Hands-on with Wistron NeWeb's GW4 Linux phone

Though it bears a vague resemblance to the utterly nonexistent device pictured in Android's emulator, rest assured: the GW4 QWERTY phone from Wistron NeWeb doesn't run Google kit. It does however run some other homegrown flavor of Linux, giving promise that it could end up as a nice little clean slate on which to drop an Android image when the time comes. Like the physical phone itself, the existing UI seems really functional, if not a little rough around the edges; you get VoIP, weather and stock widgets, WiFi, and Bluetooth, though you won't find any HSDPA, UMTS, or even EDGE here. Not a bad effort, guys -- keep crackin' and we might see you fighting for market share with the OpenMoko types of the world.

Gallery: Hands-on with Wistron NeWeb's GW4 Linux phone

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[Cesar Cardoso @ Jan 7th 2008 8:00PM]

Wistron told about a 3G version of the GW4 in the end of 2008. Hope it happens :D

[chuck @ Jan 7th 2008 9:22PM]

The lack of EDGE is absolutely laughable unless they're offering it for under $100 without a contract. Next...

[Ishimaru @ Jan 7th 2008 10:05PM]

Apparently they can't learn to add a decent font either.

[robinsmad @ Jan 7th 2008 11:58PM]

Uh, what do you mean by the "utterly nonexistent device pictured in Android's emulator"? People have been using that hardware as prototypes for a while now. The device clearly exists.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/android-hardware-in-the-wild/google-android-prototype-in-the-wild-334909.php

[k1b @ Jan 8th 2008 12:29PM]

A long time ago, if something was Linux-powered it meant it was open-source, giving you the source code as well as the hardware specs and in that allowing you complete freedom to do whatever you want with the device. That was the beauty of it, that's why it was such a big deal.

These days it seems that (many) companies brand their products as "Linux this" and "Linux that" but offer nothing of the freedom that a true Linux product comes along with. So what is it this one then, a phone that just runs linux with a bunch of proprietary firmware crap and no hardware specs, or an open-source software and/or hardware phone? If it the former, it's nothing like the OpenMoko (which is an open-everything project).

I hope more people start making that distinction when it comes to open projects and linux-powered devices.