Written by It was only a matter of time before the mobile network providers started introducing their own brand mobile phones to the market, and with Orange recently announcing their ‘Boston’ handset, Vodafone have quickly followed suit with their own Android phone, called the Vodafone 845.
Vodafone have supported the new Android technology and offer price plans on many of the new Android phones including the HTC Desire, Legend and Tattoo as well as the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 and soon the Google Nexus One, so it’s not surprising that they have launched their first phone with the Android OS.
The Vodafone handset is not likely to compete with the Nexus One’s or iPhone’s on the market but is designed to be a practical and low cost handset that offers people access to the Android platform.
The phone will launch with the newest version of Android, 2.1 and there will be a wide range of applications available for the phone, either preloaded or downloadable. Users will be able to access the Android market for new apps (of which there are 30,000 and counting).
Hardware-wise the phone is fairly basic with a 2.8 inch 240 x 320 pixel display, 3.5G support, a 3.2 megapixel camera, built in GPS, Bluetooth, microSD memory slot and WiFi.
It’s expected to be a free handset for customers signing up for a contract, although no official pricing details have been released yet. The Vodafone 845 is rumoured to be available from Vodafone stores from next month.
