If only this was a hoax. Yes, that’s some bitter talk alright, because this Motorola MT716 from China Mobile is almost the perfect Droid that we once had on our dusty wish list: a similar slider form factor but with a hard-cap keyboard, as opposed to one with spongy mashers. In fact, eagle-eyed readers might have already spotted that this is the exact same keyboard as featured on the Cliq. Compared to its distant relative, other differences on this OPhone include an 8 megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash and 720p camcorder feature), an extra VGA front-facing camera, TD-SCDMA radio, WAPI connectivity (WiFi-compatible), and CMMB TV streaming; otherwise, you’ll find the same weedy 600MHz TI OMAP3430 chip, 480 x 854 LCD, AGPS and Bluetooth 2.1 inside. Now if you’ll excuse us — we have a petition to write up.
We’re actually surprised it’s taken that long for Sony Ericsson to join China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA bandwagon (potentially 554 million accounts!), but as the old Chinese proverb goes: “it’s never too late to fix the fence, even if you’ve already lost a few sheep.” The new Ophone 2.0 handset in question is the A8i, which bears much resemblance to the oh-so-popular Xperia X10 (also available in China) except for the smaller 3.5-inch touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, CMMB mobile TV feature, and the seemingly missing Timescape plus Mediascape apps. No prices announced just yet, but we’re told that both the “Titanium Black” and “Shiny White” editions will be heavily subsidized when they come out in October.
Motorola’s venerable MING handset revisions were just made official in three Android-toting varieties for China Unicom (model A1680 pictured above left), China Mobile (MT810, pictured center), and China Telecom (XT806, on the right). The TD-SCDMA riding MT810 ships with the Android derived OPhone 2.0 operating system and two touchscreen displays: a 3.2-inch stylus-friendly resistive touchscreen and a second transparent capacitive cover that provides a finger-friendly experience when closed. Other specs include 720 x 480 video capture, 720p video playback, and support for China’s CMMB mobile television spec. China Telecom’s XT806 is built on Android 2.1 with GPS, 720p video capture, and support for both CDMA EVDO and GSM for global wanderings. Finally, China Unicom’s A1680 packs a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, Chinese WAPI WiFi, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and Motorola’s sixth-generation SoftStylus handwriting system.
Remember the Motorola MT820 that got leaked in China last week? Well, for some mysterious reason it’s now adopted a new name — MT810 (but with the same codename, “North Sea”). According to IT168, the tipster isn’t exactly clear on whether the two model numbers refer to the same hardware configuration, but a quick search on the Chinese regulator’s database reveals just MT810, and that it’ll work on China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network and WAPI (China’s own take on WiFi). Going back to the latest leak: we’re now learning that the camera will capture 720p footage — apparently a first on the Ophone platform — and a minimum of 5-megapixel stills, accompanied by an LED flash. As for the flip cover, turns out it also serves as a capacitive touch layer, while the screen underneath is coupled with the good-old resistive digitizer — ideal for those who prefer writing Chinese with a pointy stylus instead of a sausage. Sadly, the tipster’s still mum about the cover’s rumored 3D filter capability, which would in theory go nicely with some live soccer on the phone’s CMMB mobile TV capability, as teased by a recent commercial on China’s national television — video after the break, if you can bear the jealousy.
If we need another reason to be envious of Chinese residents, it’d be the premium treatment that they’re getting from Dell these days. Spotted on Chinese mobile regulator TENAA’s website are two 3G phones from seemingly different design departments — the never-before-seen Mini 3T1 (pictured) is a “TD-SCDMA / GSM dual-mode cellphone” that “supports HSDPA,” dons a 2-megapixel camera on the back plus a front-facing one, and we’re betting on Ophone for the OS; the second device is the familiar Mini 3iX (an exotic cousin of AT&T’s Aero) that will sport the same old WCDMA radio and WAPI (the Chinese equivalent of WiFi). No word on availability of either handsets in China yet, but hey, who cares when the Streak is on the horizon?
Update: on the same website we also dug up the Mini 3iW — essentially the Mini 3i (so just 2G and no WiFi) but with the additional WAPI radio.
It’s no surprise that the MotorolaXT701 (aka Motoroi) was going to land in the hands of China Unicom with its WCDMA radio, but man, that must’ve been a painful two-and-a-half-month wait for Chinese Motofans. Mind you, considering earlier worries about Google’s departure from China, it’s better late than never, right? Like its Korean and American counterparts, the XT701 also sports Android 2.0 but boosted with WAPI support — China’s very own WiFI standard. Fork out ¥4,299 or about $630 and this phone’s yours.
We’ve already had a quick look at the Korean Motorola MOTOROI, and we figured it was only fair if we gave the Motorola MT710 a fair shake, too. The MT710 is running the Android-based Ophone OS on some pretty sweet hardware including an 854 x 480 FWVGA resistive touchscreen display — to help with Chinese handwriting recognition we’d bet — replacing HSPA 3G with TD-SCDMA for 3G, and a pretty slick housing accented in reflective and red metals. Of course the MT710 isn’t meant for our market, but we’re still encouraged to see how many Android sets are cropping up here at the show and indeed from Motorola.
Remember the OPhone platform, Open Mobile System? You know, China Mobile’s supposedly beefed up Android? Things have become even more interesting as OMS jumps from 1.5 to 2.0 — it now supports Scalable Vector Graphics UI elements and does voice recognition, but what really caught our attention was the vague mention of Windows Mobile API support. Now, our understanding is that it’s been China Mobile’s intention to make Symbian and WinMo apps run on OMS all along, but we don’t know if this update means WinMo apps will run natively in OMS through some compatibility layer, if there’ll be Symbian- and WinMo-based versions of OPhone, or that it’ll just be easier for developers to port WinMo apps to OMS. No word on what phones will be getting 2.0 or when they’ll be getting it, but considering Android’s generally positive outlook on upgradeability, we’re hoping the answers are ‘all’ and ‘soon.’
We’ve been graced with a stack of new shots of Lenovo’s LePhone, and, beauty aside, another standout here is the similarity of this phone’s Android / OPhone skin to Lenovo’s Skylight OS. Of course, they’re not the same UI exactly, but, between that and the optional keyboard accessory that mirrors the IdeaPad U1‘s detachable display, it looks like the beginning of a happy — and winsome — family. Wander on to the gallery for all the shimmering and glossy poses — including one that looks suspiciously like HTC’s typical exploded view of all angles.
Even through the lean years, Moto’s been making waves in China where it enjoys comparably high popularity — it was one of the first major manufacturers to throw its support behind the nation’s homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G tech, after all, and it’s had a tendency to get the company’s sexier WinMo smartphones like the SURF. On that note, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see that they’ve now announced not one, not two, but three fairly attractive, high-end Android handsets specifically for duty in the Far East, one for each of China’s big three carriers (each of which employs a different 3G technology, per the gub’mint’s orders). Starting on the left, the XT701 is the phone that we’d believed to be the Sholes Tablet — and considering that it uses HSPA for China Unicom’s airwaves, we still have no reason to believe it couldn’t make the leap across the Pacific. The MT710 (pictured center) is an OPhone for China Mobile and stands the least chance of making an unfettered jump to another continent since it uses a completely customized UI along with a positively China-only TD-SCDMA radio. Finally, the XT800 on the right looks like a Dell Mini 3i done right to us, rocking dual-mode GSM and EV-DO for China Telecom’s rather heterogeneous network. We’ve got to hand it to Moto here: by all appearances, these 3.7-inch WVGA, 5 megapixel beasts could get Android fans drooling pretty much anywhere in the world, so let’s get ‘em over to Europe and America on the double, eh?
