Bharat Go: Micromax to launch India’s first Android Go smartphone this month

Miromax Bharat Go will be the first smartphone to launch with India-focused Android Oreo Go OS.

An employee stands at the counter of Micromax mobile phones at a showroom in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters

Domestic handset maker Micromax is set to launch the first smartphone in India with Google's Android Oreo (Go Edition) on January 26, the company announced on Monday. This would make Micromax the first company in India to launch an Android Oreo Go-smartphone.

Named "BHARAT GO", the smartphone will be the best-in-class mobility device and an optimised entry-level Android smartphone, the company said in a statement.

"The smartphone will be priced under ₹5,000 and will come with features such as 4G and VoLTE support. It will be launched under our Bharat series, focused on the lower-tier of the market," a Micromax spokesperson said.

Android Oreo (Go) is essentially made for entry-level Android smartphones with less than 1GB RAM and hence uses less storage space, less memory and still runs smoothly.

With launching the lightweight Android Oreo (Go Edition) in India, Google has optimised its OS platform, first party apps and Play Store to improve the capabilities of entry-level smartphones. The prediction coincides with Google's statement that Android Oreo (Go Edition) will be available in the market starting early 2018.

Originally announced at Google I/O 2017 annual developer conference, this OS is a toned down version of the latest Android Oreo OS which is currently present in high-end devices.

The new OS and pre-installed apps have been optimised to take up 50% less space that would double the amount of available storage on entry-level devices, the company earlier said.