Obi Mobile is a pretty new player in the smartphone manufacturing business, but it surely has some really experienced hands behind it. One of it’s co-founder is John Sculley, an ex-Apple CEO.
Obi Worldphone has been launched in San Francisco. However, the growing markets of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia will not be left out as these markets will be getting the Obi flagship SF1 along with the SJ1.5. The abbreviations in the names of these Obi smartphones are not meaningless, as SF directly means San Francisco while SJ is the short-form for San Jose.
Obi says that both these smartphones are a result of elegant design combined with the latest technology from Sony, Dolby, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Google, Japan Display, Inc., Corning Incorporated, Samsung, etc.
Obi Worldphone SF1
The SF1, Obi’s flagship device, sports a 5-inch Gorilla Glass 4 display and comes with 4G/LTE support. Metal accents and reinforced fiberglass body has been used to build this device. THe SF1 packs some great features like a quick-charge battery, prolonged battery life, expandable memory, dual SIM capabilities, and much more. Power responsibilities on the SF1 are handled by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor.
For shooting purposes, the device is expected to house a 13MP rear camera with a Sony IMX214 Exmor sensor coupled with a hybrid auto focus, promising perfect, split-second focus in any type of light. Qualcomm ChromaFlash is used for snapping two photos quickly and the focus can be selected after clicking the picture with the Qualcomm UbiFocus feature. Qualcomm OptiZoom offers exceptional zooming capability to the camera. The front camera specifications are still unknown.
You will find Android Lollipop on the device. Dolby Audio gives exceptional sound quality to the SF1. Meanwhile, the Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0 technology helps to fully charge the device in less than three hours.
The 16GB model of the SF1 comes with 2GB RAM and costs $199, while its better variant with 32GB storage and 3GB RAM is priced at $249 USD.
Obi Worldphone SJ1.5
SJ1.5 is like a cheaper version of the SF1. It is 3G enabled and gets its juice from a MediaTek MT6580 quad-core processor. The SJ1.5 comes with an asymmetrical design, a curved bottom, and squared-off top. The screen of this device is made out of 2.5D curved. The SJ1.5 takes a more expressive approach by offering unique accent and color options.
The SJ1.5 gets dual SIM slots and an internal storage of 16GB, which is further expandable. The device is expected to sport excellent front and rear cameras and is expected to come with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display. The SJ1.5 will be running on Android Lollipop. SJ1.5 costs $129 USD.
Apps like Swiftkey, Clean Master, AVG Anti-Virus, ColorNote, and AccuWeather come preloaded on the SF1 and SJ 1.5. These devices have been designed at Ammunition, a design studio founded in 2007 by Robert Brunner, who previously worked at Apple as the Director of Industrial Design at Apple and at Beats Electronics as the Chief Designer.