First made-in-Vietnam smartphone hits shops

Bkav Corporation on May 26 launched its first made-in-Vietnam smartphone, Bphone, which in development for more than four years.
Bkav Corporation on May 26 launchedits first made-in-Vietnam smartphone, Bphone, which in development formore than four years.

With a flat design, the phone has aquad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 with a speed of up to 2.5 GHz, and RAMSky Hynic 3GB LPDDR3, and eMMC 5.0 flash storage of Toshiba. It comeswith a 5-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel rear camera withOmniVision sensor.

Bphone has the same technology used in globalhigh-end smartphones. For example, it provides Fast Tracking Auto Focusthat allows users to take photos and get them in focus later. Accordingto Bkav Hardware Division's vice president Vu Thanh Thang, there areonly two smartphones equipped with this technology: Bphone and SamsungGalaxy S6 Edge.

The manufacturer also said that Bphone is one ofthe smartphones offering music in 24bit/192 kHz, with quality nearlyequivalent to that of vinyl records.

It is said to be the firstsmartphone in the world to be equipped with Transfer Jet, which allowsusers to transmit data within short distances in super high speed.

BkavCorporation's Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Tu Quang noted thatTransfer Jet is 500 times faster than the NFC in high-end smartphonessuch as US-based Apple's iPhone 6 Plus and the Republic of Korea'sSamsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

Bkav has developed Android 5.0-based BOSoperating system and BChrome web browser for their phones. The phone hasother functions such as video sharing Blive and health software.

Thephone is also equipped with Bkav Mobile Security, Firewall, andAnti-Thief software to protect it from malware. The phone data will bestored and synchronized on BDrive cloud platform.

Customers canorder the phone on the company's official website bkav.com.vn or itswidely-launched e-commerce website vala.vn from June 2. A Black phoneswith a storage capacity of 16GB will be on sale at a price of 9,990,000VND (more than 450 USD). A Champaign phone with a storage of 64GB willbe sold at a price of 12,690,000 VND (576 USD), and the limited editionof 24K gold minted smartphone with a storage of 128GB is set at a priceof 20,190,000 VND (917 USD).

"We have entered the [phonemanufacturing] field after other companies. Therefore, for brandrecognition, we have to make products better than theirs," the CEOremarked, adding that a phone should be beautiful, sophisticated, andstrong," Quang said.

"The Vietnamese people always wished thatViet Nam will produce the best smartphone in the world. Millions ofVietnamese are using high-class, imported smartphones… Now, we have madeit. Bphone is for you and for Vietnam."-VNA

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