You might be dreaming of the time when smartphones would be available at the price of feature phones. A new Android phone has just been spotted for less than $10.
Technology-centric news site Motherboard has got a chance to spot the highly affordable Android phone called TracFone LG Prepaid Lucky LG16. This new smartphone has just been listed on the Walmart site with a price tag of $9.82 (around £7, €9) exclusive of some shipment charges.
The cheap Android running phone is marketed in the US by prepaid wireless service provider TracFone Wireless and is manufactured by LG as a basic smartphone to let novices experience Google's open-source operating system without being much of a burden on their pockets. The smartphone does not have components like a front-facing selfie camera sensor or high-speed LTE support but comes equipped with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and features a 3.8in TFT touchscreen display. Also, there is a 3-megapixel rear camera sensor with VGA video recording support.
LG has provided Android 4.4 KitKat operating system on the $10 Android phone with a tweaked interface on top. We speculate that the smartphone would not receive an update to the latest Android Marshmallow version or even its preceding Android 5.0 or 5.1 Lollipop. However, the smartphone does have Google Play Store to let you download new Android apps and there are 3G as well as Wi-Fi connectivity options.
The Android smartphone is currently available for purchase through Walmart with an optional $5 care plan for the first two years. It would also be available through other sales channels and other regions like the UK in the coming future.
Although LG's attempt to come up with the $10 phone might not alarm its rivals such as Samsung and Sony, it does suggest a way to offer some really cheap smartphones. Google is already working on its Android One initiative to expand the presence of Android by offering affordable smartphones.
You can go ahead and spend $10 on the new smartphone, but if the latest Android experience is your primary requirement, there isn't anything pleasing. That being said, the new smartphone strives to persuade some feature phone users to start keeping Android in their pockets.
After much speculation and a fair bit of controversy, a Google spokesperson on Wednesday said the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for Android One smartphones in India will roll out in the next week or so. The update will be made available for all three Android One handsets - Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn Sparkle V, and Spice Dream Uno - simultaneously.
The spokesperson said no specific details about the rollout of the Android 5.0 Lollipop to other Android One smartphones in countries could be shared at the moment, though more information can be expected next week.
Despite promising Android One users at launch they would be the 'first to receive updates', Google has not kept its word, with companies like Motorola, HTC, LG, andSamsung managing to roll out Android 5.0 Lollipop updates to some of their smartphones already. Of course, the Nexus series of smartphones and tablets received their updates first, with the 2013 Nexus 5 getting its update in November.
Three Android One smartphones have been launched in India thus far. The Karbonn Sparkle V, Micromax Canvas A1, and Spice Dream Uno are all dual-SIM smartphones that share some common specifications: a 4.5-inch (480x854 pixels) IPS FWVGA display; 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor; 1GB of RAM, 4GB of inbuilt storage; expandable storage support via microSD card (up to 32GB); a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash; a 2-megapixel front camera; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, and a 1700mAh battery.
Micromax Canvas A1 with Android One (Magnetic Black)Amazon.in : INR 6,499.00Buy now
Google announced the Android One programme with an aim to reach out to the next five billion smartphone users with affordable yet feature-packed devices. It decided to kick start the initiative from India where smartphone penetration is just about 10% partnering with domestic smartphone brands Karbonn, Micromax and Spice.
Android One is essentially a design reference platform that enables manufacturers to build low-cost smartphones with much more ease. The phone produced as part of the programme run a stock version of Android with updates directly seeded by Google, keeping the experience consistent across different devices.
The first set of Android One devices include Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream Uno and Karbonn Sparkle V. The phones feature the same internals and even look similar except for a few minor aesthetic differences.
Is Android One a revolutionary platform that will change the Indian smartphone landscape? We got our hands on all three devices and have extensively used the Micromax Canvas A1 to answer that question.
Build and Design Made of plastic, the phones bear a simple, utilitarian look and the focus is on making the device durable and good to hold with soft rounded corners and edges.
The front of the phone features black plastic bezel that sports a glossy finish and a 4.5-inch FWVGA(480x854p) IPS display. The Android One devices come without any hardware capacitive keys for navigation. The front panel also features a 2MP front camera and a round earpiece.
The soft, plastic keys for volume control and power are located at the right edge and offer good tactile feedback. The bottom edge sports the micro-USB port while the 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top. The back features a removable plastic back cover. It's essentially the rear panel where OEMs have differentiated their offerings.
