There’s always a surprise or two on the last day at an exhibition. I spotted this newbie on the Sequans booth at MWC and it wasn’t until I reviewed my photos this evening that I bothered to look any further into it. It turns out to be quite interesting.

The Moblic E7 has a 4” WVGA touchscreen in an attractive body which includes a slider keyboard, a 600Mhz CPU, 8GB Flash, Wimax Support, Micro SD card and a huge, 2000mah battery. As for the details on the CPU, we’re not sure although the Wimax chipset supplier (Sequans) mumbled something about Atom before confessing he really knew nothing about it. The large battery does suggest a hefty CPU though so maybe this is a Moorestown handset!

More likely is that it’s a 3D-capable ARM Cortex-A8 platform than anything with Intel inside and that would pair nicely with the 256MB RAM for some full-on Internet or gaming action. OS is unknown at this point although we I note that Mobilc announced a partnership with Microsoft in the middle of this year. Maybe it’s a Zune-Xbox-Windows 7 Series thingy!!!

We managed to tease it out from behind glass but only had time for pics and a look around the device which felt very well built. Obviously we’ve sent off an email requesting more details.

You can clearly see that this is designed for gaming on the go.

The Moblic webpage yields the following…

Definitely a competitor to the ODroid. What do you think?

Intel are certainly not scared of operating systems. While we were at the Pepcom MWC event yesterday we got to see the Aaava Moorestown prototype running Android. Clearly Aava and Intel just want to demonstrate that anything is possible so I guess next year we can expect Windows Phone 7 to be running on it!!!

Watch for two interesting items of news in the video.

• Moorestown is clocking at 600Mhz on phones at the moment but has a turbo mode that will peak at 1.5Ghz.
• There Windows (desktop) version of Moorestown will be called Moorestown-W

‘Always-on’ is going to be a seriously important weapon in the fight for the netbook market for ARM-based ‘smart’ devices. I’m 100% sure that the first manufacturer that brings this seamless experience to customers in a fast, well-designed, well-priced device will cause waves in the netbook market. Customers that switch to the ‘always-on’ model aren’t going to go back to anything less.

Not only is always-on going to allow mail and social network polling and instant-use scenarios, it’s also going to enable a whole new range of applications. From a simple alarm clock to video and voice calling, these applications just won’t be possible on Intel-based netbooks with the current platform.

I spent a long time with the Airlife 100 today. It’s a 100% ARM (Snapdragon 1Ghz) ‘smart’ device being offered by Telefonica in Spain. Pricing and availability is not known at the moment but we’re estimating that this one will be free on a 24-month contract.

The 10-minute video below shows the user interface, applications and a look round the design of the device.

Meet:Mobility Podcast 42 is now available. Recorded on  10th Feb 2010. Podcast notes below.

Listen to the podcasts by clicking on the mp3 link or download/play via the link. Subscription info below. (RSS, iTunes)

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Show Notes:

Netbooks

Samsung N150, NB50  arrived at netbook news
Info and test coming at Netbooknews.com

Battery battle. Marketing. Differential between marketing and real-world getting too wide.
Steve Jobs said that 10hrs is enough – Overnight charging is good enough. Really?

Smartphones/Smartbooks/MIDs

Android stuff
- multitouch to maps browser etc
- Milestone to 2.01 camera fix, new lock etc hacks
Archos goes Linux
Joo Joo to ship by end of Feb. App store

There are now 40+ app stores in total

UMPCs

UMID BZ now shipping from Dynamism $549
ExoPC, Nav 9, Evi Group Pad.

MWC

Dell Mini 5
Inbrics
HP new 3G device. Tablet.
Notion Ink latest-gen NVIDIA Tegra chipset and Pixel Qi’s (Slashgearnews)
Meetmobility event:
http://meetmobility.com/2010/02/09/meet-mobility-at-mwc-2010/

We’ve just had confirmation that Dell will be presenting the Dell Mini 5 at the Mobile World Congress ‘Pepcom’ event in Barcelona, next Monday.

We’ll be at MWC next week so we’re already registered for this event and will be aiming to get you some pics, video, hands-on thoughts and of course, we’ll be watching out for pricing and availability announcements.

Also related to the Pepcom event we’ve heard that HP will be showing some ‘touch’ and ‘mobile’ devices including a ‘new 3G addition.’ Intel will be showing their range of mobile devices (we expect the Intel-based LG GW990 to be there.) Qualcom will also be showing their Mirasol display technology so it’s going to be a busy evening!

Watch out for posts later on Monday evening and Tuesday morning.