I am certainly not qualified to talk in-depth at the Xperia Play gaming experience but I was certainly quite excited to see the hardware controls and game quality. In the video you hear me talking to a Sony Ericsson representative about the product. We discuss battery life, pricing, availability, get a gaming demo and take a look round the device.
The Xperia play runs Android 2.3 on a Snapdragon 1Ghz CPU (MSM8255with Adreno 205 GPU) with a 4” ‘Reality’ display at a true 16:9, 854 x 480 resolution. Note that Android 2.3 brought in some touch responsiveness extensions and enhancements.
What’s important to me is that another major company is now switching to the ARM/Android chassis for another product category which means Android is now in phones, tablets, media players, cameras, gaming devices, TVs and smartbooks. What’s category do you think Google are looking at for it’s next ‘device-specific ’ branch of Android? Set-top-boxes is something I’ve been keeping an eye on.
The HTC Flyer is in no fit state to be assessed right now and I wonder why HTC actually bother showing such a critical device in their portfolio at such big events. The pen system doesn’t work, the software is not complete and even the design of the device is changing. I expect to see this sort of activity from, lets say, 2nd-tier ODMs but not someone like HTC.
So what is there to say about the product? It’s got a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor (single-core, apologies for the error in the video) and Android 2.4. Google applications are available and it’s a similar size to the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
IF the pen feature works for both handwriting and ‘snipping’ it’s an interesting idea but the pen has no silo and even requires batteries. I can’t see anyone remembering to take the pen with them or even bother to get it out of their bag when needed. There’s no voice, SMS and MMS capability either.
Yes, the processing speed is good. Yes the HTC Sense adds value to many. Yes, the price will drop soon after launch.
Is it enough to tempt people away from the Galaxy Tab which is likely to be half the price in Europe when the HTC Flyer launches in May or June.
Shuttle already make a couple of tablets as an OED but there’s a few more on show today including two 10″ Tegra devices with different designs. Both of these are available to the OEM with a choice of processing platforms including Tegra 2. There’s a choice of screen resolution too. The new devices are due to be ready in May along with the 7″ device, a non working sample, shown in the image below.
Posted from WordPress for Android with the Galaxy Tab
Targeted for end of May with a €499 entry price, this is the Asus Eee Pad MeMo running dual-core, 1.2Ghz Snapdragon and showing the Bluetooth handset. Voice apps also feature on this device.
Posted from WordPress for Android with the Galaxy Tab
I just wanted to drop you all a note to let you know we’ll be doing a MeetMobility podcast in a few hours. At 1200 GMT+1 on Meetbobility.com/live you’ll find Sascha, JKK and myself talking our usual mobile computing talk with a focus on what happened (or didn’t!) at CeBIT. We guess you guys in the US are still going to be tucked up in bed but don’t worry, it will be recorded and will probably be available by the time you hit that power button. (The reason we have to do it so early is because it’s late in Taipei and that’s where Sascha is.)
Following our podcast and dovetailing in very nicely is the Mobile Tech Roundup Podcast. James, Kevin and Matt will be doing their first live podcast a few hours after us at 0800 Central time (1400 GMT+1) You can catch these guys at UStream.Tv/channel/mobiletechroundup
CeBIT is a little different for me this year as I’m staying home on ‘baby alert.’ Assuming my wife doesn’t go into labor early I’m going to make the most of it by taking the opportunity to get some good overview coverage going. I’ll be working in the studio covering news as it comes in and then, every two hours I’ll be pulling together a 10 minute update for MeetMobility. The MeetMobility team are already on the ground in Hanover, we’ve tested all the equipment and we’re ready to go. More information on our live sessions at MeetMobility…
We’ve just had word from Archos’ German PR company that Archos will announce two new Android Tablets at CeBIT.
…wird ARCHOS zwei brandneue kostengünstige Android Tablets, die speziell für den Gebrauch zu Hause designt wurden, vorstellen.
My translation: Archos will introduce two brand new, good value Android Tablets that are specially designed for use in the home.
So we know about the Archos 7 (I’m hearing rumors that the design doesn’t follow the same lines as the Archos 5) but what will the other one be? Archos 9 Android Tablet? Will they beat Apple to the 9” market?
One down-side to the news is that it looks like we won’t see any 3G-enabled tablets being announced.
