News of Android One’s death may have been greatly exaggerated.
If anything, the program by Google to bring always-up-to-date affordable smartphones to the masses in emerging smartphone markets that couldn’t be served by its then mostly niche costly Nexus smartphones appears to be on life support, frequently waking up from the comma before lapsing again.
That seems to be the case with the new GM 5, an Android One smartphone from Turkish company General Mobile.
If you remember correctly, General Mobile is the same company that brought us the last Android One smartphone before things fell silent and we were left speculating about the program’s future.
That smartphone went by the name GM 5 Plus. The new phone’s name, GM 5, may be a subtle hint that at the small steps backwards it takes when compared to last year’s model. It is, for instance, much smaller and packs an even smaller battery.
Specifications of the GM 5 are as follows:
| Size and weight | 140.5 x 69.75 x 9.3mm, 160g |
| Display | 5.0-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS |
| Processor | An unspecified quad-core Qualcomm chip clocked at 1.2GHz thought to be the Snapdragon 410 |
| Memory | 2GB RAM; 16GB internal storage |
| Camera | 13MP rear; 5MP front |
| Operating System | Android 7.0 Nougat |
| Battery | 2,500mAh |
| Network | 3G, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n |
| Sensors | Motion Sensor (G-sensor), Accelerometer, Magnetic sensor, Proximity sensor , Light senso |
| Colour options | Space gray, black and gold |
The GM 5 goes on sale next month in a couple of markets. These include: Azerbaijan, Albania, Afghanistan, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Iraq, Kenya, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Pakistan, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
If it indeed does make it to Kenya, the GM 5 will be the second Android One smartphone to hit the market. The first one was Infinix’s Hot 2 which was also available in several other African countries.
Pricing information for the device has not yet been revealed.
Identical specs to the Wilefox Swift that is currently on special on Jumia for less than 10k. Great value for money with a Snapdragon processor and Cyonagen OS which is as close to pure Android as you can get.
Sad the only Android One phone officially in Kenya was/is an Infinix with a terribly reflective display. Updates are the Achilles’ heel of Android, an otherwise perfect OS if paired with the right hardware, in my view.
I hope this one delivers a better screen
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I have a General Mobile 4G that I got from Jumia.. pretty good. The power button is too stiff but I love the phone.
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