Pablo Escobar’s brother announces 'Samsung killer phone' Escobar Fold 2 at $399

Last year, Pablo Escobar’s brother announced a foldable smartphone to compete with the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X. The Escobar Fold 1 launched at a fraction of the cost of the foldable devices from Samsung and Huawei. At $349 (Approx. Rs 24,500), the Escobar Fold 1 was the cheapest foldable smartphone in the world.

Two months later, Escobar Inc. is ready to launch the second iteration of the Escobar Fold. The Escobar Fold 2 is priced at $399 (Approx. Rs 28,500) and features significant improvements over its predecessor. The Escobar Fold 1 was more-or-less a rebranded Royole FlexPai, while the Escobar Fold 2 looks no different from Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.

However, the Royole FlexPai retailed for $1,320 (Approx. Rs 94,100), while the Galaxy Fold will set you back nearly $2,000 or Rs 1,64,999 if you buy it in India. However, both the Escobar Fold 1 and 2 severely undercut Royole and Samsung’s foldable handsets. The website even touts the Escobar Fold 2 as the “real Samsung killer phone”.

So, how is Escobar Inc able to offer such vast discounts on its foldable smartphones. Well, CNET says that the discounts are made possible by sourcing units from “secondary factories” in China. The company claims that it repackages the surplus Samsung and Royole stock before selling it.

In a statement, Escobar Inc CEO Olof Gustafsson told CNET that the company plans to ship the Fold 2 in March. The company also announced it would keep the initial production run to 200,000 units. Gustafsson wrote, “We take on the course that there is no need to re-invent the wheel. We are using similar assembly factories as Samsung, and other big guys are using in Shenzen, Mainland China and Hong Kong. Anybody can go there and buy a Galaxy Fold replica for less than $300.”

All the specs including display, battery, chipset, cameras, design, etc. of the Escobar Fold 2 are similar to that of the Galaxy Fold. In terms of pricing, the entry-level Escobar Fold 2 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will cost $399 (Approx. Rs 28,500), while the top-tier 12GB RAM and 512GB storage model will be priced at $549 (Approx. Rs 39,200).