We should reiterate what we said earlier in the review: the ZTE Open is partly intended as a developer phone. For those customers, it does the job well. You don't need a quad-core processor or a 1080p display to demonstrate that your HTML5 app runs properly. For $80 unlocked, the
smartphone is even something of a bargain; it's cheap enough that you could buy several for a programming team. If you're looking for a testbed device, don't hesitate to pick one up.There are also certain everyday customers who might like the Open. If you're just considering a smartphone for the first time and object to the complexity or cost of what's on the market, it's hard to beat the pricing. On Movistar Spain, the Open costs €58 ($78) with prepaid service; the Optimus L3 II is twice as expensive, at €116 ($156). Travel to Colombia and the 149,900 pesos (also $78) that you'll pay at Movistar will easily undercut a phone like
Samsung's
Galaxy Young, which costs 317,900 pesos ($167). Mozilla argues that Firefox OS brings smartphones to a wider audience, and it's right -- some customers would be relegated to a basic feature phone if the Open weren't available.
