PUMA PHONE

Discontinued
16th February 2010

We're always a little bit wary of "celebrity brand" phones, as they are often just a big name slapped on a cheap phone in order to turn a profit. The PUMA PHONE (yes, it is spelled all in capitals) is a little bit different, because this phone is rather interesting in its own right.

The PUMA PHONE is a touchscreen device of a fairly conventional design, until you turn it over and come across the large solar panel on the back. It is rather like the very rare Samsung Blue Earth handset that was announced last year, except that there's a good chance that the PUMA PHONE will make it to retail outlets.

Before we launch into the dry technical details, it's worth looking at some of the more offbeat features of this phone. The PUMA PHONE includes an "on demand digital cat" called Dylan who is 81kg of.. err.. Puma. There's a "sarcastic calculator" and a "scratching turntable" too, because we all like to scratch our MP3s don't we? The PUMA PHONE also has a comprehensive array of somewhat odd "icon messages" you can use. PUMA also say that it supports "easy peasy video calls" through the front facing camera.

The user interface makes heavy use of red, white and black colours and very flat looking white-on-red icons throughout, something based on PUMA's corporate colour scheme.. we suspect that these strong colours will be a little bit tiring after a while. Everything does look to be very simple to use though, and that's always a positive thing in a complex device like this.

The display is a 2.8" 240 x 320 pixel TFT unit, on the back is the solar panel plus a 3.2 megapixel camera and LED flash. The PUMA PHONE comes with GPS, 3.5G support, a multimedia player, FM radio and a 3.5mm audio socket. There's Bluetooth 2.1 and USB connectivity. One major missing component is WiFi, but other than this the PUMA PHONE is a fully featured touchscreen device.

The PUMA PHONE is designed for those who like outdoor activities (although we also think that it will appeal to couch potatoes) and it come with a stopwatch, GPS speedo, GPS run tracker, pedometer and yachting compass plus integration into content from PUMA and social networking sites. Of course, there's a web browser plus all the other usual features built in.

Inside is a smallish 880 mAh battery that PUMA say can power the phone for up to 4 hours talktime on 3G. The PUMA PHONE weighs 115 grams and measures a pocket-friendly 102 x 56 x 13mm.

The PUMA PHONE itself is manufactured by Sagem, a company not normally associated with this degree of sophistication. Sagem and PUMA announced a partnership in October 2009 to work together to create something distinctive, and the PUMA PHONE certainly is.

We think that this is an interesting and innovative device, and that the PUMA PHONE has a good chance of being a surprise hit when it hits the retail market in Europe in April 2010. You can find out more information at www.pumaphone.com.