Pepsi Smartphone? Weibo Social Media Page And Leaked Screenshot Reveals P1 Android Handset

PepsiCo is wandering out of the world of soft drinks. A verified company page spotted on social media site Weibo revealed the cola-maker may be preparing to launch a smartphone of its own.

The official page doesn’t disclose much else, other than a reference to a Pepsi Phone. But that hasn’t stopped others from getting their hands on the specs of the upcoming smartphone -- dubbed the Pepsi P1, according to Sina Technology.

The smartphone is expected to come with an average feature set for an Android smartphone -- 5.5-inch 1080p display, 1.7GHz processor, 2GB of memory, 16GB storage, a 13-megapixel camera, 3,000 mAh battery and Android 5.1 Lollipop. The leaked screenshot places the phone’s retail price at 1299 yuan ($205), more than $400 less than the U.S. retail price of Apple’s iPhone 6S.

It’s not known if Pepsi designed the phone itself or contracted its build to one of the many white-box Android handset makers in China.

Pepsi is expected to reveal the smartphone during an event in Beijing Oct. 20, according to the company’s page on social media site Weibo.

It’s not the first time companies outside the technology industry have dabbled in the smartphone world. To coincide with the May release of the film, “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Marvel and Samsung released a limited edition “Iron Man” styled Galaxy S6 Edge in Korea, China and Hong Kong.

Whatever the case is for Pepsi to launch a smartphone in China, it does so in a market where handset sales growth is expected to sharply decelerate from 19.7 percent in 2014 to 1.2 percent, IDC reported.