Porsche Design
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The world's thinnest foldable phone gets a Porsche Design makeover
Honor collaborated with Porsche Design on the Magic V2 RSR foldable phone, which carries design traits that pay homage to the automotive brand.
BlackBerry put a $2,000 smartphone into our pauper's hands
BlackBerry may have fallen out of favor with the majority of mainstream smartphone purchasers, but the company has always held a certain appeal with the, erm, super-rich. That's why it's no surprise to see the Porsche Design P'9983 getting unveiled here at London's Harrods, a department store where personal submarines and gold-plated Xbox Ones sit side-by-side. The phone is the latest collaboration with the German design outfit, which crams BlackBerry hardware into its own chassis, and we got some time to find out how this thing feels in our hands.
BlackBerry's Porsche-designed Z10 is a phone that even it can't afford
If your company produced a device that, while technically accomplished, managed to lose you $1 billion a few months later, you'd probably try and pretend that it never existed. That's not the approach that BlackBerry is taking with the Z10, however. Instead, the beleaguered smartphone maker has teamed up with Porsche Design to create the P'9982, a gussied-up version of the touchscreen smartphone designed to tempt golf course-bound executives and the super rich in ways that the original evidently failed to do. We've just got one of the devices in our hand, and we thought we'd run the rule over it to see how the other half live.
LaCie wants to put a Porsche key in your pocket
OK, so that headline was bit ... link-baitish. But the real news is that storage accessory manufacturer LaCie and Porsche Design have teamed up to create a keychain flash drive that is both speedy and stylish. The LaCie Porsche Design USB Key (starting at US$29.99) is available starting today, and the company provided one for our review and testing. Design The key is lightweight (.3 oz, 8.5 gm) and tiny (2.1" x .5" x .15", 53 x 12 x 4 mm), while still retaining a feeling of solidity through the use of stainless steel in construction. It's available in both 16 GB ($29.99) and 32 GB ($49.99) models, and it's a bit surprising that the company didn't choose to offer a 64 GB model as well. I used one of LaCie's USB keys on my keychain for about four years until it finally split in half this year. That model was made of two pieces of aluminum that were pressed together, and it always had a somewhat flimsy feel to it. Not so with this USB key -- it feels extremely solid, and the case is made in one piece. It should definitely put up with the day-to-day pounding it will get on a keychain. The LaCie Porsche Design USB Key is USB 3.0, so copying files to and from a USB 3.0-equipped Mac is quick. LaCie provides key owners with several utilities if they wish, one of which provides AES 256-bit encryption and another that provides a year of cloud storage of the same capacity as your key through the company's Wuala storage service. LaCie doesn't "trash up" your Porsche Design USB Key with this software -- you just download it from a website if you want it. Benchmark When connected, the Porsche Design USB Key was initially formatted as MS-DOS FAT 32. I chose to open up Disk Utility and reformat the key as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) because that's the way I roll. Beginning with this device review, TUAW is using the Intech SpeedTools QuickBench benchmark app to do comparisons of disk drives. We performed the Standard Test suite in numeric view, which performs sequential and random reads and writes with varying transfer sizes. The results were pretty impressive. LaCie notes that the key can "deliver speeds up to 95 MB/s" and our testing showed that to be true -- small file read and write speeds reached approximately 91 MB/s, and for large files, read speeds were in the range of 85 - 86 MB/s. As with most drives, write speeds slowed down considerably with larger transfer sizes, dropping from an average of 66.2 MB/s below 10 MB to 24.0 MB/s between 20 MB and 100 MB. Conclusion The LaCie Porsche Design USB Key not only looks great, but has speed to match. With the one-piece stainless steel construction, the key should be able to survive jangling against a pocketful of keys for quite some time. Pros Sleek design, small footprint Solid construction USB 3.0 speed Good capacity Utility software is optional and not pre-loaded onto the key Cons None to speak of Who is it for? Anyone who needs a keychain USB flash drive who wants both speed and good looks -- kinda like a Porsche sports car
LaCie intros Porsche Design drive for Macs with SSD and USB 3.0, helps the speed match the name
Porsche Design may not be directly involved in building German supercars, but there are certain expectations to be met, aren't there? LaCie is rolling out a new version of its Porsche Design hard drive skewed towards Mac owners that should offer more of the performance you'd associate with the automotive brand. The P'9223 Slim SSD is a third thinner than its ancestor but carries the option of a 120GB SSD that makes the most of the USB 3.0 port. If all runs well, nearly any Mac launched in 2012 can shuttle data along at a brisk 400MB per second. Demanding Mac fans will need to pay $150 for the flash-based edition to have the P'9223 feel truly Porsche-like; others only have to spend $100 if they're content with the Volkswagen pace of a 500GB spinning drive.
Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry screeches into Canada
Hear that, Toronto-based readers? That's the sound of Porsche Design's P'9981 BlackBerry doing donuts at a store near you (well, relatively speaking). Fresh from satisfying many a midlife crisis in London, the luxury phone is now available in Canada via the fancy Porsche Design boutique store in Toronto's Yorkville neighborhood, according to MobileSyrup. Folks willing to pay the pinky-raising premium price of $1,899 essentially get a BlackBerry 7 OS phone featuring upscale Porsche Design touches like a metal keyboard, stainless steel frame and leather-wrapped back cover. Still need to do some tire kicking? No worries -- you can take the phone out for a virtual test drive with our P'9981 review.
BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 review
Research in Motion, regardless of how you may view its recent history or its long-term future, still has a stronghold on the corporate world. Its lineup of BlackBerry smartphones are known for great battery life, comfortable keyboards with intuitive shortcuts, top-notch native email and Enterprise clients and -- most important to businesses -- unrivaled security features. Sure, its influence is waning as competitors have caught up in some areas (and surpassed it in others), but there are plenty of companies that have clung to their CrackBerries and held on tight.RIM's been hard at work trying to regain lost momentum by introducing a series of new devices featuring its latest OS, BlackBerry 7, and the BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930 series has been the star of the show so far. The problem is, it's not flashy enough. How is a C-level exec supposed to walk proudly on the golf course with a $300 (subsidized) phone? Talk about embarrassing. Have no fear, poor corporate top dog, luxury brand Porsche Design has come up with a solution: the $2,300 BlackBerry P'9981, a Vertu-ized version of that lesser handset you wouldn't be caught dead using. BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 hands-on BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 hits FCC Porsche Design P'9981 introducedThe P'9981 is available only in the UK and the Middle East for now, so until the device arrives in the US this Spring, anyone who lives stateside will have to rely on retailers to import some in. Fortunately we got the hookup by our friends at Negri Electronics, who happily lent us one of the few handsets they have in stock. As a result, we're now able to discuss the real questions circling around such a Richie Rich smartphone: what in the blue blazes makes this so expensive? Is it even worth it? How different is it from a standard BlackBerry Bold 9900? You'll find these answers and plenty of mysteries unravelled after the break.
RIM's BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 gets splayed by the FCC
Thus far, the Waterloo-Stuttgart wünderchild's been scooped, made official and even toyed with back at this year's CES. What hasn't happened yet, is a proper review, but until that joyous day comes we'll take what we can get in the form of this quasi-teardown, courtesy of the FCC. Those with stellar memory and a keen eye will recall we'd seen it pass through governmental annals once before, yet at that time any revealing imagery of its internals were strictly verboten. That's changed, as that once barren page now houses a PDF titled "Temp Confid_Internal Photos" which conveniently splays three snaps of the teutonic device's interior. Sure, it isn't a proper iFixit dissection -- ripe with details and color -- but it'll probably be the closest anyone will get to the innards of the $2,000 BlackBerry for quite a while. Read this far? Go on, don't be shy, espy the governmental shakedown at the source link below.
BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 hands-on (video)
Porsche Design's executives use BlackBerry religiously, so when the time came for the luxury brand to consider adding smartphones to its portfolio, Research in Motion was a natural -- and perfect -- fit. Problem is, BlackBerry phones don't necessarily exude the luxury look and feel necessary to attract Porsche Design's customer base, so CEO Juergen Gessler got in touch with RIM to see if the two companies could collaborate on a phone that would take the best of BlackBerry and combine it with Porsche's premium design. Presto, the device now known as the P'9981 was born. We had the chance to behold the phone with our own eyes and hold it in our hands, so go past the break to read more about what we thought.
