Qualcomm unveiled its newest processors – the Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 800 at CES last month. While a lot of newer devices which are to come out this year, as well as the HTC One which was recently announced a week ago, are powered by the Snapdragon 600 processor, we’ve been waiting to see something that would pack the Snapdragon 800 high-end processor. And it looks like ZTE has beaten everyone to the finish line by announcing the Grand Memo – a 5.7″ phablet which is powered by the Snapdragon 800.
ZTE has been actively announcing high end devices since CES in January, and looks like it is aggressively pursuing a slice of the high-end devices market. The Grand Memo packs a 5.7″ display set to a resolution of 720p, which is a tad disappointing, as a 1080p display seems to be intrinsic to what the definition of a high-end device is these days. That said, Engadget reports that the LTE enabled version of the Grand Memo wil sport a 1080p display. Now that should make things a bit more exciting. A 1080p display would have truly made this device Grand. Under the hood lies the powerful Snapdragon 800 processor coupled with an Adreno 330 GPU, which is said to provide double the performance of the older Snpdragon S4 Pro and the Snapdragon 600. And given the 720p display and the fact that the chipset does not have to push as many pixels as a 1080p device, performance should be pretty snappy. ZTE has only added 1GB of RAM, and we would have expected at least double that, given such a powerful processor.
The Grand Memo also packs a 13MP main camera and a 1MP front-facing camera, 16GB internal storage, a 3200 mAh battery, Dolby Digital technology and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with ZTEs UI skin. Another cool feature that the Grand Memo comes with is the ergonomically placed on-screen keyboard which makes it easier to type when you are holding the device, similar to that on the Galaxy Note 2.
The ZTE Grand Memo is to be launched in China next month, followed by a Europe and US outing somewhere in Q2 2013. Pricing details are not known as yet, but the presence of a top-end processor and otherwise modest specs should balance the price out accordingly for the Grand Memo.