On 24 February 2014, Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain – ZTE had announced two new smartphones of Open series, based on Firefox OS, in Europe; Open II and Open C. The latest low budget flagship phone is listed on eCommerce online website eBay at 69.99$ (approx. 70$, according to Indian currency Rs 4129).
According to the manufacture, “Also running the latest version of Firefox OS, the Open II is the evolution of the popular ZTE Open, which was launched in 2013 in six countries by Telefónica as well as being sold through eBay in the US and UK markets. Marrying exquisite design with the open-source, Web-based Firefox OS, the Open II provides users with a fantastic experience and a highly affordable price.”
“Qualcomm Technologies has been collaborating with ZTE and Mozilla since the beginning of Firefox OS development, and we’re excited to be a part of the 2nd generation of Firefox device launches from ZTE,” said Jason Bremner, senior vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Firefox OS is an exciting platform that brings the power and ubiquity of HTML5-based applications to mobile devices. Coupled with the powerful Snapdragon 200 processor, for optimal multimedia and performance for superior battery life, the ZTE Open C and Open II truly deliver compelling performance with highly affordable mobile devices.”
According to ZTE, the company is planning to release a 4.5-inch Firefox OS smartphone by 2015. The ZTE Open, launched at Mobile World Congress in 2013, was brought to market with Telefónica in Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Uruguay. It was later sold in the US and UK via eBay, initially selling out in just three days. In addition to eBay, ZTE will also cooperate with additional e-commerce platforms for the Open II.
“Our first Firefox OS phone, the ZTE Open, proved hugely popular, and we are excited to bring even more innovative Firefox OS products to market, starting with the ZTE Open C and Open II. We have huge confidence in the Firefox OS platform and expect to deliver more than one million Firefox OS phones this year alone,” ended Mr. Kan Yulun.
According to the reseller on eBay, the Open II builds of Dual-Core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A5 processor with Qualcomm MSM7225A Snapdragon 200 chipset, alongside Adreno 200 GPU. The handset boasts 512 MB ROM and 256 MB RAM. The internal storage memory can be upgraded up to 32 GB using an external MicroSD memory card.
The Open II sports a 3.5″ TFT capacitive touchscreen display with 320 x 480 Pixels resolution. The unlocked handset works on 3G Network HSDPA 850/1900 and 2G Network GSM 850/900/1800/1900.
The handset comes with a 2MP rear camera, but there is no camera in front. Measuring the dimensions 114 x 62 x 12.5 mm, it is powered by a 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery. The phone features dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n.
There are no more details available about ZTE Open II smartphone features and specifications. The phone runs on Firefox 1.3 OS, unlike the Android OS.
