certainly the best standout feature ZTE had on display, and it's a bit of a bummer that it came on a device with no announced processor or clear launch plan that we could divine — it is also an HSPA+ phone.

As far as styling goes, neither phone tries anything extreme. Capacitive buttons are still present, as is a look that somehow manages to "borrow" from both Samsung and HTC in equal measure. That's not a knock on their build quality, which seemed fine, but ZTE clearly hasn't established its own brand identity yet.

Both devices were loaded up with Ice Cream Sandwich and a couple of entirely unnecessary customizations: a second unlock screen that worked by holding your thumb down in the center of the screen and a trippy live wallpaper that spun about. The software was very beta, however, with screens taking up to a second to turn on and at least one complete software crash. ZTE will definitely need more time to bake these devices, and if we were them, we'd spend that time melding the PF112's screen with the Era's specs.

ZTE PF112 HD hands-on pictures

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