Obi Worldphone SF1 launched in India : Price starting Rs 11999
You may not have heard about the brand Obi, but you must have read about the famous ex-Apple CEO John Sculley. John Sculley was heading Pepsi, before Steve Jobs got him to work for Apple in 1983. You can google for the rest of the story and it is quite interesting. Back in 2014, John co-founded Obi Mobiles, which is now renamed as Obi Worldphone. While there are many mobile manufacturers out there, Obi Worldphone gets our attention because of John Sculley and looking further, the 2 new mobiles from Obi are quite interesting.
While Obi Worldphone has already launched these mobiles in countries like Dubai and Vietnam, the SF1 is now launched in India. SF in SF1, stands for San Franscisco and SJ in SJ1.5 stands for San Jose. These mobiles are designed in San Franscisco by Ammunition group. Ammunition group has designed the product, the UI, packaging and marketing material. While the SJ1.5 may see the light in India later next year, the SF1 will be available in India from December first week.
SF1 will be available through NDTV Gadgets 360 exclusively, initially and then will be rolled out to other retailers. The 2GB ram and 16 GB version will cost Rs 11999 and the 3GB with 32 GB storage variant will cost Rs 13999. The device’s main value proposition is its design and affordability. It has a unique elevated glass display design and a highly integrated by simple UI called the LifeUI. From price point of view, the mobile is rightly priced for its specs, but it will face tough competition in this segment.
We got out hands on the device early and watch the unboxing video for my initial impressions on the Obi Worldphone SF1 16 GB variant.
Also check out the specifications of the mobile and please feel free to compare it with other devices using Gadgetdetail’s new compare feature. If you have any questions regarding the device, I am just a comment away and would be more than happy to help.
Obi Worldphone SF1
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A floating high-resolution screen sets the tone for the power of surround sound and performance of professional camera equipment. With leading-edge processor and battery life, Obi Worldphone SF1 is built for living.
Designed in San Francisco, every element, every curve, every finish matters. The iconic silhouette shows off a distinctive unibody design with elegant metallic accents and signature floating glass display.
The elevated 5-inch screen will be the first thing you notice about the Obi Worldphone SF1. Experience incredible brightness, rich contrast and stunning color clarity. Enjoy all your photos and movies in glorious Full HD resolution on a display with extraordinary pixel density – and it’s crafted from Gorilla® Glass 4 for unsurpassed feel, strength and quality.
Obi Worldphone SF1 is packed with new technologies for taking brilliant photos. Indulge yourself with the 13 Megapixel rear-camera featuring automatic focus, LED flash and powered by the highly acclaimed Sony Exmor RS™ sensor for crisper, sharper and more exciting photos; and that’s just the start of what SF1 can do.
Specs
General
| Status | Available |
Display
| Display Type <strong>Display Technology => </strong> A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor) | In-Cell IPS |
| Size | 5 inch |
| Resolution | 1080 x 1920 pixels |
| Pixel Density <strong>Pixel Density (PPI)</strong> is refers to the concentration of pixels on a particular display, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). Pixel density is calculated by dividing the diagonal pixel resolution of a display by its diagonal size, higher pixel density better display quality. | 443 ppi |
| Display Protection <strong>Display Protection => </strong> Gorilla Glass is a special alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield with exceptional damage resistance that helps protect mobile displays from scratches, drops, and bumps of everyday use, It is always better to go for a smartphone with Gorilla Glass for that added protection and peace of mind. | Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4; Oleophobic Coating; Fully-laminated OGS (One Glass Solution) |
Hardware
| Chipset <strong>Chipset</strong> is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming. | Qualcomm® MSM8939 Snapdragon™ 615 |
| CPU <strong>CPU</strong> (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone. | 1.5 GHz 64-bit Octa-core processor |
| GPU <strong>GPU</strong> (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. | Adreno™ 405 GPU |
| RAM (Memory) <strong>RAM</strong> (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. | 32GB Internal Storage + 3GB RAM / 16GB Internal Storage + 2GB RAM |
| Internal Storage <strong>Internal Storage</strong> is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored. | 32GB Internal Storage + 3GB RAM / 16GB Internal Storage + 2GB RAM |
| Card Slot <strong>Memory Card Slot</strong> is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone's built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras. | Hybrid |
