Qualcomm shows off new mobile reference designs

Let's put aside Qualcomm's legal woes for just a moment and turn our attention to something a little more interesting and heartwarming: awesome-looking prototype devices. The company is showing off a pair of reference designs showcasing its new Snapdragon chipset, a heap of silicon said to offer one of the best power to performance ratios in the mobile world. First up, the "Fairbanks" is Qualcomm's idea of what a next-gen dedicated GPS unit might look like, rocking a 3 megapixel still / video camera, TV tuner, and microSD expansion on some sort of custom Windows CE base. Next up, the "Anchorage" (pictured) does the typical slide-out QWERTY smartphone concept in pure style with one critical difference -- this one is humming along at a staggering 1GHz. It's got pretty much every kind of radio one could want or need and apparently has enough horsepower to hoist a full OS, which only serves to further our deep, dark depression that they're not-for-retail concepts.

[erunama @ Jan 8th 2008 1:16PM]

i'd like my phone battery to last at least one day, please.

[Rik @ Jan 8th 2008 1:24PM]

Hehe, there is indeed a reason for it being hooked up in the picture i suppose :-P.

[FK @ Jan 8th 2008 1:17PM]

That phone pictured looks awesome, design wise and specs wise. I want. What has to happen to make this a reality?

[bob @ Jan 8th 2008 1:38PM]

about a year and a half and a half decent os

[xbit @ Jan 8th 2008 1:54PM]

I wonder whose patents they've infringed on to pull this off?

[js @ Jan 8th 2008 2:16PM]

Really, what is it about americans' fascination with huge, wonky devices with physical QWERTY keyboards?

[andy @ Jan 8th 2008 2:31PM]

cutting that sucker down to 400Mhz and such, like the tilt, would make for an awesome iPhone followup.

I have the tilt, and the slideout keyboard is indispensible, but the screen should have been bigger, with less face buttons, much like this.

I think this is where all smartphones are going in the future, either the blackberry/treo form factor or the tilt form factor. The whole touchscreen thing is nice, but sometimes you just need some keys.

[Johan S @ Jan 8th 2008 2:49PM]

Why do phone manufacturers insist on making their phones soo wide? I don't need to hold up a picture frame. Notice that the iPhone doesn't have any margin area on the sides of it (unlike this one which has huge fat thick margins). If they need the area for circuitry then either make the phone longer or use a bigger LCD .. I'd pay for it.

Anyway by the other manufacturers catch up to iPhone ver. 1 ver 5 will be out with a WXGA LCD, OLED shape changing buttons, and like the rumors say, the touchscreen will have pressure sensitivity.

[L @ Jan 8th 2008 5:55PM]

"Anyway by the other manufacturers catch up to iPhone ver. 1 ver 5 will be out with a WXGA LCD, OLED shape changing buttons, and like the rumors say, the touchscreen will have pressure sensitivity."

Yeah, likely.

Not.

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 8th 2008 7:01PM]

http://www.newlaunches.com/entry_images/0107/10/apple-iphone.jpg

do you even notice the half an inch on the top and bottom?

[John Bailey @ Jan 8th 2008 10:58PM]

Anyway by the other manufacturers catch up to iPhone ver. 1 ver 5 will be out with a WXGA LCD, OLED shape changing buttons, and like the rumors say, the touchscreen will have pressure sensitivity.

And a pony, and a coffee maker, and a microwave, and a jetpack..........

[ScooterDe @ Jan 8th 2008 3:55PM]

roll on the GPS with cameras. One day we will be capturing images of everywhere we go. Share that and we will have access to a massive, 3D render in place of Google Maps.

[Jeff Goldberg @ Jan 8th 2008 4:09PM]

xbit hit the nail on the head. Who's next to sue Qualcomm for the 'Anchorage'?