Pepsi Launches First Smartphone Pepsi P1

The handset is called the Pepsi Phone P1s; and it is presently in a crowdfunding campaign under Chinese website JD Financing. Pepsi is just licensing its branding, and Shenzhen Scooby Communication Equipment Co., Ltd will manufacture the phone. At first, it could be mistaken as a rebranded Oppo R7 plus due to its aluminum build and similar form factor, but it is actually the US$250 Koobee H7 that features the same 5.5-inch full HD display underneath its 2.5D glass. It also comes with MediaTek’s MT6592 chipset with a 1.7GHz octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM.

Pepsi P1 also has a fingerprint sensor.

Pepsi P1 is supported with 3,000 mAh and 16-gigabyte internal expandable with a microSD slot. Alas, the P1’s limited batch of 1,000 units quickly ran out, which isn’t surprising given the dirt cheap $78 price tag. You can still opt for the $110 pre-order pricing, as that’s still available, after which pricing would go up to $156. Bundle in a selfie stick and you’ll be paying $203 Dollars. The campaign runs up to December 3 to hit the $469,700 goal and going by the 37% achieved so far; the remaining offers may not be as sweet as the Pepsi drink itself.

Only time will tell if this new smartphone sold under the Pepsi logo will prove to be a successful business venture.

The silver lining is that Pepsi has managed to surpass Diet Coke, which used to be on second place ever since 2010, so maybe this new product will manage to spark even greater interest in Pepsi beverages, allowing the soda company to strengthen its foothold in the market.