Tecno N3 Android Smart Phone

You’d be mistaken to think I have any preference for Tecno products, it’s not a household name like South Korean rivals and its association with China products doesn’t help either; personally, I haven’t touched any of their products and I may not have to, but the relentless efforts they’ve put in, might just as well turn my weird perception the other way round, I reckon. By launching Tecno N3, an android powered handset, I’d honestly acknowledge Tecno almost had my full attention; I am an android veteran you’d say, but that doesn’t imply I like every device that has it installed. Techno N3 doesn’t look classy like pricier devices, but that doesn’t mean it’s entirely crap; it’s a dual-sim handset, something you’d unsuccessfully long for on those killer devices like Galaxy S3. It’s not only in headlines as their first droid phone, but the first Qualcomm reference design smart phone I n Africa, thanks to the partnership between these two firms.

 Qualcomm reference design essentially aids device makers get 3G smart phone devices developed faster saving for research, development, product engineering and architecture costs. For a price of Kshs.8000 here in Kenya, I can easily list more than a dozen cool devices within the same price range I’d choose instead of Tecno N3; however, almost all of them don’t support two networks, so I’ll give it here. Last time I checked, Orange San Francisco was retailing at the same price, but the phone is a monster in comparison except for dual-sim feature. Techno N3 supports 2 sim cards, but you’d only connect to 3G on one and 2G on the other, it doesn’t make that much difference but I’d prefer all sim cards connect via 3G. Beyond its dual-sim capability, I’d say a 3.5inch display screen was well thought, most devices within the price range have smaller display panels such as a 2.8inch found on ideos. In theory, the phones internal memory is capped at 512mb, we all know you’ll get lesser, but you can expand up to 32GB with a MicroSD card though there’s an 8GB memory card already included.   

Techno N3 is a dual-sim device but that’s the least of my excitement, there’s lots of cheaper dual-sim handsets in Kenyan stores now, it runs on Google’s android software with minimal pre-loaded apps so you’d easily choose your preferred ones from Google play instead without having to uninstall unwanted apps first. Android is by far the fastest growing mobile OS , N3 has v2.3.5 Gingerbread installed which’s unfortunately not the latest release but it’s a good start if you ask me, there are rumors of several android based devices coming out of Techno such as N5 and N7.  

Tecno N3 Features/Specifications

• Operating System: Android v2.3.5 Gingerbread
• Processor: 1GHz Snapdragon S1 Processor
• Display : 3.5inch (320x480p) TFT capacitive touch screen
• Primary Camera: 3.0Megapixels primary camera
• Storage: Up to 32GB MicroSD, 512MB internal storage
• Connectivity: MicroUSB v2.0, Bluetooth v3.0, WiFi, WiFi hotspot
• Internet: 3G, 2G, HSDPA
• Other features: Dual-SIM, Palm chat
• Battery: Standard Lithium ion 1400mAh

Tecno N3Price in Kenya: Kshs.8000.