Obi SF1 And SJ1.5 Have The Potential To Disrupt The Smartphone Market | TechTree.com

Obi SF1 And SJ1.5 Have The Potential To Disrupt The Smartphone Market

Brings refreshed designs and high-value to a space that is flooded with clones.

 

Obi has announced its new set of low-cost smartphones for the current year. Both the Obi Worldphone SF1 and the Worldphone SJ1.5 will arrive in markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East later this year and will compete with the long list of both budget and mid-range offerings from local and Chinese brands.

One look at the Obi SF1 and SJ1.5 and you will be sold on the design. The company had hired Ammunition Design Studio to work on designs that not only stand out from the droids available today, but also puts the brands philosophy into the picture.

Think about it as a Jolla with the right software and hardware bits inside that will actually sell.

The SF1 features a distinctive screen that appears to be raised from the rest of the body. The “floating glass display” according to the design team allows for easier swiping and gives the device a distinctive look. Coming to the SJ1.5, we have a matte finished polycarbonate body that looks pretty high-end rather than a low-cost mid-range device.

Coming down to the specs of the SF1:

  • We get a 5 inch Full HD display made by JDI and protected with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4
  • Inside, there is a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 with 2/3 GB of RAM for the 16/32 GB options
  • The device also features expandable memory via an SD card slot but is limited to 64 GB cards
  • In the camera department, we get a 13 MP AF unit on the back and a 5MP unit for selfies
  • As for connectivity we get the usual, with Dual SIM slots, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi direct,  and Bluetooth v4.0
  • Powering all of the above is 3000 mAh battery with Quick charge 1.0 on board

As for the hardware details on the SJ1.5:

  • We get a 5 inch IPS HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
  • Inside, there is a 1.3 GHz MediaTek MT6580 with 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB (expandable to 32 GB)
  • In the camera department, we get an 8 MP AF unit with on the back and a 5MP unit for selfies
  • As for connectivity we get the usual, with Dual SIM slots, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi direct,  and Bluetooth v4.0
  • Powering all of the above is 3000 mAh battery

Speaking about Obi as a brand, it was founded by the ex-Apple CEO John Sculley. After being forced out of Apple, Sculley has churned out a number of smaller but noticeable ventures in the US.

The Obi Worldphone is an attempt to tap into a market segment consisting of Android users who will be upgrading from low-end smartphones to full-featured ones.

But it is not the first time that Obi is building smartphones since OB has smartphones selling in India already with Octopus S520 and Wolverine S501 already on sale. This seems more like a re-branding attempt to turn the company into a bigger and a more reputable brand like OnePlus or Xiaomi.

Both the Worldphone SF1 and the Worldphone SJ1.5 will run Android Lollipop out of the box, which has been modified to use the company’s LightSpeed launcher to keep up with its design principles.

Indeed, there is lot of potential in these devices, but it clearly depends on the pricing. The SF1 is expected to retail at approximately Rs 13,200 for the 16 GB version and Rs 16,500 for the 32 GB variant. As for the SJ1.5, the 16 GB variant will retail for around Rs 8600.


TAGS: Obi Worldphone SF1, Obi Worldphone SJ1.5, Obi

 
News Corner
IMP IMP IMP
##