Ho hum, another month, another would-be competitor to the Nokia E90 Communicator. This time it's the Asus M390W , running Windows Mobile 6 and also with HSDPA, etc. Still, the run of E90 copies surely shows that there's a market for this much-maligned form factor?
Read on in the full article.
I'm sure there's a market for this shape of device, it's just the eyewatering price that's a bit off-putting! 😊
I don't think there's a massive market for 1000 euro mobile phones, no matter how good they are. It's about ten times more than the average sale price of a phone.
The tiny *inside* screen looks ridiculous - why bother with it at all?!? I guess that Windows Mobile can't handle two different sized displays? Or at least not a large one?
It's interesting with those E90 competitors. I understand the interest for the form factor because it's the best concept for a combined phone/PDA. This Asus is near but not the right device - yet. A good E90 competitor would need something like this:
1. An inner display at least of the same size and quality as the E90 or even better, for example 800 x 480 or 900/1024 x 480.
2. Windows Mobile, Linux or Symbian.
3. At least 3,2 MP camera but 5 MP would be better today.
4. VGA video recording of good quality.
5. A decent Office app as standard. DocsToGo or SoftMaker Office.
6. Support for big memory cards, two slots would be nice.
The ability to handle A4 width is important for a Communicator. QVGA doesn't make a device a Communicator.
Nokia's pedigree in the Communicator is demonstrated by the lack of a well designed and functional competitor. The ASUS inner screen can open at only two angles! Absurd size inner screen.
That inside screen does look ridiculous, it makes you wonder why they bothered at all. The space round the screen is completely wasted.
If they wanted a small screen with a large fold-out QWERTY keyboard, something like Nokia's "wings" design would have looked a lot more elegant.
The Asus phone is a joke - absolutely rubbish.
I'm not sure it's for real at all. First, the specs state it's running WM6 Professional (non-touchscreen edition), while the screenshots show WM6 Standard (non-touchscreen edition). They must have messed it up royally: either of the two isn't right. I do think the screenshots are just photoshopped. A device with such a form factor would be just a joke with the standard MS Smartphone (non-touchscreen edition) operating system, which is, apart from some goodies like built-in WMV support, definitely a less featureful OS compared to S60v3 FP1 running on the E90 - it's only the "Pocket PC" version that offers the same versatility (for example, the ability to set the backlight level).
Second, the keyboard seems to be pretty much E90'ish.
Third, noone would come out with so small an internal screen.
Fourth, it's only at unwiredview.com it's reported on - no SPT, no MoDaCo (the two major MS Smartphone sites), and, most importantly, no PDAdb.net (the most important WM device database). At least the latter would have long ago published the specs. It was only msmobiles.com that has reported on it (see http://msmobiles.com/news.php/6988.html ), but they've just linked to the original unwiredview.com article.
All in all, I think it's just a fake.
Chris Handley wrote:The tiny *inside* screen looks ridiculous - why bother with it at all?!? I guess that Windows Mobile can't handle two different sized displays? Or at least not a large one?
It can - even a WVGA one, as in the Toshi G9x0.
Re: WM Pro or Standard - the biggest giveaway is not the screenshots (which are obviously fake), but the keyboard. The external and internal keyboards clearly have "Home" and "Back" buttons which are only present on WM Standard devices. Without "Start " and "OK" keys, there's no way this device is designed for Pro.
I can't see the sense in this wasted opportunity / crippled functionality unless the device is quite small (made possible by leaving out the touchscreen and GPS etc) - so maybe a clamshell version of the HTC Vox rather than a competitor to the "do it all" behemoth E90?
It doesn't look that bad and gives the impression that the build quality will be good. However that internal screen is a joke. It should have a full widescreen, filling the internal of the lid.