Mobile World Congress is happening this week, and we’re slowly getting a better picture of what Google’s new “Android Go” initiative will look like. Android Go is a special configuration of Android 8.1 (with a selection of special “Go” apps) that targets low-end devices with 1GB of RAM or less.
MWC has seen a ton of manufacturers sign up for the program and announce phones shipping with the Go config, so it’s time for a hardware roundup.
We often tend to get tunnel vision and focus on expensive flagships, so here’s a roundup of upcoming 100 dollar Android Go phones. These are neat little phones for a decent price.
When is it gonna be ported to the HD2, Lolz
Getting Android to run without any kind of OpenGL(ES) acceleration or WiFi support isn’t “porting”.
I honestly can’t understand people who flash Android on HD2 phones. The HD2 represents the best device ever made for Windows Mobile, which is a line if OSes going back to the very first Pocket PCs, and hence in unmodified condition represents a piece of history and an attractive antique. Why would anyone want to convert it into a non-functional ultra-low-end Android device is beyond me. Those people are even weirder than those people who used to erase IRIX on SGI workstations to run Debian on them. Or the people who flash LineageOS on LG Optimus 3D phones (the best 3D camera that fits in your pocket, along with the Sharp SH-12C).
Edited 2018-03-04 18:01 UTC
I did just that. Was given the phone and wiped the antique OS off it so that it could be actually used for a while at least. I might put WinOS 6.5 back on it as a curio but the small widgets that you had to pick at with the stylus made it a laborious OS to navigate around.
My prediction:
one or two updates and these phones are going to be unusable.
I switched from Win10 mobile running on Snapdragon 400 series cpu to a Nexus 5x running on a Snapdragon 808. The Win10 mobile phone was and still is running circles around Android 8.1.
Hey, it’s not Apple to cripple old hardware with new software “updates”…
in case of android it’s mostly big apps that cause the bloat.
a lot of people say that you can still use android2 phone, but even the browser is barely usable.
maybe it works just for calling, or if you can find some legacy apk files for older (potentially insecure) software, but that’s about it.
A few days ago I took from a drawer my old Nexus 7 2012 and installed on it a 7.1.1 ROM, it became significantly more usable compared with the old 5.0.
Since it will be used by my 5 years old daughter, I installed on it a couple of games and a couple of educational apps, which seems to work fine.
Sure, I would not put Facebook on it, since that app is a badly written beast, but probably a 3-rd partly replacement like FaceSlim (what I use on my own phone) would work fine. Good thing the girl does not need Facebook
Interesting to read that. I wiped mine and restored 4.x after 5.0 and then 5.1 made it unusable.
Might give Nougat a whirl.
I still am a big WP fan.
Their decision to compile .NET to native code at the store level and expose 100% of the WP Frameworks to C++ as well (not like the castrated NDK) really makes a big performance difference.
Both would be possible on Android as well, compiling Java to native on the Play Store instead of wasting phone resources, and having an actual usable NDK, but Google has other priorities apparently.
Oh and all of them got more updates on their history than any of my Android devices.
Well, they may get one or two updates, but don’t count on it. Devices like Sony Xperia E4 belong in this segment. And they rarely get updates. OTOH, they don’t become useless per se, except for more demanding gaming. Most apps will run fine on even older smartphones, though performance may suffer badly.
That said, devices in this price range have a typical lifetime of no more than 2-3 years because camera will fail or screen will crack or built-in non-replaceable battery will fail. And they are too cheap to repair.
Too bad that you went directly to the bottom of the pool though. I think that in general you would be better of to buy a 2nd hand or refurbished phone that should get you a decent amount of storage for the same price. What use is it if you can run the latest version of Android but cannot run most of the apps because of low RAM/Storage availability or other limitations?
