ZTE bringing 5.7-inch Grand Memo and a Firefox OS phone to MWC 2013

What will China’s ZTE be bringing to Mobile World Congress 2013? So far the company has teased the 5.7-inch Grand Memo and an unnamed device running Mozilla’s Firefox OS. In the case of the Grand Memo, ZTE is so excited about the upcoming launch that it couldn’t even wait for the Barcelona expo to show it off to members of the tech press.

The Grand Memo (that’s it above next to the Grand S) is part of a new push for ZTE. With a solid presence already established in lower-end devices, the company now wants to move in on the high-end device market. The Grand Memo looks like a good way to kickstart the effort. It’s got a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor to go along with that 5.7-inch display. There’s also a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera, and ZTE has included a micro SD expansion slot.

Full specs won’t be revealed until MWC, but there are two more details worth knowing. First, that mammoth display is a 720p number. ZTE has decided not to match its competitors with a 1080p panel, and it’s likely a cost-cutting decision. Shaving a few bucks by going with a lower-resolution display will allow ZTE to price its high-end phablet aggressively, and that won’t go unnoticed by consumers. And since you won’t have to hold the 5.7-inch screen right up next to your face to see things, chances are the drop in PPI won’t make a huge difference.

Second, the Grand Memo measures just 8mm thick. That’s hard enough to do with a device this size when you don’t offer any expandability, and ZTE has still managed to squeeze in that micro SD slot.

As for its first phone running Firefox OS, everything’s a mystery at this point. ZTE has been working with Mozilla for quite some time, and it’s had a couple codenamed devices circulating among the Foundation’s developers. The only thing that’s certain so far is that this device will sit at the opposite end of the price spectrum when it launches. Firefox OS phones — at least the initial round — are headed for emerging markets and will sport entry-level price tags.