The advent of Google’s Android OS in the cell phone industry has seen a lot of tough competition. We have seen a surge of manufacturers competing against each other last year for gaining the upper hand in this particular handset segment. Philips joined the bandwagon in late 2009 by announcing the launch of their first real Android competitor Philips V808. This block set designed handset has captured our attention being the first Android product from Philips.
The Philips product codenamed V808 supports 2G GSM range of frequencies 900 and 1800MHz. It has an internal antenna like most of the smart phones and has a gross weight of 120.0gm along with battery. The dimensions of the phone are about 115.0 x 61.0 x 14.0 mm. A touch TFT resistive screen, which supports 262K colors, brings the V808 into life. The graphical user interface shows resemblance to that of iPhone and is pretty easy to use, once accustomed to it. The overall screen size is about 3.20 inches and has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. An integrated accelerometer helps the phone to auto update the screen position by judging the tilt of the cell phone. For location based; applications, the Philips V808 comes with a built in GPS system. Additional features of Philips V808 also include Google Talk, Google Calendar, EDGE Class 10, Google Maps, and Google Search etc. The browser used in V808 is an HTML browser.
The standby time of Philips V808 is exceptionally long and can reach up to a maximum of 270 min’s continuous talk time. The battery pack included is a Li-Ion 1000mAh battery. The memory status of the phone is such that, the phone has an inbuilt internal memory of 128 MB, which can be expanded up to a maximum of 8GB via Micro-SD cards. The 3.2 MP CMOS camera comes with an auto focus option which even though is slow, enables the user to snap quickly a picture without distortion. An additional 1x optical zoom is provided by the cell phone. The connectivity features of the phone include USB data transfer and Bluetooth. The other features of the phone, which is given, a green signal by Philips include Class 12 GPRS, EDGE, WAP and JAVA adaptability. The cell phone also comes with built-in Games and an E-book reader. There is a built in music player and a video player in this cell phone, which supports all the popular audio and video formats including MP3 and MP. Unfortunately, the phone neither supports Wi-Fi nor 3G.
A lot of options await customers who want to select an Android for their day to day communication needs. In the Android cell phone segment there is plenty of room for all ranges of handset including the low, mid and the high end. Philips is delighted to squeeze in onto this manufacturing arena and compete against high end; contenders like HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG. For the right carrier and the right price, any Android has the power to be successful. With the release of V808, the Philips aspirations can get a healthy jump start even with moderate mass market success.