The Spice and Micromax phones sport a soft touch, rubberized, matte finish that feels good to hold. The Karbonn phone feels more plasticky at the back even though it sports a matte finish. The Spice and Micromax phones have soft, rounded edges while the Karbonn Sparkle V has flat edges and a slight taper at the back.
Micromax differentiates the phone with its own branding and a protruding, circular, metallic ring that houses the phone's 5MP rear camera and LED flash. The ring has a dark, brushed-metal finish though we feel that the finish could have been better. A small, round speaker opening and the Android One branding is also present at the back.
The Spice Dream Dream Uno has the same back cover as that of Micromax but with a simple small circular slot for the camera lens. The Karbonn Android One phone has square slots for the camera lens and LED flash that protrude out slightly. It also has a small rectangular opening for the speaker outlet instead of the circular one.
Overall, the phones are well built with no squeaks and wobbles, and exude a sense of durability. In terms of aesthetics, we like the Spice phone with its minimalist design. The Micromax phone looks the most fancy thanks to the camera ring.
Display The Android One phones sport a 4.5-inch FWVGA(480x854p)IPS display. The display offers good viewing angles and decent sunlight legibility. However, we found it a little prone to smudges. Also, while the low display resolution doesn't stick out due to the comparatively smaller screen size, the experience is not as good when compared to the 720p display of the Xiaomi Redmi 1S, which is priced at Rs 5,999.
Software The phones run a stock version of Android 4.4 KitKat with Google Now launcher and a few non-removable preloaded apps. The three phones are exclusive to three different e-commerce marketplaces and come with their respective apps in addition to brand specific content store. Swiping to the far-left pane on the home screen shows you all your Google Now notifications.
The phone comes with the Google Camera app and you cannot take a pictures without an external storage source. Google will directly seed software updates to the Android One phones, which also implies that these will be one of the first devices to receive a software update when Google turns on the switch.
Camera The phone sports a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front-facing camera.
Shots taken with the rear camera of Micromax Canvas A1 in daylight were decent and exhibited warm hues, but the colours were inaccurate, ending up a little colder compared to the actual subject.
The photos we took did not show too many details, but there was less noise compared to the cameras of other phones in this price range. We observed similar results in Spice's Android One smartphone.
Pictures taken in low light lacked detail and we observed that the LED flash was also not able to evenly fill light.
The phone supports 1080p videos capture but videos shot with the phone were average and just good for casual social sharing.
The front camera takes decent selfies and is good for video chats.
Performance The Canvas A1 and other Android One phones are powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core processor, Mali-400MP graphics and 1GB RAM. The phone has 4GB internal storage and a microSD card slot that supports cards of up to 32GB capacity. Out of 4GB, 2.27GB is available to the user.
We found the performance of the phone to be extremely smooth. In fact, it is comparable with the likes of Motorola's Moto G. It registers even the lightest of taps on the screen and does not hang while switching between apps quickly. The transition effects are nice. However, certain apps take a few seconds to start. We did not encounter lag while browsing the web, scrolling through lists inside apps, casual gaming and switching between apps.
In synthetic benchmarks, the phone scored 18,752 in Antutu, 4182 in Quadrant and 62.3 in Nenamark 2 benchmark tests. Some of these benchmark scores are considerably higher than the Moto E's. But we'd not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different, at times.
The phone comes with 4GB storage out of which 2,27GB is available to the user, and also sports a microSD card slot to store more content.
The Canvas A1 has a 1,700mAh battery and lasted us less than a full-day (about 8-9 hours) with mixed to heavy use including about one to two hours of making calls, playing games, clicking some pictures, listening to music and browsing the web. We feel the phone should have come with a bigger battery.
The dual-sim phone offers decent call quality and signal reception. It supports 3G data on both sim-card slots.
The phone was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud sound output but there's some distortion at high volume levels. However, the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is a problem with all such designs that place speakers at the back.
Gaming We were able to play casual games like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers without encountering any lag. However, we noticed some frame drops and minor lag while playing graphics-rich games like Asphalt 8.
Verdict The Android One phones are no doubt among the best entry-level Android smartphones when it comes to performance and software. You also get priority software updates directly from Google. The camera and battery backup were a bit underwhelming but then you have to consider that these are sub-Rs 6,500 phones we're talking about.
