Philips is not a household name when it comes smarpthones, but like all other electronic companies, this Dutch brand too is trying out its luck in the every growing smartphone market. A few days back, we saw a clamshell phone from the company called as the Philips V989. Today, we have some new information about two upcoming mid-range smartphones namely the Philips S356 an S316. Like the name suggests, both the models will be a part of the company’s S series of smartphones.
The S356 has better specs and comes with a 5-inch 720p resolution display, 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit Mediatek MT6732 processor along with 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM. We still don’t know whether it will feature a MicroSD card slot, but since it has just 8GB internal memory, there is a very good chance that Philips will include one in the device. You have a 13MP rear camera and a 2MP front shooter. The phone supports 3G, 4G and GSM networks and comes with dual SIM card slots. Inside, it has a decent 2,100 mAh battery. As for the software, the S356 runs on a customized version of Android 4.4 KitKat. It is said that the phone will have dual microphones which will reduce background noise.
From the pictures that we got, the phone looks well built with dual color tones featuring gold and black. The measurements of the phone are 143.8*71.5*8.8mm which is also decent considering its mid-range placement.
Coming to the second model, the Philips S316 comes with the same quad-core Mediatek MT6732 64-bit processor and 1GB RAM but most other specs are lower than the S356, which means the phone will be placed below this model. It comes with 8GB internal storage (most likely expandable), 5-inch FWVGA resolution display, 5MP rear camera and 3MP front shooter, Android 4.4 KitKat, Dual SIM Dual Standby support, 4G LTE support and a 2000 mAh battery. Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of this model, but expect an official announcement soon.
The Philips S356 and Philips S316 will retail for 1299 Yuan ($208) and 799 Yuan ($128) respectively. So, the top model i.e. the S356 will directly compete with the recently announced Meizu (Blue Charm ) M1 Note while the S316 will compete with the ASUS Pegasus which was also unveiled yesterday for 799 Yuan.
Both the models looks average and there is nothing special about them. Even the specifications are not at par with other competitors in this price range. So,in this highly competitive market, we feel Philips needs to either reduce the price or bump up the specs to survive as a smartphone company.
