The much talked about Android One for Google was officially launched Feb. 17 in the Philippines, giving locals an affordable Android smartphone and making the Philippines the sixth country to join the Android One program.
Aside from the Philippines, other countries already under the Android One program include India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.
The Android One will be officially distributed by Cherry Mobile and MyPhone Uno with the intent of making high quality phones available to the masses at a reasonable price. The phone will be made available nationwide and will cost roughly under PHP 5,000 (about $114).
The device will come with the latest Android Lollipop OS and will automatically receive updates for a period of two years. Among the features that the Android One carries include:
- Front and rear facing cameras
- FM Radio Tuner
- Dual Sim capability
- Expandable storage with microSD card slots
Yet to be confirmed are the other specs such as the processor and display resolution. Unofficially, the Android one could come with a FWVGA display, a quad core processor, 1GB of RAM and pre loaded apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube (which can be used offline), Google Search and Google Translate.
The phones can be hooked up with local carriers Smart Telecommunications and Sun Telecoms where OTA upates can be made without extra charges on their data plans.
One notable feature of the Android One is the Chrome browser data compression which should help reduce the cost of data use. Check out the introductory video for the Android one.
