We’d forgive you for having forgotten about C-motech’s Mangrove UMPC; after all, the market for a 7-inch touchscreen tablet running Windows Mobile 6.5 is hardly vast. Still, we were interested to see the unit at Qualcomm’s event today, though its tubby form-factor was a whole lot less impressive when sat next to the Quanta Android Smartbook.
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Things have been quiet on HTC's Snapdragon Android plans since CEO Peter Chou squashed talk of an Android-based HD2, but that hasn't stopped "senior Android guys" from carrying around such a handset for at least the past few weeks. According to TechCrunch, the so-called HTC Dragon or HTC Passion is expected to hit shelves very soon, and will likely be thinner than the Motorola DROID or the Apple iPhone 3GS together with including Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon chipset.
Acer have confirmed that their first Android smartphone, the Acer Liquid A1, will arrive in late November, at least in the UK. According to retailer Clove, the Qualcomm Snapdragon based smartphone – which will run Android 1.6 Donut rather than the newer Android 2.0 OS – is priced at £286 pre-tax ($481).
Twelve months ago HTC shook up the Windows Mobile world with the launch of the Touch HD, a smartphone that offered a vast touchscreen, lashings of connectivity and the latest version of their UI tweaking, TouchFLO 3D, to produce what was hitherto thought impossible: an alluring Windows Phone. Now, the company have attempted just such a revolution with Windows Mobile 6.5 in the shape of the HTC HD2. They’ve upped their game with a speedy Snapdragon processor, even vaster display and a fresh UI that’s been educated by their recent work on Android. Can the HTC HD2 again do the unthinkable, and give us a reason to love Windows Mobile?
Sony Ericsson have finally come clean on their latest smartphone, and as expected it’s an Android flagship. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 – previously known as the Rachael and the X3 – is a Snapdragon-based touchscreen candybar, with a huge display, 8.1-megapixel camera and some “special sauce” in the shape of two homegrown applications – for communication aggregation and media aggregation – with a custom UI. SlashGear caught up with Sony Ericsson in London yesterday to take a look at the new smartphone, and find out why the company reckons this is the launch not only of the Android X10 but of a new “user experience platform”.
After the cut: live XPERIA X10 gallery and video
The weeks are just flying by, time change is this weekend so I hope you aren’t late for anything. The holidays will be here before we know it. This has been another busy week in the gadget world. HTC has confirmed that Android 2.0 smartphones are incoming and the HTC Dragon is the likely first Android 2.0 device to come from HTC.
Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA teaser may have been accused of being a little presumptuous, but that doesn’t mean we’re not excited about the Android device they’re announcing on November 3rd. Now a teaser video has emerged showing the XPERIA X3/X10 Rachael in action, and darn it if we’re not excited again.
Has Peter Chou just crushed our HTC Dragon dreams? In an interview with Forbes, the HTC CEO has stated that there will be no Android-based HD2: “technically, we could make the HD2 an Android phone,” Chou explained, “but I have to take care of Windows Mobile.” It’s all part of rejuvenating interest in Windows Phones, Chou reckons: “We’re working hard on these kinds of products to get excitement about Windows Mobile back.”
We may have accused the HTC Eris – aka the Verizon DROID Eris by HTC – as having underwhelming specs this week (what can we say, we want some Snapdragon!) but according to the latest batch of leaks Verizon will at least be pricing it right. gdgt’s Peter Rojas has heard from “a very trustworthy source” that the Android smartphone will be priced at $99 with a new two-year agreement, just half the price of the Verizon DROID by Motorola.
We’re still waiting for our HTC HD2 review unit to drop, but somewhere in the world there must be a secret supply of the promising Windows Phone as SoloPalmari have managed to acquire one for a swift unboxing. Your home experience won’t quite be the same as this – they admit this isn’t the final packaging, in fact – but considering we’ll gobble up just about any live HD2 footage we can find, you won’t hear us arguing.
Video unboxing after the cut
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