If you want a smartphone for less than $100 or close to it, you’re not doomed to limping along with leftover software.
A new crop of budget-priced phones will be able run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system that’s been rebuilt to stay responsive on low-end hardware, while offering some features left out of the edition of Android that comes on $700 phones.
This “Go edition” of the current Android 8 Oreo, pared down to use less storage, memory, computing power and bandwidth, debuted at May’s I/O developer conference. It picked up important support from phone vendors at the Mobile World Congress last week.
The traditional recipe for a low-end phone relies on hand-me-downs: Combine aged hardware with a version of Google’s Android software old enough to tolerate those underpowered components, then sell the results to customers who can’t afford anything better.
But Google’s new operating system for pared-down phones offers users the core of a modern operating system — the same Android Oreo on Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and S9+ — in a lighter form. Here are your options.
ZTE Tempo Go
ZTE introduced the $80 Tempo Go, a compact model with a 5-inch screen and 8 GB of storage you can expand with a microSD card. Its fingerprint-unlock sensor matches the features of pricier phones, while its 5 and 2 megapixel cameras and blurry, low-resolution 854-by-480-pixel display help explain why it can sell for under $100.
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Source: USA Todays
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