India's first Android Go smartphone with 18:9 display comes from Alcatel

Last month, Google showed off a couple of dirt-cheap Android smartphones at the MWC 2018 under the banner of Android Go smartphones. Alcatel is one of the many manufacturers participating in this program and they will be the first ones to bring the taste of Android Go to the Indian shores. The company has just announced the Alcatel 1X for the Indian market, however, the price hasn’t been mentioned yet.

The Alcatel 1X easily qualifies as an ultra-cheap Android smartphone when you check out its specifications — an octa-core MediaTek MT6739 chipset accompanied by 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The camera sensors aren’t something special either — 13MP rear camera and an 8MP selfie camera with an LED flash. It’s fuelled by a 2460mAh battery. However, the Alcatel 1X sports an 18:9 5.3-inch LCD display, which is unexpected in the budget smartphone category.

Additionally, the Android Oreo Go 8.1 is a lightened and more power efficient version of the full-blown Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. Android Oreo Go has been made to run efficiently on devices with low-end specifications, keeping a focus on reducing the footprint on the storage and sipping mobile data efficiently. The Alcatel 1X will come preloaded with Google Go apps such as YouTube Go, Google Assistant Go, Files Go and others. Also, the device should be one of the first ones to get the Android P update as well.

Alcatel hasn’t revealed the prices yet but expect the company to price it under Rs 5,000 when it goes for sale in the upcoming weeks.

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