Android One launched last year in developing nations such as India on low-budget smartphones with a price point between $100 and $200. The program has now reached its second generation, and the first phone from it will be the Lava Pixel V1, which will be sold in India. The device is also the first of Lava's new "Pixel" series and was developed in collaboration with Google.
When Google first announced the Android One program, it promised that the devices that come with Android One on board will have to meet a few requirements, such as having a 4.5" screen, dual SIM support, microSD card slots, FM radio, stock Android and automatic upgrades from Google. Android One devices have already launched in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines and Turkey.
Although Google hasn't made official the requirements for the second generation Android One devices, the Lava Pixel V1 seems to arrive with significantly boosted specifications.
The smartphone is powered by a Mediatek MT6582 SoC with a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and Mali-400MP2 GPU clocked at 500 MHz. It also comes with 2 GB of RAM, which is double what most of the devices from the first generation had. Instead of a 4.5-inch screen, the Lava Pixel V1 has a large 5.5-inch 720p IPS screen with Dragontail Glass for protection, as well as 32 GB of storage, which even some high-end flagships don't have today (iPhone 6 being the most popular one), and a microSD expansion slot.
The device also features an 8MP camera on the back, which the company claimed can take 13MP photos through software enhancement. It comes with an f/2.0 aperture, a 1.4um pixel size, and it can shoot 1080p video. In the front, the smartphone has an 8MP software-enhanced camera that brings a 5MP physical sensor, with an f/2.4 aperture and the same 1.4um pixel size.
In terms of connectivity, the device supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, USB OTG and micro-USB. For its 5.5-inch screen, the Pixel V1 comes with a moderate 2,560 mAh battery, but the battery life shouldn't be too bad considering it has a 720p resolution display and an efficient Cortex-A7-based CPU. The company claimed a 12h battery life when talking on a 3G network. The smartphone will run stock Android 5.1.1 out of the box.
The Lava Pixel V1 will be sold online exclusively through Flipkart for INR 11,349, starting today. It will soon be available in thousands of other retail outlets across India.
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