Vodafone roadmap reveals HP Oak, all gloss no wood
By Sean Cooper 
posted Jan 5th 2008 11:49PM
posted Jan 5th 2008 11:49PM
HP's Oak makes an appearance in the relentless binge of new handset madness that is the Vodafone roadmap. The HP Oak delivers many of the baubles we've come to expect from Windows Mobile devices, things like 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, quad-band GSM, qwerty keyboard, a touchscreen, and even GPS have found there way in. Other connectivity options include the almost standard WiFi and Bluetooth, with chatter time listed as 3.5 hours and 360 hours standby. We're feeling a lot of similarities between this fella and the HTC TyTN II, but the HP gets the puffy rainbow sticker -- with prancing Pegasus, of course -- for opting to add that ultra-handy dialpad on the front. Oak's due date is set for September 2008 at roughly $500.
The word is "their."
This phone looks excellent on paper (or PowerPoint slide most likely), but with a date of Sept. '08, it nothing more than concept at this point. Hopefully it's real and I can get it unlocked because I will be looking for a phone around that time. (Nearing ending of contract)
man, i want it now! or at most next 2 weeks. not next 9 months.
if the design is already done, what's taking them so long to ship it from china to here?
don't you have engadget mobile? why am I getting all these updates in my regular engadget rss feed?
It's the phone I've always wanted... now if only I could figure out why I wanted it 4 years ago and it just finally got made... in 9 months.
Wow, there really isn't much to say: This phone is perfection.
...but then we'll get the news that the HSPDA isn't triband, but I'll be able to live with it. Seriously, the phone is very aestethically pleasing, the feature set is solid, and the price is great. The only possible problem is that the phone is made by HP and all I can remember is that the HP 6515 got some complaints.
That's one sexy phone...
Seconded... I usually don't like phones because, well, I have no one to talk to, and there's always the paranoia factor, and I really hate "stick with us for 2 years or pay" contracts... but this might change my mind (specially if that "color screen" is a VGA)
$500 for a phone with no camera? No thanks! Seems a really basic thing to leave off.
Seems like a really worthless thing to leave off. I've used my phone camera once, and some girl took a picture of herself. It's still my background. How devastating.
It would be perfection if it didn't run Windows Mobile.
But WinMo is better than the rest... (even better than Linux at this specific stage, and I'm a Linux fanboy.... if more apps were ported to Linux, it would rule)
So i went to the Vodafone website and selected USA as where I'm from and it redirected me to Verizon Wireless. So I'm guessing they are somehow connected. How likely is it that this phone will find its way to Verizon?
I find it ironic that all of the hardware designers using WM professional are finding as many ways as possible to ensure that you don't need to use Microsofts lousy touchscreen. I had the Blackjack after having a Cingular 8125 and didn't miss it at all. Ended up switching to the Blackberry curve because it has the only e-mail solution that my company supports.
You do realize that other phones can run Blackberry connect...right?
Mr. H - Only if your network provider supports it.
I hope this thing gets a camara on it, if so it is bought.