Walyou

Pepsi Enters the Android Smartphone Business

Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:22 PM PDT

It’s not everyday that you hear about a soda company that wants to also become a smartphone manufacturer, but that’s exactly what PepsiCo intends to do in China.

The rumors about PepsiCo China making a smartphone started last week, when a page called ‘Pepsi phone,’ having the tags IT, Internet, Electronic Products and Mobile Phone Manufacturers, appeared on the Chinese social media website Weibo. In the meantime, the guys at MobiPicker stumbled upon a leaked image of the device that will allegedly be called Pepsi P1.

I suppose that all that the soda company wants to do with the Pepsi P1 Android smartphone is to add even more diversity to an industry that already is as heterogeneous as possible. Given the leaked specs of the device, it’s rather obvious that Pepsi won’t force names such as Samsung or Apple to shut their doors and go out of business.

According to the above leaked image, the device will run Android 5.1 Lollipop, while being powered by a 1.7Ghz CPU (which might be the MediaTek 6752, which lacks World Mode 4G, and hence doesn’t work on all LTE networks in the U.S.). In terms of memory, Pepsi P1 sports 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM. Given the other specs, I doubt that there will be multiple versions in terms of storage, but there might be a microSD slot for further expansion.

The P1 will have phablet dimensions, considering the 5.5-inch display. The screen has a 1080p resolution and a 401ppi pixel density, which is quite decent. Not at last, the device will feature a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP snapper in the front. There is no info regarding the sensors used for the cameras, so it’s impossible to tell right now whether the resolution is interpolated or not.

If the above image of the device is real, Pepsi P1 should have capacitative buttons in the front (which really is the norm for Android smartphones), and a fingerprint sensor on the back, between the main camera and the company’s logo.

While it is mentioned in the leaked image that Pepsi P1 will come with a 3,000mAh battery, there is no word on whether the battery is removable or not. Other details spotted in the image include the launch date (October 20), and the price, which is the equivalent of $205. Needless to say, if the resellers will choose to pick up this phone, they will do so at a much higher price. On the other hand, the 2GB RAM/16GB version of Xiaomi Mi 4c has the same launch price in China, and sports much better specs.

That being said, I cannot help but wonder who represents Pepsi’s demographic for this device. Have we become so shallow that we need a soda company’s logo on our smartphones, too?

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about how Angry Birds soda outsold Pepsi and Coca Cola in Finland, or the Lightwave smart wristband that makes live show better by measuring the audience’s mood.

via Mashable