ZTE Grand X 4 Smartphone Evaluation

Product: ZTE Grand X 4 Smartphone
Provided By: ZTE Canada
Price: $299 CDN without contract in Canada at time of publication

Introduction:

Today we are looking at yet another Smartphone from ZTE – the Grand X 4. This comes on the heels of their Axon 7 Smartphone and is the super-budget friendly offering from ZTE. In the past, I’ve been very impressed with what ZTE has to offer – both on the value line as well as their flagship devices and it will be interesting to see how this unit stacks up. 

While the Grand X devices usually run light on features, the Grand X 4 tries to marry some of the flagship features with a budget-priced phone. Keep on reading to see how it all turns out.

It’s unfortunate that Canadian carriers try so hard to hose their customers as this device is priced at ~$300CDN here currently and can be picked up for a mere ~$110 in the USA. If you sign a contract with either stocking carrier – the price will be free. Still, it’s priced a bit high for the mid-range device that it is. Currently, you can get the last-year’s flagship Axon device for less that this device is currently being offered. Enough of my pricing rant, let’s look at the Grand X 4.

About ZTE:

While many people in North America haven’t heard much about ZTE, they are a big player in other markets.

ZTE is a leading global provider of handset devices and telecommunications equipment. We are one of the top rated high-tech enterprises in the world developing and producing 2G, 3G and 4G handsets. As well as manufacturing mobile devices such as smartphones in over 150 countries, the company delivers innovative products business solutions. It connects global customers via voice, data, multimedia and WLAN Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges and is China’s largest listed telecoms equipment company.

More information about the company can be found over here.

First Look:

The ZTE Grand X 4 is a 5.5-inch device that packs an “HD” 720p display, a rear 13MP camera, 5MP front camera, 1080p video recording and a very solid 3,140mAh battery. Under the hood is a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor that is fed by 2GB of RAM and has an internal storage capacity of 16GB. The specifications won’t melt you mind, but with the enormous battery and 720p screen, the battery life should be impressive. Also, much like other ZTE Grand devices, the X 4 has a MicroSD card slot so that you can store more images, videos and even your Netflix and Amazon Prime downloads. ZTE claims it will support up to a 64GB SD card.

The bundle that comes with the Grand X 4 is pretty much a non-bundle. It ships with a charger and a USB-to-USB-Type-C cable, a quick manual as well as a SIM eject tool. There are no headphones or other goodies in the box. It’s bare.

You’ll notice in the images as we continue that the battery in the Grand X 4 is non-removeable in that it doesn’t have quick access. I’m sure it could be replaced if the phone was disassembled, but it’s not a user-serviceable part. Still with over 3,100 mAh of battery, you shouldn’t need to charge it often during the day.

As I mentioned, the battery is very large for the screen size and general CPU speed of this phone. I’ve been impressed with previous ZTE devices when it comes to battery life and I’m excited to see what kind of real-world battery life I’ll get out of this monster.

Closer Look:

As we continue our look around the Grand X 4, there are a few quick things to note. 1) The phone uses USB-C (good). 2) It uses a Micro-SIM card as well as a MicroSD card on the same tray (neutral). 3) The home, application switch and back buttons are fixed and below the screen (neutral). 4) The Power button and volume controls are switched to what I’d call “normal” (bad). The power button is below the volume buttons on the right side of the device, and while I see what they are doing by trying to put the power button closer to your thumb, it is backwards to other devices I’ve used and I spend the first two weeks constantly turning on my phone screen instead of lowering the volume.

 5) The device appears very sleek and “HTC One M8-ish”, but the plastic body on the phone is hard to hang on to. I never dropped it, but I came close a few times. I’d feel much better if I had a nice rugged case for this phone.

6) The back of the device holds a camera, flash and a fingerprint sensor. This is a high-end feature on a mid-level phone that seems nice on paper – if it works well. We’ll cover that later in the review.

On the next page, we’ll cover all the features from ZTE before we talk about how well the device works and if you should pick this up for your next device.