Microsoft has shown some new Windows Phone hardware at the Computex trade show currently taking place in Taiwan. However, it’s not built by the usual suspects, but by two newcomers to the operating system – Blu and Yezz. Neither have produced smartphones for Windows Phone before, preferring to concentrate on Android devices.
Yezz, a company which sells SIM-free Android phones, will also launch a pair of Windows Phone devices, apparently bearing the name Billy, after Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Yes, really. It’s not completely out of left field either, as Yezz has several Android phones called Andy. I checked with the firm during a meeting at Mobile World Congress, and it was confirmed they weren’t named after me.
The Billy 4.7 is expected to have a 4.7-inch screen, a quad-core Snapdragon processor, and a 13-megapixel camera, all wrapped up in a very slim body shell. The price is likely to be around $250 without a contract. The 4.7-inch phone will be joined by a 4-inch phone, called the Billy 4.0, which will cost $140 and have an 8-megapixel camera, a 4-inch screen, and another quad-core processor. The cheaper price means the chip may not be a Qualcomm model, but one from MediaTek. Like Yezz’s other phones, the Windows Models will be sold directly through Amazon.
Blu may be the more familiar of the two brand names, being known for its Blu Life and other low-price, SIM-free Android phones. It’ll be producing two Windows Phone devices, but sadly, information on both is slim, and we don’t even know their names or model numbers yet. One of the phones will have a 5-inch display though, along with something we haven’t seen in a while – buttons below the screen. We’ll leave it down to you to decide whether that’s a good thing.
According to a report by Neowin, the Blu phones will launch in the U.S. and in Latin America later this year, and the accompanying image shows they’ll come in a selection of particularly bright colors. There has been no official word from either Blu or Yezz on these Windows Phones, so expect an official announcement soon.
