About two years ago, I reviewed the Nokia 5000, a sub 100 euro phone to see how well Opera Mini would run on such a comparatively cheap device. I came away quite impressed at the time but since then the world has moved on. Recently I noticed that the Samsung released the Android based Galaxy 550 which is currently available for 169 euros without a contract. Albeit it costs 70 to 80 euros more, it runs Android 2.1, has a touch screen, Wi-Fi, a memory card slot, a 2 Megapixel camera, FM radio, supports 3G HSDPA and has a GPS unit built in. Incredible at this price point and according to this test report (in German, sorry), the phone including the web browser works quite well. Give it another two years and I guess Android phones with this feature set will be in a price range of the Nokia 5000 I reviewed two years ago. In other words its going to get very tough as we move forward to sell non-smartphones for more than 30 to 40 euros in the foreseeable future.
4 thoughts on “Android Now On Entry Level Phones”
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The T-Mobile Pulse Mini running Android 2.1 is currently advertised in the UK at £80 (€95) with a £30 (€35) retail gift voucher *and* ‘unlimited’ free internet for 6 months worth £20 (€24).
Not bad for £30!
Actually there is already an Android phone close to the €100-price tag with top specs: The ZTE Blade, sold for £99 as “San Francisco” by Orange in the UK, running Android 2.1 (Android 2.2 to come soon), featuring a WVGA OLED display (800*480 pixel), sporting Qualcomm’s MSM7227 CPU with 600 MHz (the same the HTC Legend has) and 512MB of RAM. Its build quality is said to be outstanding given the aggressive price.
The phone is also sold in other countries, however mostly with less RAM and LCD- instead of OLED-displays but with a 5MP- instead of a 3MP-camera:
Sapo A5 (Portugal)
Tactile Internet 2 (France)
Libero SoftBank 003Z (Japan)
Base Lutea (Germany)
Dell XCD35 (India)
Actually there is already an Android phone close to the €100-price tag with top specs: The ZTE Blade, sold for £99 as “San Francisco” by Orange in the UK, running Android 2.1 (Android 2.2 to come soon), featuring a WVGA OLED display (800*480 pixel), sporting Qualcomm’s MSM7227 CPU with 600 MHz (the same the HTC Legend has) and 512MB of RAM. Its build quality is said to be outstanding given the aggressive price.
The phone is also sold in other countries, however mostly with less RAM and LCD- instead of OLED-displays but with a 5MP- instead of a 3MP-camera:
Sapo A5 (Portugal)
Tactile Internet 2 (France)
Libero SoftBank 003Z (Japan)
Base Lutea (Germany)
Dell XCD35 (India)
The popular platform in the US is the Android tablet with wifi only for under $200.00 (thus, no phone contract). This is approaching the price at which you will let your 2 year old child play with it. How much longer before “smart” becomes normal?