ZTE Open hands-on

The ZTE Open is one of the first handsets running on the Firefox operating system and it brings a clear understanding of what the Firefox OS is and isn’t. First, it is a completely web-based platforms, and second it isn’t a direct Android and iPhone competitor.

Okay, with this off our chests, we have to say that the ZTE Open is all about affordability. It’s likely to come where we are used to seeing feature phones. The device is like an extremely basic Android smartphone - a 3.5-inch screen, a 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera and a single-core processor.

In terms of technical details, the 3.5-inch display is HVGA (320 x 480 pixels), the chip is a ARM Cortex-A5-based MSM7225A clocked at either 600MHz or 800MHz. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM Radio are also on board.

Yet, the Firefox OS feels relatively fluid on the device, with no huge stutter. Speaking of the platform, it has its own marketplace and that is yet to grow. Right now, the essentials like Twitter, Bing, Pinterest, Wikipedia and Facebook are covered.

The platform is well integrated with social networks and pulls contact from your Facebook contacts list. It is somewhat similar to Android - it has a dropdown shade with notifications. Overall, though, it is not too ambitious trying to fight against Android and iOS. And that might be its strength, if devices like the ZTE Open are as cheap as promised.