Ah, the Sharper Image. A staple in every man’s catalog collection, perfect for perusing and considering a purchase, but no one really buys there. It’s typically overpriced and somewhat gimmicky with the gadgets.
Well, they’re now going into cellphones. Four, to be exact, and they’re all overpriced and underfeatured. The top handset, the AMOI N810, runs Windows Mobile 6 and has a touchscreen, 2 megapixel shooter, and GPS. Sounds good, right? Oh, wait, I forgot to mention it’s only tri-band GSM, with an archaic GPRS connection. Yours for only 4 payments of $125 (that’s $500, for you non-math people.
Next up is the 005TSI (cool name, no?), a shiny black number with touch-sensitive music controls, looks like an LG Chocolate, but has a touchscreen instead of slide-out keypad. This one has a 1.3 megapixel cam, stereo Bluetooth, and microSD slot, and isn’t so bad at $299.95. Below that is the 008TSI and 007TSI. The 007 (codenamed the Bond phone?) is a standard silver flip phone, complete with sub-par VGA cam and microSD slot will set you back $170. The 008 is a black slider with red keypad backlights, VGA cam, microSD slot, and, well, that’s about it. This one is a whopping $249.95.
What’s funny to me is the advertising one-liner: Upgrade your ‘locked’ SIM-card phone to a Sharper Image ‘Unlocked’ phone – without changing anything else!
You can also purchase a 2-year extended warranty for $49.95. Get a move-on, folks, I have a feeling there will be PLENTY of stock. I’m also somewhat curious to find out what happened to the 000-004, and 006TSI handsets.
The Sharper Image was cool back in 1984, but now it’s as hip as a Members Only jacket from the Chess King, and decidedly low-brow. Even the gimmick-product catalogs stuffed in the back of airplane seats are more interesting.