Some individuals like traditional two-year agreements, but carriers are breaking free from subsidies and endorsing off-contract agreements in large numbers. AT&T is one carrier leading the way, having quickly adopted Next off-contract plans behind US carrier T-Mobile. Now, AT&T is back to increase its off-contract offerings for those who’d rather not put down $600 or so for the latest flagship smartphone. The phone in question? The ZTE ZMax 2.
ZTE hasn’t strayed too far in the ZMax 2 from its original ZMax, but the manufacturer decided to slightly scale back its 5.7-inch display to a somewhat more solid 5.5-inch display, which seems to be the sweet spot for consumers (LG’s G3, Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6s Plus, and others). As for the battery, the ZTE ZMax 2 will provide a 3,000mAh battery as opposed to the 3,400mAh battery of the first-generation ZMax. We don’t know how this will impact performance, but it’s likely the compromise one must make for a thinner device. The ZTE ZMax 2 also features a 5.5-inch, HD display with 1280 x 720p screen resolution, a 1.2Ghz, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage with a microSD card slot that provides up to an additional 32GB, as well as a 2MP front camera and 8MP back camera.
AT&T doesn’t take too kindly to contract customers getting their devices locked while still under contract (as its latest lawsuit against two former employees shows), so you’ll be doing AT&T a favor by buying this device outright and off-contract.
What will you pay for the ZTE ZMax 2? $149.99, $100 cheaper than the first-generation ZMax. You can pick it up with both AT&T and TracFone on September 25th. Any takers?