Like every year, the MWC in Barcelona brought many surprises and curiosities. In the 2024 edition, besides the Xiaomi car, the main protagonists were cheap foldable cell phones; This technology is finally experiencing a sufficient price drop to constitute an alternative to consider for many users.
Oddly enough, the best example of this trend comes from a brand that has so far been absent from the smartphone market: Energizer. A name that most people only recognize from its batteries, but which will now also appear on several cell phones thanks to an agreement with the French manufacturer Avenir Telecom.
The first Energizer mobile phone, as it could not be otherwise, had battery capacity as its top priority; to the point that the Energizer Hard Case P28K can be best defined as a power bank with display, promising to last up to three months straight.
Energizer foldable mobile
The second model which will carry the Energizer brand, the Ultimate U660S, is completely the opposite of this Hard Case P28K: it is a folding mobile with clamshell, which replaces the sturdy, thick chassis with a thin, lightweight design and flexible display. There couldn’t be two phones more different, and they only have one thing in common: a very low price compared to the competition.
And the Energizer Ultimate U660S It will be priced at just 499 dollars in Europe, less than half that of most foldable cell phones of this type sold in Europe. Of course, the company had to make sacrifices to reach this figure, but it is still striking that this technology is suddenly accessible to users who have a limit of 500 dollars on their new mobile phone.
The sacrifices are obvious when you look at the technical characteristics. The BlackView Hero 10 is based on a Hélio G99 processor more typical of low ranges and which does not even offer access to the 5G network, remaining only in 4G; It comes with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.
Oddly enough, this time the Energizer branding doesn’t translate into a larger battery, which is just 3,700mAh, the same capacity we’ve seen in other similar clamshell models like the Galaxy Z Flip 5. As for cameras, we don’t expect much. of its 64 Mpx main sensor accompanied by an 8 Mpx secondary sensor whose purpose has not been specified. On the front, we will have a 25 Mpx sensor.
But all this can be forgotten when we think that it is a very small cell phone, which opens to offer a 6.7-inch OLED screen and resolution 2400 x 1080 pixels. It also has an external screen, although its technical characteristics have not been shared.
We will have to wait to see if the Energizer Ultimate U660S represents a revolution in the market; It will only be available in Europe in November and by then there will probably be other alternatives.