An instrument wrought out of aluminum and glass, the Porsche Design P'9521 phone is an intriguing new entrant to the burgeoning luxury mobile phone market.
A collaboration between Porsche Design and Sagem Communication, the phone’s features include a fingerprint scanner and accelerometer, a music player (with a 2GB memory card) and a 3.2-megapixel camera.
However, as we have observed in the past, companies attempting to break into this market often emphasize on build quality, materials and design, rather than engage in the more-features-is-better specifications war.
It is within this context that we shall review the Porsche Design P'9521.
The P'9521 is undoubtedly a striking phone. With its glossy mineral glass cover and brushed metal skin, it is instantly distinguishable from other clamshells.
As befits an established design house, Porsche Design did not choose to integrate cues from Porsche sports car design into their phones but adopted a futuristic yet minimalist design theme, consistent with its other products.
The phone is made rather thick and heavy for a clamshell, but these traits are a forgiveable trade-off, considering the company's innovative use of materials in the design of the phone.
The phone's casing is milled out of a solid aluminum block. The use of aluminum gives a unique sensation of quality to the phone – the hinges turn with satisfying mechanical resistance and the brushed aluminum has a texture that delights the fingers. The mineral glass used on the cover is simply gorgeous and possesses a sheen that plastic simply cannot replicate.
The only letdown in the phone's construction is the battery cover, which is a simple piece of rubber-coated plastic. For a phone that exhibits excellent build quality everywhere else, the design of the battery cover is somewhat incongruous and puzzling.
Start the phone, and an animation simulating the view from the cockpit of a speeding Porsche rolls on the phone's screen. The display utilizes AM-OLED technology and the colors are extremely vivid and the images sharp from all but the most extreme viewing angles.
The menu interface is beautifully designed, and its use of a light-on-dark color scheme and Porsche Design's trademark typography exudes functional elegance.
A unique feature of this phone is the fingerprint scanner located just under the display. The scanner can also be used to scroll through the menu like a vertical touchpad if one does not wish to use the keypad. The keypad itself is almost totally flat and the keys do not have much travel. However, this is something we got used to easily after a few hours of use.
The P'9521 boasts excellent sound quality for both voice calls and music.
Save for the fingerprint scanner, the Porsche Design P'9521 does not really contain any groundbreaking technical features. However, its elegant design and high build quality enables it to stand out in a sea of clamshell phones. A guaranteed conversation piece.
