John Sculley, the former Apple CEO who will go down in history as the man that ousted Steve Jobs from the company he co-founded, has launched a couple of affordable mobile phones that aim to provide unique and beautiful design in a package that doesn’t break the bank.
Running on Android, the Obi Worldphone SF1 and SJ 1.5 (notice the Star Wars hat-tip) have been designed by Ammunition founder Robert Brunner, who also ran Apple’s industrial design group starting during the Sculley era and ending in 1997, when Jonathan Ive succeeded him. Another colleague from Sculley’s Apple days, Satjiv Chahil, is consulting on Obi’s marketing efforts.
The SF1 (SF for San Francisco) is the higher end of the duo. It features a 1080p 5″ IPS screen with a “signature floating glass display” that lends the Gorilla Glass 4-capped front of the phone a distinct look. It runs Android 5.0.2 customized with the Obi Lifespeed user interface. The software is powered by a Snapdragon 615 chipset with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage for the $200 version. For an extra $50 you can have 3GB RAM and 32GB storage-both phones have microSD slots. The SF1 boasts fast Category 4 LTE connectivity (it has space for one micro and one nanoSIM), along with dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (2×2), Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.
Camera wise, it features a 13-megapixel autofocus camera with LED Flash, Sony Exmor IMX214 sensor, and f/2.0 aperture. There is a 5-megapixel secondary front camera with LED flash also on board. The SF1 is powered by a 3000mAh battery and packs in an accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and ambient light sensor. It measures 146x74x8mm and weighs 147 grams.
Then there’s the SJ 1.5, cheaper than the SF1 at $129. The SJ in the name stands for, you guessed it now, San Jose. The 3G only-phone sports a polycarbonate unibody with a curved touch display and also comes with magnesium-titanium alloy chassis. It features a 5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) display offering a pixel density of 294ppi and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Running Android 5.1 Lollipop with Obi Lifespeed UI, the smartphone is powered by a quad-core MediaTek (MT6580) clocked at 1.3GHz coupled with 1GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB of inbuilt storage and supports expandable storage via microSD card (up to 32GB). It sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and LED flash. It also houses a 5-megapixel front camera. The dual-SIM (both Micro-SIMs) based Obi Worldphone SJ1.5 packs a 3000mAh battery; measures 146x73x7.95mm, and weighs 131 grams.
The Obi Worldphone will initially be launched in emerging markets like India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey. The company intends to re-enter the India market by end of this year through partnership with an e-commerce retailer, according to its CEO and co founder Neeraj Chauhan.
