2019 is a year of blessing when we talk about technology. In the operating system world, two of such OS are just arriving. One of them is KaiOS or Kai OS; whichever way you would love to call it for now. This refers to the name of a company that powers an ecosystem of affordable digital products and services, endeavoring to empower people worldwide through its technology.
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What is KaiOS?
KaiOS is a flagship product of this company, and it is best known for usage by smart feature phones. About 100 million of these devices have been shipped in over 100 countries. Its mission is to open up new vistas for individuals, organizations, and societies, especially those who are not able to afford connectivity over the internet. Most of these exist in emerging markets. Even those in the developed world are able to gain access to something in place of smartphones.
The OS is based on HTML5. It is very cheap because it requires limited memory while offering a rich experience through access to several popular apps. For KaiOS, it comes with its own store, something you want to think of as in the Google Playstore. For KaiOS, it is built on top of Boot to Gecko, a community-driven successor to Firefox OS. In fact, it is being developed by Mozilla. It is based on Linux, but recently, Google invested $22 million to develop KaiOS.
Tecno KaiOS
Just a few days ago late in the month of August 2019, Tecno released its first smartphone that makes use of KaiOS technology. The smartphone is a 3G phone called T901. This move is seen as a significant step for Africans, especially in countries where there is blatant digital divide to own a smart feature phone. Since price has always been an issue for poor people, here is a chance to buy a phone at a ridiculously low and previously unimaginable price.
Design of Tecno T901
This phone comes in three colors of gold, blue, and black. In addition to that, the phone has both front and rear cameras, comes with a built-in flashlight that can assist in making images and pictures sharp when you use them. It is designed to snap good pictures in the night time.
Network and Connectivity
This phone comes with a 3G internet connection. It is important to note that this device can also make use of GPS, Wi-Fi, and it is designed to operate with good and satisfactory speed, offering better anti-signal interference performance in many locations. The good thing is that users also have apps such as WhatsApp, Youtube, Google Maps, and others like that on the device. There is also Google Assistant, which allows a user to operate the phone with their voice.
As for connectivity, this phone has the capacity for USB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0, and FM radio.
Performance of T901
The mobile device is able to handle hybrid dual-SIM slot. For storage, it is able to serve on 512MB plus 256MB which is hardly desirable, but those who buy it really understand that it is not the main reason they were in possession of the mobile phone. This is not so cool because the total storage is not up to 1GB. There is hope because the user can increase space externally up to 32GB via a microSD card which has its own dedicated slot. However, take note that the operating system like mentioned above is Kai OS, riding on Unisoc SC7731EF chipset, CPU 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 of 32nm process technology, and Mali GPU.
Display Features
Looking at this department, we find a 2.4 inches TFT QVGA display, and that comes with 240 x 320 pixels resolution. This is totally a non-touch display that arrives with 265 thousand colors. The pixel density is 167 ppi, while the screen to body ratio is 23 percent.
Camera Features
The main camera is single and situated to the rear. It is a 1.3 MP with VGA video resolution. There is also a single LED flash. The selfie camera to the front is a single 0.3 MP. This camera department is definitely devoid of any notable camera features.
Battery Features
Powering the device is 1900 mAh Li-Ion removable battery that can handle up to 49 hours talk time, up to 25 days standby, and up to 32 hours music playback time. No wireless or fast charging technology in this mobile phone.
Difference Between Smartphone and Feature Phone
Feature phone is a mobile device with more features than a cellphone but is still way behind a smartphone. About 70 percent of mobile phones sold in the world in 2011 were feature phones. Feature phones are able to do some of the tasks a smartphone does, like make and receive calls, send text messages, and even do more. These phones are multifunctional devices that people pay for because it is cheap, and they want to have a fraction of features that smartphones boast of. However, some in referring to feature phones have called them dumbphones. They usually didn’t support features like add-on apps, probably like WhatsApp, or others, (but now they do) they usually have limited processing capacity and lack storage space. Also, advanced multimedia and internet connectivity options may be limited.
KaiOS can be found on the following phones
- Samsung Guru Plus B110E
- Nokia 150 Dual SIM
- Samsung 1200
- Nokia 216 Dual SIM
- Intex Eco Beats
- Samsung Guru Music 2 B310E
- JioPhone 4G VoLTE
So, as you can see, some of these phones are 3G, while we also have the 4G ones. This means that the buyer may just opt for something indispensable and go for the feature that is found to be a strong supporter of that feature.
Advantage of KaiOS over Android
In India, the use of KaiOS is so popular that it has overtaken iOS. In that country, people have been drawn massively to a kind of feature phones called JioPhones, which come with 4G data and packages.
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Since KaiOS is an efficient and lightweight OS, it doesn’t need Snapdragon chipset with heavy RAM such as 8GB. It doesn’t need powerful batteries such as 5000 mAh. It is made to run on a cheap OS and so is ridiculously cheap. So, this is the biggest advantage of KaiOS over the Android OS.
Recently, it has Google Assistant, is now able to support WhatsApp, Youtube, and more apps. Like Android phones, you can also update you KaiOS phone to the latest update of the OS. This way, you make your phone run on the latest and safest software.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, this smartphone can be a device of choice. Users who feel that they need to make use of something cheaper with basic features are going for phones that have KaiOS. As to whether this OS will overtake Android in the future is not something we can guarantee since many who start using always gravitate from there to smartphones.
I must buy this phone by force. And God bless whoever came up with the idea for this phone.
This type of mobile device has been on the market for some time. But this is a lot cheaper than the rest.