ZTE seems to be just as excited about its super-thin Grand S as we are, so instead of waiting until CES to launch it the company went ahead and held a short preview of the phone at its design offices in Shanghai.

During the event, ZTE staff confirmed that the Grand S would be the company’s international 5-inch quad-core phone, where as the Nubia Z5, which launched just after Christmas, will be a China only phone.

Personally I believe this is great news as the Grand S is an overall better looking, thinner, and most importantly more affordable device yet boasts a very similar specification to the Z5.

Speaking of specification, ZTE was careful not to give away to many hardware details for the Grand S, but they did state the phone will measure 6.9mm in thinness, boast a narrow 3.14mm bezel and an OGS display of just 0.55mm.

It was also confirmed that a number of colour options will be available including black, white, grey, pink, red, blue and lime green.

The rest of the specs sheet is still shrouded in secrecy but sources close to the company are still suggesting that it will feature a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 display, quad-core CPU, 2GB RAM, 13-megapixel camera and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

This week, Beijing based Xiaomi joined forces with Sina Weibo to test a new method of selling their phones on the popular Twitter like social media platform. The results were pretty phenomenal!

Up until this week, if you wanted to buy Xiaomi’s flagship quad-core Mi2 you would have to first earn enough community points on their forum, then trade those points for a number, and finally wait for sales day and hope you get to book the phone before thousands of other hopefuls.

This method has continued for months with each sale selling out in just minutes. Great news for Xiaomi, but not all that awesome if you happen to luck out while trying to get your dream phone.

To try and elevate things a tad, Xiaomi tested an all new sales method via their Sina Weibo account which didn’t’ need buyers to first earn points. As you would expect, the sale turned into a record sellout with 1.3 million orders placed in just over 4 minutes!

Unfortunately, Xiaomi only had 50,000 phones on offer and are now performing a lucky dip to choose who of those 1.3 million people will “win” the chance to hand over 1999 Yuan ($318) for the latest Xiaomi!

How would you feel about this method of sale if Xiaomi were to enter international markets?

I think we can all agree that 2013 will be a year of amazing 5-inch, quad-core flagship phones, and here in China, “Flagship” doesn’t always mean expensive.

We’ve already seen some great phones from Oppo and HTC, and we are expecting some equally impressive 5-inchers from ZTE and Huawei, but these are big brand phones. What about some smaller domestic Chinese brands?

Domestic Chinese brands have had an excellent 2012, and most are already gearing up to compete in the 2013 quad-core, HD space. One such manufacturer is Neo, who is preparing to launch a new top-of-the-range phone: the Neo N003. From Neo’s forum, we’ve come across these purported specs, which claim that the Neo N003 will get MediaTek’s new quad-core MT6589 CPU clocked at 1.3Ghz, 1GB RAM, a 5.3-inch 1280 x 720 display and 12 mega-pixel rear camera.

Other highlights include a 3 mega-pixel front facing camera and a sizable 3000mAh battery. Strangely, the N003 will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich rather than 4.1 Jelly Bean, but an update should be in the works for the near future.

There was a time when a $200 Chinese tablet would be nothing more than an unresponsive touchscreen hot glued to a wobbly casing. But the past few years have seen a huge change and now even clones are worth buying!

The Galaxy Galapad obviously takes some inspiration from the Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy range of tablets, but rather than attempting to just emulate the look of those tablets, the Galapad has some guts to match.

Under the 7 inch 1024 x 600 IPS display sits the same Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU you would find in the Nexus 7. There is also 1GB RAM, a 3500mAh battery, and even a front facing 2 mega-pixel camera.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean comes as standard, however Galaxy have announced that they intend to offer an upgrade to 4.2 in the new year.

So the Galaxy Galapad has the looks, the hardware and the updates, now if they can work on reducing the price and ensuring good quality, the real Nexus 7 might have to watch out!

$200 isn’t a huge amount of money when looking to buy an off contract phone, but if you are willing to take the plunge and buy a Chinese phone, you could take home this 5.3-inch, dual-core device from Carpad.

At first glance, the Carpad looks a lot like the various Samsung Galaxy S3 clones which are making the rounds, but once in your hands and confronted with the screen you’ll quickly realize this is a much larger beast! Measuring in at 149mm x 77mm and with a thickness if 9.7mm, the F7 isn’t the largest phone on the market, but it could well be the largest at this price!

Obviously the main selling points for the F7 are it’s price and screen size, but Carpad have also managed to bundle in a few other nice features including a dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM and 8 mega-pixel rear camera with LED flash.

