It’s not uncommon for mobile companies to make alliances with other brands in order to sell special editions of their phones. Still, when we first heard that the snack and beverage company Pepsi was building its own smartphone, it seemed quite odd. Apparently, the company wouldn’t settle for building just one smartphone and it would start building a whole lineup of accessories and mobile-related products to complement their current products targeted towards fashion, in addition to making their brand grow. It didn’t take too long before we heard that the Pepsi P1 smartphone was made official, so we could confirm all its specifications.
The phone would be sold as part of a crowdfunding campaign and it would be marketed exclusively in China. The campaign seemed to have a good start, as it had over 2,000 supporters and managed to get over 57,000 Yuan a couple of hours after going live, but now it seems that the campaign won’t be able to reach its goal. Today, the campaign has reached over 1,348,000 Yuan from more than 12,000 supporters, which might seem acceptable, but the goal it set at 3,000,000 Yuan (so it’s currently a little behind of half the expected amount) and it only has four days left to achieve such goal. The initial success might have come from the fact that the phone was sold as low as 499 Yuan ($78) and the current batch of phones is being sold at 999 Yuan ($155), which isn’t a bad price for what the phone offers, but maybe the Chinese market is a little skeptical towards the brand.
The Pepsi P1 is a rebranded Halo 7, both of which are manufacturing by the Chinese company Koobee, but it doesn’t seem to bring anything new to the table besides some Pepsi branded content and the logo on the back, unlike some other collaborations which bring exclusive colors or even the use of different build materials. The phone features some mid-range internals and its design is not too bad, so even at its highest price point which is 1,299 Yuan ($205), it seems a decent enough offering, so if you are interested in supporting the campaign, hit the link at the source.