Product Review: Porsche Design P'9522 Phone
One of my long-standing disagreements with the editor: the Porsche Cayenne is a dangerous diffusion of the Porsche brand. I never believed that. I’d call Robert up and tell him— if I could dial this new Porsche Design P’9522 phone with its razor thin buttons. Or use it stateside for that matter. Perhaps I’ll e-mail my review. Nope. The gorgeous new touch screen gizmo lacks that feature. It does have a 911 GT3 ring tone, though.
As we’ve come to expect from all things Porsche, the phone is a techo-rich: auto-focus 5-megapixel camera, quad-band cellular connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS AND an FM receiver. (Didn’t see that coming in your rear view mirror did ‘ya?) The screen is sleek and indestructible, but faster than a Carrera GT, and not in a good way. It’s too easy to blow by your selections, which is not what you want from your . . . anything, really. It does look good. That counts for a lot.
Personally, I think it’s a great direction for Porsche. Kids already lust after phones the way they once coveted cars. Now if Stuttgart can just get it right. As in no fingerprint scanner on something I want to use with one hand. You know, applied ergonomics. If Porsche continue to improve their gear—including their to-die-with kitchen knives—they could finally get away from these gas burning ventures and concentrate on their core businesses: phones and the hedge funds.
Yes, I know: Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG is a majority-owned subsidiary of the car company. Oh, and the phone’s $800.
More by Michael Martineck
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Most of these "designer" phones end up being massively overpriced garbage. Remember Bang and Olufsen's abominations? Didn't think so.
No 3G. That's because someone who would spend $800 on a Porsche likely has their emails read to them and dictate the reply. Think is, you could spend $700 and get a 3G phone which actually does some things. http://www.fuzemobility.com/htc-touch-pro-ii-on-june-5th-for-5199970300/ And, heck, you could probably - for the $100 left over - find a tacky plastic Porsche badge on the street in Manhattan to stick on with a little Duco cement. How cool that would be!
Ugh. Porsche should stick to autos and leave the phones to better design teams. And I agree with the other poster, littering the so-so phone design with "Porsche Design" IS gauche. But it's a free country to blow money on outdated technology with poor design here.