Australian online retailer, Kogan, has launched a budget Android smartphone with dual-SIM capabilities, significantly undercutting a device German supermarket giant, Aldi, sold in Australia last week.
The Kogan Agora quad-core smartphone costs $199 outright and is available to pre-purchase from today. It has a 5in 720p HD touchscreen, is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, and has 1GB of RAM.
The phone comes with 4GB of internal memory but also has a microSD card slot to expand the on-board storage.
The Kogan-branded smartphone also has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel front facing camera for video calls, and runs the 4.2 Jelly Bean version of Google's Android operating system.
The device is very similar in specifications to a Bauhn-branded ASP-5000H Android phone that Aldi sold across Australia last week for $299.
Kogan founder and CEO, Ruslan Kogan, said the Agora quad-core smartphone provides similar features to devices that cost four times the price.
"We think everyone should be able to afford a great smartphone that has all the main features that you want, without paying for features you don't need.""We have a very active social media community which regularly provides us with suggestions on what they would like to see next in a smartphone."
“Thousands of customers said they want a phone that looks stylish, but is also powerful and feature-packed - and that's exactly what the Kogan Agora quad-core smartphone delivers."
Like the Bauhn-branded smartphone sold through Aldi, the Agora 5.0 quad-core smartphone supports the 850MHz and 2100MHz 3G network bands in Australia so it's suited primarily for use on the Telstra network.
Like that device, the Agora's second SIM card slot only supports 2G networks.
The Agora quad-core smartphone is available to pre-order now through Kogan's Web site. The company says the device is expected to ship from Thursday, 3 October.
In addition to Australia, the Agora 5.0 dual-core smartphone will also be available in the US and the UK for US$189 and £149, respectively.
