Sharp unwraps 'world first' Intel Atom phone
Runs Windows Vista
Chip giant Intel doesn't reckon its Atom chip family will be ready for mobile phones until 2009-2010, but that hasn't stopped Japanese carrier Willcom punting an Atom-based handset - the first if its kind, the company claimed.
The D4: made by Sharp, sold by Willcom, powered by Intel
The Sharp-made D4 uses Intel's Centrino Atom platform to run Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. It has a 1.33GHz Atom Z520 on board, along with 1GB of 533MHz DDR 2 memory and a 40GB 1.8in hard drive.
Watch out, Nokia N810
The 188 x 84 x 25.9mm, 470g device sports a full Qwerty keyboard and a 5in, 1024 x 600 display. It has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and PHS network compatibility. PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) is the cellular technology Willcom's network uses.
There's a two-megapixel camera on the back, a Micro SD card slot of storage expansion, a USB port for PC connectivity and an integrated TV tuner.
The D4 is set to retail for ¥128,600 ($1275/£647/€811) to which you can add ¥1600 a month for two years, which is the minimum contract. The handset is due to go on sale in Japan in June - the month Intel ships Atom.
COMMENTS
Zaurus replacement
Looks like they have come up with the zaurus replacement. Sure, it's a communications brick and its running ME2 but that's all going to make it cheaper for me when I replace my SL1000 in a year or two :) Phone, bluetooth, a bigger screen and a lot more powerfull, good stuff. No-one has mentioned battery life though, could be half that bulky brick of a phone is li-ion cells. and it still needs plugged in twice a day if you actually use it as a PDA/PC/mini laptop thing.
cheers
Oh dear...
Another gutsy little CPU and nice device dragged to a screaming halt by a huge bloated OS.
You only have to look at the Eee to see what you can do with a nice light OS, for a fraction of the price. No hard drive required!
Now if only the made an Eee phone....
nokia tablets and zaurus have nothing to fear
this isn't a handheld computer like the nokia tablets or the zaurus or even windowsMobiles like the HTC universal.
no, this is a new breed of device, the portable slab, or sub-MID.
nice spec, shame about the weight, size, and the OS!
Hard drive VS flash
A hard drive and it's power consumption, weight, noise and low reliability?
How 90's.
32G flash is mainstream now on a half inch chip for $70 retail so would add a few tens of dollars to the cost (minus the hard disk). Not fast enough? Put two 16G in parallel -- probably cheaper but more real estate.
does it come with a chiropractor?
you're gonna need it holding that monster up to your ear for any length of time. Headset mandatory to keep from causing physical strain, not to mention the blind spot.
It'd be even funnier to see than the N-gage 'side talkin'"
