Mysterious HTC Android phone spied, might lean the way of the Dragon
By Ross Miller 
posted Oct 18th 2009 7:52PM
posted Oct 18th 2009 7:52PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
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Based on design alone, it looks as if it's going to Sprint.
Very sprint looking.
It says 3g in the status bar, not ev-do, so i doubt it. Hopefully t-mobile bound.
@Bryan
maybe verizon....since VZW is changing all its 3G phones from saying EV to 3G
How can you tell it's Sprint? Button layout? Looks pretty generic to me...
Android sucks.
ZuneHD rulezzz!!!
It's T-Mobile or AT&T, judging by the 3G on the top bar, and I REALLY doubt it's its AT&T, so yeah, it's headed to T-Mobile.
Count in one more Droid for T-Mobile.
it's closer to the Sprint hero than the classic Android HTC looks
@Mmmm
Uh...what does the Zune HD have to do with this...
strangles mmm? with my iPod ear-buds (because that's all their good for)
go home troll-boy
because tmobile needs more android phones. PLEASE at&t!!! im so sick of the iphone... and cant switch to another provider.
Has anyone thought that this is still a test phone and that its using Gsm as a test
It could very well be Verizon/Sprints. This is probably the cheapest way to test this phone.
@jehxone: Ha!.
And im with Cursive08 on this one. im tired of the bs on at&t. I just want a damn phone than isnt all fucked up by at&t. Besides this thing looks sexy and im looking forward to that Snapdragon beast
It looks nice, if not a little vanilla.
Your an ass wipe
Very sexy device. I'll take four.
I've been reading up on the HTC Dragon and from the looks of it it won't be packing a Snapdragon but rather a 1GHZ TI Omap (I think 3) processor.
Doesn't look as big as HD2. And no chin?
looks like it might be the same height but less width.....the list of possible phones to replace my 3gs grows (unless apple almost completely reworks their homepage UI)
I do see code for Snapdragon in the latest kernel tress for Android, but then again, there's the Acer Liquid.
Going to build Snapdragon support in the latest version of my CPU clocking app ;)
does the pink + sign mean anything here ??? t-mobile ??? :D
I have never used an android phone....so i donot know whether that pink plus sign is default to android.
atlast....some good news....
android 2.0 ....project dark .....new android phones from htc ......dragon rumours....all falling together
It's a red cross that says Emergency Call.
Feel free to keep foaming at the mouth.
It means you're gonna have a baby.
GOOOOO VERIZON!!
I REALLY hope this is for T-Mobile. Hopefully they announce it along with Project Dark.
i hope so too
I hope they release a mobile game platform centered around a new version of Perfect Dark. What? A man can dream....
T-Mobile = Android Czar
Eh..... different colors could make it look pretty nice. Looks pretty 90's-ish.
Man these guys are churning the out quick.
SE needs to take notice
Damn right.
Well, SE is just about to roll-out Rachael [sic] -- an Xperia with Android. I believe the major announcement re availability etc are due within two weeks?
You're welcome Engadget. De nada :) I am Tikiteko the Geek Scout :D
What is interesting is that if you link to the extra pictures, you can definitely see clearly etched into the back of the phone "with Google". No Sense UI? That's a weird move. Maybe that means it is going to a carrier that has yet to carry an Android device. Every carrier except Sprint has a stock-android Android phone, and Sprint phones don't have "3G" written in the connection bar they have "EV" so... AT&T? But Google and AT&T are not on the best terms right now. AT&T Really needs to step up their game on the Android front. No one says I can't dream!
you know the "with google" thing has nothing to do with sense UI right???
The Sprint Hero has "With Google" printed on the back on the phone and also on the front of the box and has sense UI .... FYI
Actually, only some of them do. It, apparently, was a mistake.
You are wrong about the "with Google" text not being on Sense UI phones.
Read this: http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2009/10/the-difference-in-with-google-heroes/
Actually the search button is a requirement for any google experience phone.
So it cannot have sense ui.
@Vincent - Your comment doesn't make much sense. There is a search button on the Hero, it has Sense UI, and has the "with Google" label on the back of it.
@ brian
correct, i forgot about the hero. Is there another way to distinguish google experience phones from the other android phones ?
Another question: do you know if a hero buyer has to wait for htc to release an update with 1.6 for example or is the 1.6 a patch that only updates certain files ?
Problem is, HTC doesn't sell unlocked phones here >.>
In European regions.
I like this.
yea, the with google on the back means no sense UI, i'm guessing verizon since they are releasing those new android phones with google, so they will probably all be "with google" devices.
my tour says 3G on it instead of EV, so maybe they're changing the naming on the devices to something more consumer recognizable...
You're actually quite WRONG about that.
Only the first HTC Hero phones on Sprint don't have 'with Google' printed on them. The NEWER ones DO have it printed as they WANT them to be labeled as Google Experience.
And they DO HAVE SENSE UI, too.
Trust me, I own one.
This baby is coming to tmo.you didn't hear it from me;)
Such a sexy looking phone, that screen size is nice.
So since it says 3G instead of EV, that eliminates Sprint as a possible carrier for this phone.
That leaves ATT, Big Red, & Team Magenta. I Bet it'll hit Verizon or T-Mobile though.
Not so...the Moto Droid has the '3G' indicator (it's top bar is identical to this)...and also Verizon's Touch Pro 2 and Imagio say '3G' as well instead of the old 1XEV
We donts likes big bezels
What on earth could make all of you think that HTC would decide the US carrier for a prototype Android phone even before finalizing the project?
Actually if history is any indication HTC has always produced first a 3,5G /UMTS version of their phones and only after a few months ,MAYBE, decide to make a US compatible version of SOME of their models.
