ZTE's flagship is high-end and ultrathin (hands-on)

Though it has been on the show floor since CES 2013 opened its doors to the public this morning, ZTE officially announced its newest flagship phone, the anticipated Grand S, at an afternoon press conference today.

As part of ZTE's high-end line of Grand Series handsets, which include the Grand Era and the Grand X, the Grand S is equipped with a 5-inch full HD touch screen, which features 440ppi and is made out of Corning Gorilla Glass.

During my brief time with the handset, the display looked pleasingly bright and crisp, and it's the biggest display I've seen on a ZTE device. However, it was slightly unresponsive -- it took a few extra swipes and hard presses to navigate through its five home screens and open apps.

A not-so-sensitive display isn't uncommon in ZTE smartphones, especially in the entry-level range, but it was disappointing to see such performance on a higher-end product like this.

Fortunately, the build quality was impressive. Its sturdy and thin unibody design (its profile measure 6.9mm) prevents the battery from being removable, but the Grand S comes in two finishes: matte and glossy. If you want matte, black and white colors are available. Glossy colors include pink, yellow, red, and mint green.

The 4G LTE handset also ships natively with Android Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor.

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/zte-grand-s/4505-6452_7-35558098.html