It sounds like some sort of rabbit, but the Kogan Agora is actually the world's second Google Android phone, manufactured for Australian electronics retailer Kogan. This is good news for Australians, not so good for everyone else as Kogan only delivers to Australian addresses.Still, here's a taster of Android running on a very different handset from the T-Mobile G1. It's a fairly conventional looking messaging phone with a 2.5" 320 x 240 pixel touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard, tri-band UMTS with HSDPA high-speed data, and quad-band GSM. The standard Kogan Agora has a 624 MHz processor and 256MB RAM. The Android implementation includes support for MPEG4, MPEG2. H.263, H.264 and AVI video playback as well as a variety of audio types. Because it's an Android handset, it is closely integrated into Google's applications such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and of course Google Search. The standard Agora model costs AU$299 (around €150, US$190 or £130).
The Kogan Agora Pro (pictured above) adds WiFi, GPS and a 2 megapixel camera into the mix for a price of AU$399 (about €200, US$250 or £175). Although that's a fair bit more expensive than the base model, we think the extra money is worth it.
We don't know if the Kogan Agora will ever be available outside Australia, and there's no indication of who actually designed and built the handset for Kogan. Still, if you're lucky enough to live in Australia you can pre-order the Agora for delivery from January 9th.
As for the name, we've scratched our heads trying to figure it out.. but we think that the word "Agora" means a marketplace and is a reference to the Android Market where users can download applications.
Kogan Agora / Agora Pro at a glance
Available:
Q1 2008
Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100
Data:
GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ WiFi (Pro only)
Screen:
320 x 240 pixels
Camera:
2 megapixels (Pro only)
Size:
Messaging device
108 x 64 x 15mm / 130 grams
Bluetooth:
Yes
Memory card:
microSD
Infra-red:
No
Polyphonic:
Yes
Java:
Yes
GPS:
Yes (Pro only)
Battery life:
5 hours talk / 16 days standby
