Pepsi to launch mid-budget smartphones in China, notes an official spokesperson. The company behind one of the most popular soft drinks on the planet has recently confirmed that is collaborating with a partner in order to release a smartphone product line in China. When? Well, in the near future. I assume that this means sometime during 2016.
In an email interview with Reuters, a company spokesperson notes that this effort resembles what Pepsi is doing with other licensed products – like accessories and apparel. She says that there are no long-term plans for Pepsi to get into the smartphone industry. At least, not now.
Along with the Pepsi announcement we also have some info leaked regarding their first smartphone. It will be called Pepsi P1 and it will be a mid-budget device. It’s rumored to come with a 5.5-inch FHD screen at 1920 x 1080. It houses a 1.7 GHz MT6592 proc paired with 2 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage.
The Pepsi P1 is reportedly featuring a 13-megapixel primary rear-facing camera, and a secondary 5-megapixel front-facing unit for those special selfie moments. Finally, it has a 3000 mAh battery unit packed inside. It is more than capable of running Google’s Android 5.1. Lollipop. We don’t know if Marshmallow will roll out for the Pepsi P1 or not.
The Pepsi P1 will most likely retail at roughly $205, that’s CNY 1299.
As far as we can tell, the Pepsi P1 seems to feature a metallic finishing for the case. Capacitive buttons, one fingerprint sensor and, of course, the Pepsi logo engraved on the back of the smartphone.
If you’re not interested in mobile phones, but love Pepsi to bits, you should know that the soft drink company has confirmed that accessories will be available for the Middle Kingdom. Yet, the spokesperson didn’t disclose any specifics regarding what will the company actually sell.
Pepsi to launch mid-budget smartphones in China doesn’t really come as shocking news – we expect Coca-Cola to up their game and announce their home-bred smartphone anytime soon. Take Lamborghini, they unveiled just at the dawn of 2015 their very own smartphone. It’s called the 88 Tauri and it comes with a hefty price tag of $6000. Still, it doesn’t beat the new Vertu Signature Touch smartphone that starts at a whooping $10,000 – it comes with a sort of personal valet.
Marshall, a company famous for their music gear such as amps, pre-amps and the likes, has recently announced that they too are branching out to the mobile industry with the Marshall London designed for audiophiles.
We are curious to see if Nestle or Ikea both announce their homegrown smartphone in the near future.
Anyway, would you buy a Pepsi P1?