Last month marked the first year since Google revealed to the world its plans to unveil a Nexus-style program aimed at bringing to its Android fold the next billion smartphone users. Android One is, for all it’s worth, a noble idea whose time has come. It was a great relief for us Android lovers that finally the company behind the world’s most popular mobile platform was finally getting into a space that had left sour taste in the mouths of most users thanks to greed and total disregard for user experience. A company of Google’s stature promising fast updates on sub $150 smartphone can do no wrong, right?
Unfortunately, the execution was never that brilliant. Despite Android One’s slow rollout in a handful of countries, it has not performed as well as it was widely expected. Most of that can be attributed to the way Google went about the whole exercise. From the partnerships with carriers and local device makers to the marketing. Google understands that and that’s why the company has been reportedly working behind the scenes on an entirely new generation of Android One devices. That includes working closely with its partners so that they are all on the same page and the device fronted to them reflect the expectations of their customers. The Pixel V1 from Indian phone brand Lava Mobiles is set to be the first born child of such efforts.
An earlier report from several Indian media outlets had pointed to a July 14th release of the then unnamed new generation Android One smartphone but July 14th came and went with no word of a new smartphone. However, today we have an official confirmation on everything about the new generation Android One handsets.
Priced at an equivalent of $177, the Lava Pixel V1 will have a 5.5 inch HD (720p) display, an 8 MP main camera and a 5 MP front-facing shooter, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage (expandable via microSD), a quad-core MediaTek MT6582 chipset clocked at 1.3 GHz and a 2,650 mAh battery. 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity is assured as is support for two SIM cards. The phone will ship with Android 5.1.1 on-board.
We hope that the second generation of Android One devices will see Google partner with companies shipping devices to other emerging markets like the African continent which is already a hotbed of activity as far as budget Android devices go.
UPDATE
The Lava Pixel V1 is now official in India and the article has been updated to reflect this as well. The Pixel V1 comes in two colours: gold and white-silver.
