Philips wants iPhone-style action

After all the rumours surrounding the Philips ‘iPhone Killer’ dismissed as fan-boy mock-ups, the phones has actually surfaced at the FCC.

To be honest, I was as surprised as anyone, as it didn’t seem like the kind of move the Dutch firm would make.

Well, actually it’s not. Chinese firm CEC holds the rights to use the Philips name on handsets after it bought the arm from the Dutch giant at the turn of the century.

But the phone itself seems pretty nifty, although details are scarce at this time. The device will have a 2.0 megapixel camera, with no flash in sight on the back.

Bluetooth is obviously there too, as well as the standard gaming and Java capabilities you would expect from a decent mobile.

Memory choice

The fact it includes microSD expansion hints at a lower amount of on-board storage - I’ve always been behind this as it can lower the cost of handsets by quite a lot, and not everyone wants their mobile to become their main music device, due to battery life concerns.

Other than that, not a lot is known. A stylus is often mentioned in the user manual, but like all touch phones these days, being finger friendly is a must.

The phone will likely be only available in China, although it appears CEC has the rights to market the phone globally under the Philips name. Passing it through the FCC may also pave the way for its use in the US.

No date on availability, but if we see it in 2009 it wouldn’t be a surprise.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.