In October 2009, Kyocera said their Android phones are coming, and at the CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas – they unveiled their first smart baby in years – Zio M6000. As it’s usually the case with Kyocera phones, they are not shooting for the stars — rather, they are made for the mass market. But there’s a twist, as you’re about to see from the Zio’s specs below:
- 3.5-inch WVGA (that’s 800×480 pixels baby) touchscreen – I presume it’s resistive (as opposed to capacitive)
- 3G CDMA connectivity
- 3.2-megapixel camera
- 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor
- Android 1.6 (upgradeable to Android 2.1)
- Bluetooth, WiFi
- 512 MB of on-board memory for apps
- microSD memory card slot
- trackball (a la Nexus One)
The best thing is the price – it should be somewhere between $169 and $216 without contract! This in effect will make the Zio M6000 one of the least expensive smartphones in the U.S. and certainly the least expensive WVGA touchscreen-equipped smartphone in the world!
Kyocera is known for its relationships with U.S.-based “tier 2” carriers like MetroPCS, Cricket and Virgin Mobile. Since Zio is a CDMA phone with an option for the AWS frequency band, we could see this baby hitting portfolios of all of the mentioned carriers. That’s starting from the second quarter of this year, when Zio is set to hit the market. Nice!
[Via: PCmag]