Porsche Design theme ported to BlackBerry 9900 / 9930, saves you a small fortune
If you want some of that Porsche Design look, without the German engineered price, then check what just pulled up on the driveway: a port of the custom theme and icons. Sadly, only BlackBerry 9900 / 9300 owners -- which share much of the same hardware as the P'9981 -- running BlackBerry OS7 (not 7.1) can give their handset that new car smell. This means the sharp lines and luxurious brushed finish that made the P'9981 catch our eye in the first place will remain firmly in those pockets deep enough to afford it. Tap the source link if you still want to add the racing stripes to your current saloon.
Harrods reportedly nabs Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry as UK exclusive, costs a princely £1,275
The department store Harrods is no stranger to exposing Londoners to some of the finer -- and more eccentric -- things in life, and so after learning that it'd be bringing RIM's Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry to its shelves as a UK exclusive, we couldn't help but smile with curiosity. While we've yet to see anything official come across the wires, it's reported that this sexy slab of unlocked goodness will retail for £1,275 and hit stores before the month's end. We've attempted to confirm these details with RIM's UK group but, as it turns out, Brits like going home early on Friday, too.
Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry provides a long-awaited design jolt, compensates for a lot
Remember that downright futuristic BlackBerry we spied back in September? Say hello, all over again. RIM and Porsche (of all companies) have just taken the official wraps off of the Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry, a frighteningly beautiful new slab that offers up a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and "crystal clear touch display." It'll ship with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and a bespoke Wikitude World Browser augmented reality app experience, not to mention the "premium, exclusive PINs that help easily identify another P'9981 smartphone user." Fancy. As for specs, it's boasting a 1.2GHz processor, HD video recording capabilities, 8GB of onboard memory, Liquid Graphics technology, a microSD expansion slot, an inbuilt NFC module and BlackBerry OS 7. We're told that it'll be available from Porsche Design stores later this year, but mum's the word on the (presumably stratospheric) price. Head past the jump for T-break's hands-on vid. Update: MobileSyrup reports that the device shown here will sell for "around $2,000," and they'll be (unsurprisingly) limited in quantity. %Gallery-137690%
LaCie introduces Porsche-designed, aluminum-framed USB 3.0 HDDs
LaCie, a company that's no stranger to employing aluminum and high profile designers on its external storage drives, is back at it today with the announcement of a pair of new HDDs. The P9220 Mobile and P9230 Desktop drives -- one's thin and portable, the other's chunkier and stores more data, guess which is which -- harness the creative minds at Porsche Design to deliver... well, some pretty tamely designed peripherals. We guess it's all about minimalism and letting the scratch-resistant aluminum casing speak for itself, but we still kinda feel like the Porsche guys did this on a Thursday lunch break. As simple as it is, the look of these drives still managed to impress the guys at CrunchGear, whose hands-on coverage can be read at the link provided below. If you want to get to grips with one yourself, the P9220 starts out at £89.90 ($105 in US) for 500GB and will also have a 1TB option soon, whereas the P9230 costs £99.90 / $120 for a terabyte or £129.90 / $160 for two -- all come with USB 3.0 connectivity and the pride-stroking knowledge that you own a legitimate Porsche.
Porsche Design working hard for the money, brings back P'9522 in black
More than a year after releasing the P'9522, you'd think that Porsche Design would have something a little more... well, Porsche up its sleeve than just another color, but make no mistake: this latest incarnation of the pricey candybar is nothing more than a repainted version of the original. As a refresher, it's got a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, microSD expansion, a 2.8-inch display (they make it look bigger than that in the press shot, don't they?) and a fingerprint scanner up front to make sure the baddies don't get all up in your business should the phone get stolen. For a company so steeped in the tradition of speed, you'd think they'd at least have taken the opportunity to add in 3G, but alas, this handset's fast in name only. Anyhow, you should be able to pick up this remixed version now in overpriced boutiques around the globe.
