Picture of Motorola 'Shadow' leaked, inverted on Taiwanese forum
By Richard Lai 
posted December 31st 2009 11:44AM
posted December 31st 2009 11:44AM
While everyone's gearing up to celebrate New Year's Eve, it seems that Motorola's busy squeezing out the last bit of rumor juice of 2009. We're looking at what's purported to be Motorola's 'Shadow' (not 'Mirage' as Google Translate unhelpfully suggests) -- a phone with 9mm thickness, 4.3-inch 850x484 screen (larger than the devices on the leaked roadmap), HDMI port and 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p video recording. Not much else came out of the "tight-lipped" tipster who might've inverted the picture's colors -- see above for our fix -- but an educated guess should point to that friendly green robot (though that battery icon certainly isn't part of Android's game). Any brave souls dare to guess otherwise?
Unless it runs Android, I have zero interest. Nice specs though.
@TheNotoriousMAZ
Last gasp of a dying company.
@Average White Boy
*cough cough* Droid was very successful *cough* so is Cliq just not in the tech world *cough cough cough*
Cut them some slack for gad's sake. There's always a Moto hater in every thread but Razr days are over. Hey "Razr days" sounds kinda cool. Doesn't it roll off of the tongue?
@feelinghave
No matter how many usernames you use, I'll keep reporting you , on every site you spam on (boygeniusreports.com techcrunch.com)
@Average White Boy is having a below average fail moment.
@TheNotoriousMAZ
Agreed.
1080p ? o.O good competition for Nokia's 12mpx
@Nokia N900 MP aren't everything.
@Nokia N900
you are comparing video to images?
I know , MPx arent everything and no I am not comparing videos to images
Nokia 12MPx can take videos of 720p at 30FPS.
@Nokia N900
Which Nokia has a 12 MP camera?
And why do you think there is a connection between the total number of megapixels and the maximum video resolution? If you want to make 1080p video any sensor over 2 MP is good enough
That background is vaguely Windows-esque, but that doesn't mean much.
@FallenArms3
Really? I kinda got the PS3 vibe off it.
Looks pretty nice from the side-boob shot.
Bah! Where's the keyboard?
@EGOvoruhk On the Droid. Motorola already has a large screen, keyboard-ed, powerful Android phone, why make another?
I've been waiting for a keyboard-less competitor (Or portrait keyboard. I just don't like holding my phone landscape to type).
@clarinetJWD
Can no one think of a genius way to have a physical (slide-out maybe) keyboard for both portrait and landscape along with a virtual touchscreen that still maintains a slim style AND works very well? Or is that just an impossibility? I'm in the camp with those who feel that you must have some kind of tactile feedback when typing on anything. Tapping away on glass just doesn't cut it.
Is this a PHONE? Why does a phone need 1080p video recording? Maybe I should wait until after CES to order than Nexus One...
@Siraris Why not? If I'm carrying something around all day that is clearly already "thin enough", and I see something I'd like to shoot video of, there's no harm in having 1080p. I've never had the extra cash to spring for a real video camera (i spent it on an SLR and a nice lens), so if anyone make a cell phone that can record high def video at least as good as yhe flip, etc, it sure doesn't hurt.
Why do people question the inclusion of nice features in something just because it isn't completely necessary? The theme here is conversion....
-Taylor
@Siraris Yea, why would anyone ever need anything faster than super slow dial-up on their phones? Or why would anyone ever need a color screen? People ask for too much! Or, a phone that you CARRY around with you? bah! Keep it tethered to your horseless carriage! Good enough!
It looks amazing haha.
Cmon! No teaser pics of any good looking hardware for a few weeks atleast.. Its been hardly any time since I've made my mind about getting the Nexus one.. Don't wanna start second guessing myself so soon!
"4.3-inch 850x484"... Talk about a non-standard screen resolution - Why?
@DaHarder Maybe they messed up and the resolution is actually 854 x 480, which is the resolution on the Motorola Droid, even though it has a smaller 3.7" screen.
@DaHarder
It's probably 854x480. (FWVGA)
I'm hopin Windows Mobile 7
@bob e
No way, Motorola drop Winmo OS completely... remember the hundred of Win Mo engineers that was laid off...
more like Motorola Shadow "leaked"
all of these types of leaks are controlled nowadays.
@alexmac9
You are absolutely right... its part of moto marketing strategy... but they are doing it badly...
