Roberto De Jesús Escobar Gaviria, the brother of late Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, is going toe-to-toe with the $1,500 Motorola Razr, $1,980 Samsung Galaxy Fold and $2,400 Huawei Mate X by releasing a foldable phone: the Escobar Fold 1.
By Sean Keane
It’s a whole lot cheaper at $350, coming unlocked and compatible with “all networks” worldwide.
The phone’s website and promotional videos are full of scantily clad women showing off the device, but reveal that it has a 7.8-inch AMOLED FHD Plus screen when folded. It also runs Android 9.0 (Pie), is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Series chipset, and dual 16 and 20 megapixel cameras.
The videos mostly focus on the models — with an odd reference to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs — but one seems to show the phone’s screen in action (the wallpaper is Pablo Escobar’s 1977 mugshot).
“This is a completely revolutionary device in the mobile world, what Mr. Escobar has done is to cut out all retailers and wholesalers, giving that financial benefit to the consumer,” Escobar Inc. CEO Olof Gustafsson told CNET via email.
He noted that Escobar Fold 1’s specs are far superior than Apple or Samsung devices because those companies use old tech and market it as something new, saying 20 megapixel cameras cost less than $10 in Asia.
“This industry that used to be full of innovation has now become full of companies looking to make profit. It is not for nothing that Apple is the most profitable company in the world, when a computer stand costs more than an iPhone.
Long story short, this is absurd, and Mr. Escobar is changing that now.” More
