Kogan debuts second Agora smartphone: 5-inch 720p display, 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, Jelly Bean, $189

Posted on 18/09/2013 by Jamie Rigg

Kogan's Agora brand may not drive techies wild like Galaxies or iThings do, but its motto is clear: try to deliver reasonable hardware at the lowest possible price. The company's first bid for a piece of the smartphone pie launched earlier this year, and today we're learning of its sequel. Design-wise, this second Agora handset is a little curvier than the last, with a soft key replacing its predecessor's physical home button. A 5-inch, 720p IPS LCD display occupies the face, and inside we're looking at a 1.2GHz quad-core MT6589 Mediatek SoC (Cortex-A7), 1GB of RAM and 4 gigs of internal storage, expandable with up to 32GB cards of the microSD variety. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, hosts two SIM slots, an 8-megapixel main camera, 2-megapixel front-facer, 2,000mAh removable battery and 3G (850 / 1900 / 2100), WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.0 antennae.

Most importantly, it costs $189, £149 or 199 Aussie dollars -- it's up for order now at the relevant source links and is expected to ship to the US, Australia, the UK and other European countries, as well as a couple of Asian markets starting October 3rd. We're hoping to get a review unit through soon, so keep an eye out over the coming weeks for our impressions. In our opinion, anything that rings up at under $200 is worth a fair trial.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: Kogan (UK), (Aus), (US & elsewhere)

Kogan Mobile to wind down after wholesale provider ispONE goes bust

Posted on 19/08/2013 by Jon Fingas

Virtual carriers are only as healthy as the companies that provide their services -- and Australia's Kogan Mobile is learning this the hard way. Its wholesale cellular partner ispONE has just entered administration following a contract dispute with Telstra, ending all its deals for prepaid 3G services and leaving Kogan Mobile no choice but to wind down. Customers have already lost the ability to add or replenish services; they'll have up to 60 days after a Telstra notice to use any credit they have left, and 180 days to port their numbers elsewhere. While Kogan's shutdown may only affect about 100,000 people, it still represents an unfortunate loss of competition in a country with few major providers.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Via: iTnews.com.au

Source: Kogan Mobile, Telstra Wholesale

Kogan Agora phablet hands-on (video)

Posted on 10/01/2013 by Jamie Rigg

Kogan has released a budget-friendly netbook (back when netbooks existed), laptop and tablet, and now its got a new product to show us here at CES -- the Agora smartphone. It's verging on phablet territory with a 5-inch screen (800 x 480 resolution), and running the whole show is a dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 processor and half a gig of RAM. A 5-megapixel shooter with flash is found top-center on the back, and a 0.3-megapixel camera off to the right of the speaker grille on the front. Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich is the OS of choice here, kept alive by a 2,000 mAh battery nestled under the textured back panel. Right next to that power source is space for two SIMs, and a microSD slot to boost the 4GB of on-board storage (up to 64GB cards supported).

Those specs should tell you that the 3G-only Agora phone isn't aimed at the high end, but despite that, the build quality is solid. The square handset looks alright, too. We liked the dimpled back panel and prominent metal Kogan logo, as well as the shiny dark grey rim holding it all together. It's not exactly a Retina display, but it's not notably terrible, and performance-wise, it ranged from slick to jittery depending on how much we were telling it to do in how short a time. We'll save the Note II comparisons, as there's only stat you really need to know -- the Agora smartphone costs $149 (£119 in the UK). Pre-orders are live on Kogan's website now, and units should be hitting hands mid-February, or earlier. We're assured the launch will go ahead without a hitch (various difficulties prevented a previous attempt from reaching market). Check out the gallery and hands-on video below for more info.

Kevin Wong contributed to this report.

Gallery: Kogan Agora phablet hands on

Continue reading Kogan Agora phablet hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: Kogan (1), (2)

Internet Explorer 7 Tax imposed by Australian Online Retailer Kogan

Posted on 14/06/2012 by i4u

I have been involved in building and running web sites since the beginning. The biggest pain has been always to make the sites work on all major browsers makes and versions. These days you also need...

Kogan intros 10-inch Agora tablet with ICS in Australia, ships next month starting at $179

Posted on 29/05/2012 by Edgar Alvarez

The sea of budget-friendly slates just keeps on comin' -- and hey, we're certain you won't mind it in the least. This time around it's Kogan bringing its own sub-$200 Agora tablet to folks living in the land of Oz. Those near 200 bucks will give Aussies a taste of Android 4.0, as well as a 10-inch, 1024 x 768 display, one rear 2-megapixel shooter, a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 CPU under the hood and 16GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD). Meanwhile, those looking to keep spending to a minimum can look towards the lesser-priced $179 slab, which is identical in every bit, save for the lower 8GB of internal storage. Barring any major mishaps, Kogan says it expects to start shipping the new Agora on June 25th, with pre-orders being taken as we speak at the source link below.

Gallery: Kogan 10-inch Agora tablet