Alcatel today announced the world’s first Android Go smartphone. Google had announced its Android Go platform late last year. Meant for low-end budget devices, Android Go devices feature anywhere between 512MB to 1GB of RAM. They will run a version of Android Oreo that is optimized for low-end hardware along with a lighter ‘Go’ version of all of Google’s apps and services.

With Android Go, Google wants to ensure that even low-end budget devices offer the same level of experience as mid-range and flagship devices without any kind of performance issues.

As for the Alcatel 1X, it features a 5.3-inch qHD (960 x 480) 18:9 display, a quad-core MediaTek processor, 1GB RAM, and a microUSB port. The phone will feature dual-SIM connectivity and launch in April. While it lacks a fingerprint scanner, it will come with face unlock feature.

The Verge was not particularly impressed with the performance of the Alcatel 1X and noted performance issues, with the UI heavily stuttering. Google and Alcatel, however, pointed to this being an issue with the phone being a pre-production unit not running a consumer build of the OS. With there being another two months until the Alcatel 1X ships, Google and Alcatel do have plenty of time on their hands to sort out all the performance issues on the device.

Google had already announced before MWC 2018 that we should see plenty of Android Go devices being unveiled at the event. Nokia, Xiaomi, and other smaller OEMs are all expected to announce an Android Go smartphone over the next few days.