What a whirlwind CES proved to be. We shot more video than we could edit at the show. The people in the booths were so nice, demoing products and showing us their tips and tricks. We met with Brian Scollo from LG, Albert Aydin and Zhu Lin at ZTE. ZTE premiered the ZTE Grand S. A video follows as well as commentary.
Lin means bright stone in Chinese, while the English/American name Lynn (mine) means dweller by the water fall or babbling brook. Lin and I, besides having homonyms as names also have small hands. The ZTE Grand S is very big and small handed people could have trouble operating the phone with one hand, however, there is setting to make the number keyboard right or left handed for one-handed operation.
There is also a simple added-on interface to move the Android menu to the side of the device. She showed how thin it is. We were not able to tell if the 6.9mm thinness is measured on the thin side or the slightly wider camera depth end.
Features of the ZTE Grand S include a 5" 440ppi 1920x1080 HD touchscreen, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 13MP camera, microSD card slot. 17800mAh battery, advanced camera functions, Dolby Digital sound and several color choices.
The ZTE Grand S is slimmer than a pen and feels light in the hand (see photo).
We have seen some comments about the way the ZTE Grand S was presented at CES bashing the product because the presentations weren't slick. Spoiled reporters didn't like the crowded press conference or the information presented at the booth.
ZTE had a small press conference. The booth was well-lit with many ways to try out the phones. ZTE gave away ZTE smartphones after every presentation. There were models is tasteful white dresses with sparkles.
When there was a presentation, there was time for questions and answers. At the ZTE booth they were trying the best they could without any flying Elvises or exotic dancers.
What, I saw was cultural divide between Chinese culture and American Hollywood slick. An average consumer is not going to care if the media was not fed shrimp and entertained by Alicia Keys, they just want a phone that works.
On an another note, in the past years, the media that covers technology cares more about how they are fed and treated than what consumers want or need.
I saw reporters complaining that they went to an event and had to wait in line. Big deal, join the human race, sometimes we have wait. While waiting in lines at other shows, I met nice people, many of whom told me information, I later used for stories.
At one party, a bunch of self-sure geeks drinking cocktails and eating little puff pastry Beef Wellington hors d'oeuvres, didn't notice a woman in power mobility scooter. I had to push them aside to let the woman get out of the packed room. It seems they don't believe in human courtesy.
The egos of people who write about mobile technology have gotten so big they can't even fit on a 6" inch screen. Some treat PR reps like servants while whining and moaning. Personally, I would not trust their biased opinions based on glitz and not 20 years of technical knowledge that we have at WiMo News.
Now back to the ZTE Grand S, compared to phones two years ago, it is a masterpiece. It even bests in some features the top smartphones of 2012. The ZTE Grand S offers more than enough for an average to advanced user with some really neat features and possibilities. It also comes in some pretty colors, green, white, red, blue and pink. If it is introduced in the United States at a good price point, I'm sure many buyers will be very happy with it.
Every man has his hobbyhorse.