That's mainly because US carriers pretend all sorts of modifications from manifacturers before adopting an handset in order to be able to better screw their captive clients.
Even models that were made with the explicit intention to export them to the US, such as the TP2 or the Hero, always came out in Europe 5/6 months before and in Asia even before that.
Also the HD2 will come here in Denmark (and in my pocket immediatly after that) on october 30th while the US version will not be available before spring 2010.
I'm ready to bet that the Dragon when/if will ever be commercialized will follow a similar pattern.
Any takers?
You know what buddy? "Euro Ass Hole". Ha.
Who made you the king of all mobile technology news?
Plexus is right. HTC (and most other manufacturers) make handsets first for the world market and then adapt a few selected ones for the US market.
What would help usa consumers to get those nice devices faster is if usa carriers had chosen 2100mhz band for 3G like 60% of the countries.
AT&T is the only providor not offering up android so let's see what happens.
that's cuz ATT is in a spat with Google... http://www.betanews.com/article/ATT-Google-is-an-evil-empire-that-must-be-stopped/1255632624
http://www.crn.com/networking/220600112;jsessionid=4LNFCR2N3WQ0JQE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN
No keyboard? Pass. I want to type. Not sit there all day picking out letters then backspacing when the wrong one was hit.
AT&T please. I can wish, right?
AT&T? nokthx
Most likely T-Mobile/Sprint.
you know the "with google" thing has nothing to do with sense UI right???
The Sprint Hero has "With Google" printed on the back on the phone and also on the front of the box and has sense UI .... FYI
Sprint and htc are secret lovers and sprint at the moment is going through puberty so it's hormones are rushing and if htc doesn't put out then sprint may just leave it for it's sister...or mom if hesse's a cougar, this obviously means that this is heading to sprint.
seriously, engadget, why don't these spammers get banned more quickly?
this could be in sprint, since TMO and Sprint will be mergin soon
Its a bit plain jane the hd2 is a lil simple but still has appeal... this looks very low end with the color scheme that can be seen hopefully if it is the dragon and a high end device that it will get a better fiinish by release.
boobs.
Of course, it all makes sense now!
I need this in my life. I'm loving the HD2..and I do not want to go back to WinMo...but if I don't get a good updated piece of Android hardware...i really will.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/13/verizon-getting-an-android-phone-with-wifi-tethering-via-open/ Didn't anyone notice it looks just like the one going to verizon just missin the two line bar buttons
i doubt this is going to Sprint because #1 like the article suggests, the "3G" symbol probably means its GSM and #2, it looks exactly like the Hero so the average consumer would see no difference. (of course all of us techies would spout out the detailed differences down to the processor clock speed right away)
so i am assuming that this has an accelerometer in it because it has portrait and landscape functions?
I just got the Hero from Sprint (for my wife - it's great!) and the tech there said that the HD2 was supposed to arrive the same time. I'm really hoping for the Dragon because I want the HD2's capabilities but in an Android factor. Please Sprint grab this puppy!
HD2 Arrive the same time as what? the Hero?
Hope it runs an updated hero , looks like the camera has a flash! woohoo
this thing looks somewhat longer than the HD2. Wonder if that'll actually fit into my jean's pocket.
I keep holding out buying a new android device in hopes of something great, with a bigger screen, more ram, faster proc, that has ATT 3g
http://i38.tinypic.com/2h57cpj.jpg
If this comes to AT&T I will buy for sure (assuming it uses snapdragon). I'm currently eligible for an upgrade and I'm holding off on getting an iPhone to see if they will release an android device anytime soon.
Also, would this be running sense?
One of the pics has an "Emergency Dial" button... isn't that a standard for at&t phones?
My T-mobile G1 has the Emergency Dialer on it too. So it might come standard on att, but T-mobile has the exact same thing on their Android phones.
It is a verizon phone. Their new google phone is to hit late in october, but there is also another google phone scheduled to hit verizon in November. Possibly this is it?
maybe this is what vzw has been advertising lately in their drioddoes.com compain?
No, that's the Motorola Droid/Sholes/Tao.
I question the authenticity of this shot. Why would an HTC device use the same style of icons under the screen as Moto's Android phones? Seeems fishy to me...
The Home, Back, and Search icons are identical to the ones found on my HTC Magic. The Menu button looks different, but honestly hasn't that menu icon been in use on dozens of different devices for decades? I think I had the same icon on an old Palm Pilot.
I'm waiting for the first HTC-made (with Sense) Android phone running Snapdragon with T-Mobile 3G. If this is it, I will happily pay whatever it costs.
Regardless of the "3G" listed this might very well be for Verizon. First, if you look at the picture of the "mystery" handset in the picture of the CEo from Google, it looks like this one because of the "soft" touch keys above the trackball. Also, Verizon does a lot of "World" phone which are BOTH GSM and CDMA, so the fact that this says 3G is correct and maybe what is being hidden is EV-DO also. I heard a rumor that they were going to do an Android world phone but that hasn't been official. This is all speculation but we'll know soon enough because you know always after a leaked picture it usually becomes official soon after.
Although this is a very beautiful piece of hardware and resembles the sprint hero i dont believe this will be coming out for sprint. Simply because if its running on Sense UI and looks almost identical there isnt much different between them besides the snapdragon or whatever kind of 1ghz processor it has. This would be kind of pointless in my opinion because the resemblance between them is too much so they will be basically selling two of the same products. I would much rather see the phone come out for T-mobile or AT&T even if it does hit the US market which i certainly hope so!
wow they are using motorola-like menu button..hmmmm....fishy
The problem with HTC is that their products need repairs around 8-12 months after purchase.
they may look good but they just do not perform.
HTC customer service are just not interested in fixing their faulty and defective product.
Give them a miss and avoid aheap of trouble.