Obi Worldphone has introduced two premium-designed smartphones with an aggressive pricing range to attract young people in fast-growth markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Over the next three years 1 billion users will upgrade from low-end, starter smartphones to models with more power and greater functionality, said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., a 35-year market analyst and research firm evaluating the global adoption of consumer technology. The Obi Worldphone no-compromise design and aggressive pricing makes it very appealing to this audience as the market for smartphones expands and the upgrade market for smartphones accelerates.
SF1
Obi Worldphone SF1 is the company’s flagship 4G/LTE smartphone featuring high end photography and audio capabilities. The SF1’s 5-inch display is made of durable Corning Gorilla and is housed in a reinforced fiberglass body and metal accents at the top and bottom of the phone. The SF1 also features a long-life, quick-charge battery, dual SIM slot with micro secure digital (SD) expansion and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor.
Camera wise, the SF1 is equipped with a 13-megapixel shooter with Sony IMX214 Exmor sensor. The camera makes use of the Qualcomm ChromaFlash camera feature to quickly snap two photos — one with flash, one without. The final image takes the brightness from the one with flash and the colour accuracy from the other, creating a single, well-balanced image. Users can select their focus after taking a picture through the Qualcomm UbiFocus camera feature. After the photo is taken, users can also zoom in at a resolution beyond normal digital zoom levels, with crisply detailed images powered by the Qualcomm OptiZoom camera feature.
Other features include Dolby Audio, Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0 power management technology and runs on Google Android Lollipop.
The SF1’s suggested retail price is $199 USD for the 2 GB RAM / 16 GB internal memory version and $249 USD for the 3 GB RAM / 32 GB internal memory version.
SJ1.5
The Obi Worldphone SJ1.5 is a 3G smartphone powered by the MediaTek MT6580 Quad-Core processor. The screen is made from 2.5D curved glass built flush with the body of the phone to give it a seamless feel in the hand. In addition to featuring dual SIM slots, the SJ1.5 comes with 16 GB of internal storage and a card slot for memory expansion. The SJ1.5 sports front and rear cameras and is protected by scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The SJ1.5 uses the Android Lollipop operating system.
Suggested retail price is $129 USD.
Obi’s two security and privacy features at launch are AVG AntiVirus PRO for Android to help protect Obi devices from malware, viruses and theft, and Google Android’s built-in security layers for protection against intrusions.
The SF1 and SJ1.5 can run Google Play Store supported Android applications. Besides the AVG Anti-Virus app, other apps loaded on the SF1 and SJ1.5 will be Swiftkey, AccuWeather, Clean Master, and ColorNote.
It takes a community to create a unique technology product and customer experience, and Obi has developed a strong, global eco-system of more than 20 companies — all contributing to inspire our Worldphone vision and make it a reality, said Neeraj Chauhan, Obi’s co-founder and chief executive officer.
The Obi Worldphone line will be available starting in October in retail stores in some countries and online in others. Initial Obi Worldphone markets will be those with rapidly growing youth populations including Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Pakistan, Turkey and India.
