[UPDATE]: The ZTE Skate is also known as the Orange Monte Carlo.
ZTE will launch this summer the successor of the ZTE Blade also known as the Orange San Francisco – the ZTE Skate. Initially announced during the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in February, ZTE is pushing back the ZTE Skate launch date from May to July in the UK.
The ZTE Skate will run Android latest OS, Gingerbread 2.3, on a huge 4.3 inch touchscreen with an 800MHz processor. It will have one rear facing 5MP camera, A-GPS, WiFi connectivity and Bluetooth. It will run on GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks with 900/1800/1900MHz bandwidths and HSDPA/UMTS at 900/2100MHz. G Sensors will be available as well storage of up to 32GB via microSD.
The Skate is bigger than its San Francisco predecessor with a thickness of 10.8mm and a weight of 120g.
Interesting fact, ZTE is unsure whether they will keep the ZTE Skate brand name or if they will let a network operator rebrand the phone like Orange did with the San Francisco. The Chinese manufacturer is however still in discussion with UK operator O2, Vodafone and 3 regarding its Android devices.
ZTE did confirm that the ZTE Blade will still be available in the meantime. The latter has been a huge success for ZTE in China and globally, totalling sales of 2 million units out of the 60 million handsets ZTE sold last year. This amounts for 7-8% of UK smartphone sales, which ZTE aims to double this year. ZTE Android sales in the UK should also be favored with the introduction of a series of ZTE Light tablet. More to come on the latter as the summer gets closer.
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