While Intel's Clover Trail+ Atom platform has been slow-moving so far, with only a handful of noteworthy unveilings, it just got a big shot in the arm through the official launch of ZTE's Grand X2 In. The 4.5-inch, 720p Jelly Bean phone is smaller than the Geek we saw not long ago, but it still carries that 2GHz Atom Z2580 inside -- and it's quite the screamer for shutterbugs between its 24 frames per second burst shooting, zero shutter lag and image stabilization. It otherwise sits in the middle of the road like its ancestor, carrying an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. We're digging that soft-touch purple finish, though. Europeans should receive the Grand X2 In sometime in the third quarter of the year; there's no word on launches elsewhere, but you can be sure that we're interested in giving this x86 headliner a proper shakedown.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Intel

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Via: MojAndroid.sk (translated)

Source: ZTE

ZTE has managed to break a run of two straight quarterly losses by posting a net profit of $33 million in its first 2013 financials. Unfortunately, the extra cash has come from selling a $133 million stake in surveillance firm Shenzhen ZNV, rather than any surge in handset popularity. A three percent fall in sales, project holdups, and squeezed margins have all helped to heap woes onto ZTE's plate -- not to mention the ongoing hostility from the folks in Congress.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Bloomberg

Just last week Microsoft added Foxconn's parent company to its growing list of licensees for patents it asserts are key to Android, and now ZTE has inked a deal with Ballmer and Co. as well. Now that the pact is in place, Microsoft says it's struck patent accords with roughly 20 hardware makers, and that 60 percent of phones sold with Google's open source OS are covered by such licenses. With HTC and LG already paying Redmond royalties for devices using Android, that leaves the likes of Google, Motorola and Huawei as the odd manufacturers out. If Motorola has its way, however, that won't change.

Filed under: Mobile, Microsoft, Google

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Source: Reuters