While the Android One initiative is commendable, we do feel it's not ground breaking. Google's OEM partners have already launched similar phones and it's not clear if they'll promote Android One over their own phones. Xiaomi and Asus have also launched their own entry-level phones that offer a good set of features although Android updates may not be as swift. But we're unsure if users who buy entry-level phones really care about Android updates.
A superior alternative that we can suggest over the Android One phones is the Xiaomi Redmi 1S. However, the phone's availability is limited to one online retailer via weekly flash sales, which makes it difficult to get. Asus ZenFone 4 is also a decent alternative.
If you're open to Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia 530 is a good option.
Micromax Canvas A1 with Android One (Magnetic Black)Amazon.in : INR 6,499.00Buy now
Google has partnered with handset makers Micromax, Karbonn and Spice to bring phones that cost less than $100 to India. Android Chief Sundar Pichai introduced the initiative at the Google I/O developer conference in June.Getty Images
Google just took an important step toward cementing its dominance over the world with its Android mobile operating system.
In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, almost 8,000 miles away from its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Google launched its Android One initiative in New Delhi, India. The project, originally announced at the company's I/O conference in June, is essentially a way for Google to guide handset manufacturers in bringing affordable smartphones to emerging markets.
The initiative is designed both to reduce the ultimate price tag of Android smartphones, giving more budget-conscious consumers a chance to try out the devices, and to bring a more consistent Android experience, ensuring that those consumers are using Google services. That the Internet giant is making so much noise out of Android One underscores the importance of those markets, which are a critical source of future user growth -- and where Google isn't the only company looking to plant its flag.
Android One is first rolling out in India, then in Indonesia, the Philippines and South Asia by the end of the year. For the launch, Google has partnered with three Indian device makers -- Micromax, Karbonn and Spice -- to create three $100 smartphones, as well as teamed up with the wireless provider Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile carrier in India, with 40 percent of smartphone users in the country on that network.
Phones made under the Android One rubric will also run "stock" Android, an unmodified version of the software, without the technical and user interface flourishes that manufacturers such as Samsung or HTC typically add to make their smartphones stand out from the competition. The company has already designed its most current version of Android, called KitKat, to run on low-cost hardware.
The three new handsets are the Spice Android One Dream UNO Mi-498, the Micromax Canvas A1 and the Karbonn Sparkle V. Goolge on Monday also announced additional hardware partners, including Asus, HTC, Lenovo and chipmaker Qualcomm.
At launch, the phones incorporated similar specifications -- 4.5-inch FWVGA display with a 854x480-pixel resolution, quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek processor, dual-SIM capability, 1GB RAM and 4GB of onboard storage alongside a microSD card slot for expandability. There's a rear 5-megapixel camera and a removable 1,700mAh battery as well.
"With Android One, we not only want to help people get online, we want to make sure that when they get there, they can tap into the wealth of information and knowledge the web holds for everyone," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android, Chrome, and apps, in a blog post.
"The expectation of the user has changed," said Anand Chandrasekaran, Bharti Airtel's chief product officer, in an interview. "In terms of what they consider a feature-rich phone -- and what they are willing to pay for it."
One of the major problems that the initiative addresses, besides the cost of hardware components, is out-of-date software. In India, where most data plans are prepaid, users tend to ignore updating their operating systems and apps because auto-update features usually eat through much of their plans, Chandrasekaran said. Many just disable those features and carry on with old software. "Users end up using 40 to 50 percent of their data plans on updates they don't know about," said Chandrasekaran. "So they turn it off."
The phones will also run "stock" Android, unmodified by hardware partners.CNET
The carrier will allow users to download Android updates free of charge for the first six months, as well as 200MB worth of apps -- which won't count against their their monthly data intake.
By the end of the year, 1.75 billion people worldwide will own smartphones, according to eMarketer. Among those already wielding the gadgets, Google has a sizable lead. Android has one billion active users, Pichai said in June, and its devices make up 80 percent of the global market. Apple's iOS, which powers iPhones and iPads, accounts for 17 percent.
Google wants to make sure that when the rest of the population buys their first smartphones -- mostly in the developing world -- they go with Android. "We can get the next billion people onto these devices," said Pichai, introducing the Android One initiative at the I/O conference. On Monday, Pichai upped his goal, noting that Android One was "for the next five billion."
The company did not make any of its employees available for this story.
