Motorola "Sholes"

The good:
480x852 screen 3.7" touch screen
5 megapixel camera
physical keyboard with dedicated number row
dpad

The bad:
CDMA/EVDO on Verizon, instead of being a GSM phone
4 row keyboard instead of 5
dpad is on the keyboard, not the face
While the memory is better than the G1, it still seems a little anaemic to me.


But, it's the first post-G1 android device I've thought about.

EDIT: Article with better pictures

I wants it. This has the potential to be absolutely perfect, except:

Bluetooth 2.0: 2.1/EDR with A2DP plz. I don't actually care about this, but the fact that they got it wrong makes me nervous about the other stuff.

Multitouch? If it doesn't have it, it could be a deal breaker. Remember, apple claims to have a patent on it. Palm had the balls and the patent portfolio to release the pre, and multitouch followed in the Hero and the Zii, but we don't know if Moto is going to try and avoid trouble.

CPU? If this has the same cpu as the Hero, it is absolutely useless. At the very least it needs the same one as the 3GS/Pre in order to take advantage of that amazing resolution. The one in the 3GS can be clocked upto 800mhz from the current 600mhz, and there is also a 1ghz model. Motorola needs to be at the upper end of these speeds. There is of course the multicore Zii, but I doubt that they would have already integrated it into a phone shipping in October.

Verizon sucks, I wish this was coming to Sprint instead at the very least. Of course, they all suck, but at least Sprint is cheap.

I think I was wrong about the bluetooth, it does have EDR, here is a more full spec list


* 3.7 inch touch screen
* 480×854 pixels resolution
* QWERTY slider
* Verizon bound
* Standard CDMA, EVDO Rev A.
* Dimensions: 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
* Weight 169g
* Battery Li-ion 1400mAh.
* 450 hours standby time
* 420 minutes talk time
* Memory (FLASH / RAM): 512MB/256MB
* Memory card microSD / microSDHC up to 16 GB
* Messaging: SMS, MMS, E-Mail
* Full HTML browser
* 5 MP camera with autofocus
* USB2.0
* 3.5mm heaset jack
* Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR 1
* Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
* Audio: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, WMA
* Video: MPEG-4, H263, H264, WMV
* Navigation: GPS
* Package Contents: Phone Motorola Sholes, battery, charger, USB cable, memory card 8GB MicroSD and other literature.

re: multi-touch: meh. I haven't really found a situation where I needed it.

And, on multi-touch patents, I think it'll be funny to see Apple try to enforce its patent given that another company had multi-touch first (and, IIRC, Apple licensed it from them).

I think it would funny to see Apple sue Motorola, after they (and IBM) supplied all their CPUs for their computers for a decade.

Multitouch is important though, especially on a device like this without the dedicated zoom buttons like the n800. "Pushing" fake buttons on screen isn't as intuitive as using gestures(or the hardware keyboard). Given that this is a high end device, there would be no reason not to have multitouch other than the patent issue.

It really all comes down to hte CPU though. The Samsung Galaxy and the HTC Hero are both useless because they have obsolete CPUs.

IF I was doing lots of zooming, rotating, etc. on any of my pocketable devices (n800, n810, g1), I would see your point. If I was doing _ANY_ of it, I would see your point.

But I don't. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. Thus my statement: multi-touch = meh.

I guess it is more important on the smaller devices like the ipod touch where you are constantly zooming. Still, like I said, there is no reason not to have it. It doesn't detract from the user experience. I think the Palm Pre makes hte best use of it, with the gesture area on the bottom allowing you to launch apps without leaving full screen, as well as the gesture to switch between app windows.

Multitouch is also important for games.

More details

Looks like it might have a GSM/WCDMA version coming to AT&T after the Verizon one is out.

to bad that motorola pulled out of the norwegian market some years ago, and just when they started producing some interesting phones to...

Would that keep you from getting a European GSM/UMTS version (if it comes out), on the grey market, and using it in Norway?