UPDATED 01:45 EDT / AUGUST 27 2015

NEWS

Former Apple CEO brings low-cost, high-design Android smartphones to emerging markets

Former Apple CEO John Sculley has teamed up with design firm Ammunition founder Robert Brunner on a new line of smartphones, dubbed Obi Worldphone. Obi Worldphones are available in two models – the SF1 and SJ1.5 – and are mid-range Android devices with a focus on design and quality materials. Aimed at “young people in fast-growth markets”, the phones will be available in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Both the Obi Worldphone SF1 and SJ1.5 will carry a base price tag in the sub $200 range, $199 and $129 respectively.

Under the hood, the Obi Worldphone sports components from most of the known smartphone component manufacturers, including processors from Qualcomm and MediTek, cameras from Sony, Corning’s Gorilla Glass and Dolby sound.

It’s on the design side where the SF1 and SJ1.5 really set themselves apart. With a strong focus on design, the company wants to carve out a place for itself somewhere in between high-design smartphones at high prices and generic smartphones at low prices.

Obi Worldphone SF1: Design, specs, price

Obi SF1 from Obi Worldphone on Vimeo.

The 4G/LTE SF1 is the flagship model and has a unique design made up of a fiberglass body and a raised 5-inch full high definition (1080×1920 pixels), 443 ppi display covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The front and rear cameras are from Sony and boast 5-megapixels and 13-megapixels respectively, both with LED flash.

The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 with 1.5 GHz Octa Core with Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB or 3GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage expandable up to 64GB with microSD. Power is provided by a quick-charge, 3,000 mAh lithium polymer battery.

Retail pricing starts at $199 for 16 GB/2GB version, and $249  for 32 GB/3GB version.

Obi Worldphone SJ1.5: Design, specs, price

Obi SJ from Obi Worldphone on Vimeo.

The cheaper SJ1.5 is a 3G smartphone equipped with a MediaTek 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage expandable to an additional 32GB with microSD. The phone has an asymmetrical design with a squared-off and curved bottom. It’s available in a variety of color and accent options, including red, black and white. Unlike its big brother, the SJ1.5 has a more traditional flush 5-inch high-definition (720 x 1280 pixels) screen. It come with the same 3,000 mAh lithium polymer battery and can be had for $129.

Both phones feature dual SIM slots, a key requirement for emerging markets where networks vary extensively and go on sale online and in-store sometime in October in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Pakistan, Turkey and India.

Image via Obi Worldphone

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