The world of budget Android smartphones have come a long way since the days of the original Galaxy Ace from Samsung and the Optimus One from LG, when anything less than flagships meant severe compromises on so many different fronts. Fast forward to 2016 and you can get pretty much most of the functionality of $800 flagships for a quarter (or less) of the pricing, making mid-rangers and even entry-level smartphones increasingly popular among users around the world. That being the case, many brands have sprung up over the years trying to cater to this burgeoning segment of the market and BQ happens to be one such brand. The company is based out of Spain, and according to its website, makes smartphones and tablets with different operating systems including Android and Ubuntu.
Earlier this year, BQ had announced a budget smartphone named the Aquaris X5, whose USP is the Cyanogen OS it runs on. That makes it one of the very few devices with the world’s most-loved Android ROM pre-installed. Now, O2 has announced that the handset is available on its network in the UK at an upfront payment of £9.99 and a monthly payment of £16.50 onwards. According to the carrier’s official website, the device will also be available on ‘Pay & Go’ with a down payment of £169.99 with a number of top-up options ranging from £10 to £25. The carrier is also offering 50 percent extra data till March 30th, so those buying the device between now and the end of March can always take advantage of the offer.
The BQ Aquaris X5 features a 5-inch 720p HD display and is powered by Qualcomm’s MSM8916T Snapdragon 412 SoC, which incorporates a quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and an Adreno 306 GPU. The O2 version of the handset will come with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage and have a non-removable 2,900 mAh Lithium Polymer battery. The Smartphone will run on Android 5.1 Lollipop in the form of Cyanogen OS and come with a whole host of sensors including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor and a compass. As for the cameras, the device will have a 13-megapixel unit on the rear and a 5-megapixel unit on the front.