For 100 Euro you should get so much more, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-JmADVYONU
Hopefully we will start to see see a midrange (200-300) comparison soon (very quick one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP6H5KmdCL0)
…and I especially hope to read a bit more about the limitations and real world experiences with Android Go. So far it seems to much like a “One laptop per child” where the hardware goals seemed impossible to reach for the budget, but by the time the software got done you could get much better hardware for the budget.
I always buy my phones from eBay with a $100 limit. Most recently a LeEco Pro 3 (like new, boxed, Snapdragon 821, 4GB). Great on paper compared to these Android Go phones, but LeEco went bust and the phone runs Android 6 (although LeEco fans on XDA have released a buggy 8.1). I would hope the Android Go phones will get better long term support.
I’ve been buying under $100 too, but only brand new. Sometimes get a lemon (Haixu 6), some really good (Dengo Max, DooGee X7).
Additional personal requirements:
– 6 inch screen
– At least 1G RAM
– At least 8G ROM
Lessons learned:
– Definitely go for 16G ROM storage, 8 is too cumbersome with Playstore updates.
– Never go under 1G RAM, but preferable 2G and up.
– 6 inch screens are way less common than 5.5″, so probably way more options (I haven’t really gone there, starts to be small to me).
Edited 2018-03-03 06:33 UTC
IMO you need at least 3GB RAM & 16GB ROM these days for Android. 4GB & 32GB make it at least 1 year future proof! Of course, if Android Go gets ported to other phones, 1-2 GB will do.
Edited 2018-03-03 09:22 UTC
It depends on the rom and apps you use. The Samsung S4 mini lte doesn’t do much better as the specs for Android go, but runs LineageOS 14.1 without a problem. In LineageOS you can set the cpu usage from 1 (saving) to 4 (full power) and mine is on 2 without problems. I must admit I don’t have a sim inserted, but I don’t think that would make a huge difference.
That Nokia 1 is obviously the spiritual successor to the Windows Phone based Nokia 520/521, probably the best sub-$100 phone Nokia has ever put out. Same price point, same general design, removable battery, SD card slot, and interchangeable backs. It’s the perfect phone for a no frills, “get the job done” communications device.
Damn, I really miss Windows Phone.
Hi,
first one: before Android Go some manufacturers try to offer sub 100$ phones with some good specs (1024×600 display, and so on). Now with Android Go hardware makers have a good excuse to put out lame hardware (854×480 screen???) and the end user will not have a better experience than before with a 100$ phone
second one: I want android go on my high end phone, just to have more speed, because I see that features are more or less the same!
I recently upgraded from my old Kyocera phone. It was more than five years old and was never going to be updated from Android 4.0.4. So I went to my local Boost store to see what they had. One nice thing about Boost is after a certain amount of time, they make new-ish phones available to customers at a lower price to encourage upgrading to a better/more secure phone/os. I wound up getting the Galaxy J7 – that’s the lower cost version of the S family. Only $150 brand new, and I just transferred the account and phone number over to it. Now I’m on Android 7.0.something, with 8.x promised as soon as the bugs get worked out.
My equally affordable, and slightly more alt-OS route, has been to buy professionally refurbished Samsung S4s and S5s and install LineageOS on them. You get a proven performer of a phone that has a replaceable battery unlike many new models, you get software updates, and you can get it for under $120 and a bit of your time. Plus, you don’t have the ecological footprint of new manufacturing.
Just avoid Verizon if in the USA! They do everything they can to make it impossible for you to do this!
I’ve tried to “upcycle” a couple of S4 Active phones that way (using CyanogenMod; this was a few years ago) and both ended up with horrible screen burn-in after a few months of use. A screen swap cost more than the phones were worth so I dropped the project.
One of the reasons I’m happy to stick with an iPhone 7 is fear of the iPhone X having burn in issues. Every OLED device I’ve ever owned has eventually suffered that fate, though the S4 Active was by far the worst.
it’s really nice and meaningful,
http://imgaram.com/“>instagram
Not me, I would never spend more than around 200€ on a phone, and likely quite a bit less; “flagships” are crazy territory…