Symphony Roar A50 Launched as First Android One Handset Outside India

By Hitesh Arora | Updated: 29 December 2014 16:47 IST

Google's Android One initiative for emerging markets was last week announced to be expanding to countries beyond India, namely, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Following the announcement, the Symphony Mobile on Monday launched the first Android One smartphone in Bangladesh, dubbed the Symphony Roar A50, which Google's VP, Product Management, Caesar Sengupta, had mentioned during the announcement, along with the network partner named Banglalink for Bangladesh.

Priced at BDT 8,700 (approximately Rs. 7,000), the Symphony Roar A50 comes with the similar reference design and specifications described by Google and seen on the Karbonn Sparkle V, Micromax Canvas A1, and Spice Dream Uno Android One handsets launched in India in September.

The specifications of the Symphony Roar A50 smartphone include a 4.5-inch (480x854 pixels) IPS FWVGA display; a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor; 1GB of RAM; a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash; a 2-megapixel front camera; 8GB of inbuilt storage; expandable storage support via microSD card (up to 32GB); Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, and a 1780mAh battery.

Notably, the Symphony Roar A50 is also the first Android One smartphone by any manufacturer outside India. Last month, Karbonn Mobiles had launched the Sparkle V in the UK at GBP 129.99 (approximately Rs. 12,600) via Amazon UK, which can also be shipped to other European countries as well.

(Also see: Karbonn Sparkle V, Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream Uno Review)

Spice recently also released a variant of the Dream Uno with added Hindi-language input - called the Spice Dream Uno H, at Rs. 6,499. Karbonn in the meanwhile revealed that it will be releasing a refreshed Android One handset in the first quarter of next year.