Kogan got its start in the electronics business with its own-branded televisions before branching out into everything from laptops to smartphones.
The Agora branding that Kogan uses for its smartphones is Greek for "marketplace".
What to consider when choosing a Kogan Agora phone
Kogan's business model, whether you're talking televisions, mobile phone plans, insurance or any of its other myriad businesses, has always been predicated on delivering products at the lowest possible cost. In the smartphone space, the rising commoditisation of parts and the growing power of phones have been very kind to its Kogan Agora phones, many of which have been able to offer good features at distinctly budget prices.
Still, it does offer phones that are distinctly built to a price point, rather than a feature set, and that means that it's important to understand what you're getting (or not getting) when you opt for a Kogan Agora smartphone.
Knowing what to look for and how to decipher the marketing that goes around Kogan's Agora phones can help you make a more informed decision about whether they're right for your needs.
We've gathered up a primer on the features you should consider to make those comparisons as easy as possible, guiding you to the right Kogan phone for your needs.
Kogan's Agora phones have always tended towards the lower side of the storage pool, with typical storage sizes around 16GB or, in some cases, smaller. You can typically add storage via microSD card slot, although the budget focus means that larger storage cards are usually not accepted by Kogan's Agora phones.
One area where Kogan's Agora phones have been notable is in offering a lot of screen real estate relative to their price points. Where most budget range phones tend to offer smaller displays, the most recent iterations of Agora phones have tended to offer larger displays.
The trade-off is that they're not always particularly high-resolution displays for their size, typically topping out at Full HD (1920x1080). That's fine for most visual tasks on a phone, but don't expect fancy features like AMOLED displays, fast refresh rates or notable curves on a Kogan Agora phone.
The Kogan own-brand story is all about providing on a budget, and this is always true for its crop of Agora phones, all of which have sold for low price points. Typically speaking, Kogan only has one or maybe two Agora models on the market at any given time, depending on stock availability, and they're only sold through Kogan itself. Pricing is usually in the $150-$300 price point range, making them a very affordable option if all you want is a basic smartphone.
Kogan's Agora phones have, to date, provided full headphone jack support as well as Bluetooth if you're more of a fan of wireless audio.
Kogan's Agora phones are typically sourced from Chinese reference designs – essentially they're rebadged versions of existing models rebuilt for the Australian market. To date, there's been only the most essential level of security enabled on its devices. This does extend to fingerprint sensors on the latest models, but if you want higher levels of security, you'll have to look to applications such as encryption utilities and VPNs to lock your Kogan Agora phone down.
Kogan's Agora phones are built to a budget standard, and if there's one factor that makes budget phones stand distinct from their mid-range or premium siblings, it's in camera quality.
At best, Kogan's cameras on all the Agora models we've tested have been adequate at best, but don't expect miracles when you're only paying sub $200 prices. As an example, in our review of the Kogan Agora 8 Plus, we noted that the shutter and focus speeds were slow, and that it didn't compare well against other budget phones in this respect.
Kogan's phones are budget models, and that typically means that you won't see high category speed modems nestled within them. However, that's not unusual for any budget phone, and they are built to work within the Australian network infrastructure. Kogan's own Kogan Mobile service operates on the Vodafone network in Australia, but there's no reason that a Kogan Agora phone won't work on competing 4G networks.
Many of Kogan's recent Agora phones have been dual SIM, but it's worth checking the precise network configuration of that secondary SIM. Even up to the Kogan Agora 8 Plus, the secondary SIM card slot was a 2G-only variant, which is useless in Australia now. If you travel frequently and want to make use of a 2G network in another country for calling or texting purposes, there could be some small value there, but hopefully future Agora phones will be dual 4G/3G or even dual 4G/4G instead.
Kogan's budget approach to the Kogan Agora phone line mean that premium features like wireless charging are notably absent. You're not likely to find wireless charging in lower-cost handsets yet anyway, so this isn't particularly remarkable, however.
Likewise, because they're built to a budget, don't expect notably fast charging features to play a part in the Kogan Agora's feature set.
Again, the budget nature of the Kogan Agora range typically doesn't lead to a great result here, even against other budget handsets. While it has produced some larger handsets, that typically hasn't meant that they feature notably large battery capacities. As an example, the 5.5-inch Kogan Agora 8 Plus features a battery pack with a 2950mAh battery, which isn't expansive.
That's also been seen in our battery tests, where the Kogan Agora range has typically featured battery life at or below the rest of the budget pack. Don't expect huge battery life, even for a phone at this price point with the Agora range.
Getting your smartphone wet is one of life's great stress points because you're never sure if it'll come back from a sudden accidental immersion.
Water resistance is a feature commonly seen in premium smartphones and even some mid-range options, but it's incredibly rare in true budget phones, due to the cost and complexity of true IP-rated water resistance testing.
Kogan's Agora phones are built to a budget, so don't expect much water resistance. Very small splashes may be OK, but they're not going to be covered by warranty, so be very careful indeed with your new Kogan Agora phone.
Kogan's Agora phones, as we've said before, are budget models, and that means you're typically faced with a MediaTek processor rather than something with a bit more grunt to it. MediaTek is the processor maker of choice in the budget space, so Kogan's definitely not alone here in providing very moderate performance for a budget phone.
What that means in reality is that you're accepting lower performance in return for paying a lot less for your handset. Expect slower app launching performance and plenty of time between keystroke registrations when you're typing on a Kogan Agora phone.
Straight benchmarks, like those we use here at finder do give a good comparative performance viewpoint, but they're only part of the package of assessing a smartphone's overall real-world performance.
Looking for a Kogan phone on a plan?
Kogan does run its own mobile service, called Kogan Mobile, but that doesn't mean it offers its own Kogan Agora phones on contract terms with a Kogan Mobile plan. You can expect to find a free Kogan Mobile SIM card in your Agora phone box, and it's not uncommon for Kogan to shout you a month or more of "free" access if you buy a Kogan Agora handset. Still, the whole concept here is around buying the phone outright and then matching it up with a Kogan prepaid mobile plan over 30, 90 or 365 days.
Check out the table below to compare postpaid SIM-only plans:
With a quad-core processor, a 13MP camera and all the features of Android 7.0, the Kogan Agora 8 seeks to redefine what a budget smartphone is capable of.
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.
With a quad-core processor, a 13MP camera and all the features of Android 7.0, the Kogan Agora 8 seeks to redefine what a budget smartphone is capable of.
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