Kogan Agora 3G Lite

SMARTPHONES REALLY DON’T COME ANY CHEAPER THAN THIS.

THE AGORA 3G Lite is similar in many ways to the Sony Xperia E4 we reviewed in our October issue (see page 42). It’s also a comfortably-sized handset with a 5-inch screen, quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU at 1.3GHz and a basic Mali-400 MP GPU, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and a 3G cellular radio. e front- and rear-facing cameras are the same (at 2MP and 5MP respectively) and the plastic back comes o to give access to micro-SIM and microSD card slots (the latter supporting cards up to 32GB). Kogan’s used a newer version of the Android OS (5.0.2 vs the Xperia’s 4.4.4) and also adds in a second SIM slot for a backup 2G-only card. is is, then, a good entry-level phone that easily handles the basics.

While its benchmark results aren’t great, for day-to-day tasks you won’t really notice — email, web surfing, music- and video-playback, and even a little light 3D gaming are all possible here. e screen is likewise a bit low-res at 480 x 854-pixels, so images on it aren’t particularly sharp, but it’s certainly functional.

And while its polycarbonate (aka plastic) 155g body doesn’t really feel like it could take much punishment (Motorola’s budget phones de nitely feel tougher, though they’re pricier too), it should manage just ne if you’re not too rough with it.

Battery life is one aspect that’s a bit of a let-down, though. ere should be enough juice here to get modest users through a day, but its PCMark 8 result of 5:13hr is a couple of hours behind Sony’s E4, which sells for the same price. Kogan’s battery is removable though, and extras are just $19. It’s a good option to have… though not as good as having a long-lasting battery in the rst place, of course.