As you all know, the description of the thinnest phone keeps on changing. We now have a new contender on that terrain. The new ZTE Grand Era U985, an ultra-thin quad-core Grand Era U985 smartphone, has been shown off at the PT/Expo Comm China 2012. It will most probably go on sale in China in a few days.

The Grand Era U985 is a quad-core device with a 0.31-inch profile, and comes sporting an 8 megapixel backside illuminated camera. With an average thickness of 8.6 mm, the ZTE Grand Era U985 slimmest point is recorded at 7.9mm.

The device has been made to support China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network, which is the world’s largest wireless operator. The OS is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. In order to elevate the visual experience, it has a 4.5-inch HD retinal screen at a resolution of 1280×720.

In addition to the specifications, the device also comes with a security suite called Palm Manager to tackle the increasing malicious security threats.

The handset includes software and hardware components which scrutinize permissions for installed applications and protect user information in relation to power management, traffic monitoring, software management and security protection.

In addition to the Grand Era U985, the company will also exhibit two other quad-core devices named the Grand Era V985 and the Grand Era LTE at the expo. They will also sport dual-core HD terminal products like the Grand V970 and Grand U930.