Asus brings a $110 Android Go telephone to the US

Asus has introduced the ZenFone Stay L1, its first Android Go telephone, to the US. The telephone has finances specs, but it surely may stand out at $110 due to a few options unusual for its worth vary: an 18:9 show and a face unlock function.

That stated, even with its tall show, the ZenFone Stay nonetheless manages to look bland within the pictures Asus is sharing. Loads of that comes right down to its 5.5-inch display screen being surrounded with large bezels on both facet. The display screen has a decision simply past 720p, which is pushing it for its measurement, although not altogether unacceptable at this worth.

The telephone has a Snapdragon 425 processor, which was widespread in lower-end telephones two years in the past, and 16GB of storage that may be expanded by MicroSD. The larger limitation will possible be RAM, which the telephone has solely 1GB of. It seems to be just like the telephone will solely help 2.4GHz Wi-Fi as nicely, which generally is a drawback if it is advisable to connect with newer networks.

There’s no fingerprint sensor on the telephone both, which is an enormous miss. The face unlock must be a useful stand-in, though photo-based face scanning like it is a lot much less safe than the 3D mapping seen on the iPhone. Nonetheless, it’s higher than nothing as a technique to lock down your telephone.

In fact, many of those limitations are to be anticipated — the ZenFone Stay is a distinctly low-end telephone working Android Go, Google’s working system that’s been specifically pared down for these low-end units. To this point, Android Go telephones haven’t made a very nice exhibiting, however we’re additionally solely half a yr in to this experiment.

The telephone is just accessible at Finest Purchase within the US. It’s being bought unlocked, but it surely’s additionally accessible locked into a number of pay as you go plans at a $50 low cost, bringing it down to only $60.