It’s official. Soft drink mega-corporation Pepsi has taken its first step into the mobile industry by launching its own crowdfunding campaign on JD Finance to fund its very first smartphone, the Pepsi Phone P1.
Back in October, a source in Pepsi leaked the news that the soft-drink manufacturer would be releasing their own line of mobile accessories and even their own smartphone based in China. While preliminary specs were leaked, the information train stopped there and interest in the device screeched to a halt.
Now that the world’s 29th most valuable brand has pulled back the covers of its pet project, we finally get to see some cold, hard specs.
The device will come sporting a 5.5” 1080p display housed under 2.5D glass, with an octa-core 1.7GHz MediaTek MT6792 processor and 2GB of RAM at its heart. It only has 16GB of internal storage but that’s expandable via a hybrid dual-SIM tray up to 64GB. Out of the box, the device is said to run on Android 5.1 Lollipop with dido OS 6.1 plastered on top.
For imaging, the device runs a 13-megapixel (f/2.0, 1/3.06 CMOS sensor) back snapper and 5-megapixel front camera combo. Interestingly, the Phone P1 also mounts a fingerprint scanner on the back of the device, right below the camera. To bring all of these parts to life, the phone will draw power from a 3,000 mAh battery.
Since it’s a crowdfunding project, the device will be available through several layers of perks and support. The early bird option allowed interested parties to get the phone for CNY499 (around RM335), but that was only limited to the first 1,000 supporters. You can still opt for the limited CNY699 (around RM468) option which is still a good deal. Backers can also opt to get the phone at its full price of CNY1,299 (around RM870) instead.
With only two weeks remaining, the Pepsi Phone P1 is still a long, long way from being funded so there is a chance that this whole thing could just fizzle out. If it does succeed though, it would be interesting to see if Pepsi’s nemesis Coca-Cola would take a gander at a mobile device.
Specs wise, the phone looks like a fairly ordinary midrange device, but with its metal body we suspect that people will buy this purely as a novelty item rather than to use as a daily driver. All we’d like to see is for the device come in a phone sized Pepsi can instead of a boring old smartphone box.
