Remember last month when Pepsi confirmed that they would be launching a smartphone? It looks like it is finally happening, but not necessarily in the way you imagined. It turns out that the device is being launched on a crowdfunding platform in China where the company behind it is seeking to raise 3 million yuan before the 3rd of December.
This is roughly $470,000 in the US. So far it looks like only 570,000 yuan has been raised (about $89,000 after conversion), but with a couple of weeks to go, who knows maybe they might hit its mark. As it stands there is the ability to pledge about $79 to net yourself a phone, but this is the cheapest offering with a limit of 1,000 backers. If not the phone is expected to be priced at $203 normally.
As for the specs, previously the handset’s specs were leaked and now the crowdfunding campaign has pretty much confirmed what we know so far. The phone will feature a 5.5-inch Full HD display and under the hood, a MediaTek MT6792 chipset clocked at 1.7GHz can be found along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.
The phone will also feature a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, a fingerprint sensor, a 3,000mAh battery, and will run Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. Now some of you guys might be wondering what business does Pepsi have launching phones? According to Pepsi China last month, they won’t be making the phones themselves, but rather they are simply licensing out their brand.
We’re not sure how a Pepsi-branded smartphone is expected to be a plus for customers, but this is definitely not the first time we’ve seen the company involve themselves in the mobile industry. In the meantime you can check out the phone’s crowdfunding page if you are curious.
Filed in . Read more about Android, China and Crowdfunding.