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Sketchy leak suggests Pepsi set to enter the smartphone business, with mid-range phablet launching next week [Update: Confirmed]

pepsi-phone-p1

Update: According to a report out of Reuters this morning, the sugar water maker is indeed planning to launch a smartphone. At this time, however, the plans are only for China.

“Available in China only, this effort is similar to recent globally licensed Pepsi products which include apparel and accessories,” a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Never mind Android versus Apple, if the rumors are true, the next smartphone battle could be Pepsi v Coke. Mobipicker spotted what appears to be a verified Pepsi page on the Chinese social media site Weibo with a ‘Pepsi phone’ banner.

There were no details at the time, but the same site has now found what claim to be leaked specs in the form of an extremely low-resolution image (below). These describe a mid-range phablet.

The Pepsi smartphone is currently named Pepsi P1 coming with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 1.7GHZ MT6592 SoC. 2GB of RAM paired with 16GB internal storage is somewhat average, but the camera is slightly better, being a 13-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel front unit […] running Android 5.1.

It is said to be launching later this month at a presentation in Beijing on October 20th, with a price of CNY 1,299 ($200).

If it is real, it’s likely to be manufactured on Pepsi’s behalf by a local manufacturer, with Huawei a possible candidate. We’ll know for sure whether it exists next week, unless Pepsi declares it’s sticking to selling sugar water before then.

Pepsi-P1-TEENA

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