ZTE Racer Review : The £99 Android Handset

Our first encounter with a ZTE phone came earlier this year with the F102, a phone that stayed with us for several months and is still UK's cheapest 3G handset on the market.

The Chinese company is looking to shed its image as a dirt-cheap, entry level, no-name handset manufacturer and aim for more expensive market segments where profits are significantly higher. Such a strategy worked perfectly well before for another company - HTC.

The Racer is the company's first Android-based handset and one which has been keenly priced at £99 on PAYG from 3 UK - a price that includes a £10 top-up.

It is also available from as little as £13 per month on 3's Internet Talker Time 300 which gives 300 minutes or texts, 5000 3-to-3 minutes and 500MB internet.

The Racer has a slightly tapered plastic body with a rubber back adorned with Android and 3 logos. The front is home to three touch sensitive keys (menu, back and home) plus a silver bar to make and end calls. On top is the power button and the audio jack.

At 100g, the Android handset is only slightly stockier than the F102 and that's an excellent thing. Sadly you have to remove the back cover, a difficult thing in itself, to access the microSD card.