We’re already a little bit in love with the Puma Phone, but when we touched it, we were smitten. Puma has done a fantastic job of injecting personality into its dinky dialer, with cutesy touches and well thought-out features galore. See our hands-on gallery, and get a good gawp at the loony funtimes waiting inside.
The Puma Phone is a titchy little handset, it feels very plasticky, but somehow keeps its charm. The screen’s bright (although not by Samsung Wave standard), and that solar panel on the back will give two hours music playback, or 30 messages, for every hour in “medium sunlight”.
The speaker on the front of the phone is obscured by the Puma logo, and inside there’s a live feed of sports results from AP. That’s on top of a pedometer, cycle tracker, speedometer, yachting compass and more.
Even the Puma Phone’s MP3 player has had a dose of personality chucked at it. Tracks are shown as spinning vinyl, and can be scratched for extra bus-top annoyance.
More apps can be added through the Puma World portal. It’s a simple screen tap away, and offers tons of news, and extra apps. Top of the list are Puma City Guides. Interactive tourist tools that turn the handset into a boneafide tour guide. There’s also an app to tap into Puma’s online shop, letting you browse Puma Phone accessories on the phone itself, and order them for delivery too.
Check out the Puma Phone photo gallery above, and see it in action. There’re tons of neat design elements inside, even when the pre-production version we tried had a hiccup in its web browser, the error message looked sublime. The Puma Phone is already a strong contender as one of our favourite phones of Mobile World Congress.
Out April | £250 | Puma Phone
