Compulab unveils the exeda Android / WinMo handheld

We were really hoping to see some wild Android devices at CES, and while we did see one or two interesting applications, we sadly missed Compulab's crazy exeda. Ostensibly designed for the enterprise market, the squared-off handheld features a 3.5-inch sun-readable VGA touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, and a capacitive touchpad that acts as a mouse. Like other recent Asian Android handsets we've seen, the exeda can also boot Windows Mobile 6.1 on its 520MHz Marvell CPU and 128MB of RAM, and the radio setup is similarly flexible -- resellers can pick from quadband GSM / GPRS, CDMA, and 3G UMTS. Craziest of all? The exeda has a 10/100Base-T Ethernet port in addition to WiFi. Yeah, we want one. No details on pricing, but hopefully we'll find out more when it hits in March.

[Thanks, James R.]

[Brent @ Jan 13th 2009 1:32PM]

Fugly

[joe23521 @ Jan 13th 2009 2:13PM]

Relax...It's only meant to be a bar code scanner for Sam's Club.

[Giga @ Jan 13th 2009 1:34PM]

Ethernet port o_O

[Verythrax @ Jan 13th 2009 1:35PM]

Wait!

It's really supposed to look like this?

[Charles R Hamilton @ Jan 13th 2009 1:36PM]

Maybe it's just me, but that looks very unusable. Unless you have very tiny fingers.

[eggothewaffle @ Jan 13th 2009 1:37PM]

That's a 3.5" touchscreen.

[coffee @ Jan 13th 2009 1:39PM]

I'm still trying to figure out the logic of two separate pads to control Up/Down and Left/Right.

I'm pretty sure we have the technology to do both in a single pad.

[rita hainsworth @ Jan 13th 2009 3:01PM]

Thats the actually size.

[Maxwell @ Jan 13th 2009 7:27PM]

Ever heard of Etch-a-Sketch? ;)

[JerkyChew @ Jan 13th 2009 1:38PM]

This would be an awesome little data center troubleshooting tool, especially with that Ethernet port. If it's more than $199 I don't know if it would be worthwhile.

[Electromodo @ Jan 13th 2009 1:47PM]

Completely agree!!! With Remote Desktop softwaqre for WinMo 6.1 it is your work computer on the go!

And it doesn't matter how ugly it looks. It has a great potential to be better than Blackberry for at least some corporate users (excluding Blackberry fans, of course).

I want one. I am ready to pay up to $400 for it.

[Hackettman @ Jan 13th 2009 3:30PM]

Beyond $300 Id say its wasting money...... Id love this for my inventory room that has wireless but no where to put a desktop..... Remotely do some inventory.....

Keys are a tad small though....

[SPArk @ Jan 13th 2009 1:42PM]

There are WinMo support...
There are also Ctrl and Alt keys...
So...
Where is the DEL-key?! How does this supposed to work without it?

[bachviet @ Jan 13th 2009 1:45PM]

Do you see that "BACKSPACE" key on the left of the "P" key?

[bachviet @ Jan 13th 2009 1:46PM]

I mean on the right of the "P" key.

[Verythrax @ Jan 13th 2009 2:01PM]

But why 2 CTRL and 2 ALT keys on a keyboard THAT small?

[SPArk @ Jan 13th 2009 2:12PM]

I don't mean erasing the text. I just mean the magic (for MS) ctrl+alt+del combo ;)

[kjb434 @ Jan 13th 2009 1:46PM]

That's quite and impressive device.

It looks like the Asian market will the first market to fully experiment with Android its possibilities.

[DBinSD @ Jan 13th 2009 1:52PM]

Looks like a Speak-N-Spell.

[B3astofthe3ast @ Jan 13th 2009 1:53PM]

That is beast.

[BlackFlag79 @ Jan 13th 2009 2:00PM]

Listen, I was pretty excited about Android (though I'm now bonerific for the Palm Pre), but if Google doesn't do some sort of quality control on the phones that use it, it's going to be a bust.

First the G1 and then this hideous beast?

[stallmer @ Jan 13th 2009 2:37PM]

So you don't mean quality control. You mean LOOKS control.

[yourmotherslarynx @ Jan 13th 2009 2:39PM]

Its open source you tit, anyone can use it. *Anyone*.

[Loonie @ Jan 13th 2009 3:36PM]

But of course. Software is incredibly vain, and gets very upset if it's not run on an aesthetically pleasing platform.

[dave95 @ Jan 13th 2009 5:21PM]

I guess that's the good and bad with open source, anyone can 'whore' it. Suddenly the G1 no longer looks all that unique, I think the point BlackFag79 were making.

