Some time ago, Fujitsu captured the attention of the press by demoing a dual screen phone concept. Sadly, we never heard again from this handset.
However, the booth of the Japanese ACME company NEC contained the following surprise:
It is described as following:
Given that NEC handsets almost never make it to Europe, I am not too positive re ever getting this handset into my hands – stay tuned for further info as we get it!
Last year, dual core smartphones were all the rage – after LG dropped its Optimus 2X, 60 million devices followed suite.
At the MWC, we now see the first quad core handsets. As all of them run on Android, please visit our sister site to find out more:
http://tamsandroid.tamoggemon.com/2012/02/quad-core-parade-mobile-world-congress-2012/
So far, all Windows Phone 7 devices had to have 512 MB of RAM – with the Tango update, Microsoft has scaled this down to 256MB.
ZTE has used this opportunity for its Orbit device:
In the About screen, a warning is displayed about the low memory available:
In addition, the build data:
I have been able to play around a bit with the device, and have to report that the GUI looked stable and still fast enough to me – but, of course, one cannot see really much in but one minute:
Not much more to add here…
In desktop computing, it is now difficult to find a single-core processor. In smartphones, the situation is not quite as strict – but dual core CPUs are catching on fast.
Berg Insight has sent us the following, interesting bit of data:
Preliminary data from Berg Insight show that sales of high-end smartphones equipped with dual-core application processors reached 60 million units worldwide in 2011. The first smartphones with dual-core processors were unveiled at the beginning of 2011 with sales starting in February 2011. One year later, at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, several handset vendors are expected to announce their first smartphones with quad-core processors. As quad-core processors gradually find their way into high-end devices, adoption of dual-core processors will accelerate in the mid-range smartphone segment.
Looking back at the time of the introduction of HT-capable CPUs, quite a few applications experienced race conditions due to the new “paralellism”. So, definitely test your app on a dual core phone…
In the good old days of the Palm OS, the main issue faced by Palm was the odd resultion: a base resolution of 160×160 made scaling to more “common” resolutions was difficult.
Apple has had a similar problem with its 480×320 resolution, but managed to follow it up. Samsung is now at 800×480, and the question is what will follow next (and what is technically possible).
A PR company has now sent me the following:
MicroOLED, a maker of highly power-efficient superior image quality microdisplays for near-to-eye applications, today introduced a new 5.4 million pixel density 0.61 inch diagonal, low power consumption OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Display) microdisplay on silicon for applications demanding high picture quality, such as professional camera and camcorder equipment, night vision systems and head-mounted displays used in surgery.
The ultra-compact 5.4 million-pixel microdisplay with a sub-pixel pitch of 4.7 micrometres by 4.7 micrometres is the highest pixel density OLED microdisplay available today. By doubling the pixel density of comparable products, MicroOLED has eliminated the gap between pixels. With no black matrix present, the resulting image resolution is of the highest quality. This makes the 5.4 million-pixel 0.61 inch diagonal microdisplay most suitable for defense, medical and professional camera applications that demand sharp images with very smooth transitional tones.
As of this writing, no data on availability is given – but it looks like the resolution war can continue!
Nokia’s long-announced Lumia 710 is now about to ship – the low-end device launches with a market price 20 EUR lower than the Acer’s.
The release statement reads as following:
The Nokia Lumia 710 will start selling today in Taiwan alongside the Nokia Lumia 800. The Nokia Lumia 710 will then reach stores in Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia in the next seven days and continue its global roll-out over the coming weeks.
Estimated retail price is 270 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies and availability will be via operator partners, retailers and open channels depending on local situation.
Specs-wise, you get the following:
Can be personalized with white or black body design, five vibrant exchangeable back covers (black, white, cyan, fuchsia, and yellow) and thousands of apps
Best social networking experience provided by Windows Phone release 7.5
Best Internet browsing experience with Internet Explorer 9
3.7″ WVGA TFT, ClearBlack capacitive touch screen with pinch zoom, 800 x 480 pixels and 16 million colours
5 MP camera with auto focus, LED flash, high definition 720p video recording with 30FPS and one-touch image sharing
Nokia signature hubs: Nokia Drive, Nokia Music
1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB program memory, 8GB internal user memory, and up to 7.6 hours of 3G talktime
Not much to add here – except that a review of its strongest competitor (Acer M310) in the low end will follow shortly (so stay tuned!).
Microsoft has been extraordinarily diligent when it comes to releasing updates for the Windows Phone 7 system – a reliable vendor like Samsung obviously does all it can to make life easier for its device owners.
