Philips is not exactly the first company you’d think of when a word “smartphone” comes to mind, heck I’d even bet you won’t think of it at all. There’s a good reason for that though, Philips rarely releases smartphones, when the do however they usually end up in emerging markets, most frequently in India. You might recall some Philips devices from the 90s, though that weren’t smartphone but cellular phones of course. The only one I actually remember without digging through Google search is a Philips C12 cellular phone, it was launched in late 90s if I’m not mistaken. If we look at Philips’ smartphone line, well… there’s not much to look at quite frankly. Philips launched 3 devices back in May though, they were aimed at the Indian market as well as the devices we’ll talk now.
Two new devices got listed on Philips’ official website in India, I928 and S388 (yeah, Philips has never been really good at naming their devices). I928 is a higher-end device compared to S388, although its technically mid to high-end I’d say. As far as specifications go, I928 is sporting a 6″ TFT 1080p (1920 x 1080) 2.5D curved display, a MediaTek 1.7GHz octa-core processor alongside 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage expandable via MicroSD card. The device also packs a 13MP rear-facing camera while having a 5MP shooter on the front. As far as power goes, 3300mAh battery is here to take care of that. Note that this device is only 7.9mm thick.
The other Philips offering for the Indian market is S388, this is a low to mid-range device. This device has a 4.5″ QHD (960 x 540) TFT display on the front alongside a 0.3MP front-facing shooter. You’ll find a 1.3GHz quad-core processor made by MediaTek inside along with 1GB of RAM and 1700mAh battery. 5MP rear-facing shooter is also a part of the package as is 4GB of internal storage which you can expand via MicroSD card as well.
Both of these device come with Dual-SIM capabilities as well as Android 4.2 pre-installed. I928 is priced at Rs 38,538 ($626) which is a lot for this device to be quite honest, while the S388’s price is Rs 13,694 ($222). Both of these will be available in black when they go on sale, that should happen rather soon considering they’re already listed on the website. I doubt we’ll see these in Europe or U.S., but who knows.
