Dopod pops out music-centric smart phone

Asian smart-phone supplier Dopod has unveiled its latest HTC-made handsets, among them version of the manufacturer's familiar BlackBerry-like S620, the 3G-friendly P3600 and the GPS-enabled P3300. But a couple of other, unexpected models stood out from the rest.

Top of the list is Dopod's C800, a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device based on HTC's slide-out keyboard design. Unlike the manufacturer's other such devices, the C800 isn't a 3G phone. It's othere specs are pretty standard: two megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 with stereo audio, 2.8in 240 x 320 display, 802.11b Wi-Fi, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of Flash and a MicroSD card slot.

The M700 looks rather like the HTC P3300 - which Dopod's offering as the P800W - but drops the latter's GPS receiver in favour of an FM radio. Again, it has a two megapixel camera, 2.8in 240 x 320 display, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP for wireless stereo audio, and 802.11g Wi-Fi. The phone's a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE job.

Pitching the music playback angle, Dopod will bundle a 512MB MicroSD card with the M700, while HTC has equipped the handset with double the usual Flash complement: 256MB.

Both devices - and, indeed, the others - are due to ship later this month in Dopod's Asian markets. HTC owns a majority stake in Dopod. ®