Motorola Devour has Flash support, makes Pixi look like an underachiever
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 4th 2010 3:01PM
posted February 4th 2010 3:01PM
Motorola's official spec sheet for the Devour reveals that there'll be a Flash Lite runtime on board -- presumably version 3.1, which offers support for a variety of video codecs and Flash 9 content -- and more importantly, it'll work in the browser. That's pretty cool -- it gives the Devour one small leg up on its Droid big brother and matches capabilities that HTC has rolled out in the past on the Hero, but what's more interesting is that the Devour allegedly uses the same next-gen low-cost smartphone processor from Qualcomm, the MSM7627, as the Pixi. Palm has elected not to roll out the Pre's upcoming Flash support to the Pixi on account of its lower-end specs, which begs the question: is Android's Flash Lite 3.1 player significantly more efficient than webOS' Flash 10.1 player, does the Devour have more horsepower packed in there than it's letting on, or does Palm just have higher performance standards for annoying ads than Moto does?[Thanks, StevenQ]
Looks like a silver DROID with a better keyboard... I LIKE IT!
@CJisohsocool - it does look some what droidial.. but the screen is shorter, it seems.
@CJisohsocool
Looks are deceiving.
@CJisohsocool i've been wanting to say the same thing ever since the phone was announced, but the comments were off.
very sleek! and it has flash too, which is a great bonus
@POZ
The screen on the Devour is 3.1 inches whereas the Droid's is 3.7 so it's quite a bit smaller.
@CJisohsocool
This one I would buy for myself. The Droid didn't do it for me at all. Just seems so blocky and the keyboard on this one seems way better to me, not off-set to one side. But have to see and feel in action to be sure.
@CJisohsocool somthing new
@CJisohsocool On other shots the plastic of it looks freakin' cheap.
@CJisohsocool
Touch-sensitive navigation pad
3.1” capacitive touch screen
Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk™, YouTube™, Google Search™ and Google Maps™ with Google Maps Navigation.
Android Market™ gives users access to more than 20,000 applications.
Happenings Widget – MOTOBLUR automatically pushes status updates, wall posts and photo updates from popular social networking sites to the Happenings Widget on the home screen. Customers can flick through the latest updates and fire back responses using the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.
Universal Inbox – MOTOBLUR gathers texts, social network messages and e-mails into one home screen widget for quick response.
Back-Up and Security – Contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up automatically on the secure MOTOBLUR portal. The portal also allows customers to use the phone’s fully integrated aGPS to help locate the phone if misplaced. Remote wipe easily clears information from a lost device.
8 GB microSD™ card pre-installed
Bluetooth® profiles supported: A2DP, HID, HSP, HFP, AVRCP and GAP
And IR!
3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen at 320x480, optical trackpad, Android 1.6 with MotoBLUR, 1400 mAh battery, an 8GB microSD
This is the specs.
@CJisohsocool
Better keyboard? The Droid doesn't have the best keyboard, I agree, but I think this one looks worse. Why would you want letter keys on the same row as the spacebar? It looks like it'd be awkward to type in, IMO.
@Steve B
I'm not sure why most people judge screens sizes by inches instead of pixels, the latter of which is what really makes the difference.
This I think has 320x480, vs the Droid's 854x480.
@hq The Motorola web site says it has an extruded aluminum design, so I don't think it's going to be plasticky
@CJisohsocool Howlong till iPhone gets flash?
@dennisheadley Except... It has a much smaller screen and a pathetic processor.
@POZ
droidial - lol - nice one!
@CJisohsocool It's somewhat droid lite (although it uses BLUR) anyway, seeing it pumping some flash and hopefully release at sub-100 USD, will still be a sweet deal. Details: http://bit.ly/moto-calgary-devour-details
@CJisohsocool I agree, it has a lovely design. Unfortunately, it has motoblur, which makes my eyes bleed. Honestly, its like Motorola tried as hard as it could to make android look like windows xp :/
@joe23521 Agreed.
Does the PRE have flash? Why just pick on the pixi?
@POZ The Pre has Flash 10.1 coming this month. The Pixi might have Flash 10.1 at a later date, but not immediately.
@POZ
has its own webOS flash 10.1 coming
@CJisohsocool
But the Droid has better specs in practically every way. This is supposed to be the stripped down version of the Droid.
@quake35
This also has MotoBlur which the Droid does not.
@Steve B Not everyone necessarily WANTS motoblur...
@Steve B
So far, motoblur has only been instituted in a couple lower end phones. I have yet to see motorola put it in one of their nicer models.
@quake35 From an engadget article a few days ago.
