The $80 Droid Phone

In the midst of preparing to leave for Kenya I stumbled upon this article talking about a new Droid phone that was doing well in Kenya. This intrigued me as there are so many benefits for Kenyans to have access to affordable smart phones. Since my (dying) Palm Pre is allergic to non US phone systems, and I am seriously considering a switch to a pay-as-you-go service upon returning to the US, I thought it'd be worth picking up the little robot phone. Lucky for you, I am excited to pretend to be a technology review person and blogger. So follow me after the jump so I can get page views up and pay bills (I don't know how to make a jump or pay bills with the inter webs).

Yes I took this picture. Yes I like it. No I can't do it again.

The Ideos is a Chinese manufactured android phone with version 2.2 software. It cost 7999 kenyan shillings and came with a 250 k/sh calling card. Thats a little over $80 if you count the card as a discount. Talk requires "Top Up" cards that are pre purchased phone and data credits. Basically $.03 a minute for talk and $.01 per text. Data is a-la-carte, with this phone I purchased a data bundle of 250MB download/upload for about $3. This lasts for 30 days or until I use up the data whichever comes first. 3G speeds that are indeed comparable to 3G with Verizon. This is through Safaricom.

The phone itself is pretty slick. The Mobile WiFi hotspot works well, and has come in handy. The phone can also provide internet through USB tethering and Bluetooth. I have not tried either of these. A great feature with many new smart phones is the ability to sync contacts from the web. Contacts saved in gmail and Facebook came right over for both Charlotte and me. This phone does what a smart phone should do, and has yet to seem overwhelmed when processing. To cut costs a microSD card is required for additional memory and many apps. I don't have one yet, so we've basically been using it as is out of the box.

This phone at this price is indeed a game changer. Through one service Kenyans have affordable computing and communication in one package. I see great opportunity for locally produced and oriented apps to make a difference.