By It’s amazing that in September 2006, UMPC Portal wrote about the Road S101 which would be coming out soon. Almost 3 years later, the device STILL hasn’t hit the market. However, the same guys got ahold of the “still in development” Road S101 and perhaps all these delays were a blessing in disguise… because now it just might launch running Android!
The phone wasn’t initially developed for the Android platform (obviously) but if you ask me, it makes perfect sense for the company to move in this direction. Being 3 years in the making, the phone DOES look a tad bit outdate and in the below video where a Linux OS is running this thing looks WAY too THICK and CHUBBY for my liking. Anyone agree?
Two more downsides:
- It only has 2.5G connectivity
- It will cost about 800 Euro – OUCH
A bit too pricey for an Android Phone that doesn’t really touch the G1/Dream/Magic, don’t you think? But I do have to say the keyboard looks AMAZING and resembles the LG Voyager keyboard which I happen to think is top of the line. UMPC Portal agreed.
Here are the full specs for the device but this isn’t written in stone… especially considering its been scribbled and rescribbled on paper since 2006.
- Processor Marvell PXA270 at 512MHz
- Memory 128MB RAM and 512MB Flash
- Battery 1800mAh Lithium-Polymer
- Linux kernel 2.6.x with graphical user interface Qtopia
- Phone
– Display: color 128×160
– Keyboard: 21-key standard-phone
– Audio: microfone and receiver/speaker
– Alarm: acustical/optical/vibration- PC
– Display: TFT color 640×240 with touchscreen
– Keyboard: 63-key PC-compatible- Multimedia
– 4 external keys for control- Camera 1,3 Megapixel (optional)
- Battery Life: Phone: 4h active, 7 days standby
Battery life: PC: 5h active, 30 days standby (phone off)- Wireless Connectivity
– GSM Triband (900, 1800, 1900 MHz) with EDGE/GPRS Class 12
– WiFi 802.11b
– Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, class 2 (30m)- Hardwired Connectivity
– USB 2.0 OTG Microjack AB (Host/Client), incl. charging
– SD-card 2GB (+SDHC compatible) and SDIO
– headset or stereo headphone
[Via UMPC Portal, JKKMobile]
.. .. No pun intended on the name? wt..
haha
I personally think the keyboard looks terrible on that thing. Having the buttons in straight lines (or almost perfectly straight) makes it really difficult (for me) to type. Also, the buttons that don’t come up a little from the phone (as in, they’re flat, not bubbled up a little) and don’t “click” down, are pretty much awful imo.
This coming from someone that thought the Sidekick3 had the most perfect keyboard ever. G1/Dream is a close second, but those flat buttons slow me down. I like them raised/bubbled up a little, but obv the G1 can’t do that with it’s slide screen situation.
I would never buy that phone though, it looks like it’s from 3 years ago, the flip thing is so 3 years ago (remember those LG phones everyone had for a while?) and it’s way too chunky. I’m glad to see it has touch screen, it doesn’t look like it would and with that tiny screen I doubt it’s very useful. I’m sure a lot of market devs are going to get complaints that people can’t touch the buttons on the screen with very much accuracy.
Yep, I think this thing sucks. It’ll likely bomb as it looks hecka old and most people who are buying new touch screens will want something that looks like an iPhone/gPhone/Blackberry Storm. Nobody is going to pay more than an iPhone is worth for that phone.The longer they take to release it, I’d say, the more likely it will be a total failure. Phones are just getting newer and better looking, sleeker, more minimal. That thing has way too much going on visually, and yet not enough with that tiny screen. And those side arrows?? Yeah, those would get annoying really really quick.
It needs:
1) quadband GSM, maybe AT&T or T-Mobile-USA WCDMA
2) more resolution (at least G1 level of resolution, preferably 800×480, like the Nokia N810)
It’d also be nice to have an actual dpad on the keyboard, instead of the 4 arrow key arrangements.. a slightly larger device (4″ internal screen, for example) might allow for that.
And, of course, there’s a rumor that there will be a dual SIM card version. That’d be outstanding :-)