Polestar, Volvo’s Spin-off EV Carmaker, Releases A Smartphone
Polestar, Volvo’s Spin-off EV Carmaker, Releases A Smartphone
The automotive and smartphone industries rarely cross over, but when it does, it’s usually a collaboration of the automotive design houses and a smartphone manufacturer that results in a special edition from a standard model – the most well-known example in recent times is the special rendition of Magic6 and Magic V2 smartphones designed by HONOR and Porsche Design.
Meanwhile in China, EV carmaker Polestar is taking the idea potentially a step further: the Polestar Phone is designed to talk to its cars – in this case, the Polestar 4 electric coupe SUV. Strictly speaking, the carmaker did not manufacture this phone: the production and engineering are done by another Chinese smartphone maker, Meizu. The Polestar Phone is based on the Meizu 21 Pro, with some added Swedish flair on it.
Now hold on, who is Polestar? As the title says – it is Swedish automaker Volvo’s spin-off brand that originally was the racing department, and subsequently, its performance sub-brand. Volvo was then sold to Geely several years ago, and with it, Polestar was converted into an EV-only brand that mostly sells cars in China, and maintains a small presence elsewhere. Coincidentally, Geely also owns Meizu, which explains the smartphone’s origins.
The premise of the Polestar Phone is to allow the smartphone to enable Android’s digital car key functionality (using Ultra Wideband technology), and the “seamless” UI integration between the smartphone and the Polestar SUV’s infotainment systems. Apart from that, it’s a pretty bog standard flagship Android smartphone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, up to 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, plus a triple rear camera system.
Design-wise, the white-gold combination does look pretty great: on its website, the carmaker says the smartphone is designed collaboratively by its team in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Meizu’s own design team. Sadly, you most likely can’t get one as this is a Chinese-exclusive model, but there’s no ruling out a potential successor if it thinks this is a viable business model for its future EVs.
Source: Ars Technica
Pokdepinion: Gotta say, I like the minimalist look. Smartphones have too many cameras these days which doesn’t help making them look sleek.
