Micromax A85, from a Chinese OEM, is India’s Cheapest Android Dual-Core Smartphone

India’s up-and-coming telco Micromax is about to make its first move into the higher-end smartphone segment with the new A85, an Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) Tegra-powered Android phone. Priced at a rumored Rs 18,990 (US$378) unlocked, it becomes India’s cheapest dual-core phone.

ITPro India reports today that the Micromax A85 was spotted up on local e-commerce site Flipkart for that price, but Micromax has not yet confirmed a release date or price-tag.

If the handset looks very familiar to regular PO readers – especially that irregular line beneath the screen, pictured below – then that’s because we’ve already seen it months ago as the first Aliyun phone from China’s Alibaba. So, both the A85 and the inaugural Aliyun OS phone are from a Chinese OEM named Tian Hua, and both are the same K-Touch W700 model. The only major difference (apart from the OS it runs, of course) seems to be that the A85 has four haptic keys – as is normal for Android – whereas the Aliyun-powered version has only three.

But, very bizarrely, the fourth button seems to retain the Chinese symbol for ‘cloud‘ as it appears on the Aliyun handset. We’re not sure if that’s just a by-product of this bad photoshop-job that’s all over the Indian interwebs:

So the W700… oh, sorry… A85’s specs are the same as we’ve seen before: 1GHz Tegra dual-core, 3.8-inch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, 3G and GPRS support, etc. The main disappointment for potential Indian buyers is that it runs Android 2.2 – a year-old version – which is pretty unacceptable in a brand-new phone. It’s not clear if Micromax will furnish buyers with an update to the current 2.3. Being stuck on 2.2 means losing some features, such as the ability to use GTalk for video chatting.

The Micromax A85 will, when it officially lands, replace the LG (SEO:032640) Optimus 2X – which sells for Rs 22,000 right now – as the nation’s cheapest dual-core smartphone. But it’s beaten out by China’s Xiaomi phone, which retails for 1,999RMB, which works out being about 60 dollars cheaper than the A85.