Obi Worldphone SF1, SJ1.5 affordable Android phones announced

Obi Mobiles, backed by former Apple CEO John Sculley has re-branded itself to Obi Worldphone. At an even in San Francisco, the company introduced two new phones, the SF1 and SJ15. 

The new Obi smartphone have been designed by San Framcisco-based product studio Amuunition, which also developed Obi Lifespeed, a custom user interface based on Android.

Obi Worldphone SF1 features 5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) JDI In-Cell IPS floating glass display with oleophobic coating and Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Inside there is a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, aided by an Adreno 405 GPU. It comes in two RAM/ROM models, 2GB RAM w/ 16GB storage and 3GB RAM w/ 32GB storage. MicroSD card up to 64GB is supported. It runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with the Obi Lifespeed UI.

Camerawise, it sports 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, Sony IMX214 sensor, f/2.0 aperture and 5-megapixel front shooter with LED flash. In terms of connectivity, the phone offers dual-SIM support, 4G LTE, 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. A 3,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 1.0 keeps the phone alive. It also comes with Dolby Audio Surround 7.1 sound. It has a fiberglass body and metal accents at the top and bottom of the phone.

The Obi Worldphone SJ1.5 features 5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) display with 2.5D curved glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and oleophobic coating. The phone is powered by 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6580 processor with Mali 400 GPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, further expandable up to 32GB with microSD card. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with Obi Lifespeed UI, has dual-SIM slot and supports 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.

For imaging, there is an 8-megapixel rear camera with OmniVision OV8865 sensor, f/2.2 aperture and LED flash. On the front there is a 5-megapixel shooter. The phone is fueled by 3000mAh battery. It has asymmetrical design with squared-off top and a curved bottom.

Both phones come pre-loaded with AVG AntiVirus PRO, Swiftkey, AccuWeather, ColorNote, and Clean Master applications.

Obi's Worldphone SF1 is priced $199 (Rs. 13,000) for 2GB RAM w/ 16GB storage model and $249 (Rs. 16,500) for 3GB RAM w/ 32GB storage model. Obi Worldphone SJ1.5 costs $129 (Rs. 8,500). These smartphones will be available starting October and will roll out first in growing markets like Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Pakistan, Turkey and India. The company has set a target to make the SF1 and SJ1.5 smartphones available in 50 to 70 countries by 2017.