Porsche Design P'9522 gets a little FCC love
Porsches have a reputation for being... well, fast. So isn't it just a little ironic that the Porsche Design P'9522 from Sagem is anything but? As usual, Europe gets the 3G action on this one -- but sadly, the FCC only needs to worry about GSM 850 / 1900, because that's all Sagem saw fit to give Americans. Normally we'd shake it off and move on without a second thought, but Porsche Design handsets don't come along every day -- and with that huge display and the fingerprint sensor front and center, the P'9552's pretty dang handsome -- so we're gonna spend at least a good 10, 15 minutes sulking over this one.
Sagem valiantly returns with Porsche Design P'9522
Not even two full months after Sagem fell into the obviously capable hands of Sofinnova, out pops the company's return to the red carpet. Picking right up (numerically speaking, at least) where the P'9521 left off is the well-endowed P'9522, which was reportedly built with a little help from Porsche Design. The candybar features an aluminum chassis, 2.8-inch display, 5-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, fingerprint reader and a microSD card slot. Unfortunately, the fun and games end there, as there's no 3G radio anywhere to be found; plus, you'll be asked to lay down about €600 ($875) to acquire one when it ships next month. Loyalty has its price, we guess.
Porsche Design P'9521, now with more white
For most of us, the Porsche Design P'9521 is hard enough to find as it is -- but throw a limited edition into the mix, and, well, you have a very special phone indeed. The P'9521 is being re-clad in a rather striking white as part of the design firm's Pearl White Collection being launched in Taiwan this month, and the privilege of adding this one to your stable will run a mere 62,800 Taiwan dollars -- about $2,063. Pricey, yes, but at least Porsche has the common decency to throw in a 2GB microSD card and the reassurance that the odds of running into another P'9521 Pearl White user are nearly zero.[Via Slashphone]
Navigon's Porsche Design P9611 finally zooms past the FCC
We got our first glimpse of this one in August of 2006, with hopes for a release that November. More than a year later we're not exactly sure it's been worth the wait -- there's plenty of good-looking GPS kit these days at half the price -- but if you've still got $900 burning a hole in your pocket, Navigon's Porsche Design P9611 GPS unit just hit the FCC, which hopefully means it's not far from store shelves. Too bad 4.3-inches of 480 x 272 touchscreen, a 520MHz XScale processor and Bluetooth hands-free don't sound all that luxurious anymore.[Via Mobilewhack; thanks Sandeep]
Porsche swerves to the power tool realm with P'7911 Multihammer
We've noticed that the folks at Porsche Design have been branching out to new endeavors of late, but this joint venture takes brand extension to an entirely new level. The group has apparently partnered with Germany's Metabo to unveil the Multihammer P'7911 power drill, which "combines all the essential functions of a drill with the power of a pneumatic hammer," sports a carbon fiber / aluminum housing, and includes an impeccably balanced grip that makes this bad boy easier to handle. The 705-watt device has no problem with scratches here and there from drilling through concrete, stone, wood, and steel, and the five different function settings allow you to tweak the tool for the job at hand. No word just yet regarding the (presumably lofty) price, but be sure to leap on through to see this luxury power tool hard at work.[Via Sybarites]
Porsche Design's P9611 sat nav is real, coming November
The rumors that Porsche Design was contributing to the design of a satellite navigation system have turned out to be true (don't you just love it when that happens?) now that Navigon has shown off the device at the IFA. The specifications are almost identical to the rumor, with the device featuring a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 pixel 16:9 display, a 520MHz XScale processor, a dedicated graphics processor, 64MB of RAM / ROM, an SD / MMC slot, a Bluetooth hands-free kit, and a removable battery, all running on Windows CE. The system will warn the driver of radar speed traps and of traffic in the 37 mapped European countries, and will even play MP3s -- albeit on the undoubtedly tinny speakers. The only downsides appear to be the roughly $960 price tag and the weak USB 1.1 support, but if you can cope with these niggles then keep your eyes open during November, because that's when it's expected to ship.
