Alcatel OneTouch, the unpredictable OEM that just announced its two latest flagships would debut for under $300, has inked a deal with Cyanogen Inc. to preload CM11, based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, on its latest mid-range product, the Hero 2+.
Coming in Q2 to the company’s Amazon-based ecommerce site (where people will also be able to purchase the Alcatel OneTouch Watch and, ostensibly, the Idol 3) for $299 USD, the Hero 2+ is an LTE-powered 6-inch 1080p phablet featuring an octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13MP rear shooter, a 3,100mAh battery and, to battle the Note series, a stylus.
The original Hero 2 was announced last September, but Alcatel was waiting until it could leverage a partner brand, such as it did with JBL and Technicolor on the Idol 3, to promote the slightly refreshed Hero 2+ model. Cyanogen Inc. has been in the news lately for its recent rebrand, its scuff up with OnePlus, its investment from Microsoft and others, and its commitment to sending Google to the cleaners.
Cyanogen’s renewed mandate is to keep Android as open, fast and easily-deployable to as many devices and chips as possible. That the Hero 2+ uses a MediaTek SoC is an example of the challenges faced by OEMs, as non-Qualcomm chips tend to be difficult to optimize. Taking the software stack from the OEM’s hands and into the safe confines of a company like Cyanogen that creates operating systems explicitly is one of the smarter moves Alcatel OneTouch has made recently.
It’s unclear, due to the aging nature of the MediaTek chip and the semiconductor’s history of not supporting its SoCs with the necessary drivers to build new Android against, whether the Hero 2+ will ever receive an Android 5.0-based CyanogenMOD version, but one can only hope. But we can hope this is the first of many collaborations between the two companies.
Look for the AOT Hero 2+ sometime in the spring-summer timeframe.
[source]Alcatel OneTouch[/source]
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