It seems like it's hard to find a non-Nexus device that uses anything close to stock Android. Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Asus, Acer - everywhere you look there are customizations to a greater or lesser extent. Even Motorola, formerly Google's own subsidiary, uses a custom launcher. Chinese manufacturer ZTE is looking to break that trend, however. The company is planning to launch new smartphones that use the Google Now Launcher (AKA the Google Experience Launcher) by default.

The first ZTE phone to use the Now Launcher by default, complete with its "OK Google" voice command integration, will be the Blade Vec 4G. This budget phone has already launched in Europe and China, but the Hong Kong version of the phone being announced on July 24th will be pre-loaded with Google's launcher. (Google, and by extension Google Now, operates in Hong Kong, but has severe restrictions on the Chinese mainland.) ZTE also says that "one other ZTE premium device" will be announced at the same time, and that "several ZTE devices" will use the Google Now Launcher. Whether the European customers who already own the Blade Vec 4G will get an update wasn't addressed, but they should be able to download an updated version of Google Search from the Play Store and enable it anyway.

The Blade Vec 4G is currently on sale in Europe and China without the Google Now Launcher preinstalled.

The global players like Samsung, HTC, and LG have been beating the drum for "differentiation" for years, which is why their Android software builds are startlingly different from both each other and AOSP. But for a company like ZTE, which makes most of its money on low-cost, high-volume devices, it makes sense to use the tools that Google already provides for consumers.

It's worth noting that the Google Now Launcher is still pretty limited when compared with other options on the Play Store. Its primary feature, the "OK Google" voice command, was heavily promoted for the Nexus 5. But now that this is available across Android on compatible devices, not to mention in other launchers like Nova and Apex, the only real reason to use GEL is the integration with Google Now's dynamic cards.