EE has launched its first own-brand smartphone in the form of the EE Kestrel, as the network looks to attract more people to 4G.
The main selling point of the Kestrel – named after the British bird of prey – is its £99.99 PAYG price tag, making it the most affordable 4G smartphone on the market.
A quick glance at the handset though and may get a strange feeling of deja vu. That’s because it’s an almost carbon copy of the Huawei Ascend G6 which we saw at MWC 2014, hardly a surprise as the Chinese firm is the OEM behind the phone.
In fact the EE Kestrel boasts the same 4.5-inch qHD (540 x 960) display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (plus microSD slot), Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS, 2000mAh battery and LTE CAT 4 support.
There’s a bit of bad news in the camera department though, as the EE Kestrel comes equipped with a 5MP rear and 1MP front snapper – down from the 8MP and 5MP setup on the G6.
It’s obvious competitor is the equally well priced Motorola Moto G which sports a higher resolution screen, sturdier build quality and stock Android 4.4 KitKat, although it’s only capable of 3G speeds and has no microSD slot.
If you don’t fancy picking up the EE Kestrel on a pay-as-you-go deal it can be yours for free on 24 month 4G contracts starting at £13.99 per month, which gives you 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data.
The £13.99 tariff is also launching today, and it is the cheapest 4G plan on the market.
You’ll be able to get hold of the handset before the end of April, but we haven’t got a firm EE Kestrel release date just yet.