Puma Phone hands-on
By Sean Cooper 
posted February 17th 2010 12:53AM
posted February 17th 2010 12:53AM
Chalk one up for Sagem and Puma who apparently just want a cell to be fun -- and somehow, we're right there with them. The obviously-named Puma Phone launched today, and for a pretty basic handset, it was drawing some reasonably large crowds at the booth. That might be thanks to some of the silly stuff like a calculator that teases you when you try an operation it deems too trivial, a pet puma on the device called Dylan (who shows up on-screen when you leave your handset untouched for a while), and an audio player with a turntable you can actually scratch -- but the real draw is probably the solar panel around back. It's quoted at a respectable 15 minutes of talk time or two hours of music playback for every hour in the sun, meaning you should theoretically be able to charge the phone even while blasting tunes (of course, the proof is in the pudding when it comes to battery claims, as always). It's not going to replace your Pre, but the Puma set is definitely geared toward a youthful active market that focuses on sports and entertainment, and you've got to admit that it's driven by a brand everybody recognizes. Sure, it's simple; sure it is at its most basic a feature phone; but all that aside, we just liked the experience of using it. We're feeling that if the companies behind this thing align themselves with the right carrier when it launches in Europe this April, it'll actually do pretty well. No plans for it to land in North America yet, but we're told that if its launch goes well it could cross the pond later this year. Follow on for a full tour and gallery of the goods!
They can keep it.
Nice, UI (Picture pages, picture pages, picture pages, picture pages, time to get your pens and your pencils!!!)
Interesting concept, especially since I can't see the benefit to Puma (whom I suppose has no intention of leaving its core market for mobile phones). If it is just marketing, couldn't that be more easily accomplished by releasing branded apps. The designs all look so good. I would buy apps like a calculator that taunts me, a cool turntable, a pedometer, a speedometer (I'm sure they all exist, but these puma versions are pretty cool).
that is really cool.
Very nice phone. I find the simplicity quite appealing even though I wouldn't use this as my primary phone. This could do well if they it right.
This is a pretty cool feature phone (it is a feature phone right?).
They looked a little shy to show the browser. Its probably running IE mobile XD
I have puma shoes :D
I love puma stuff... if somebody gave this to me i wouldnt complain. The apps would be useless to me though because i get stoned a little too much.
That red is making me so...angry.
puma? really? wow...
Has anyone seen the phone dial on this thing?