ZTE releases the 'best' $100 phone on the market

China’s smartphone maker ZTE is once again beating out its competition on price, offering just about the best handset—on paper—that can be found for $100. The ZMax Pro has similar specifications to the recently released Moto G4 Plus, but the latter costs $250. Since Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility from Google, this pits ZTE against one of its biggest competitors in China. However, ZTE's fortunes are much better in the US market, where it is the largest China smartphone maker.

The ZMax Pro uses the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 and runs on 2GB of RAM with 32GB of internal memory. It also includes a microSD card slot for expandable storage. The rear camera is 13MP while the front is 5MP. The phone includes a fingerprint sensor as well. The ZMax Pro is more firmly in the phablet territory than the G4, with its 6in 1080-pixel display compared with the G4’s 5.5in screen.

The ZMax Pro battery, however, is slightly smaller than its Moto G4 competitor. It has a 3,000mAh battery instead of 3,400mAh. Many users might not notice much of a difference in day-to-day use, especially since the phone supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge standard, which works through a USB type C port.

ZTE is known for getting attention as a good budget option, but it started getting headlines for producing the high-end Axon 7. This phone is more comparable to the OnePlus 3, which uses a lot of high-end hardware and sells 25 to 50 percent cheaper than high-end iPhones and Galaxy handsets at $400. The phone is also slightly more configurable than the OnePlus 3, which only has one model. The Axon 7 base unit comes with 64GB of storage but only 4GB of RAM compared with 6GB of RAM in the OnePlus 3. The 128GB model of the Axon 7 includes 6GB of RAM, however.

Going after the high and low end of the smartphone market is a smart move. It is how Samsung has been able to remain a dominant player in the market for so long. Yet, Samsung's recent windfall had a lot to do with the success of the Galaxy S7, which is priced much higher than the Axon 7. While ZTE is doing well in the US market, though, it likely does not have the cachet to get people to pay $600 or $700 for their phones. At least not yet.