Onyx Presents Liscio, the Fancy Mobile Phone / MP3 Player

Onyx, a new UK-based company, subsidiary of Blue Telephony Ltd., announced the release of Liscio, its first mobile phone that comes to answer the needs of users who want a fashionable handset that can easily stand-out. It can be bought right away, from the Onyx website, SIM-free, at the price of �129.99 (about $255 or 172 Euro).

The Liscio phone measures only 90 x 35 x 17.8 millimeters, weighs 60 grams and, besides the fact that it looks like an MP3 player, it also has advanced music features. It comes with Music Player, FM radio, Bluetooth with A2DP, and can provide a playback time of up to 11 hours. Other features include USB 1.1, voice recording, 128 MB of built-in memory and microSD card support. Since it has such a small form factor, the handset only packs a 1.1 inch OLED screen with a 96 x 96 pixel resolution, and doesn't pack a photo camera (these aspects might turn away potential buyers).

"If you appreciate beauty and design, but also want state-of-the-art technology, this is the mobile phone for you. This really is a hot new handset that will turn heads wherever you go," said Zafar Mirza of Onyx. "Liscio is the culmination of years of development in our testing labs. Onyx's 800-strong research and development team has ensured that the first handset we bring to market is a stunning product which combines elegance and functionality."

All good, except one thing. In 2007, the Haier Elegance handset was released by Haier America, subsidiary of Haier, a giant Chinese electronics manufacturer. The phone looks strikingly similar to Onyx's Liscio, and it even has the same features. So it's clear that there's "something wrong" about the two phones. I'm thinking maybe Liscio is exactly the handset produced by Haier, and Onyx only branded it with its name. But if so, the UK company should have mentioned this. Instead, on its website, there's only stuff about how "new" the Liscio phone is and how the Onyx team of engineers worked to design and manufacture it. Quite confusing, isn't it?