ZTE has unleashed its most powerful smartphone yet, today announcing the arrival of the Grand X, a flagship handset that will rock the coveted Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and feature a highly acceptable dual-core processor in the Nvidia Tegra 2.

Expected to hit UK shelves at the beginning of August, the device will retail at £189 SIM-free, while contracts will start at £24 per month and peak at £38 for a two-year pay monthly deal, for customers not with Virgin Media.

Virgin is continuing its partnership with ZTE, and will be offering special deals for the handset starting at £19 and including a £27 a month tariff that boasts unlimited data and free insurance. It's not quite the outrageous value of Orange's U24 deal, but for those of us who are increasingly chronologically gifted, it is still a pretty attractive package.

Phones 4u is set to be the Grand X's preferred retail partner, with its chief commercial officer Scott Hooton venturing that the new device offers an attractive combination of spec and value.

"With ZTE's Grand X handset, buyers have the best of both worlds: an amazing, high-end user experience at a cost that will be noticeably lower than handsets with similar specifications. With the Grand X, you have all the benefits of a powerful processor combined with a large, high-quality screen and high-end design," he said.

The mobile seems aimed primarily at entertainment conscious consumers, featuring a 4.3in qHD screen, Dolby Mobile sound technology, and access to the Tegra Zone games marketplace. The device also vaunts a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and flash, and 4GB of internal memory with a micro SD card slot making storage expansion up to 32GB possible.

ZTE said that further details of availability would be released closer to the device's descent.