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If you thought HTC was being a bit “overly ambitious” with the 4.5-inch HTC Holiday (Raider) you ain’t seen nothing yet. Looks like HTC is working on a monster device they’re calling the Runnymede. Apparently, this device showed up like so many devices do, in some EXIF data on a photo site but that didn’t provide any more info than a name. Well, now they boys at Pocketnow have gotten the low down on a more complete list of specs and exactly what to expect from the HTC Runnymede.
- Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread
- 4.7-inch, 480×800 display
- 1.5GHz single-core MSM8255
- 768MB of RAM / 16GB of storage
- 8MP/720p rear-camera with dual LED
- 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
- Under 10 millimeters thick
- Sense 3.5
- DLNA
- Bundled Beats headphones (not earphones)
I know most of you see single-core processor and you’re ready to write this device off but there are some other winning specs like that make this device stand out. Like the backlit sensored camera that features a 28mm wide-angle lens and focal ratio of f/2.2. Besides snapping amazing pics, the camera is capable of capturing 60 frames-per-second HD video.
You can expect the HTC Runnymede in time for the holidays but still no word on which carrier will pick this up. What do you guys think? I hear 4.7-inches is the new 4.5.
[Via Pocketnow]
480* 800 ….just with 4.7 inch…doesn’t fit
I agree. HTC has been putting qHD panels into it’s flagship handsets recently. I don’t believe this is genuine.
yep makes no sense at all.
I was about to say the same thing
Low end large phones? or maybes it’s a PMP of some kind?
That’s what I was thinking.
Hmm, 4.7 inch phone running Android 2 instead of ICS, with a 480×800 resolution instead of 720p, and a single core CPU instead of dual core? I suppose I can understand if this is meant to be a new mid tier device. However the lack of ICS still doesn’t seem to make much sense here. With such a large screen, the lack of capacitive buttons on the bezel seems like it would help keep the phone size down a great deal.
As is, this phone sounds like its going to be rather large, yet lack the horsepower you would expect from a phone that size. Strannnnge days…..
-http://mobiletechspot.blogspot.com
IMO you will not see ICS on ANY sense phone for AT LEAST a couple months after it is finally released on the new nexus. Plus if they do as they always do it will launch with GB and ICS update will be delayed several times:(
4.3″ is my tops…no need for bigger when there are tablets!
I hate this trend of huge screens! The sensation I have feels just a little too big at 4.3″. It’s a little hard to get in and out of pockets and just feels a little bigger than a phone should in my hands, then bump that size up to 4.5″, and then 4.7″!?! Yikes, imagine the dimension difference of a 3.5″ iphone to a 4.7″ HTC phone…
Looks like a typo. The specs – including the resolution – point rather towards a Desire-like device which had a 3.7″ screen.
A 4.7″ screen would be highly ridiculous.
I think a higher spec camera is great, but these screen sizes are getting out of hand. It seems almost everyone bitches about them so why do they keep getting bigger. It wouldn’t be so bad if we had I choice but, it seems like everything is huge now.
Regardless of the specs of THIS device, a 4.7″ display on any phone would make it too large for most people to use comfortably as a phone – you know, when you hold it to the side of your head and listen to it and speak into it. Maybe manufacturers think those of us who use a phone this way are a dying breed, and maybe we are, but there is also a limit to what can stowed in a belt holster without constantly banging it into things, or comfortably fit into… (gak!)… your pants pocket.
how many people actually do that anymore? most people I see are either using headphones or a BT headset, the only ones I still see with their phone plastered to their heads are those still using dumbphones.
I finally got to play with an infuse yesterday and I have to say I think I could handle a 4.5 inch screen but that is the absolute maximum. If the mfrs keep up this trend guys are going to have to stat carrying purses just to hold their phone. lol
I’m waiting for the 72″ fold-up plasma phone. That way, you can walk around with 125 pounds worth of phone in your pocket. Gaming would be bitchin’ though.
Originally the Sidekick was supposed to be a niche device. No one thought it would catch on because of the size, and we all know how that turned out. This seems to be quite large, but if it lives up to the media capabilities then it could be straddling the space between phones and tablets. The beats headphones (not cheap themselves) also point in that direction.
Cool name – ‘Runnymede’ is where the Magna Carta was signed in England. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
people complaining about the screen size and making it hard to get the phone out of your pockets need to quit wearing girl jeans!!
Nah I think its the fact whippin the phone out and can’t help but feel its a hi tech Zack Morris phone. Lets hold off on upin the screen size 4.3 seems perfect 4.5 I guess is 2nd lets not get carried away
Nah I think its the fact whippin the phone out and can’t help but feel its a hi tech Zack Morris phone. Lets hold off on upin the screen size 4.3 seems perfect 4.5 I guess is 2nd lets not get carried away
3.7 – 4.0 is the perfect phone sizes for me. I’m old enough to have experienced the “Zack Morris phone” and don’t want to ever come close to that again.
Cosign!! When you wear regular fit jeans, and not denim stretch pants, I don’t think this problem exists.
Is it confirmed this is a phone? Sounds more like a kick-ass mdia player.