"We hope you like Blur, because it's not going anywhere. CEO Sanjay Jha says that "the majority of our new smartphone [sic] this year will feature" the platform, and that it'll "include enhancements to address the prosumer segment of the market." They're looking to rope in media (music, photos, and so on) the same way they did social networking, boost enterprise compatibility for white collar types that only have one phone, and improve network efficiency to ease up on battery drain. All good things, we reckon."
@NYNY haha, "prosumer"?
People keep saying its ugly but I quite like the look of it.
@kris120890
I want this but a bigger screen and better specs.
@kris120890
This isn't the Droid you're looking for.
(I jest!) :D
@kris120890
Yeah, Moto missed out with this thing, it could have been a winner with a nice 4" oled screen, Snapdragon CPU &500 gb ram, and an alu unibody chassis instead of cheapo plastic discarded by chinese toys makers.
Besides why no smartphone maker adds DLNA capabilities to their products?
Or at least an HDMI out; after all some year ago TV out was quite common on hig end phones.
@Plexus Your creating a totally different phone. This one is nice and sure a 4" amoled snapdragon beast would be cool but this isn't even close to what your describing. Like I said your creating an entirely different phone.
To the main post's question- Flash Lite is a subset of Flash 10.1's capabilities, so yes, it is probably more efficient in some ways.
@jhoff80
This is wrong. Flash Lite is based off Flash 9 and basically hacked onto smartphone platforms. I've used Flash Lite on a HTC Hero, and frankly, the experience is terrible.
Flash 10.1 on WebOS (and other platforms shortly) is a much more elegant solution that was build from the ground up for smartphones. So while the Devour will have "flash," it will unlikely have flash that actually works.
@Peteman100
Agreed, since most sites aren't even compatible with Flash Lite anyways, since most content uses ActiveScript.
@DoctarPeppar
You guys realize Flashlite is more compatible than no Flash support at all, right? And comparing Flashlite on a WinMo device has little to do with this implementation. Nokia and S60 devices ushered in embedded Flash in browsers for phones with Flashlite, and it is a great spec. Flashlite has also been updated to 4.0, so maybe this can see the upgrade as well in the future.
For low powered devices, Flashlite is great. Ask guys with no Flash, like iPhone users, if they'd like some Flashlite love....
@christexaport
Flash Lite does nothing for me. It's completely useless for what I need and can't access on my iPhone.
What I want, is for Apple to give in and provide full Flash. I don't care how much it drains the battery...I can plug my iPhone in just fine. Give us full Flash with the ability to disable...or even have it be turned off by default.
@Peteman100
I`ve been using flash lite on my n95 and skyfire renders webpages just as my pc, I can load youtube videos even on the embedded browser without problems and they run smothly.
I would love to have one of these if I could bypass buying a data plan from verizon and just use it for it's WiFi capabilities. Almost everywhere I would use this has a wireless signal (college campus).
Looks better than the Droid, but the shorter screen is a turn off.
@tycoon11 Yea somehow pairing this keyboard with the DROID'S screen would make the perfect device.
Damn, I really hope phones continue to not include flash. The only thing it's useful for on a phone is playing videos, and it would be so much better if everyone used HTML5 video. No doubt some people would like to use it to play flash games, but they're never really going to work on phones anyway due to performance and input issues.
Maybe we need to bring back the 90s -- burn all flash!
@Timmmmmm I agree with your statement but with the "now" mentality of most people, it'll take a few more years to really phase out Flash in favor of HTML5.
@Timmmmmm
Why would you want LESS options? Most of the web is Flash these days, and there are a TON of Flash apps for free you can get. HTML5 will simply not replace Flash unless it has a Flash Emulator built into it.
That's a very shortsighted view. Consider these scenarios:
1. Flash is available for every phone, but is slow and buggy. Hulu, iPlayer, Youtube etc. continue to only offer flash videos because flash is widely supported. Long term result: slow, jerky videos and poor battery life.
or
2. No phones support flash. Slowly content providers provide HTML5 video options for phones. This will obviously take time because there's still the whole H264 vs Theora debate, but it slightly simplified by the fact that nearly all phones browsers use WebKit which has support for video tags, at least in the desktop versions. Result: crispy smooth video playback using the phone's dedicated hardware. Better battery life. Better video playback on desktops (flash *still* struggles with video even on my fairly modern dual core system).
Also "More choice = Better" is patently wrong. C.f. facebook vs myspace.
@(Unverified)
'Fewer' options.
@Timmmmmm
I really don't see a problem with having an option to turn flash on or off. If you don't want it hogging your battery and slowing your phone, turn it off. When you need it to view videos, turn it on. You're done? Turn it off. Choice is a good thing.
One is running 10.1 flash and one is running 9.. ?
I have never tried out flash on Android. How is it? Can you play miniclip and flash games?
I want flash for my nexus already!!