It was a little over three years ago when Google announced its plans to bring affordable smartphones to emerging markets. While there are many lower cost smartphone options available globally, Google"s idea was to provide a consistent experience with its Android One program, ensuring a stock Android experience that would receive consistent updates.
Although this was certainly a grand idea, it proved a hard sell in India, where the program was first launched with a $100 smartphone. A few months later, Google would again re-introduce its vision, sharing a desire to introduce even cheaper Android One handsets. Despite its efforts, since that time, it has still only introduced a handful of units across the globe. With its latest offering, the firm is relying on Xiaomi, one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones in Asia, to push Android One to a new level.
The Mi A1 is Xiaomi"s first Android One handset and is being touted as "a flagship dual camera with the best of Google". The handset offers a familiar yet sleek design and has full metal construction.
As far as its other specifications, the Mi A1 offers:
- 5.5-inch 1080p display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with an Adreno 506 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB of internal storage with microSD expansion
- 12 MP wide-angle camera with a 12 MP telephoto camera offering 2x optical zoom
- 5MP front-facing camera
- Fingerprint sensor
- 3,080 mAh battery
- USB Type-C
As you can probably gather from the specifications above, this handset is no slouch. Although this might be the case, the device isn"t priced at or even under $100 and will instead be making its debut at ₹14,999 or around $234 USD. The smartphone arrives in three colors: Black, Gold, and Rose Gold, and can now be purchased from the Xiaomi website.
Source: Xiaomi via Android Authority