That will compete nicely with the HTC HD2....and this phone looks amazing. I am not a fan of HTC because of their quality, and well, Motorola is only the lesser of the two evils, but this certainly looks to be an amazing device...go moto!
@EzB you've had quality issues with HTC? I have had a t-mobile shadow for two years now and it is solid. Even the slider is solid, no wobble. I have completely abused it, dropped it, stepped on it, dropped it in water and it just keeps working. I dont know about there other products, but from my perspective they make great quality devices. I like them enough that if HTC and another company made two comparable phones, I would go with the HTC just for the quality. Maybe I just got lucky though, I dont know.
@petey1111
I've had good luck with my G1, but my friend is swearing off HTC cus of how badly his TP2 is failing. So some faulty phone models can ruin things.
Now this is hot stuff. Here is why: The DROID (and their three rather nice Chinese Android phones that you can read about on GSMArena) have proven that Moto are back in the game. Tough robust casing, versatile features and most importantly, speedy hardware. Where is this heading? Towards the TRUE pocket computer. No, not what Nokia mean by a pocket computer (that exists on it's own, such as the otherwise excellent N900), but a device that can be 'docked' or plugged into a larger desktop display (using the HDMI port) and a full size keyboard for desktop computing / big screen entertainment when at home or work.
Just the other day I posted on my blog (http://visionaforethought.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/slate-computing-interesting/) that it would be fantastic if Apple launched an iDevice that could double up as a desktop CPU when docked. Well, it may well be that Motorola have accidentally kickstarted this revolution with the Shadow? (Even the codename implies this potential idea?)
Imagine, your phone IS your ONLY computer. Mobile CPU power and graphics capability is now such that for MOST people, phone hardware would suffice. Only power users such as professional graphic designers, 3D modellers/architects and photographers would need a true desktop computer too.
Thought for the evening!
Here's to 2010 being the year of modular computing.
Happy New Year!
@Oflife Back in the game? None of those Moto devices could be seen in Shenzhen when I was there last week. In fact, hardly any Moto devices were available at all!
@Oflife We hope that Motorola will make good android and reincarnate their brand finally. I think that they don’t invest money into development. After iphone all companies just wakeup.
.. so they are doing this to ressurect the dying moto company? More details about the shadowy phone: http://bit.ly/motorola-mirage-shadow-on-the-loose
@Oflife
I totally agree with you on the whole My-smartphone-is-my-only-computer thing.
I see this coming in say a couple of years.
What I REALLY don't get is how you could come up with this based on this picture...
What's the link ?
@Flix C
hes basing that off this phone having hdmi out i believe. if you're able to display the desktop to a hdmi equipped monitor or tv you're set.
If that is a 4.3" screen, I can't see how that could possibly be 9mm thin. It looks like a brick, and not in the good way (read: HD2).
windows mobile 7 ? :-?
I call a fake. Clearly looks like a rendering. Anyone could have done that with some pretty basic software. The screen res is too non-standard. Why would they bother when the Android specifically supports only a number of screen resolutions. EVEN if this was WinMo they'd want to build a hardware platform that can be shared between devices.
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
The link you posted specifically shows Android supports the 480x854 resolution rumored here.
See the section titled "Range of Screens Supported" and look at the High Density column of the table listed there: "FWVGA (480x854)"
@peted20 except the article states 4.3-inch 850x484 screen. could be a typo I suppose
@(Unverified) what's the problem with a 4.3" 854x480 screen?
Looks like a bigger zune.
looks a tiny bit zune-ish, imo.
put a comfortable full qwerty keyboard (5 row) on it, T-mobile USA 2G/3G, and maybe I'd be interested.
i think htc just shit themselves
@artshark Out of all of the phone manufacturers... 6 months ago Motorola would have been the last company on Earth that I thought could come compete with HTC. I can't wait to see what comes out of the two of them having to constantly compete.
You know, I'm actually really happy to see HDMI start making an appearance on more devices. It's not the end-all, be-all of connectors, but it's a great way to allow your devices to sync up with TVs. As more TVs become internet-connected, it'll be interesting to see how many devices start using HDMI to transfer data to the cloud through the TV.
Moto can officially consider my interest "piqued"...though I'm likely gong to hold off buying any handset until I see how WinMo 7 is shapes up.
All those phones look alike, who cares about leaked pictures, nobody is who.