TECNO Unveils New “Smart Featurephone” That Runs KaiOS

You may have not heard of KaiOS but it is a mobile operating system based on Linux that aims to bring smartphone like functionalities to feature phones.

Well, TECNO has now unveiled their first device that runs on KaiOS and it is called the T901.

The T901 looks like a typical TECNO feature phone but it has a lot of features you see on smartphones. It has GPS and Wi-Fi which is unheard of in the ‘feature phone’ world. Thanks to KaiOS, users can use WhatsApp, YouTube and Google Maps which you can access from the KaiOS store. It also supports 3G speeds, which is much better than the typical 2G speeds you see on feature phones.

The phone has a 2.4 inch 240×320 pixel dense display that we see with feature phones. It has 512MB of internal storage plus you can add an additional 256MB of RAM. The phone has a 1900mAh battery which apparently enables it to have upto 19 hours of calling or 25 days of standby time.

The interesting bit about this phone is that it support for Google Assistant which allows it to do certain tasks by voice alone. Google Assistant is available in smartphones and smart appliances everywhere so it is not weird that it is available on this phone too.

The phone will be available in three colour options: Gold, Blue and Black.

This is a phone that is squarely focused on a market like Africa where the majority of phone owners do not own a smartphone.