Micromax, one of the many local mobile phones manufacturers in India , has recently launched the Andro A60. It’s nothing more than a rebadged ZTE Penguin, but it doesn’t matter because it’s giving countless numbers of people access to Google’s Android operating system for just a hair over $150. The Andro A60 will retail for 7,000 Indian rupees or 153.24 U.S. dollars and for that amount of dough you get a 2.8 inch screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, 3G, WiFi and GPS. The processor inside is clocked at 600 MHz, but we’re not sure who makes it or which version of ARM’s architecture it runs. Most likely ARM11 for cost savings. There’s also a 2 GB memory card in the box. It’s a little chunky at 106.8 mm x 59.2 mm x 14 mm, and the 1280 mAh battery is kind of small, but you can’t argue with that price tag.
Similar devices in this price category include the Huawei Ideos, which has practically the exact same specifications, except it runs Android 2.2 whereas the Andro A60 is on the older Android 2.1 platform. We like the mobile hotspot feature and increased responsive of Android 2.2 too much to recommend an Android device that runs anything older. That and Android 2.3 is scheduled to come out by the end of this year, and we’ve yet to see what improvements that’s going to bring.
The big question is how will traditional players like Samsung and Nokia respond to these cheap Android devices flooding the market? No one really cares about Bada, and Symbian is … well, let’s not go there. We know consumers are not very loyal to their smartphone platform, so will this device and many other upcoming smartphones in this new price category, let people experiment without feeling too much regret? It’ll be interesting to see how market shares change over the next few years.
[Via: Unwired View]