Hands on: ZTE's 10-inch V96 tablet
updated 08:55 pm EDT, Tue May 8, 2012
Company takes another shot at ICS tablet market
Although most hardware makers have focused on new cellphones and related accessories at the CTIA expo this week, ZTE also brought its new V96 tablet. The 10.1-inch device brings a standard set of Ice Cream Sandwich tablet features, along with multi-band radios for GSM and LTE networks.
We found the user experience to be comparable to most other 10.1-inch tablets powered by stock Android 4.0. The device integrates a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, which appears to be a unique chip compared to the range of similar models clocked at 1.5GHz.
The interface is presented on a 1280x768 display, which had a difficult time maintaining readability among the bright lights of New Orleans' convention center. Other standard features include 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, GPS, Bluetooth, 802.11n Wi-Fi and HDMI output.
Like ZTE's other Android tablets, we found the build quality to be mediocre. GSM, HSPA+ and LTE support appears to be the primary feature of the V96, and we expect the tablet to arrive as a budget tablet subsidized, and likely branded by, overseas carriers.
The company has yet to announce pricing information or a launch date.
