Skip to main content

Low-cost Android One smartphones could be coming to the U.S. in the near future

Following the resounding success of its Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, Google looks to be putting more skin in the smartphone game. According to a new report from The Information, the tech behemoth is planning on bringing one of its most popular foreign programs back home — Android One is said to be making its way to the United States “in the coming months.”

The three-year-old program has proven useful in developing markets like India where demand for low-cost smartphones is high. As per the Information’s unnamed sources, the first of the Android One phones (which will be made by an unidentified hardware supplier) will cost somewhere between $200 and $300, and ought to appear in American markets by mid-2017.

Recommended Videos

Perhaps the most important aspect to these low-cost phones comes in the form of a Google guarantee that the handsets will be updated with the latest Android updates and security fixes for a full 24 months from the date of sale. This is key because many of the more affordable Android phones currently in the U.S. market tend to ship with outdated software, or wait quite a while to get updates. Android One, however, will make that a problem of the past.

The original Android One devices debuted in India in September 2014, manufactured by local firms and bearing a price tag of $105. Since then, the program has launched handsets in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Ghana, Spain, and Portugal. So sure, it seems like high time that the U.S. benefited from these phones, too.

Google’s latest move could help Android stymie its loss to the iEmpire. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted, “… fiscal 2016 saw more customers switch from Android to iPhone than ever before.” But just maybe, Android One can stop that trend from repeating itself this year.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Android 16’s latest beta adds an iPhone-like Battery Health tool
Android 16 battery health dashboard.

Google has started the rollout of Android 16’s third beta build. It’s not a massive aesthetic makeover, but there are a few features that users will appreciate. Among them is the addition of a health check system for the phone’s battery.
The new feature, called Battery Health, can be accessed by opening the Battery dashboard in the Settings app. There isn’t a heap of functional stuff here, aside from an information deck that essentially tells you about the electrochemical status of your phone’s battery.

Why this is important?
A typical lithium-ion battery fitted inside smartphones undergoes repeated charge-discharge cycles, almost on a daily basis. Over time, chemical degradation happens, which affects how long the battery can retain charge. Technically speaking, rechargeable batteries are consumables and they have a limited lifespan.
A lot of factors are involved here, such as impedance and battery voltage, both of which are affected by the chemical age of a battery. Based on the battery’s health, smartphones perform certain optimizations to manage the device workload, prevent shutdowns, and manage scenarios such as lags.

Read more
Galaxy S24 owners could fall a whole Android version behind the Pixel
The vertical app drawer in One UI 7.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series is the only set of devices currently featuring the long-delayed One UI 7. Unfortunately, other Samsung devices will not receive this update soon. This delay could impact devices currently in the wild and new ones set to launch this year.

According to SAM Mobile, sources say Samsung is delaying the launch of a stable One UI 7.0 update to non-Galaxy S25 series devices. Currently, the expectation is a stable One UI 7.0 update won’t be available until the company launches the all-new Galaxy S25 Edge, which could happen sometime in April. Only then would non-Galaxy S25 devices be eligible to receive a version of One UI 7, probably One UI 7.0.1.

Read more
Android 16’s latest beta promises deeper mobile photography controls
The Android 16 logo on a smartphone, resting on a shelf.

Google has started rolling out the second beta update of Android 16 for supported Pixel devices. There are not many user-facing features arriving with this build, but Google is making a few framework changes that will enhance the camera experience for users in the near future.

The most notable change is a new hybrid auto exposure system arriving with the Camera2 API upgrade. So far, users have only had access to rudimentary controls in the auto-mode for capturing stills and videos. For deeper controls, there was no other option than digging into the cluttered Pro mode.

Read more