Last night, Kogan began sending out emails to their subscriber list, teasing a new announcement set for 7:40am…timed for an announcement on the Today Show on Channel 9. The announcement is a new phone from Kogan, built in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Benq – The Kogan Agora 4G – the phone is the result of the partnership and is Kogan’s first foray into the 4G handset market with an own branded handset.
Right from the get-go, Kogan is pushing their phone against actual name brands. The phone they have taken time to take on specifically is the Motorola Moto G, saying “The Kogan Agora 4G even beats the Moto G in every benchmark measure.” But seeing as the Moto G is already on Android 4.4.4 and we don’t recall ever hearing of a Kogan phone receiving a software update, we know which one we’d prefer.
Hardware wise, the Kogan Agora 4G is a fairly basic affair, although includes an 8MP camera which may up the ante when you’re comparing pricing and specs around the 4G handset market.
Kogan Agora 4G Specs:
- 5” HD
- 1.2Ghz Quad Core
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB internal memory (expandable to 64 GB via Micro SD card)
- 8MP Rear Camera with 1.3MP Front-Facing camera
- Network:
- 2G: 850/900/1800/1900
- 3G: 850/900/2100
- 4G LTE Cat 4: 700/900/1800
- WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0 and Built-in FM
- KitKat (Android 4.4.2)
- 142.95×72.8×8.5mm @ 135 grams
- Battery: 2500mAh
Pricing wise, Kogan has decided to show their phone against the big names of the market, seemingly forgetting that the phones they comparing against have much larger spec sheets than theirs, even showing pricing against the now 8 month old Nexus 5. They do beat other 4G Handsets on the market by spec like the namebrand LG 4G budget phone the F3, which comes with similar specs – although a smaller screen – priced from $199 on Telstra pre-paid. We’ve even see the newly released Moto G 4G getting down around this price range around the traps. But you can see where Kogan is going with this:
While you can buy an LG F3, or Motorola Moto G 4G today, you’ll have to wait until August 29th for Kogan to begin shipping the Agora 4G. It’s available to pre-order today for $229, and as a bonus you get free shipping – the offer for free shipping ends at 2am tomorrow morning, at which time you’ll have to pay the usual shipping charges Kogan imposes.
Kogan usually doesn’t supply handsets for review until the product has been on market for about twelve months, but we’ve let them know we’re anxious to take a look at the Agora 4G sometime before 2016.
