Second Google Android Phone Revealed

KrispyDroid writes "The world's second Google Android phone has been unveiled — by an Australian-based electronics company called Kogan. It will ship worldwide on Jan 29. It looks like a surprisingly nice form factor, not unlike a Blackberry Bold. The phones will be sold without a contract at low prices — $A299 ($US192)."

Comments

Re:HTC Touch Dream

[VagaStorm]

The HTC dream is currently only sold as TMobile G1 in the us, where as this one is sold world wide, at a decent price to :)

Warning - design is not final yet

[ribuck]

From Kogan's website:

The design of the Kogan Agora and Kogan Agora Pro, when dispatched, will be materially similar to the images set out on this website. Despite this, Kogan Technologies reserves the right to make non-material modifications to the design of the phones in its sole discretion.

Also, I won't be surprised if the shipping date slips.

iPhone User Tries One Out

[immcintosh]

Having had the iPhone since early first generation, I recently decided to try out the G1, and I have been very pleasantly surprised. Feature-wise it's pretty much on par with the iPhone, but I've found the UI to (surprisingly enough) be more user-friendly and substantially more responsive (opening the contact list on the iPhone takes forever, for example). The web browser is a lot easier to use anywhere you need to deal with forms, too.

After the major issues I've had with the iPhone (dropped calls, completely missed calls that never ever register on the phone, random total system crashes, etc...), I would honestly recommend Android over it for anybody who doesn't have an obsessive Apple fetish. So far it just seems to work more smoothly and reliably. It being much more open is icing on the cake, and conveys some very obvious advantages, like how developers are encouraged to make drop-in replacements for its built-in components (like a new email program), whereas Apple apparently forbids the same practice on the iPhone.

Overall, I'm definitely gonna be sticking with my Android phone, but thankfully first gen iPhones still resell for a decent price :) It's good to see more models coming out--hopefully it'll really start catching on.

Re:Link to the manufacturer

[ianare]

The Agora will cost AU$299, and the Agora Pro will be AU$399.

$299 AUD ~= $195 USD
$399 AUD ~= $260 USD

Re:Different hardware spec to the G1

[joshv]

It is sometimes *really* hard to make apps that work at all resolutions when you don't have much screen real estate. One of my apps will break horribly on this new screen layout, and I am not sure how to fix it. The other should work ok, but it won't be as usable, and will limit the amount of functionality. Detecting all this will be an utter nightmare.

My guess is that many of the android market apps will not work properly on this new phone.

This is what I like about the iPhone - there is *one* resolution and two orientations - that's it.

Re:I hope to God you're right.

[ozmanjusri]

How do you sell a device like this with no contract subsidy for $900?

There's an interesting backstory to that low price (AU$299/$399, btw).

Kogan is an Australian online retailer. They started when Kogan got pissed off with always being ripped off on local pricing and decided to go direct to Chinese manufacturers.

Eighteen months ago young tech-head Ruslan Kogan wanted an LCD television but didn't want to pay full price for it.

He did some research and sent a few emails to factories in China, and now the 24-year-old not only has a new 117cm high-definition TV in his lounge room, he is planning to go global with his own brand of consumer electronics.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/entrepreneur-cuts-tv-middle-men/2007/03/26/1174761375485.html

That story is a little over a year old; now there's a lot more products in his store and he's taking on the big electronic retailers over here. http://www.kogan.com.au/profile/