Remember the iPhone 5C? Apple’s foray into making a plastic-cased, brightly colored line of theoretically cheaper iPhones may not have lasted long (largely due to people preferring the nicer aluminum models and the fact that they weren’t actually all that cheap), but Sharp’s new Android One S3 phone looks like it’s picking up the style of Apple’s short-lived experiment, with a few improvements, via GSMArena.
The Android One S3 costs 32,400 yen (roughly $300), putting it far more in line with mid-range and budget phones than the 5C ever was. The phone is also larger, with a 5-inch IGZO LCD display at 1080p resolution. The rest of the specs are uninspiring, at best — a Snapdragon 430 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage, with a 2,700mAh battery. On the software side of things, the Android One S3 ships with Android Oreo, and the fact that it’s part of Google’s Android One program should mean that it’s both free of unwanted bloatware and more likely to actually get software updates.
And while most of the hardware isn’t much to get excited about, there are a few nice touches. The phone is rated as IP68 for water and dust resistance, which is a big plus, and charges over USB-C, something that’s still unfortunately rare in phones in this price range. And of course, there’s the range of smooth, unornamented pastel cases that can’t help but bring to mind Apple’s abandoned iPhone experiment.
Page link:https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/1/31/16956156/sharp-android-one-s3-google-oreo-design-waterproof-mid-range