Obi Worldphone with Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley as Co-Founder, has launched two new affordable smartphones globally called SF1 and SJ1.5 in San Francisco. The Obi Worldphone SF1 will come in two variants – a 2 GB RAM and 16 GB inbuilt memory at $199 (approx. Rs. 13,000) and a 3 GB RAM and 32 GB inbuilt memory at $249 (approx. Rs. 16,500) while the Obi Worldphone SJ1.5 might be priced at $129 (approx. Rs. 8,500).
Commenting on the launch John Sculley, Chairman of Obi Worldphone said:
“We started originally whether we could make gains from phones bought from Chinese factories and just go through retail distribution. It became clear that it wasn’t going to work, so we pulled back. We had to have design differentiation.” He further added, “Obi has taken the best of Silicon Valley – innovations in design, state-of-the-art technology and high standards for manufacturing – and fused them into beautiful, powerful tools at attractive prices. Our efficient cost structure and broad distribution combine to present empowering tools that help our customers achieve their aspirations.”
Obi Worldphone SF1:
The Obi Worldphone SF1 features a 5 inch Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) IPS display with the pixel density at 443 ppi and protected by Gorilla Glass 4. The device is powered by a 1.5 GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 615 MSM8939 octa-core processor and Adreno 405 GPU coupled with 2GB/3GB of LPDDR3 RAM. It supports expandable storage via microSD card up to 64 GB.
The SF1 sports a 13 megapixel autofocus rear camera with Sony Exmor IMX214 sensor, LED flash and an aperture of f/2.0. It also sports a 5 megapixel front facing camera along with LED flash for better selfies. It is backed by 3000 mAh battery. It runs on Obi Lifespeed UI based upon Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.
Connectivity on this device includes 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/A-GPS and micro USB 2.0. The device measures 146 x 74 x 8 mm and weighs 147 grams.
Obi Worldphone SJ1.5:
The Obi Worldphone SJ 1.5 sports a 5-inch HD (1280×720pixels) display with a pixel density of 294 ppi with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It is powered by a 1.3 GHz MediaTek MT6580 quad-core processor coupled with 1 GB of RAM. It has 16 GB of internal storage, which is further expandable up to 32 GB via microSD card.
The SJ1.5 comes with an 8 megapixel rear camera with Omni Vision OV8865 sensor, LED flash and an aperture of f/2.2. It also has a 5 megapixel of secondary camera. The SJ 1.5 smartphone is packed with 3000 mAh battery. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with Obi Lifespeed UI on top.
The dual SIM smartphone does not support 4G but has other basic connectivity features like 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, GPA/A-GPS, and micro USB 2.0. The SJ 1.5 measures 146x73x7.95mm, and weighs about 131 grams.
Though the release date for India has not been revealed yet both the devices are expected to be available from October in some limited market first, and then later company has targeted to reach 50 markets by 2017.
You can find more about the company on their website: www.obiworldphone.com