ARCHOS’ Titanium may find it hard to beat Obi’s Racoon in Kenya

ARCHOS has been a global player in consumer electronics since 1988, but it got into the smartphone business in 2013. Obi Mobiles, led by John Sculley, former CEO of Pepsi Co and Apple, entered the smartphone market in mid 2014. That gives ARCHOS slight advantage of being relatively more established smartphone player, particularly in Africa, where Obi Mobiles just entered about two months back, starting with Kenya and Tanzania. Since the two companies have models in same specifications and price range, it makes them natural competitors. Therefore, we have picked up two moderately priced devices, ARCHOS’40b Titanium and Obi Mobiles’ Racoon S401, for our routine comparative review.

In spite of slightly larger physical dimensions, Obi’s Racoon S401 actually weighs lighter than ARCHOS’ 40b. With 126x64.7x10.5mm dimensions, Obi’s Racoon weighs 109g, where as with 125x61x8.5mm dimensions ARCHOS’ 40b weighs 115g. They both have 4.0inch display with a screen resolution of 480x800 pixels, which means about the same viewing experience. However, it is worth noting that Obi’s Racoon comes with a corrosion and wear-proof back cover, a slight advantage for Obi.

Furthermore, Obi’s Racoon runs on Android OS 4.4.2 (KitKat) whereas the Archos’ 40B runs on an older version of Android OS 4.2.2 JellyBean. The KitKat not only provides unparalleled interface experience but in comparison to JellyBean, it prioritizes automatically your favorite contacts, provides the Google Hangout app, and launches searches, sends texts, plays songs directly from the homescreen. Doing the legwork on the inside of both the models is the dual core MediaTek chipset with a 512 RAM, however, ARCHOS’ 40b clocks in a 1.3 GHz processor whereas Racoon S401 is slightly behind, with a 1GHz processor. Therefore, the trade off is between more advanced operating system and slightly more powerful processor.

Obi’s Racoon has 1500 mAh removable Li-ion battery and ARCHOS’ 40b Titanium has a 1400 mAh of the same. Both are on the lower side of the spectrum, but Obi’s Racoon has slight leg up here. Both the devices provide 5MP rear cameras, however, Obi’s Racoon has a leg up again with its 2MP front camera, while ARCHOS’ 40b comes with budget-level VGA camera at the front. In addition, both the models have 4GB internal memory with the option of a 32GB external memory limit.

On the whole, Obi Racoon S401 does have a leg up on various accounts including more advanced operating system, slightly higher battery capacity, superior front camera and the wear-proof back cover, besides being a bit lighter and smaller that is actually a matter of preference. However, the cost tag makes Racoon stand out clearly. With all these advantages Obi’s Racoon S401 is priced at around KSh 6500, where as ARCHOS’ 40b Titanium is marked at around KSh 9500. Well, that makes the decision-making lot easier.

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Kenya watches Obi’s Racoon chase Tecno’s P5

Racoon, a medium sized grayish looking mammal native to North America, is known for its intelligence. However, Racoon that is creating buzz in East Africa’s smartphone market is one of the eight models that a new smartphone maker, Obi Mobiles, co-founded by John Sculley, the famous ex-CEO of Pepsi Co and Apple, has recently launched in the region. However, Obi’s Racoon has to face some established challengers out there in order to create its territory. One of the challengers is Tecno Mobiles, which was first to introduce dual SIM smartphones in the region and is now a familiar brand. In this review, we have picked up two models, i.e. Tecno’s P5 and Obi’s Racoon S401, that fall in the so-called affordable segment.

Let us start with what is the most visible in a smartphone, the colour. While Obi’s Racoon offers customers an option between white and black colours, Tecno’s P5 comes in standard black. The physical dimensions of Tecno’s P5 are 124.3x65.5x10.5 mm, where as Obi’s Racoon comes with 126x64x10mm, which makes Racoon a relatively sleeker looking smartphone. However, both the devices compare well in terms of screen size, 4inches screen with a TFT (thin-film transistor) capacitive touchscreen, and resolution 480x800, which means viewing experience would be the same, except that one may prefer it either on a sleeker device or a broader looking device.

The performance of Obi’s Racoon S401 is determined by the Android OS 4.4.2 (KitKat) on which it is based, whereas Tecno’s P5 runs on 4.2 (JellyBean), which is advantage Racoon. Both the devices have a 512 RAM (Random Access Memory), expandable to 32GB but while Racoon has dual core 1GHz processor, it is 1.3 GHz for P5. Here, it is important to understand the relationship between RAM and processor. Normally, higher the RAM, smoother the ability of the handset to run several tasks at once and faster the processor, better is the device’s ability to handle operations. However, if the fast processor does not come with higher RAM then one is likely to encounter bottlenecks such as memory shortage.

In addition, both these devices possess dual SIM capacity and support EDGE/GPRS and 3G. The difference appears in the battery where Obi’s Racoon has a 1500 mAh, removable Li-ion battery capacity with up to 6 hours talk time and standby time of 180 hours, while Tecno’s P5 has a 1800mAh, non removable battery with 8.5 hours of talk time and 288 hours of standby time. Furthermore, both the models have 5MP, fix focus rear cameras and 2MP front cameras, but Obi’s Racoon also comes with other features such as geo-tagging and multi shot.

When the features and specifications of the two devices compete with each other almost neck to neck, it is the price tag that could make a real difference, where Obi’s Racoon set at around KSh 6500 acquires an edge over Tecno’s P5 which is around KSh 8000. Besides, the customer choice may also be influenced by the colour options and the shear look.

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