If they’re going to make a 4.7″ phone it should have a better resolution and more power not less.
This phone would make sense if it was a WP7. As an Android phone it will be just as “successful” as the Dell Streak.
Bigger is better … I wish those 7 inch tablets could make phone calls. I’d just carry the 7″ tablet and not have a phone. (seriously, I’m not being sarcastic).
I respectfully disagree. I wouldn’t want 7 inches of screen melting the side of my face off while I’m making a call. Seriously, imagine you are doing some heavy gaming/browsing/whatever and you get a call… my screen gets hot as hell at times…. I don’t think i could get used to that…
You done use bluetooth yet? That would be why… that 1 little piece of equipment changes everything.
wasn’t ever a real big fan of bluetooth… unless maybe in cars
I’d actually prefer a 5.5 screen phone if one was available. Basically a pocket-able tablet. When I make phone calls I use Bluetooth anyways so this to me is a step in the right direction. Will be big enough for Honeycomb soon.
ICS*
This is definitely for people who use their phone as a camera, rather than a gaming platform. Typo or not, the large screen would be nice for reviewing photos, and this should be OK for watching videos too. This would be perfect for my job.
IMO a 4″ phone is perfect. The screen is larger enough to type emails and cruise the net comfortably yet it’s not too big to fit in your pocket. 4.7″ is getting ridiculous. Remember the good ol days when smaller was better…lol.
*yawn* you mean they still making single core processors? Sounds like nothing spectacular to me. Not much bigger than the epic 4g touch, and the screen probably won’t look any where near as good as the epic either. It won’t keep up in performance, yet they will probably charge the same.
4″ = Big enough
4.3″ = A little too big, but acceptable
4.5″ = Way too big
4.7″ = That’s just absurd
Wrong. You have to look at the whole phone design. Some phones with 3.2″ screens have ridiculous 1″ bezels taking up empty space (Samsung Moment). They are bigger than the 4.0″ phones. If a 4.7″ screen has no bezel, then it can be a very compact phone that’s pretty much all screen.
A lot of people just can’t think beyond single numbers. Use your brains people!!
Chris is asking the wrong question.
How big is too big for the phone dimensions? That’s what goes in your pocket. If I use Sprint’s design for their Galaxy S II for example, I get a 4.5″ screen in a 129.9 x 69.6 x 9.59 mm phone. For me that is too big. The width is OK, my limit there is around 70-72, but I think 68 is more marketable. But a height over 125 mm is starting to jam my pocket when I sit down and that is where I prefer to put my phone.
Luckily, a very reasonable phone size of 120 x 66 mm can hold a very big screen when the technology advances and phone manufactures wise up and either lose the buttons on the front panel or make them very thin like the Droid X. As bezels shrink to 2.5 mm, you could get up to a 4.9″ screen on this phone size. At 1280×720, that’s 300 DPI on the money so the motive to go any bigger is reduced until you bump resolutions and that makes no sense for a phone (a tablet yes). And with 4.65″ (my choice), you have 8.5 and 4.5 mm bezels which is very doable now. But I’d rather have the 4.9″ – I’ll take the biggest damn screen I can get on a 120×66 phone.
No potential for ice cream sandwich. This phone already 18 months old just with a bigger screen
The 4.7 inc screen is not to big…IF and ONLY IF it has no bezel and casing whatsoever. It should be a thin peace of glass screen with no borders at ALL, then and only then will it not be too big. Seeing as it doesnt run ICS, it must have buttons under the screen = TOO BIG = BIG FAIL
Ok so take the the desire hd, give a better camera and stretch already low res screen to a larger size and you have a gigantic 1.5 year fail that every soccer mom and sorority chick will jam into their 1200 dollar purses next to their iPhone and the latest edition of cosmo. NEXT!!!
Could it be a PMP type device possibly?That screen size would make sense then. I love 4.3 (my sweet spot) but 4.7, that is ridiculous.
How big is too big? If it doesn’t fit in my pocket, then it is too big. If someone could somehow get a 7 inch screen in my pocket, I will buy it.
I have 5″ Dell Streak — pretty pocketable, as I don’t wear spandex. The statement that it’s too large for phone calls is ridiculous, because my wireless phone is still taller than Streak, and you already forgot that you’ve been using such phones for decades? It’s easy to hold it in the hand, but it’s not for one-hand operation. I could do with larger resolution though, but it’s not critical for experience — it’s set to lower PPI, so you get to fit more data on the screen without it looking pixelated.
Maybe it’s not a “girls phone”, but I wait for the moment where 5″ will be standard. I could even do with 5.5-6″ if the bezel was reduced to minimum.
Btw Streak’s screen doesn’t get hot (and it’s turned off during the calls anyway), and actually its size helps not to get screen stuck to your face.
ithink to big is mostly a matter to ones size. In other words, in most cases bigg er people like bigger phone. And little er people like 3.7 and such.
I know the dell streak didnt sell in the U.S but I LOVE MY DELL STREAK and i LOVE the size of it.. Next phone I get will be 5 – 5.5 inches.. no less.. Looking forward to Samsung galaxy Q 5.3 inch Phone
I wonder who’s gonna be the first company to make a phone tab