General Mobile -- maker of the
DSTL1 dual-SIM Android phone -- has always walked a fine line between KIRF and originality with its phones, and its latest batch is no different. Normally it's easy to resist a device widely regarded as a knockoff (for most of us, anyhow), but in the case of the newest model here, General Mobile's actually managed to answer a question HTC's failed to so far: where the hell is the
HD2 with Android? The so-called "Touch Stone" (deep breaths, Palm) rings true to many of the actual HD2's specs, from the 5 megapixel camera to the 4.3-inch capacitive WVGA display, but this sucker adds an "optional" analog TV tuner (which won't do countries with digital transitions any good) and Android 2.0 atop an ARM9-based PXA935 core. Sadly, this phone doesn't quite exist yet -- we were shown a dummy model today with the promise of retail toward the end of the year, at which point HTC and others will undoubtedly have phones like the
Supersonic on the shelf. If you'll excuse us, we need a cold shower, but you'll find more shots of the Touch Stone along with the Cosmos (launching soon) and Cosmos 2 dummy (launching... well, eventually) in the gallery.
posted February 17th 2010 4:24PM
Good luck getting support once thats released
I bought a DSTL1 from http://bensbazaar.com and they were able to help me with questions and setup. Though I do agree GM needs to improve their US customer service if they want to compete with the other android phones.
BTW...saw the COSMOS for pre-order on http://bensbazaar.com also...$299. By undercutting other unlocked adroid phones GM may have a shot to grab market share.
What it there guys... I smell copyright infringement...
Ouch, analog TV. Haven't received a single signal in the whole of Europe in the past years.
DVB-T would have been nice...
LOL They straight up copied the HD2. I smell a resistive screen too (you can see the stylus in screen shots). Meh.
@DoctarPeppar
from the name I thought it was KIRFing the milestone lol
@DoctarPeppar
I'm sure its capacitive if they said it its. Thats probably a pull out antenna for the tv tuner.
@hexoDAT64
Oh ya -- good call!
@DoctarPeppar
Oh yea stylus, I wouldn't mind a "HD2" with a resistive screen... I like trying to kill the screen with my nails
Bla. By the end of the year we will have phones that make the HD2 look like something your grandma used when she was a kid.
Chinese phones with Analog tv and dual sim are quite popular in Turkey.
I believe GM is the best of that type.
Speaking of KIRF what do you say to this
http://www.hepsiburada.com/trident-w-t3-cift-simkart-tv-wi-fi/productDetails.aspx?categoryid=16001&productid=telceptridewt3
this doesnt look that much like the HD2. Different speaker shape, different buttons, different bezel. Just because its black, has 4 buttons, and is a similar size doesnt mean its KIRF.
@blackflag, yea I have to agree with you. I don't see this device as a KIRF it has to many little differences.
On a side note the HD2 still looks better.
@blackflag
Definitely looks a bit thicker than the HD2.
@blackflag
Chris isn't actually calling it a kirf, he said GM has always walked a fine line. If this thing would come to the US I would walk that line with them. The Cosmos looks great too, but it vaguely looks like a Storm, so....
Anyway the chances of seeing this in the US are pretty low, I bet.
I have to agree. I would get one when it comes to the US. On the surface it seems like a less expensive version of the nexus, trackball and all.
After many attempts to find out about the Cosmos with GM site I finally got a email back. They said it will be available in the US the beginning of April on http://bensbazaar.com and http://jandr.com
good luck.
This is very like how the Meizu was considered a KIRF of the iPhone. As originally it was.
No fair, you made me think it was a TouchStone for HTC phones.
@allston232 Why post it then?
Arm9?! That's armv5, as compared to the crappy MSM7200s armv6 and Snapdragons armv7, and that ain't right. Of course, marvell hasn't updated XScale much since they got it from intel, but still.
@fabarati By now I'm totally confused by the ARM CPUs... ARM 11 is the follow up to the ARM 9, ARM A8 is the follow up to the ARM 11, and ARM A9 is even better yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture makes it slightly clearer, but still. So is this PXA935 a new chip, that is supposed to be fast, but based around a very old instruction set? Sure that it performs well?
@kadajawi ARM11 is not an architecture
ARM11 uses the ARMv6 architecture. Cortex A8 (or Scorpion [Snapdragon]) uses the ARMv7 architecture. ARM9 uses the ARMv5 architecture.
This could almost pass as a non-KIRF. Which would mean I'd have absolutely no problem with this device as long as it wasn't produced by prison slave labor.
The real question is where is the HD2 for AT&T
@Reggie3
The real question is, why can't they make all phones work on all networks?
@HardToBelieve because then At&t wouldn't have any customers
@Reggie3 the real question is why would anyone use AT&T
HTC didn't even confirm the Supersonic at MWC. Great going HTC...
@HurricaneDC
I have checking back here as often as I could waiting for them to announce the Supersonic and give some kind of release date
.
The Supersonic is the ultimate KIRF of the HD2, which is the phone I'm waiting for.
(Is it still a KIRF if it's made by the same company?)
Cheap KIRF Androids are nice.
If they are dumping all those bad implementations of WinMo 6 to use Android, I might just buy one.
If it lands for $300-, why not?
$500+ - why?
It's called the HTC Supersonic. It's as legit as you get
It is truly sad that it takes a KIRF company to answer my prayers. Would it be the same screen resolution as the milestone/nexus one for apps though? Or is it bigger yet?
Thailand I-mobile i858 promise this model will be release in march 2010
http://www.droidsans.com/node/1652
compare to nexus one
http://www.droidsans.com/i858-vs-nexus-one-who-is-bigger
other picture
http://www.droidsans.com/i-mobile-i858-pics