ZTE's $80 Tempo Go Is The First Android Go Smartphone For US Market

by Brandon Hill — Friday, March 30, 2018, 12:55 PM EDT

If you're looking for one of the cheapest smartphones you can purchase with no strings attached, ZTE just pulled the wraps off the first Android Go phone to launch in the United States: the Tempo Go. The headlining "feature" of the smartphone will no doubt be its $79.99 price tag, which should make it attractive to consumers on a strict budget.

We should note that the low price of entry also means that you won't get a specs powerhouse by any means. In fact, the specs look like something that you would have seen on an entry-level Android smartphone from a few years ago. Power comes from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor paired with 1GB of RAM. There's just 8GB of internal storage available, although a microSD slot can expand that storage to 32GB.

As for the display, it measures 5-inch diagonally and has a resolution of 854x480. A 5MP camera is found on the back of the device, while you'll be staring at a 2MP camera for selfies. As for the battery, it's rated at 2,200 mAh, which provides 12 hours of talk time.

Google has optimized Android Go to better perform on such hardware, which means that performance shouldn't be too embarrassing in everyday use. As an added bonus, the Tempo Go is running Android Oreo Go Edition, and should be at the forefront when it comes to receiving timely OS and security updates -- that's more than we can say for many flagship Android smartphones.

It might not have the same panache as a Galaxy S9 or a Pixel 2, but the ZTE Tempo Go is a just a fraction of the cost with no strings attached. If you want a cheap backup phone, or something that you can give to your kids that are bound to end up breaking it anyway, it might be worthy of your consideration.

Tags: zte, android go, tempo go

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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