Former Apple CEO John Sculley has announced a new pair of mid-range smartphones.
The Obi Worldphone SF1 (pictured left) and SJ1.5 (right) offer stylish designs and mid-range specs for less than $200 (£129). But that’s not the most interesting thing about them.
That would be the fact that the man behind the brand is one John Sculley, the former Apple CEO who ousted Steve Jobs from his own company in 1985. The Obi Worldphone website certainly has a little Apple flair to it, though we’re talking Apple post-Jobs’s triumphant return, and thus post-Sculley.
But back to those phones. The Obi Worldphone SF1 and SJ1.5 place the onus on distinctive design, which you don’t always get from entry-level smartphones. They certainly look different.
We’re spotting a little Lumia in there, a little pre-metal HTC, and yes, a little iPhone 6 on the rounded bottom. But altogether, they look as fresh as new budget smartphones can look in 2015.
The SF1 has a 5-inch 1080p IPS display and a Snapdragon 615 CPU, as well as a choice of 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage or 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, along with microSD expansion. It also features a 13-megapixel camera and both front and rear flashes.
Meanwhile the SJ1.5 is the cheaper option, with a 5-inch 720p IPS display, quad-core MediaTek MT6580 CPU with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage (plus a microSD slot), and an 8-megapixel camera.
Related: 4 phone brands built by former employees of Apple, Google and HTC
Both phones come with the funky Obi Lifespeed custom skin on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop, as well as the dual-SIM slots that are so essential in emerging markets.
As Engadget notes, Sculley’s company is targeting young buyers in developing regions across Asia, Africa and the Middle East with these phones, so don’t count on seeing them in the UK or Europe any time soon.
Next, take a look at our smartphone buyers guide:
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.