This device seems like a good consumer device but it’s not good for development. Unfortunately the Tracfone variation is locked down and can’t sideload apps / there are no ways to enable this that I have found. There are devices of the same model which do seem to work, but the Tracfone version does not. A lesson is to check this site and pick a device which is listed to be dev friendly: https://sites.google.com/view/bananahackers/devices
The BLU Zoey Smart I also got does work for development ( had to go to https://w2d.bananahackers.net/ in the phone’s browser to fully enable it to work with the steps listed here https://developer.kaiostech.com/getting-started/env-setup/os-env-setup ) though it’s an inferior consumer device compared to the Alcatel MyFlip. No matter what I tried to do to optimize a project the BLU Zoey Smart constantly stutters / lags. And in other games too. Putting the device into airplane mode does help the stuttering some so maybe it’s related to that somehow. Airplane mode doesn’t stop periodic long lag spikes in games but it does seem to diminish it. Compare to the Alcatel MyFlip I did not see such issues of periodic / persistent lag spikes.
https://www.kaiostech.com/kaios-technologies-and-mozilla-partner-to-enable-a-healthy-mobile-internet-for-everyone/
- WebAssembly for more optimized web apps
- WebGL 2.0 for advanced graphics and 3D games
Hopefully these arrive to all devices and that the Zoey eventually is able to be improved despite its issues. Because WASM is coming eventually supposedly it’s not worth stripping out of your device. Games under 10MB install pretty fast. Though in emerging markets this may be a different story, at least in India they seem to offer unlimited plans so it’s more of a unreliable network / slow network than total data. There less MB may matter more.
Speaking of India they use a different store than the KaiOS store you get on the devices I got. I don’t know how to get a device from the India market / how to publish there atm. Supposedly they have 100M devices out there sold but nothing shows up on the same places you can buy the other KaiOS devices.
Currently I’d recommend game designs which don’t require high twitch input. Lag is tolerable as long as it doesn’t impact gameplay. So mostly anything turn based would still be fun with lag but twitch gameplay is killed from lag spikes on devices. It may be other devices don’t have the lag spike issues. You can also develop for the future when better devices with more efficient features are widespread.
I tested 3D projects and they do work on the device though the framerate is lower.
I think the builtin animation functions don’t work right on the forced 30FPS of the device, they are too smooth and slow, I’d expect choppier but still speedy animation. It’s worth testing to confirm and potentially ignore script update dt and use system time for dt for animations if that as a whole can improve the experience.
I tried several things to make test projects run smoothly on the Zoey and nothing I did made a meaningful impact. I tried using a lower resolution of 120x160 instead of 240x320 and it did not make a noticeable difference.
So far I have not done any data based profiling only what my eyes see so some things may have made a difference. Worth doing in the future to know.
I’d really like to know some analytics from people who have published but low numbers won’t discourage me at this point. Once I publish some projects I’ll share what data I’m able to.
I would not recommend getting a KaiOS phone for actual consumer app use. For apps, you can get a 7th gen Kindle Fire (with ads that are not that bad) for $49.99 which runs Android apps at full speed and high resolution. I paid $29.99 for the Zoey and if I only wanted to play some games I’d rather spend the extra $20 to get a Kindle Fire. I did not test either device as actual phones, but the refurbished Alcatel MyFlip was only $10 and seems like the better device. The purpose is still cheap phones so for $10-30 + pay as you go that’s a good deal for those who use it, and their app usage would only ever be incidental (India has the best deal it seems $27 USD to get a phone like these and get 2 years of Unlimited service… but the service might also be generally unreliable / slow). I think a lot of people who would want these kinds of devices don’t even want apps (they want a dumb phone which is a phone only and does that really well while also being nearly disposable), or they want specific apps that work well, not as a general smart phone.
I will continue to tinker and make some stuff to be published on KaiOS. Anything I make first for KaiOS I plan to publish elsewhere too.