| Sensors <strong>Sensors</strong> are electronic components that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure and location, The output is generally a signal that is converted to use in computing systems, a location sensor, such as a GPS receiver is able to detect current location of your electronic device. | Accelerometer, Proximity, Magnetic, Gyro, ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) |
Battery
| Battery Type <strong>Battery Type => </strong> Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium. | Li-Poly (Lithium Polymer) |
| Capacity <strong>Battery Capacity</strong> is a measure (typically in Amp-hr) of the charge stored by the battery, and is determined by the mass of active material contained in the battery. The battery capacity represents the maximum amount of energy that can be extracted from the battery under certain conditions. | 3000 mAh Li-Po battery |
| Standby <strong>Standby Time</strong> is the total amount of time that you can leave your is fully charged, turned on and ready to send and receive calls or data transmissions before completely discharging the battery. | up to 20 days* |
| Talk Time <strong>Talk Time</strong> is the longest time that a single battery charge will last when you are constantly talking on the phone under perfect conditions, Ambient temperature and highly dependent on the cellular network environment such as the distance to the closest cell network tower. | up to 28 hours (2G)* up to 23 hours (3G)* |
| Fast Charging | Quick Charge™ 1.0 |
Camera
| Primary <strong>Camera</strong> is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality. | 13MP |
| Camera Features | Auto Focus with LED Flash; Sony Exmor IMX214 Sensor; f/2.0 Aperture |
| Secondary | 5 MP with LED Flash |
| Flash <strong>Flash Light => </strong> There is commonly two types of flash lights are used in camera mobile phones, LED Flash (LED flash offers lower power consumption with drive circuitry that takes up very little room, LEDs can be strobed faster than any other light source), Xenon Flash (xenon flash produces an extremely intense full-spectrum white light for a very short duration) | Single LED |
Design
| Type <strong>Design Type</strong> called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones. | Bar |
| Dimensions | 146 x 74 x 8 mm |
| Weight | 147g |
| Protection | Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4; Oleophobic Coating; Fully-laminated OGS (One Glass Solution) |
| Colors | Black |
Network
| SIM <strong>SIM</strong> (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages. | Micro SIM |
| Dual SIM | Dual SIM (1 Micro + 1 Nano / MicroSD card hybrid) |
| 2G Network | GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
| 3G Network | WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
| 4G Network | 4G LTE: FDD B3 1800 MHz & TDD B40 2300 MHz |
Software
| Operating System <strong>OS => </strong> Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device. | Android 5.0.2 Lollipop |
| User Interface <strong>UI</strong> or user interface of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface. | Obi Lifespeed |
Connectivity
| Bluetooth <strong>Bluetooth</strong> is a wireless communications technology for exchanging data between mobile phones, headsets, computers and other network devices over short distances without wires, Bluetooth technology was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices. | v4.0, A2DP |
| Infrared <strong>Infrared</strong> connectivity is an old wireless technology used to connect two electronic devices. It uses a beam of infrared light to transmit information and so requires direct line of sight and operates only at close range. | |
| Wi-fi <strong>Wi-Fi</strong> is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world. | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Dual-Band, Wi-Fi Direct |
| USB | MicroUSB v2.0 |
| GPS <strong>GPS</strong> The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky. | A-GPS, GLONASS** |
| NFC <strong>NFC</strong> (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches. |
Benchmarks
| 3D Mark Gamers Benchmark | SlingShot 3.0 - 153 |
| Antutu | 34608 |
| Basemark OS 2 | 871 |
| Basemark X | 10133 |
| Charging Time | 2:43 |
| Discharge Time | 1 day 1 hour |
| Geekbench 3 Multicore | 2629 |
| Geekbench 3 Single Core | 677 |
| GPU Benchmark | 11630 |
| Nenamark 2.4 | 59.6 |
| Quadrant | 3604 |
| Velamo Browser | 2119 |
| Velamo Metal | 962 |
| Velamo Multicore | 1287 |
Reviews
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Obi's budget phone that looks & feels premium
One thing that I like is that Obi has paid particular attention to design, something that most companies in this price segment tend to overlook. It is a budget or mid-range device that looks premium. Also, the specifications are pretty good for the price tag it comes with. I liked the camera features too…one can do a lot of things with it. But, at the very first instance what I particularly loved is the way its UI, a cool colourful circle, stands out. However, the thought of it slowing down the device may be something that needs addressing, but it is not really a problem, probably a matter of an update. Overall, I loved the fact that someone has tried to create something beautiful which is also approachable to most people.
