TP-Link expands its smartphone portfolio with the Neffos X1 and X1 Max

You’re probably familiar with TP-Link but not in regard to smartphones. The company, largely recognized by its networking equipment business, actually decided to dive into the smartphone market at the beginning of the year. It introduced three low-to-mid-range handsets under the name Neffos, the C5, C5L, and C5 Max. Well, TP-Link wasn’t just playing around. IFA 2016 has just kicked off and we have two more entries into its smartphone portfolio – the Neffos X1 and Neffos X1 Max.

From the surface, the X1 duo don’t look like they’re made by a novice smartphone maker, albeit, a design a bit too close to the Axon 7. They both feature an all-metal casing and curved back that tapers to impressively thin sides – 2.95 mm on the X1 and 2.75 mm on the X1 Max (7.95 mm and 7.75 mm at their thickest, respectively). On the front, there’s that 2.5D glass edge found on many premium smartphones today, and gorilla glass protection (although, we aren’t told which version of it).

As the name implies, the X1 Max is the more spec’d out variant, with a 5.5” 1080P IPS LCD screen, 3GB/4GB of RAM, 32GB/64GB internal storage, and 3,000 mAh battery. Its smaller brother has a more modest 5” 720P IPS LCD screen, 2GB/3GB RAM, 16GB/32GB storage, and 2,250 mAh battery. However, they both share the octa-core Helio P10 chipset, microSD card expansion (up to 128GB), and 13 MP rear (f/2.0 aperture) and 5 MP front camera specs. They’re both also equipped with a fingerprint scanner underneath the rear camera and run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

TP-Link has expressed that it wants break from being niche and too quiet of a brand. The driver behind Neffos is to more closely connect with consumers. “Our mission is connecting everything,” according to TP-Link’s CEO, Jeffrey Chao.

Pricing for the new phones were given as 249 euros for the superior X1 Max and 199 euros for the vanilla X1, and color choices for both will be either gray or gold. No specific launch date was given, only that we should see them on sale sometime in Q4. What do you think about TP-Link’s effort? Are these two new entries enticing enough in the crowded smartphone market?