Product Review: Porsche Design P'9522 Phone

Michael Martineck
by Michael Martineck

One of my long-standing disagreements with the editor: the Porsche Cayenne is a dangerous diffusion of the Porsche brand. I never believed that. I’d call Robert up and tell him— if I could dial this new Porsche Design P’9522 phone with its razor thin buttons. Or use it stateside for that matter. Perhaps I’ll e-mail my review. Nope. The gorgeous new touch screen gizmo lacks that feature. It does have a 911 GT3 ring tone, though.

As we’ve come to expect from all things Porsche, the phone is a techo-rich: auto-focus 5-megapixel camera, quad-band cellular connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS AND an FM receiver. (Didn’t see that coming in your rear view mirror did ‘ya?) The screen is sleek and indestructible, but faster than a Carrera GT, and not in a good way. It’s too easy to blow by your selections, which is not what you want from your . . . anything, really. It does look good. That counts for a lot.

Personally, I think it’s a great direction for Porsche. Kids already lust after phones the way they once coveted cars. Now if Stuttgart can just get it right. As in no fingerprint scanner on something I want to use with one hand. You know, applied ergonomics. If Porsche continue to improve their gear—including their to-die-with kitchen knives—they could finally get away from these gas burning ventures and concentrate on their core businesses: phones and the hedge funds.

Yes, I know: Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG is a majority-owned subsidiary of the car company. Oh, and the phone’s $800.

Michael Martineck
Michael Martineck

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  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Apr 09, 2009
    For the money it does a lot, and who the hell needs an FM receiver when you can get streaming radio via the web? The FM radio uses much less power, which is helpful. The problem is that the receiver in most phones is terrible. I'll never understand that; I can build a better FM receiver than you could find in a modern phone.
  • Davekaybsc Davekaybsc on Apr 10, 2009

    Most of these "designer" phones end up being massively overpriced garbage. Remember Bang and Olufsen's abominations? Didn't think so.

  • Durishin Durishin on Apr 10, 2009

    No 3G. That's because someone who would spend $800 on a Porsche likely has their emails read to them and dictate the reply. Think is, you could spend $700 and get a 3G phone which actually does some things. http://www.fuzemobility.com/htc-touch-pro-ii-on-june-5th-for-5199970300/ And, heck, you could probably - for the $100 left over - find a tacky plastic Porsche badge on the street in Manhattan to stick on with a little Duco cement. How cool that would be!

  • Dr. No Dr. No on Apr 22, 2009

    Ugh. Porsche should stick to autos and leave the phones to better design teams. And I agree with the other poster, littering the so-so phone design with "Porsche Design" IS gauche. But it's a free country to blow money on outdated technology with poor design here.

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