The boys have just released another update, which can now be picked up via Zune:
I have already installed it, and have seen no issues so far – let me know how it goes!
When it comes to surprises, Dr. Maritheres Paul from Hutchison is very similar to Nokia – with one difference: while the latter tend to disappoint, Maritheres often digs out interesting things.
Effective immediately, the Mango-powered Jil Sander Mobile can be had at Hutchison Stores all over Austria for a price not specified in the email she sent to me (read: unaffordable 
).
This probably insane stash of money gets you the following specs:
Not much to add here…except that I will most definitely stick to my Omnia 7.
P.S. I had to look it up, too – Jil Sander is a fashion house…
We have had our fair share of reports about Windows Phone 7 becoming cheaper in the past – an unified hardware architecture indeed has its benefits.
An article on BusinessWeek now contains the following gems:
Models using Mango to be introduced in the next few months will require as little as $220 to produce, before the cost falls further in 2012, Lees said.
“We are supporting componentry that will allow us to go below $200,” he said, referring to handset production costs.
Lower prices will mean less royalty revenue per phone because Microsoft offers tiered pricing, based on the manufacturing cost of the handset, he said.
Microsoft works exclusively with Qualcomm to develop chips … There is currently no plan to work with other semiconductor makers for Windows Phone 7 devices, he said.
Given that the main other mobile semicon maker is Samsung, this remains to become very interesting – I would not be surprised if Samsung would end up pulling the plug on its Windows Phone devices in retaliation at some future point in time…
After RIM intentionally leaked a few BlackBerry phones via its developer site, it is only logical that Nokia follows suit with its upcoming Nokia 710.
MyNokiaBlog.com archived the following screenshot:
The screen resolution clearly points at Windows Phone – not much else to add here…
HTC’s two upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices have been priced recently – so far, none of the two critters has been reviewed.
This has now changed, with the first review of the HTC Titan emerging. Engadget concludes the review as following:
The Titan can certainly count itself among that standout minority, thanks to the way its oversized display, superb camera and overall build quality jibe so well with the generally slick and wonderful Windows Phone OS.
Not all the surprises are positive, though. The WVGA panel delivers poor pixel density, the 16GB of flash storage is inexplicably non-expandable and the lack of apps and occasional bugginess of the OS may all be bothersome, depending on your priorities and temperament.
Hit the URL below to find out more:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/17/htc-titan-review/
HTC has recently announced a variety of new Windows Phone 7 devices, which have not been available for sale so far.
Courtesy of the French retailer BlueTrade, we now have price quotes for the two new Windows Phone 7 devices:
HTC Radar: 507€
Not much to add here…
In Austria, a strange song mourning the apparent death of a lumberjack called Michel was a popular ear-sore some years ago. And just as with our Holzmichel, the Zune HD can neither live nor die properly.
After posting a hardware discontinuation notice to the Zune website, this has now popped up on the official Zune Twitter feed:
If you ask me, it is just a question of time – stay tuned for further info as we get it!
When it comes to Windows Phone, Nokia has been quite leaky recently.
A (currently off-line) French site now brings us the following image from the French carrier Orange:
Not much to add here as of this writing…exceot that the planned launch fate of 7th November ties in nicely with the Nokia World event in London…
The data from the Swedish case manufacturer Krusell is extraordinarily useful as it shows “real world” data rather than the more power-user-centric data collected from things like in-app analytics.
For September 2011, the data looks as following:
PRESS RELEASE – Krusell – TOP-10 selling phones for September 2011.
1. (1) Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
2. (2) Apple iPhone 4
3. (3) Nokia 3720 Classic
4. (-) Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray
5. (7) Samsung B2100
6. (-) HTC Sensation
7. (-) Sony Ericsson Arc S
8. (8) Nokia 6303 Classic
9. (6) Samsung GT-B2710 / Xcover 271
10. (-) Nokia E52
() = Last month’s position.The headline for Krusell’s Top Seller list of September is that in Top 3, nothing has changed from last month. Samsung Galaxy II is still the number one selling case. What is more interesting on the list is that Sony Ericsson is climbing the list with both Ray and Arc, says Ulf Sandberg CEO at Krusell. The new updated Arc S, with as a new processor and updated software has got a lot of good media which shows in the statistics. Also Ray has been met with positive feedback, and the target for Q4 is set high on this device.
Not much to add here…except that Sony Ericsson is infamous for its bad product quality and customer service…
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