Microsoft's 'Turtle' and 'Pure' phones linked to Tegra chipset, expected in both GSM and CDMA varieties
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 16th 2010 9:23AM
posted February 16th 2010 9:23AM
They might not have been revealed at MWC, but that doesn't mean the news flow on Microsoft's long-rumored Pink phones needs to stop. Following the FCC entries that hinted at the future character of these devices, we now have word of an industrious hacker getting hold of the firmware for both the Turtle and Pure handsets. According to his data, the Turtle (believed to look like the square-ish creature on the left) will sport a 320 x 240 screen, while the Pure will have a more generous 480 x 320. Neither would encourage much hope for seeing these as the vanguard handsets of the Windows Phone 7 movement, but a litany of references to Premium Mobile Experiences would both confirm our earlier information and suggest that Microsoft is still going to hit us with something more than a simple feature phone. This is backed up by "a strong connection" to NVIDIA's Tegra chipset, which would be powerful enough to service the rumored video and media management capabilities. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, separate codenames of Lion and Pride have been uncovered, indicating CDMA versions of the Pure and Turtle, whose names are attached to the GSM variants of the two phones. Now if we can just get a release date, we'll be all set.
I think WP7S was enough information for yesterday. I'm still trying to process all of it.
@trainwrecka
Though that would have been an awesome, "There is just one more thing..."
@trainwrecka
Part of me was really hoping he'd say something like "oh yeah, there's one more thing, we've got this other new device, we like to call it the Courier."
@trainwrecka
I was also expecting an announcement, but the 2 phones that leaked are so.... underwhelming.
I don't really see how a 320 X 240 screen would benefit from a Tegra chipset. But then again all these Pink phone rumors have been all over the place.
@insky My first thought too, unless there is a video out? Please...:)
i thought there was a required screen resolution of wvga. on that small of a screen?
480 x 320 somehting premium ? Is that a joke ? This CANNOT be right, not after what they are doing with Windows Phone 7 Series.
With the Turtle at 320x240, how many of WP7's giant blue squares will fit on the screen at one time? One? Then there's the App Marketplace. With the huge text running off the screen motif, screen real estate is already being wasted on WP7. . . .
@Ryan Trevisol
Common sense would tell you they would make a UI specifically for it.
@LAY Why would they design a phone that breaks their own Jesus interface. I mean they touted this interface as the thing that will change your mobile life.
So, hey, Windows Mobi--err Phone 7 is amazing, it'll change the way you think about people! About information! About your mobile communication device! Check out all these hubs!
Here, check out this phone, it lets you see like, one and a half hubs at a time. See that app there? That's Flight Control. You can tell because "igh ntro" is on the screen at 72 point font.
@Ryan Trevisol
Ignoring all of the BS after your first paragraph, It's not that hard to adapt the full WP7 interface to a smaller screen.
@LAY you call it BS, but that's how I see it. I'm not saying that there's no room for different form factors. But the problem is that the Turtle is a LAUNCH device. A Launch device should always play to the strengths of the software.
WP7 is all about swiping, and displaying lots of information on the screen in an inventive way. That's cool, and having a smaller-screened, portrait QWERTY device is going to be nice, because that's worked very well for Blackberry and Samsung on WM6. But with this OS, those phones are now going to be a niche. Let's be real here. WP7 is Microsoft's do-or-die move for the mobile space. The stakes are high with WM6.5's disappointments, and the delays.
And Microsoft's driven the stakes even higher by breaking backward compatibility in WP7, and delaying ANOTHER 10 months.
By the time WP7 finally launches, HTC and Android will have gained traction, Apple will have a fourth iPhone out, and we might even see a Sony Ericsson X10 by then. That means the hardware on WP7 launch devices needs to play to the strengths of the software. It needs to dazzle. It needs to be killer. It has to surpass even the Zune HD in terms of making you WANT it. Otherwise, people will turn to MotoBlur, Sense UI, Palm's universal phone book, or whatever Apple does to jump on the bandwagon for their integrated information needs.
But you'll probably say that's all BS.
@Ryan Trevisol
It has to surpass the Zune HD in terms of making you want it? That's not really setting the bar high. Sure, a lot of peeps were impressed by the Zune HD, but not many bought it.
@trainwrecka sure, but that's my point. At the end of the day the Zune was still the Zune. In the PMP market, software being different for the sake of different isn't good, and has never worked for Microsoft. What killed the Zune HD was the lack of apps and a crappy browser (at least at first). At least with the Zune HD, the hardware was undeniably beautiful and full featured.
Now, this shot of the Turtle is old, and something tells me it might not be accurate anymore.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/15/windows-phone-7-series-faces-off-against-its-windows-mobile-past/
This article says that the minimum resolution for WP7 is WVGA. That would make at least the specs wrong on the Turtle.
It obviously won't be running Windows 7 Series, they don't fit the specs. It would be running some minor system OS in the breadth of like MotoBlur. Just a custom UI theme. Although for such a small resolution, these phones if they do come with a Tegra in there, will certainly pack a helluva punch. They could easily be used as video streamer, with the Tegra easily capable of 720p video out.
Clearly those two are meant for the Sidekick crowd...nice featurephones, but not high-end smartphones.
And with Tegra, they might have nice interfaces and decent gaming capabilities, so they could be interesting...
@NewL
I agree. There's no way these are WP7S devices. I'm kind of wondering why they need the power of a Tegra in there, though.
enough with this turtle design..
Am I not turtley enough for the turtle club?
Why does anybody care about these craptacular phones anyway?
@NYC_ROCK
Because 6 billion people on this rock have a tendency to like more than what you do.
@LAY
you are quite right, but still does not make those 2 devices any more appealing.
Kawabunga!!!
The RAW info is posted here.
http://twitter.com/conflipper
These are not all that bad of devices from the looks of everything. A lot better then everyone thinks they will be.
I always wanted a real turtle comm.
http://www.x-entertainment.com/updates/pics/turtlecom/2.jpg
These are obviously going to T-Mobile and spring (ha or Vzw). They have to replace the sidekick or some kids are going to have themselves a shat. IF this thing has the Tegra2, that is going to be some serious horsepower seeing as its a dual core A9 cortex ARM in that steamboat.
*Watches Microsoft slowly shoot itself in the foot*
I know your focus is on WP7, and rightfully so (it did look pretty damn awesome), but don't let your Danger acquisition go to waste. Take what you've learned from Windows Mobile, take what you've learned from the competition with Android, iPhone, and WebOS, take what you've learned from LG, Samsung, HTC, and Motorola and make a new generation Sidekick.
Take the LX '09, shrink the sides, bezel, and the keyboard, make it thinner and lighter, make the screen capacitive multi-touch, give it a 5MP camera with dual LED flash, auto focus, image stabilization, and decent zoom, give it 720p video recording, up the internal hardware, price it at $150, and sell it on all four major carriers. The Sidekick demographic is huge. Walk into any school in America and you'll know that. Why are they pushing out this garbage?
Absolutely the design look like Motorola Karman QA1 => https://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=11508&NewsAreaID=22
Why would anyone in their right mind want such a phone. It's about as appealing as the Nokia 7600