Google Expands Android One Into Pakistan With The QMobile A1 For 11,500 Rupees

Google continues its Android One expansion, marching over Kashmir from the original Indian launch market and into Pakistan. The new rollout was announced on Google's Asia-Pacific blog, along with the country's first Android One device, the QMobile A1. This phone is more or less identical to the Android One devices already launched in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Turkey, and the Philippines. It's available today from cell phone retailers all over the country for 11,500 Pakistani Rupees (about $113), but it doesn't look like QMobile has an online shop.

QMobile's version of the Android One hardware has a 4.5-inch 854x480 display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor from an unmentioned manufacturer (but probably the same MediaTek chip we've seen in all the Android One phones so far), 8GB of space plus a MicroSD card slot, 1GB of RAM, a 5MP rear camera with LED flash, and a 1700mAh battery. The dual-SIM phone will work on GSM and WCDMA networks (but not LTE), and Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, and an integrated FM radio are built-in.

All that being said, the hardware isn't really the attractive proposition for Android One - comparable phones are already available in Pakistan. Nope, the big draw is that the QMobile A1 and its sister phones all run Android 5.1 out of the box, and that they're likely to get at least one more major update to Android M in a timely manner later this year.