ZTE Grand S LTE review: First look

We've just gotten some down time with the incredibly thin ZTE Grand S LTE and all we can say is, wow - we didn't see this one coming. Well. We actually did. Everyone did - it was perhaps the most leaked phone in the history of mankind.

Renders however did very little to do the striking design of ZTE's latest flagship justice. Somewhere between a Nokia Lumia 920 and an HTC One X, the ZTE Grand X sits pretty with its a quad-core specs and full 1080p display – not to mention a 13-megapixel rear facing camera and LTE on board.

But lets kick things off with the ZTE Grand S design - good grief, it's thin. The 6.9mm girth is a full millimetre skinnier than the Sony Xperia Z.

With a 5-inch display footprint, there's no denying this is an ample phone. This ampleness is disguised to great effect by its light weighting and natural fit in the hand though.

The plastic body is dense and goes some way to dispelling some of our concerns about this phone being too thin. There's a slight raise surrounding the camera mount, which is surrounded by ‘3D glass', though this adds virtually nothing to the jaw dropping thinness.

The LCD display packs a 1080p resolution and LCD technology. Without the likes of Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine 2 or their OptiContrast, it'll take a side by sides to see whether it manages to compete with the Xperia Z. Our first impressions were that clarity is blinding, though brightness could be more so.

Inside the phone sits Android 4.1.2, Jelly bean. Not the latest version but neither is it shamefully out of date. ZTE have gone that extra mile and redrawn their user interface to make the whole phone feel totally different to anything we've used before.

Perhaps the most striking interface element is a floating on-screen back button on the left side of that gorgeous display. This has some pretty nifty functionality, so be sure to check out the video below for a full demonstration.

Jelly Bean on the ZTE Grand S LTE is powered along by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.7GHz as well as 2GB of RAM. With 16GB of internal memory the flagship also has a microSD card slot making it perfect for movie hoarders and gamers alike.

Perhaps the most obvious area it falls behind Sony's Xperia Z is its lack of water and dust resistance, at least on paper. Stay tuned for something altogether more conclusive when we get this stunning HD behemoth in for review.