Kyocera Announces Affordable Zio M6000, Brings Its Smartphone Business Back From The Dead

Kyocera’s announcement at CTIA today was actually two-fold: it launched the Zio M6000, an Android smartphone and at the same time resurrected its smart phone business, which Kyocera had put on hold while it focused on feature phones.

The Zio M6000 promises to be more affordable than other Android phones, with an unsubsidized price to fall between $169 and $216. The phone has a 3.5-inch touchscreen with a trackball underneath, fairly high-res 800 x 480 display, and 600-MHz MSM7227 processor from Qualcomm (the same one found in the Devour).

It runs Android 1.6 but users will be able to upgrade to Android 2.1. We’re guessing that’s because it will run either a stock Android UI or something almost as bare, either of which would be easier to upgrade than an Android phone with a proprietary UI, such as Sense, layered on top.

Other specs include 3G, Wi-FI, and Bluetooth connectivity, a 3.2-MP camera, 512MB on-board memory for apps with a microSD card slot that can support up to 32GB (remember that Android doesn’t let you install apps on memory cards).

No word on pricing, aside from the range listed above. Look for it in the second quarter.