ZTE Open Pro Reviews

Whether or not the Open fits your needs, one thing is clear: Mozilla needs more capable hardware to demonstrate Firefox OS' potential. The Open is good for someone whose alternative would be a basic flip phone, but the camera quality, connectivity, display and performance don't do full justice to the software. Thankfully, more smartphones are coming. Along with a more powerful ZTE phone, we can also expect the (unsanctioned) Geeksphone Peak+. The as-yet-unannounced devices from Huawei and LG may also be worth waiting for. Firefox OS could easily take off -- it just needs a better launch vehicle.

The first commercially available Firefox OS phone has its heart in the right place, but it's hampered by weak specs and an OS that's not yet fully baked.

The ZTE Open is basically a smartphone for people who don't really need most of the bits of a smartphone. If you want to just check the weather report, maybe look up a factoid or news story on the go, the ZTE Open is a useful and economical way to do that, while still being able to take advantage of those cheap prepaid plans. For the more tech-savvy people and smartphone enthusiasts, it's probably too limited to be worthwhile even once the software side catches up. Then there's the separate issue of the Firefox OS. Right now, Firefox certainly isn't bad for a first release, but it's going to need to seriously beef up the availability and quality of apps if it wants to compete with the major players.

A good-looking contribution to a noble experiment, the ZTE Open fulfills the goal of bringing an inexpensive Firefox smartphone OS to developers and easy-to-please customers. Is this a building block for Firefox's goals? Maybe the operating system, but not this handset specifically. Unfortunately, the phone's appearance and $80 price tag are its finest traits. Poor internal performance, battery life, and skimpy hardware features dampen the experience, and the camera's lousy image quality piles on more bad news. The Open may still be a valid option for Firefox developers who want to keep costs in check, and for people with no other smartphone option for miles. If you can, try on other prepaid options, like MetroPCS' Huawei Valiant (Android 4.1), AT&T's prepaid Nokia Lumia 520 (Windows Phone 8), or Virgin Mobile's Kyocera Rise (Android 4.0.) -- all alternatives (with proven OSes) that also fall in the Open's off-contract price range. Developers, too, have other (admittedly pricier) options, including the globally available Geeksphone Peak, Peak+, and Keon, and the Alcatel One Touch Fire.

We're giving the unlocked ZTE Open with the Firefox OS huge points for its very reasonable price, but the software needs more polish before it's consumer-ready.