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Hey look, it’s a Firefox smartphone

Well, a smartphone with the Firefox OS at least. The news of this open platform, HTML5 operating system got a lot of mobile developers excited earlier this year and it's likely to continue today, as the first handset sporting the browser giant's OS has now landed.

Set to go on sale tomorrow in Spain, the ZTE Open will make use of the Telefonica Movistar network and will cost 69 euros (£59). For this price, you get the handset itself, a 30 euro pre-paid balance for calls and messages and a 4GB micro-SD card. As TechCrunch reports, Telefonica plans to bring the phone to other markets in the next few weeks.

smartphone

Internally, the ZTE comes with 256MB of RAM, a 3.2MP camera and a 3.5in touchscreen, using the HVGA format. Being built on HTML, it's also capable of running a variety of other apps – theoretically more powerful versions of this handset could easily run some pretty high-tech game-engines too.

However the ZTE Open won't be the only one of its kind, there's also a host of new handsets coming with the Firefox OS later this year. There will be a whole range, covering difference price points and feature options – though it's unlikely to have a super high end one as that market is less lucrative and dominated by iOS/Android.

KitGuru Says: For a smartphone that cheap, it seems like there isn't much reason to hang on to an older type of handset. That is, unless you hate touchscreens – which I got to be honest, I still haven't completely got the hang of yet. I miss-type on my SII, all the time. 

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