As for the screen, it isn’t the highest resolution display on the planet at 960 x 540, but when compared to phone of a similar price and specifications it begins to look pretty respectable. The rest of the hardware includes a 2500mAh battery, dual-sim standby, GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth.

The Carpad F7 will go on sale later this month at just over $200 (1299 Yuan) and will be available in the choice of either “Piano White” or “Marine Blue”.

Chinese E-commerce group Beidou has really taken the phone market by storm. The company launched its first phone earlier this year, the Beidou Little Pepper, and recently teamed up with ZTE to launch a quad-core Tegra 3 phone for just $128!

Now that it has the market’s attention, Beidou is readying a low-cost 5-inch phone called the Beidou Chi. The Chi will be Beidou’s first 5-inch phone and faces tough competition from similar models in China, but at just 799 Yuan ($103) the Chi is likely to be a sell out hit!

While the design, size and price of the Chi all look great, this won’t be a high performance device as it features just 512MB RAM and Mediatek’s dual-core MT6577 CPU. The rest of the specification is solid, if not show-stopping, and includes a 8-megapixel camera, Android 4.0 ICS, 2000mAh battery and a 854 x 480 resolution screen.

Sources close to the company suggest only 100,000 units will be available in the initial release phase, which begins on December 4th, and that only customers in China will be able to purchase the bargain phone.

At slightly over $200 (1299 Yuan) you would expect the PX102 to have some major drawbacks, but when looking through the specs and having a good gander at the design all seems surprisingly good!

Like the Asus Transformer tablets, the Aocos PX102 has a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800, dual cameras and a detachable keyboard. The CPU is a 1.6Ghz dual-core Rockchip unit, which is noted for handling 1080 video very well, and there is 1GB RAM plus 16GB of internal memory.

The tablet half of the PX102 measures just 9.6mm and features a single 2.0 USB , Micro USB, HDMI out and a micro SD card reader. The detachable keyboard is rechargeable and connects via Bluetooth.

At $200 there are some obvious cost cutting measures such as the low resolution cameras (front 0.3MP, rear 2MP), lack of built-in 3G and uncertain future support, but if you’re in the market for a bargain this Christmas it could be worth a look.

The middle of December seems to be the month for Android in China! Meizu’s MX2 will go on sale alongside the Xiaomi TV. Oppo will launch the Find 5, and Zopo has a new 5.7-inch quad-core phone in the pipes!

Zopo isn’t a brand many people outside China will have heard of, but this young company is quickly making a name for itself thanks to their range of low cost, high performance phones.

The Zopo Leader Max is expected to be announced in the middle of December, and will come equipped with a 5.7-inch 1080 HD display, quad-core MT6589 CPU and either an 8- or 12-megapixel rear camera.

Like current Zopo phones, it is expected the new flagship model will support dual SIM stand-by and also have room for an SD card. Prices haven’t been confirmed, but most Chinese sites are suggesting the Leader Max will cost as little as 1600 Yuan ($256) for the base 16GB model.

Chinese start-up Xiaomi has hit the headlines a bit over the past few months with the launch of the quad-core M2 and, most recently, their Android set-top box. Now, according to unnamed sources, Xiaomi is looking to produce a feature packed Android smart TV.

Earlier this month, Xiaomi launched its first attempt to invade Chinese homes with the all new Xiaomi TV set-top box. The Android-powered media device went on limited sale at just 299 Yuan ($48), with features including Apple Airplay support, free video streaming, and a dedicated PopCap gaming channel.

Details are still unconfirmed, but it seems the pebble shaped home media center could be a tentative first step towards the launch of a fully featured Android smart TV. The smart TV would likely be manufactured by Foxconn along with Xiaomi’s phones and will integrate with the Chinese company’s recently launched store and video streaming apps.

Adding a smart TV to Xiaomi’s product line would make logical business sense, and revenue made from renting and selling content through the household device could be used to keep hardware prices to a minimum.

While rumors are hotting up, the likelihood of Xiaomi launching their smart TV platform in the near future are pretty dim, as regulatory issues are currently plaguing the current set top box’s media services.

The Lenovo P770 is the Chinese electronics manufacturer first stab at the stamina phone market, which will put it in direct competition with the RAZR MAXX HD. To attempt to topple the reigning king, Lenovo have equipped the P770 with a 3,500mAh battery, together with a 4.5 inch 960 x 540 display, 1.2Ghz MediaTek MT6577 dual-core CPU and 1GB RAM. Android comes in 4.1 Jelly Bean variety with Lenovo’s own UI on top.

While the P770 could be a great alternative to the mighty RAZR MAXX, Lenovo have decided to only launch the phone in China where it will cost 1699 Yuan ($272).