[cwj @ Jan 13th 2009 5:26PM]

So, was it ever offered as a fashion device, or one with some interesting features?

I miss the good old days when tech guys could give a shite about looks.

(quietly appreciates they beauty of a TRS-80)

[Relic @ Jan 13th 2009 2:07PM]

Wait, the digital and analog clocks almost match. Isn't there some Android internal memo forbidding that?

[David @ Jan 13th 2009 2:07PM]

I think it has potential ... the keypad needs some desperate work, but the rest of it is quite nice. I like the quad band, too. Would be nice for me as I have VZW back in the USA through my parents but live in Europe.

[Steve @ Jan 13th 2009 2:16PM]

the reason it will hit asian markets first/only is because it would never sell in the US. an ethernet port? they should call this thing OLcellphone for 3rd world countries

[qwert @ Jan 13th 2009 2:23PM]

Ugly as shit, but it has a freakin ethernet port!
On a phone!
do want!
now!


Or maybe not, but still, its an interesting concept.

[SPArk @ Jan 13th 2009 2:24PM]

+_=

Hehe...

[G. I. @ Jan 13th 2009 5:39PM]

8=====B ( o )

You moron.

[mooo @ Jan 13th 2009 2:24PM]

one word: Ewww!

[superhobo @ Jan 13th 2009 2:32PM]

Two digital d-pads and buttons on the back please!

[syko21 @ Jan 13th 2009 2:46PM]

how the hell thick will it be to accommodate an ethernet port??

[Alex Wilks @ Jan 13th 2009 2:56PM]

If that's a 3.5" screen, then that thing's massive. And it perfectly explains the ethernet port. Wouldn't be surprised to find a parallel printer port or two lurking at the top.

[dennis @ Jan 13th 2009 2:56PM]

Everyone talks about having an enormous iPod Touch -- everyone -- and yet no one wants an enormous Blackberry -ish non-phone device?

[dennis @ Jan 13th 2009 3:00PM]

Oh wait, it is a phone. Even better. It's a Blackberry on the cheap. But instead of push email from some fancy server, it's from Google.

Imagine leaving the West and going to a parallel dimension, where the things you're used to are either slightly bigger or slightly smaller, both strangely familiar and disturbingly different.

That parallel dimension is the other hemisphere.

[dcoaster @ Jan 13th 2009 3:22PM]

Uhh... Ethernet--- for a mobile phone. Am I missing something? o_O

[Bad Beaver @ Jan 13th 2009 3:23PM]

Late in the 21st century's first decade, somewhere in a Chinese sweatshop, what used to be the abominable ooze flowing from the pirated rendering app of a talentless 14-year-old Mac-fanboy dreaming up an Apple "concept device" prior to Macworld finally becomes injection-molded into reality.

[Nick @ Jan 13th 2009 4:46PM]

this is the ugliest smartphone I have ever seen

[TareX @ Jan 13th 2009 5:41PM]

Bad photoshopping. Should have reduced the size of the clock and icons to be in VGA.

[bjay @ Jan 13th 2009 5:58PM]

Good lord someone should beat this thing up with one ugly stick. Geez, it comes with Ethernet lol, maybe another one might come with an express card slot in the future

[Hugh Newmark @ Jan 13th 2009 6:40PM]

One clock says 7:36, one clock says 7:37.
Shenanigans.

[rsttm @ Jan 13th 2009 7:19PM]

you could fly the space shuttle with those softkeys...

[Ken J @ Jan 13th 2009 7:43PM]

FYI Compulab is Israeli not Asian. They usually make industrial components so I wouldn't expect them to release this to consumers.

[Hamidxa @ Jan 13th 2009 11:06PM]

You might want to do something about that first sentence:

"We were really hoping some wild Android devices at CES, and while we"

You were really hoping...to see
You were really hoping some wild Android devices would show up ...
You were really hopping some wild Android devices... (in which case you would all be a bunch of weirdos)

Which is it?

[Cassini @ Jan 14th 2009 6:47PM]

That's an ugly handset with a confusing and "too-busy" button layout.

[Bob Dunlop @ Feb 7th 2009 2:37AM]

It's an "Enterprise device" not a phone. Now I don't know what an Enterprise device is but I know what some of our customers want to talk to/test equipment in the field.

Support for the various equipment interfaces which include; USB, WiFi, Ethernet and *serial*. Remember serial, well it isn't dead, theres a lot of equipment still uses it, so it's good to see a device that supports it directly again.

Screen and keyboard are okay but the next big query has to be, What's the battery life ?