Google announced Android Go at Google I/O last year. This version of Android is lightweight and specially made for phones with entry level specs. The OS which is also known as Android Oreo (Go Edition) has already been released to OEMs nut none has officially announced a device yet. HMD Global used to be the only manufacturer known to be working on an Android Go phone (Nokia 1) but it appears ASUS also has one in the pipeline.
A new ASUS device has been seen on Geekbench and its specs point at it being an Android Go smartphone. Benchmarked as the ASUS X00RD, the phone runs Android 8.1 which Android Go is based on and has 1GB of RAM.
It is powered by Qualcomm’s MSM8917 a.k.a. Snapdragon 425 which is a quad-core chip clocked at 1.4GHz. The 28nm processor supports a maximum display resolution of 1280 x 800 which means when it launches, it should have a HD display.
Benchmark scores for the ASUS X00RD are low but not surprising since it is an entry level device. It scored 640 points in the single-core test and 1664 points in the multi–core test.
A lot of specification details are still missing but there is a chance we might see this device launch at MWC 2018. We actually even thought of a name already – ASUS Zenfone Go (2018). It could be a sort of successor to 2015 and 2016’s Zenfone Go plus it rhymes with Android Go.
READ MORE: ASUS To Reportedly Launch A Gaming Smartphone At MWC 2018 Alongside Zenfone 5
While there are no Android Go phones at the moment, Google has been churning out apps for the platform. There is Files Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Google Go, Gmail Go, and Google Assistant Go. So when these devices do launch, they should come pre-loaded with all these apps.
