Kogan to release Android phone in Australia

Australians who are waiting for the Android phone to make its way to their country might not have to wait for 2009 to finally get their hands on one.

Kogan has just announced that they will be releasing an Android-based phone in time for Christmas. There’s still no exact name for this phone, but apparently, it will come with some iPhone-like design elements and G1 features such as a touchscreen display, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and a trackball of sorts for easy navigation. What you see above is just a mock-up, but we’re optimistic that it will look better than the first Android phone, the HTC G1. It’s expected to retail for just $199 Australian Dollars which makes it a pretty affordable device. With such bold announcements, we’re now more psyched than ever about the release of this baby.
Hopefully, as we’re reporting this bit of news, the guys at Kogan are already working on this phone since Christmas is just only a month and a half away from now. If everything goes according to plan, we might just see the 2nd Android phone be released this year beating the rest of the pack who plan to make their versions available at a later date in 2009.

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Kogan Agora, Australia’s first Android smartphone, is now official

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That $199 Australian Android handset that we were telling you about some time ago is now officially announced by Kogan, the company that manufactures it.

The smartphone has two versions, Kogan Agora and Kogan Agora Pro, both of which are sold unlocked. The first one costs 299 Australian dollars (~ 192 USD), while the Pro version costs 399 AUD (~ 256 USD).

The devices can be purchased right away, not only by Australian customers, but also by international buyers (although they’ll have to pay an extra shipping tax of around $30). Unfortunately, even if you do place the order now, the products will get to you only after January 29, 2009.

Anyway, let’s see what this Kogan Agora is all about.

First of all, the smartphone is nothing like the iPhone, despite Kogan’s previous announcement which said it would have a design similar to the one of Apple’s handset. The Agora looks more like a mix between a Motorola Q, a Samsung BlackJack and a BlackBerry:
The mains specs and features of the Kogan smartphone are:

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2.5-inch TFT touch screen display with 320 x 240 pixels and 262K colors
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Full QWERTY keyboard.
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Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz)
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Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA connectivity (850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz)
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Built-in GPS (only for Kogan Agora Pro)
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Wi-Fi (only for Kogan Agora Pro)
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One-touch Google Search
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Web browser
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Email with attachment support for documents, images, videos and music
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Customizable Home Screen
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Easy access to YouTube, Google Maps
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Music Player
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Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
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2MP camera (only for Kogan Agora Pro)
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MicroSD card support
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624 MHz processor
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256MB ROM and 128MB RAM
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Talk time: up to 400 minutes
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Stand by time: up to 300 hours
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130 grams
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108 x 64 x 14.8 mm

All in all, the Agora and the Agora Pro are not too bad, considering the prices Kogan is asking for them.