By We’ve heard a lot abut this clamshell Android-based MID, but it’s only ever been available in Japan as its internal radios are compatible with Japan’s popular cellular networks. Still, retailer Conics has seemingly brought the Sharp IS01 over to the states in a WiFi-only state and will sell it for $246.
The device has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-inch 960 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, a rear-facing and front-facing camera, a full QWERTY keyboard exposed by opening the clmashell, a trackball, 3.4GB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot.
It only has Android 1.6, but that’s a small price to pay for this unique device. (And I’m sure a hacker would love to get their hands on this to fix that little issue.) [via Pocketables]
I someone gets it up to at least 2.1 then it’ll be something worth getting.
*if someone
Indeed. With a custom ROM this thing seems like it’d be quite the deal.
If only it had 2.2 (to use Chrome to Phone) I’d be all over this.
You know what would be really cool a flip open tablet where both sides are screen and when you open it they merge seemlesly in the midle and make one big 10″+ screen then has a slider keyboard lol
So this is the successor to the Zaurus.
ordered one, will make a decent video when i get it
oh and thanks for the tip :)
Isn’t this the same model that Sharp and KDDI have announced they won’t provide OS update due to hardware limitation? Just seen heated discussions on Slashdot Japan.