Elephone, a Hong Kong-based company, has just released several new smartphones – the Elephone G1 is an Android 4.4 smartphone, sporting some pretty nice features for only $50 on pre-order and it will ship internationally. Elephones have always been affordable, but an international retail price of $50 sets even a new mark for them. Obviously, for $50 you cannot expect too much, but the Elephone G1 does offer its target market – those customers looking for a smartphone simply to keep them connected or a backup phone – a fun and colorful option.
For $50 you get to choose from a black, white, blue or pink plastic case device… yes, it has large bezels, but is still a nice looking 3G WCDMA + GSM smartphone. It sports a 4.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. A MTK6582 Quad-Core processor clocked at 1.3GHZ with a Mali-400 GPU powers it. The Elephone G1 has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory that is expandable via a microSD card slot to add up to an additional 32GB. Surprisingly, it even carries two cameras – a 5MP main camera with an LED flash and a 1.3MP front-facing camera (FFC) for social media selfies. Providing power is an 1800mAh battery, which should get you through a full day on this device.
The Elephone G1 supports the usual Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as providing a dual-SIM card, FM Radio and a USB port for charging and data transfer. It is running Android 4.4.2 KitKat and a friendly user interface that allows you to fully customize the layout and user experience. Okay, the display is only 480p and there is no autofocus on the 5MP camera, but for $50 you cannot find a better value. This would certainly not become anyone’s ‘go-to’ smartphone, but for a cheap backup or for the very young getting their first smartphone or the older person being nagged by the kids to have a smartphone to keep in touch or for an emergency… you really cannot beat the Elephone G1.
Please give us a holler out on our Google+ Page and let us know what you think of this $50 smartphone – can you see a place for it in your situation… as always, we would love to hear from you.
