With the existence of budget smartphones, there is no reason to not to get one. However, if you are looking for a backup communication device, aka mobile phone aka cell phone, with a lot of style, well then, the ATMAN R9 may be worthy of a consideration.
And no, the ATMAN R9 is not a smartphone. It is billed as a “semi smartphone,” however, which basically means it is a companion phone to your main smartphone. It connects to your main device via Bluetooth, allowing it to take calls and receive texts.
From what we have gathered, it is a standalone cell phone too, totally capable of making and taking calls if a valid SIM is installed. And believe it or not, it also has a storage card support (up to 32 GB). Intriguingly enough, it also has onboard storage of a whopping 256 MB.
The ATMAN R9 is marketed as “card-thin” phone that supports 4G radios and it is a dual SIM device. It is powered by a single core processor and armed with a 240 by 240 pixels screen. The biggest selling point is the style factor and the concealed touch keypad. Super sleek – if the marketing is to be believed.
Beyond those, little is known about this elusive device which is available only in China. It is super cheap, costing anywhere between 128 to 298 yuan (about US$20-US$46) on Tmall.com.
Images: Tmall (ATMAN).
