It was once the case, in the not too distant past, that buying any smartphone other that the top-tier flagship meant that you had to make all sorts of sacrifices. You'd end up with a device that looked cheap and performed poorly, unable to suitably handle what you needed out of it on a daily basis. But times have changed. While more affordable smartphones still don't compete on the same level as $800 flagships, the gap between them is a heck of a lot smaller.

One company that has quietly worked its way into this more affordable niche is ZTE and its latest offering for Canadians is the ZTE Grand X 2, a budget-oriented smartphone that was announced earlier this month for Bell and Virgin. How far can you really go with a phone that's free on contract? A lot further than you might expect, actually.