Kogan Agora

When you read about a handset from an unknown manufacturer, there is always an element of intrigue. Who are these people? Why have I not heard from them before?

Well, unless you live in Australia you can be forgiven for not knowing about Kogan. Kogan electronics takes its name from its owner, Ruslan Kogan. Based in Melbourne, Kogan are building a market share based on re-branding Chinese electrical imports. So, you may ask, why is this phone making news? Simply, the Agora is just the second handset to market that runs on the Google Android Software.

There was a lot of speculation that Google were going to release a mobile phone, built with tight integration to the many Google services. When announced, Android showed Google’s vision was a little bit different. What they saw was the opportunity for their open source software to be available on many different handsets, supplied by many different manufacturers. Android was announced to the world at the same time as the unveiling of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of companies that have come together to offer their expertise in their particular field for the benefit of mobile phone end users. Some of the names in the alliance are well known, with members such as Motorola, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia, LG, HTC, Samsung, and of course Google, amongst others. Since then there have been new additions to the alliance, including Vodafone, Garmin and Sony Ericsson.

So, what does the Kogan Agora offer? Rather square in design, the Agora has a full QWERTY keyboard for data entry, and a bright crisp 320 x 240 2.5 inch touch screen. Data transfer is covered with the implementation of tri band 3G, supporting HSDPA high speed mobile broadband. For voice, the handset will cover quad band GSM, offering coverage pretty much wherever there is a GSM network around the world. All pretty average, to be honest. With the inclusion of Android, the Agora integrates well with the Google services, such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search and YouTube. Video playback is well covered, with the Agora able to handle MP4 and AVI files, as well as a variety of audio files, presumably MP3, AAC, WMA, and the many compressed version of these technologies.

So, lastly, it just leaves us to wonder about the name. Agora is the public space usually found in the heart of ancient Greek cities, commonly the marketplace. The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that Agora is part of the word Agoraphobia, which literally translated means fear of the market place. I don’t think ‘the market’ has too much to fear from this phone, however.