A few weeks ago, ZTE took the wraps off its much-touted Grand S smartphone at the recently concluded CES 2013. Now, a similarly designed but budget-friendly sibling of the Grand S, called the ZTE V987, has been spotted and is said to be headed for the Chinese market.

Form factor-wise, the ZTE V987 could easily pass off as the flagship Grand S' twin, barring the fact that it is thicker. The 5-inch smartphone also packs in several differences under the hood, making it the budget offering.

The device popped up on TENAA, a Chinese regulatory database, giving ZTE fans a peek into the budget friendly smartphone.

The ZTE V987 sports a 5-inch display which is 720p and not 1080 like its sibling Grand S. The smartphone also packs in a less powerful 1.2 GHz Mediatek MT6589 chip, compared to the 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro the Grand S houses.

Additionally, the ZTE V987 offers half the RAM of the Grand S, 1GB versus the latter's 2GB. It also has an 8-megapixel primary camera versus the 13-megapixel one of the Grand S.

The one are where the V987 scores over the Grand S is battery. It has a 2500mAh one, whereas the Grand S packs in a 1780mAh battery. The ZTE V987 will run on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

There's no word on the pricing or release date of the device, but it is likely that the smartphone will hit the shelves in February or March and priced between $400 to $450.