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Smartphone ad banned from UK TV for objectifying women
Kazam is hardly a well-known smartphone brand in the UK, and that's unlikely to change any time soon if its ads are being pulled from TV. After a series of complaints, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an ad for the company's Tornado 348 handset, ruling that it objectifies women and is "sexually suggestive." The clip shows a woman moseying around in her underwear, grabbing a pair of jeans and ironing a shirt, only to discover that she'd forgotten to take her smartphone out of the top pocket.
Kazam wants you to come for the hardware, stay for the service
Kazam has a battle on its hands. The company may have been launched by former HTC execs, but it can only trade on that association for so long. That's something the firm is directly addressing here at MWC, it seems, with the launch of two new octacore handsets -- the Tornado 2 5.0, and Tornado 5.5. Two phones that it hopes will have mass appeal. We got to look at a pre-release version of the former, which uses MediaTek's MT6592 (clocked at 1.7GHz) that launched late last year. The Tornado 2 5.0 will also come with a 5-inch, 720p IPS display, sport an SD card slot (to augment the 8GB onboard), have dual SIM capabilities, and an 8-megapixel camera. When it launches in Europe later this year, it'll do so somewhere in the £250 region (depending on markets). The device itself is unassuming in its design. The all-black body and minimal design are simplistic. While not at all unattractive, it's not a handset you will be able to pick out at a distance. The version we got to spend some time with didn't have final software, so we're unable to comment on its performance, but that's something we hope to be able to report on in more detail sooner rather than later. That's also why you'll see capacitive buttons, and on screen ones in the gallery below.
Former HTC execs equip latest Kazam budget phone with LTE
Say hi to the Kazam Thunder² 4.5L Android smartphone. It's an LTE-enabled follow-up to the original low-cost Thunder (without the "squared" sign) that launched in Europe last year. The brainchild of two HTC execs who decided to go it alone, the 4.5L offers a low-res 854 x 480 4.5-inch display, a Snapdragon 400 processor, 8GB of expandable storage, 1GB of RAM and a widely copied screen replacement promise. We're missing the most important spec -- namely, the price -- but Kazam says the device should start arriving in select countries over the next few months. Meanwhile, the company has also added irksome mathematical symbols to its Thunder² 5.0 and Trooper² range, which have received minor spec bumps, but are still 3G-only. Honestly, we'd normally be helpful and lay out all the details, but there are only so many times we can press ALT-zero-one-seven-eight.
Former HTC execs launch Kazam smartphones, with free cracked screen replacement and stock Android
Kazam is brand new to the smartphone scene and, as its founders Michael Coombes and James Atkins know well, making a dent it the market is pretty tough. The two former HTC UK execs announced the creation of the company in June, and they're now ready to announce the first devices. And, wow, are there a lot of them. In total seven models were revealed: two higher-end handsets under the Thunder line and five lower-end phones in the Trooper line. (We'd like to believe the latter moniker was chosen because Coombes and Atkins are huge Iron Maiden fans.) Of course, "high-end" here is a relative term. Specs for the Thunder Q5.0 are still a mystery, but the Thunder Q4.5 is powered by a 1.3GHz, quad-core processor from MediaTek and 1GB of RAM. The 4.5 in its title refers to the four and a half-inch screen up front that boasts a lowly 854 x 480 resolution. The various Trooper models (X3.5, X4.0, X4.5, X5.0 and X5.5) all lose a pair of cores and half the RAM, with the smaller 3.5- and 4.0-inch versions even opting for lower resolution displays. Obviously, Kazam isn't going to take on the Nexus 5, but that doesn't appear to be the point. The company is positioning itself as a consumer-friendly value brand. There are microSD slots for expanding storage and a removable battery in every device, and there's no heavily branded skin here -- just pure, unadulterated Android. Each device also has two SIM slots -- so there's your flexibility. But, the biggest marketing push is reserved for its support. Kazam Rescue instantly puts you in touch with a support rep that can remotely access your device to solve issues. And, get this: Kazam will replace the screen if you crack it within the first year -- for free! (iPhone owners, feel free to scream.) Does this prove, as Atkins claimed in the press release, that "Kazam is not about gimmicks or corporate bulls**t"? Not really, but it does prove the two industry veterans know how to identify pain points in the current field of phones and attempt to exploit them. There's still no word on pricing or release dates, but we wouldn't hold our breath waiting for a US debut.
