Konka is a Chinese firm that makes a whole lot more than phones, including digital signage, TVs and refrigerators for its local domestic market.
Konka's phones are primarily budget devices, designed to deliver basic performance and features at a low price point.
What to consider when choosing a Konka phone
Konka – a trading name of the Konka Group and originally Shenzhen Konka Electronic Group Co – has a history that goes back some 30 years. In the Australian market it's a very small player pitching directly at the affordable end of the budget spectrum.
Which is to say that Konka's phones are quite cheap, and deliberately so. Within that kind of thinking it's common to see compromises across the board to meet a price point, but it's well worth knowing what those compromises mean for your usage of a device.
Everyone's needs are different and one budget phone that features a better camera than another may mean nothing to you, while another that uses a flip format for feature phone differentiation could become a must-buy prospect. We've run through Konka's offerings and what they'll mean for you to make your comparison more meaningful.
Konka offers phones that qualify as smartphones running the Android operating system, as well as more simple models in the feature phone space for those who crave an easier existence.
Between those two approaches you'll find large differences in storage needs, simply because a basic feature phone will typically only use storage for contacts (which are tiny anyway) or very simple photos, whereas a smartphone can use space for photos, music and apps to whatever extent you'd care to push them.
That being said, Konka's phones are very rudimentary in terms of what they offer in storage. Even for its Android phones, expect no more than 16GB of onboard storage, not all of which will be available to you as an end user. MicroSD expansion can take that further, but again (and in common with many budget handsets) you're not going to be able to put the largest microSD expansion cards into your Konka smartphone.
On the Android smartphone side, Konka's phones have displays that are entirely typical of the budget space, tending towards the low end. You're typically faced with 5 inch displays at 720p resolution, which is less than you'll find with many budget models.
On the feature phone side, large screens were never a key selling point and you'll be looking more at devices with around a 2.3 inch screen size.
If there's one thing you can say about Konka's phones, it's that they're very affordable indeed. As such, you're going to be looking in the price range of between $80 and $150 or thereabouts, making them a decent match for those on a tight budget, or even as an emergency replacement or spare phone if your day-to-day handset has to go in for repairs.
Price is a key leveller for Konka, but it's not alone in this space. You should also consider handsets from the likes of Alcatel, Aspera, Kogan, ZTE and Nokia, to name but a few.
Most budget handsets have retained a standard headphone jack even as it's gone out of style in the premium space and Konka's phones are no exception, with wired headphone support a standard feature.
Very cheap phones such as those offered by Konka aren't usually rife with additional security features. For the Android handsets you're looking essentially at PIN/passcode locking to secure your phone, but if you need more, you'll have to look for specific encryption or VPN apps to lock down your usage and content.
The specifications for Konka's phones released to date make for sobering reading, even within the constrained smartphone space, with low megapixel counts and very simple feature sets for shooting stills or video. There's a certain style to cheap camera sensors that may have artistic appeal to some people, but not everybody. The first feature that gets compromised with cheap phones is camera quality and that's the case with Konka's phones. Don't expect much, in other words.
Konka's phones cover the standard network bands for Australia's mobile networks, with a range of support for 2G, 3G and in selected models 4G connectivity, although it doesn't publish category speeds for any of its handsets. That's not unusual within this price bracket and it shouldn't be expected that you'll get anything but ordinary network performance out of its Android handsets. Data throughput is much less of an issue for feature phone users, but you should still be able to hook up to both 3G and 4G networks, bearing in mind that any phone that only advertises 2G compatibility is essentially useless in Australia now.
We're yet to see budget manufacturers adopt wireless charging to any large scale extent, so it's not a surprise that Konka's phones don't support it. That's also true of fast charging standards, although the classic situation where budget phones often have small batteries applies. You're not likely to wait too long to power them up when needed in any case.
Of course for feature phones your charge is likely to last a number of days rather than a number of hours.
Battery life on budget phones is all too often a mix of low-power processors pitched against smaller battery capacities, because both factors help keep the costs of a given handset low.
For Konka's Android phones, you're typically looking at around 2,200mAh for its smartphone devices, which is on the lower side even for a budget handset. Even with a low-power processor, it's more likely that you'll need to charge it every day to keep it running.
While its feature phone products include much smaller batteries, the lesser requirements of a feature phone – typically just calls and texts – means that you should be able to eke out multi-day battery life with few issues unless you're a very prolific text addict.
Budget phones so rarely have any kind of IP-rated water resistance features, so much so that it's a pleasant surprise when they do have that kind of offering.
Konka's phones to date haven't listed any kind of IP-tested water resistance for its smartphones or feature phones sold in Australia. What does that mean in practical terms? It means that while very small quantities of water (eg sweat, a drop of rain) shouldn't be an issue per se, there's no guarantee and immersion would almost certainly be fatal for the internal components of the phone.
Like many budget phones, the other aspect where you most definitely get what you pay for is in predicted phone performance. While the mid-range of phones has come forward in leaps and bounds to provide much of what the majority of users want, budget phones are still very much in the slow lane when it comes to performance. With mediocre processors and low RAM counts, expect slow performance out of your Konka phone. Budget often does mean slow, but Konka's particular recipes make them hard to recommend if you're fussed about getting the most out of your buying dollar in smartphone performance terms.
Looking for a Konka phone on a plan?
It's becoming increasingly rare to see budget phones on contract terms and that makes sense both for telcos and you, the end consumer. There's not much point tying yourself to a 2 year contract for a sub-$100 phone, after all. You're much better off grabbing the Konka handset of your choice and matching it up with a SIM-only prepaid plan.
By way of example, here's what you can get for $30 per month or less on a prepaid plan:
A multi-award winning journalist, Alex has written about consumer technology for over 20 years. He has written and edited for virtually every Australian tech publication including Gizmodo, CNET, PC Magazine, Kotaku and more. He has also been the Editor of Gizmodo Australia, PC Mag Australia, CNET.com.au and the Tech and Telco section at Finder. Alex has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a serious passion for retro gaming. See full bio
Featuring a slim, premium design, the Konka R8A is a budget smartphone that looks a lot more expensive than it actually is.
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