Looks like Spice (or Flipkart?) couldn’t hold the excitement till tomorrow, which is when the first batch of Android One phones are set to release. The reason why we say this is because a listing with the ‘Spice Dream UNO’ phone went live briefly on Flipkart, which is believed to be Spice’s Android One entry.
Micromax and Karbonn are the other two OEM partners that will be working with Google to deliver Android One phones. As announced by Google at this year’s I/O, the prices will hover around the $100 mark. In this case, the Spice Dream UNO will get a 6,999 INR or US$115 price tag based on the listing on Flipkart. AndroidOS.in managed to catch the screen:
Gizchina News of the week
The listing mentions a 1.3GHz quad-core CPU that will feature on the device. We can’t help but speculate that this will either be the MT6582 or a variant thereof. The MediaTek MT6582 has proven to be the go-to chipset for mid-range and budget makers alike, with good performance delivered at nominal cost.
Specifications
- 4.5-inch 854 x 480p display
- 1.3GHz quad-core CPU
- 1GB RAM
- 4GB on-board ROM
- 5 mega-pixel rear camera
- 2 mega-pixel front camera
- 1700mAh battery
- Android v4.4.4 KitKat
While this sort of hardware at the $115 price point isn’t anything remotely new, what is new is the direct-Google updates that the devices will receive in a Nexus-like fashion. We’ll keep you posted on this (the official launch is tomorrow), so stay tuned!
[Via]
I know that Android One is meant for low-cost phones, but I really do wish that there’s an Android One phone with a least some mid-range specs. Something in the realm of a 1080p 5 inch screen, 2GB of RAM and maybe at least a MTK6582. Pricing will of course be higher but it will really resolve the OS update issue so prevalent in Mediatek phones.
It would be great to see such entry level devices with low price in poland cause almost every device for ~$100 here have only 512mb ram
European nations have relatively small market, hence phone makers don’t fix price as low as we see in India or China
Yep and this sucks… But we have local importers that also have a great price (but still not as low as in china). I think that if google would partner with manufacturers to make at least one Android One phone for every price range that would be avalible international that would be great
This is pretty funny,
Google pretends it’s about prices and a good experience when it’s about not losing the Indian market like they did in China to custom ROMs and non-Google services.
And the phone makers are not interested at all in selling Android One cheap, they see the fast software updates as something they can milk for profit.
And ofc Samssung,, LG , HTC and all the others with their own skins can’t be all too happy about it since they will likely lose share.
All in all Google will need to work hard to not let it fail,when there were far easier ways to reach their goals.
Google “losing” the China market is a heck of a lot more complex problem than custom ROMs and non-Google services. It’s more about Google’s refusal to keyword filter, allowing domestic rivals the room to grow + prosper, and the government’s frustration with -ironically- Android’s complete dominance on domestic smartphones.