ZTE to sell Firefox Phone on Ebay for $79 unlocked

[pm]

I thought this was interesting:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130812005420/en/ZTE-Sell-ZTE-Open-Firefox-OS-Phone

ZTE today announced that sales of the ZTE Open Firefox OS phone will start soon on the ZTE store on eBay US and UK. Recently launched with Telefónica in Spain, Venezuela and Colombia, the ZTE Open will now be available for the first time in Orange priced at $79.99 (£59.99) and will be unlocked to allow use on all mobile networks.

The global availability of the ZTE Open through eBay means that more consumers worldwide are now able, for the first time, to buy an affordable smartphone based entirely on open web standards. The ZTE Open is powered by Firefox OS, which frees developers, operators and consumers from the constraints of existing closed ecosystems by using the Web as the platform for all functionality and applications.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/zte-open-firefox-open-ebay-html5-snapdragon,23922.html

The specs - as one might guess - are not high-end. The screen resolution in particular seems low even by low-end standards.

The phone sports a 3.5 inch multi-touch screen with a 480 x 320 resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 single-core SoC clocked at 1 GHz, 256 MB of RAM and 512 MB of internal storage. It also has a microSD card slot supporting up to 32 GB of extra storage, but comes with a 2 GB card already inserted. Other features include dual-band Wireless N and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR connectivity, a 3.2MP camera on the back, stereo FM radio, and a Li-ion 1200 mAh battery.

 

[Red Storm]

It's like my Droid 1 all over again. :awe:

 

[pm]

So now that I read more, it looks like the first wave actually sold last Friday and sold out in hours.

 

[luv2liv]

i wish more manufacturers would flood their products. on day 1, the product would be sold everywhere, ebay, best buy, amazon, in stores, etc.... it just doesnt make sense being tied to a carriers and subsidized.

good to know someone ZTE is trying ebay out. hopefully v2 will have a bigger screen and better specs...

 

[BladeVenom]

They only had 985?

 

[MrX8503]

This would be a good alt to a feature phone

 

[ponyo]

I guess I don't see the appeal of this phone other than it's unlocked. You can pick up Nokia 520/521 for $80 on sale and $100 when it's not on sale. Nokia Windows phone has better hardware and ecosystem. The only negative is it's locked but I doubt the people buying these low end phones care or even know about locked/unlocked phones.

 

[Crono]

It's cheap enough that I would pay for one simply to play around with one and review. It seems $80 with this and the Lumia 520/521 there are at least interesting low-end smartphones now, whereas before there were only cheaply made and very bland Android phones at that price point.

I probably will pick one up at above the price these were going for next week and try to give it a good review.

 

[Crono]

Bought one just now off someone reselling one on ebay. I'm very interested in the new Firefox and Linux (Ubuntu, Tizen) based phones that are coming out on the horizon. LG is supposedly working on a Firefox OS phone that will release next year.

I'll post an update or a new thread with a full review after I've had about a week to use it.

 

[jacktesterson]

This thing is stuck in 2008 specs wise.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I bought the Nokia 521 for $99 on a whim just to check out Windows Phone 8.

However I don't think I'd ever buy this phone at any price. I want nothing to do with something that has a 480x320 display.

That is why I wondered in another thread if Nokia is making any money off the Lumia 520/521. For just $20 more, you get significantly better hardware than this thing.

 

[peacefulheart]

at least it's sold in a low price,and people who will buy this type phone won't care too much about high-end or low-end.and it's unlocked...still have some attractions

 

[T_Yamamoto]

That screen resolution

Hell no.

 

[Graze]

You pay for what you get. The FireFox phones available now are terrible

 

[pm]

You pay for what you get. The FireFox phones available now are terrible

Do you have a review based on your own experience or an online review that you've read to base this opinion on? Or are you just looking at the specs? If you've used one, I'd be curious what you didn't like about it, and if you've read a review, I'd like a link because I haven't seen anything more than hands-on sort of previews.

 

[Red Storm]

I'd rather get a Lumia 521.

 

[jacktesterson]

Do you have a review based on your own experience or an online review that you've read to base this opinion on? Or are you just looking at the specs? If you've used one, I'd be curious what you didn't like about it, and if you've read a review, I'd like a link because I haven't seen anything more than hands-on sort of previews.

There are Roms available now for certain phones I'm pretty sure.

Most think it seems quite light weight overall but is only suitable for basic phones at the moment.




People are paying $150 for them now on ebay....

 

[jacktesterson]

I'd rather get a Lumia 521.

For $20 more its a no brainer

The specs on this Firefox phone are straight out of stone age by todays standards for basic smartphones.

 

[Bateluer]

The specs - as one might guess - are not high-end. The screen resolution in particular seems low even by low-end standards.

With those specs, its laughable. The Lumia 521 is a far better deal. And I as much as a loathe the Windows Phone platform, you'll actually be able to use the Lumia for something other than making phone calls.

 

[bassoprofundo]

I'm more interested in something like this as a cheap "kid phone" alternative to just plain feature/quick-messaging phones. Anyone have a handle on whether these can be used w/o a data plan on the US GSM carriers?

 

[Crono]

Got my phone yesterday.

I'll play around with it for a week before giving a review.

Here are some shots I took when I unboxed the device.

ZTE Open, Lumia 521, and iPhone 5 size/display comparison:

Stacked on top of the iPhone 5:

 

[Joe1987]

Very cool, thanks for sharing Love the looks.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Can't wait for your writeup.

 

[Crono]

I finished my review.

I've got some work to do on the website, grammar to fix, etc and I'm not a professional reviewer, so forgive me for the lack of polish or technical insight. Plus I suck at web design... but anyway, here's the review. It's on my website which I'm marking as "live" today. (mods, I'll move my review here if it's a problem linking to the site - it was easier to link than to copy/paste the entire thing).

ZTE Open review

 

[BladeVenom]

For those who want a Firefox phone with better specs, LG is coming out with one next year. http://firefoxosblog.net/lg-firefox-os-smartphone/