Mission: Connection
As business operations go, the initiative is in line with Google's -- and several other tech giants' -- long-term strategy: connect as many users as possible. That way, the company can get its software and services to an even wider an audience. Taking that idea even a step further in the pipeline, Google has made major investments in first bringing Internet access to unwired populations. Project Loon, an initiative run through the company's ambitious Google X division, aims to beam Wi-Fi to rural regions via high-altitude balloons. The company has also reportedly committed more that $1 billion to satellites that will do the same kind of thing.
Facebook has similar plans: the company has tinkered with satellites and drones to deliver people Internet access, through an effort called Connectivity Labs. And CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been an ardent supporter of affordable web connectivity through an initiative called Internet.org.
But the most straightforward approach, for now, is smartphones. Microsoft has similar smartphone designs on developing markets. Over the last seven months, the software titan has eliminated fees for its Windows Phone, struck deals with some of the same low-cost manufacturers -- such as Micromax -- and worked with Qualcomm for low-cost chips and reference designs to enable more affordable smartphones. Microsoft's Lumia line, formerly created by Nokia, had already seen a bulk of it success from emerging markets.
Google's Project Loon aims to beam Wi-Fi to unconnected populations via high-altitude balloons.Google
In India, Samsung -- which runs a modified version of Android on its phones -- is the handset leader. The top smartphone in the country is the Galaxy Star Pro, which sells for $76, according to IDC. The manufacturer's No. 2 and 3 models are the $130 S2 and the $297 Grand 2. Other companies have also made recent plays in the low-end market. Firefoxmakes a smartphone that sells for $33. And the Chinese company Xiaomi sells a $100 Android smartphone that sold out in India earlier this month in less than 5 seconds, claimed CEO -- and former Android vice president -- Hugo Barra.
Part of the goal, Chandrasekaran said, is to entice people who would have normally bought feature phones to instead go for smartphones -- where they'll consume three to five times more data on average, according to Airtel's findings.
"For someone who barely used data to now using 500 percent more, that's a huge moment," he said.
Android One, one Android
While Android has a dominant grasp of the market, one knock competitors like Apple always mention is that the software's ecosystem is fragmented. Because it's an open platform, meaning anyone can use and adapt it, hardware partners like Samsung have modified it to fit their needs, leaving users and software developers to wade through Android's many iterations.
But the very name Android One -- and Google's rule that hardware partners run stock Android -- seems to suggest the company wants to hone in on a more consistent experience. Onstage at I/O, Pichai emphasized that all the software on Android One comes from Google.
"Google has been quietly clamping down on OEMs [or hardware manufacturers] from making things too custom," said Melissa Chau, an analyst at IDC, who covers the smartphone market in Asia.
Google's main play here, though, is reeling in manufacturers who are using Android, but are not certified for Google Mobile Services, or Google apps like Maps or Search, said Chau. "They want to make sure, if you're buying a $100 phone, you're actually using Google services," she said. "They're trying to clean out all that super fragmented stuff."
The company has also been aiming toward more uniformity with other Android projects. For Android Wear -- a modified version of the operating system tailor-made for wearable devices like smartwatches -- software updates come more directly from Google, instead of first having to be tested by carriers. That's because smartwatches typically must be connected to smartphones, so carriers are not involved. (Though an exception is Samsung's Gear S watch, which has a built-in modem.)
India or bust
The launch in India also marks a big push by Google in the second most populous country in the world after China.
The country will have 90 million smartphone users by the end of the year, said Chandrasekaran. There also are some unique broadband challenges in that country. Because networks are less built out, the total amount of Web capacity is smaller. "In some sense, it's hitting the laws of physics," said Chandrasekaran. Also, unlike in the US, where 4G cellular networks are used mainly for smartphone service, people in India also use 4G as a Wi-Fi hub, which puts more pressure on the network.
Chandrasekaran, who lived in Silicon Valley for several years as Yahoo's senior director of search products, noticed one thing immediately about his phone after he moved back to his native India in April. "When I used Google maps for the first time, the voiceover had an Indian accent," he said, laughing.As Google adapts its services for a more global audience, it's also looking at how different localities use the products. The company last month rolled out a feature in Google voice search that lets someone who speaks more than one language ask a question in multiple tongues, without having to change the setting on the app.
"This is recognition of India as an important market," he added, of the launch.
For Pichai, who was also born in India, the choice of the launch country may also have a personal pull. "When I go back home to India and other countries like that, it is exciting to see the impact of phones on people's lives," he said at I/O. "But it's disappointing that only less than 10 percent of the population has access to smartphones.
