ZTE Avid Plus hands-on

If you’re just out on a limb at the moment, just barely scrounging enough to get by, there’s still a good chance that you can still snag a smartphone for yourself. Announced alongside another value-conscious model during its CES 2016 press conference, the ZTE Avid Plus is a T-Mobile and MetroPCS bound entry-level Android smartphone that presents us with the core features of the platform, but in one incredibly priced package – possibly to the degree of under $115 outright. If that’s not cheap, then we don’t know what is.

Design

Speaking about dirt cheap, the design of the phone can’t hide the undeniable fact that it’s attached with that sub-par construction. From its hollow feel, to the cheap plastic materials, and even the cross pattern of its rear casing, the ZTE Avid Plus just reminds us so much of ZTE’s early beginnings here in the US market – where their devices consisted of so many cheaply made smartphones. While we don’t fancy its design, we do have to bear in mind its barely-there pricing, which of course, takes the slack off its uninspiring look and feel.

Display

Likewise, we’re not expecting much out of the display on this one – a 5-inch 480 x 854 LCD display. We’ve come to expect 720p screens being fashioned into many entry-level phones nowadays, but this one clearly takes it further back to below the qHD (quarter HD) realm. Details aren’t exactly sought out by this one, whereas the weak viewing angles present here washes out the screen to the point that there’s nearly zero visibility. Yeah, you can say it’s that bad, be won’t be mad either if you’re unimpressed.

Interface

Out of the box, it’s running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. We know, it’s almost unthinkable given Android Marshmallow’s continuing penetration, but we’re neither all that shocked by this revelation. For the most part, it tries to stick with a stock experience, so in that regard, we’re not too critical about the fact that it’s launching with Lollipop. Quite frankly, for the intended target audience, the Lollipop experience will more than suffice.

Processor and Memory

Needless to say, we weren’t expecting anything grand with its processing hardware – just because, you know, it’s one of the few (new) smartphones with an expected cost below the $115 price point. With that in mind, it’s powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 MSM8909 SoC clocked in slower at 1.1GHz, and coupled with 2GB of RAM. In this day and age, it’s an effective combo for the simple stuff, but don’t even think about playing any serious games with this one. Only those quick card games will survive this one!

Having only 8GB of internal storage isn’t too bad for a sub-$50 phone, since it’s a tally that’s more than generous due to the fact that it can also be supplemented by its microSD card slot.

Camera

Looking towards its cameras, the ZTE Avid Plus features a 5-megapixel rear/2-megapixel front camera combo. Serious shutterbugs won’t be won over by this combination, but we suppose it’s better than completely missing out on something candid.

Expectations

Talk about cheap! The ZTE Avid Plus is a poster child for everything that means to be a cheap phone, seeing that its anticipated sub-$115 outright price is unbelievable for a phone being introduced and announced for the first time.

On the surface, power users won’t even fathom to give this one any sort of consideration, but as a quick temporary replacement, or even as a backup, the Avid Plus can be a recommendation knowing that it won’t cost a fortune to pick up.