It’s not just major hardware manufacturers who’re supporting Mozilla’s Firefox OS, as little-known Spanish startup Geeksphone is also producing a pair of devices running the new operating system. Not only that, but Geeksphone has beaten everyone else to market too, as the Keon and Peak are now available to pre-order through the company. Fair enough, they’re listed as, “developer previews,” so they won’t be appearing on the shelves of very many networks, but if you’ve been waiting to try out Firefox OS, now is your chance.
Anyone who signed up with Geeksphone to be alerted of when they could buy a device will have received an email this morning, saying the online store is now open; however our own attempts to get through the order process has been scuppered by failed logins, problematic page loads and more. It certainly appears demand is there for these early Firefox phones.
So what’s on offer? The Keon (pictured above) is the basic model, equipped with a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a 1GHz processor, 4GB of internal storage memory and a 3-megapixel camera. It’s priced at 100 euros plus sales tax. The Peak is a slightly more advanced, as it has a 4.3-inch touchscreen, a 1.2GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and a video call camera. It costs slightly more than the Keon, at 150 euros plus the sales tax. Geeksphone also has its hardware priced in dollars, and you’ll need to pay $143 for the Keon and $235 for the Peak.
Sounds like a bargain, right? Not so fast, as shipping and tax will add at least 90 euros/$90 to each order. The trouble is, Geeksphone has the market to itself at the moment, as even though Sony has put out a developer ROM of Firefox OS for the Xperia E, it doesn’t have any connectivity options, so it’s useless as a phone. If you don’t mind the cost, and have the patience to wait for the online store to stop misbehaving, you can order your Geeksphone here.
