With so many awesome new quad-core 1080p smartphones coming from left and right, it’s easy to get carried away and lose perspective on a key aspect of today’s tech market – there are lots of people in emerging countries and not only that care about low prices and low prices alone.

And yes, $500 for these folks is a lot of dough, even if what comes from spending that kind of money is a top-tier, state-of-the-art device. But fret not, budget-caring amigos, because if you don’t want to dig deep in your pockets, but you are fans of the “bigger is better” trend, we have the ideal solution to your problems.

Well, ideal might be a bit of a stretch, but still. Meet Kogan’s new dual-SIM Agora phone going for the unbelievably low price of $150. That’s off-contract, SIM-free, unlocked, outright or whatever you want to call it, so it’s one of the best deals we’ve seen in a while.

Surprisingly, Kogan has even managed to pack this new Agora with a little bit of heat. Not a lot, but 150 bucks does buy you a phone with a 5-inch 480 x 800 LCD capacitive touchscreen, a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex A9-based CPU, 512 MB of RAM and a 2,000 mAh Li-ion battery. Entry-level specs mostly, but you could get much, much worse.

There are also dual cameras fitted on the back (5 MP) and front (0.3 MP) of the device, while the software’s flavor of the day is Ice Cream Sandwich. The rest of the features are pretty standard and include 4 GB of internal memory, microSD support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G connectivity.

As far as design goes, the Kogan Agora is definitely not an ugly slab of silicon, measuring a mere 9.8 mm in thickness, but weighing a pretty hefty 180 grams. You should of course not expect the build quality of a lifetime, with plastic bound to cover the entire surface of the 5-incher. Once again far from ideal, but what do you expect?

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, we have to tell you that Australian-based Kogan has had some trouble with delivering promised Android devices in the past, but hopefully we’re past that. If you trust that to be true, go over to the company’s website right now and get your pre-order in. The Agora is expected to start shipping on February 14 and can be had in 11 countries, including Australia, US and UK. Who’s in?