We’ve covered exciting news for smartphone buyers in the Philippines as Google is preparing to launch two Android One devices into the country, making it the sixth in the world to benefit from Android One. Google are partnering with Cherry Mobile and MyPhone to bring the Cherry One and MyPhone Uno handsets to the market. At this time we don’t have an exact timescale for when the device will be released as Google’s press release says, “in the coming weeks” but we do know these two devices will run Android Lollipop.
Android 5.0 Lollipop will being similar improvements to the Android One devices as we’ve seen other manufacturers and devices since it was released for a number of Nexus devices at the end of last year. The Android One smartphones will benefit from Google’s improved “material design” user interface. Google also switched the application handling engine from Dalvik to Android Run Time, which compiles applications before they are launched rather than Dalvik’s “just in time” approach, which sees the device compiling the application as it is launched. Another improvement is with the adoption of a new network scheduler, which aims to smartly manage network use in order to consolidate as much activity as possible and reduce battery use. Google’s press release also discusses how the devices will include Google Chrome’s data compression system and YouTube Offline, two technologies that can further reduce data usage.
We’ve no confirmation of the specification detail of these two handsets at the moment, although we understand that both devices will feature front and rear cameras, dual SIM slots and a MicroSD card slot for expanding memory. Previous Android One devices have used a quad core MediaTek processor with 1 GB of RAM. This hardware is more than capable of running Android 5.0 Lollipop but we’ll have to wait and see what the two new Android One handsets have under the skin. Nor do we know the price, although Google’s website says that their connectivity partners will be offering promotional plans to help reduce data costs, which we believe involves over the air updates and certain downloads.
It’s great to see Google One expanding across the globe and the press release writes that Google have more countries planned. We will keep you in the loop with updates as and when we hear about them.