Telstra partners with ZTE for new 4G smartphones

Telstra Frontier 4G and Telstra Easy Touch 4G to go on sale before Christmas

Ross Catanzariti (ARN)
13 November, 2012 06:01
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Telstra has partnered with Chinese OEM ZTE to bring to market two new 4G smartphones in time for Christmas, the telco announced today.

Both the Telstra Frontier 4G and the Telstra Easy Touch 4G will go on sale this month. The devices are manufactured by ZTE but feature prominent Telstra branding.

The pair of Android smartphones are targeted at price conscious consumers, though the telco has stressed that its brand has a strong trust within the consumer market.

"We have a huge number of customers on Telstra branded devices, in fact there's an enormous amount of trust in the Telstra brand and Telstra branded devices that we're putting into the market," said Telstra's director of device management, Andrew Volard.

The Telstra Frontier 4G is the first 4G-capable prepaid smartphone to hit the market in Australia, while the Telstra Easy Touch 4G is designed for first time users. Both devices run Google's Android 'Ice Cream Sandwich' mobile operating system.

The Frontier 4G has a 4in touch screen, is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and has a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.

The Easy Touch 4G features large icons, on-screen guides and custom designed shortcut menus designed to assist users who may be unfamiliar with the Android operating system. It has a 4.3in display and an 8-megapixel camera.

The Telstra Frontier 4G will retail for $299 when it officially goes on sale from Tuesday 27 November, while the Telstra Easy Touch 4G is available from today outright and unlocked for $456.

The release of both the Easy Touch 4G and the Frontier 4G follow the release of Telstra's own branded, 4G-capable Android tablet, the Telstra 4G Tablet, last month.