The new Android Racer from ZTE is now officially launched exclusively with 3. The handset will be available on prepay for less than 100 pound. 

The prototype of the Android Racer was revealed back in April of this year, and is the first ZTE handset operating with Android that is under £100. It will retail to the public at £99.99. 

It seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to the industry, as reported on the Mobile Choice Today website, that the new handset is running on Android 2.1. Éclair. What this means to the user is that they have the pleasure of enjoying multi-touch capability, as well as the capacity of voice-to-text in all text fields. There is also a 3D photo gallery and live wallpapers. 

The basic handset boasts a 2.8-inch resistive QVGA touchscreen, and a very respectable 3.2MP camera. There is 256MB of internal memory, and it incorporates Bluetooth and 7.2Mbps HSDPA capabilities. 

As the Android Racer is a Google Android phone, users can choose from a range of apps from the Android market. Users can access a range of social networking sites, such as Facebook, Spotify and Twitter and have access to a load of games and navigational aids. 

It was first thought back in April that the Chinese manufacturer would be using Android 1.6 as the operating system, given the low entry level price of the new handset but the company has surprised the market. The ZTE Android Racer is expected to become available at the end of July and will be exclusive to 3.