Kin is basically a Zune HD inside, can go for a weekend on a charge
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 12th 2010 6:43PM
posted April 12th 2010 6:43PM
Realistically, we've gotten the impression today that Kin doesn't come close to tapping out a Tegra's horsepower, but that might be by design: Snyder also mentioned that a key goal of the development phase was to make sure that the phones could go a whole weekend without a charge. Running a Tegra at full bore 24 / 7 doesn't lend itself to miserly power consumption, so the overall simplicity of the UI -- and the lack of 3D gaming -- might play a role there.
The kin 2 looks alright but the kin 1 reminds me of that fugly motorola phone we saw a couple of days ago. But their hardware is very nice though.
@MoonWalkerCTE And basically a Zune HD inside is great, if it also looked like a Zune HD on the outside. =/
F**K'IN hell who approved this piece of shit!
M$ executives will be taking the opportunity to knife their colleagues in the back once this tanks in the market (Unless they can sell this thing for $29 without a contract)
This project should have been killed 3 years ago ......
@scottkrk you obviously don't get what sidekick is about, majority of people out there have no need for overpriced smartphones with 3000 fart apps which btw don't sync content over the air, don't backup for free over the air and need computer with iTunes for OS updates
@MoonWalkerCTE
The fact that it can theoretically run for a whole weekend is actually one of the best feature in my book. Even if it doesn't run a whole weekend with me being on the phone 24/7, if it can just run a whole day, Ill be a happy customer.
@Jimbojones, it isn't 2006 anymore, at that time the sidekick was offering something new, why would people want a closed feature phone in 2010?
@scottkrk
typing M$ is so last decade. grow up.
@MoonWalkerCTE
The Kin 1 is essentially a circular phone, which is pretty different from any others out in the market. I can think of maybe one other phone that looks similar, its a pretty unique design and should be very efficient one handed.
@scottkrk
Sure its not 2006, but when you consider people STILL buy and use the sidekick by the masses is reason enough to target this market. Teens and college students will find this phone feature worthy (with or without additional apps). Plus as MSFT said, this OS being more open once the updates start pouring in isnt too far off. This phone is targeting those who are all about the social network. The ones that live and breath their twitter updates and wall posts. They flock by the millions, and that is why these two phones exist. Like its been stated, it is targeted at a specific group...most likely you are not in that group.
@MoonWalkerCTE
Who knew crystal meth was allowed on Redmond but then again this could do well should it be backed-up with a solid marketing campaign...giving it to the likes of Lady Gaga, Chris Brown, Justin bieder, Zack Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Edward Cullen and all those other new young generation celebrities, we could see some this product become an overnight success if priced right. Also just to piss Cupertino, have John Mayer on the homescreen of every ad.
@scottkrk
Im sorry man, but your an idiot is you dont understand the reason for this phones existence. Go to a high school and see how many people would buy it, youd be surprised.
@StewieGriffin "Also just to piss Cupertino, have John Mayer on the homescreen of every ad."
"Me and all my friends, we're all misunderstood, they say we stand for nothing and there's no way we ever could..."
@scottkrk
As a Motorola RAZR owner.. (I used to have an HP iPaq smartphone but now use the RAZR)
The reasons I'd think of upgrading to this would be:
1. The hardware is cheaper than smartphones
2. The software data is cheaper than smartphones
3. It does the basics well (Phone, play mp3s, text, facebook and tweet, notes, alarm-clock ..that's all I really need.)
4. It syncs automatically, for free, over the air. That's good for me because syncing is too much of a hassle for me to bother with.
I live in Canada, did you know I can access Reuters' stories for free just because i use a dumbphone? For some reason, if it were a smartphone I'd be charged for that.
When I had an iPaq I loaded it with apps, e-text, games, and even an offline version of Wikipedia. But I barely played Scrabble, and the books were a pain to read on such a small screen. The only functions I used really were Wiki, mp3s and taking notes (I preferred using a stylus to take notes).
I really like Android and support open source...but I just don't want to pay for a lot of things I don't use.
@abedinthehouse I won't call you idiot but I will say I disagree with you that in 2010 people (including teens) want single use closed system feature phones. Why not target a WM7 phone to this audience?
At the end of the day the market will decide.
How many KIN phones do you think M$ will sell in 6 months??
I expect this will go the way of Play for Sure and be gone in 18 months.
@jasonhaley
I think your right in the sense that it all comes down to price but with Android smart phones coming down in price, I don't think there is a price umbrella for the KIN to hide under.
I could be wrong but I think this phone is too late and too expensive
ready to see apple fanboys rant
@mbg19 seriously? this isnt even in the same league as an iphone so why would apple fanboys waste their time to rant. EVO 4g is a nice phone, android phones are good phones, this thing is a joke and the design is boring and flat out ugly on the second model. microsoft is a joke anymore. when apple releases a product it is covered by every talk show, every news channel. it is because they make a sexy product, that works without viruses or headaches most of the time. Vista was a disaster, the xbox 36 failure rate was inexcusable and bing cant hold a candles to googles stranglehold. these are facts it has nothing to do with being a fanboy. apple, htc are the only two companies making great phones consistantly.
@mbg19 Im an iPhone user, but I just felt kinda sad when I saw this, seriously microsoft, a dumbphone? Why??
This hardware should be running and tailored for ws7.
@mbg19
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/microsoft-kin-one-and-kin-two-announced-windows-phone-roots-wit/
Not apple fanboys, but I think you'll get the general consensus once you read the comments.
For those of you too lazy to read, in summary, this phone is not for the Engadget audience and the hardware design looks dated.
You don't have to be an Apple fan boy to not like something another company makes. Just like you don't need to be a Apple 'hater' to dislike something Apple make.
@geekthree
Hellllllllooooooooooooo. WP7 is coming you geniuses. This is a featured phone, not a smart phone.
@mbg19 Lol, you got what you wanted in 10 minutes or less. Tip please.
@geekthree
Or you can have a phone with good hardware and runs like a champ instead of crap hardware which everyone will complain about.
@geo1378
as he predicted.. you went on a rant...
Don't expect to be amazed by these phones. THEY ARE NOT SMARTPHONES! These are much cheaper phones not targeted to most people who read Engadget. And when you look at them in context, they're actually quite good and original in terms of features, services and UI... although the design is very blah... Come one, HD recording and 8MP camera on this type of phone? that's pretty damn good value
Also, Microsoft is no joke. To take sides and have preferences is one thing, but to insult a company on its efforts is not right. A lot of companies are releasing great products right now, some succeed better than others, but Microsot has shown in the past year how much a massive and established corporation can change and improve itself.
@geekthree not EVERY phone is a SMARTphone. MOST aren't! Geeze, this phone is not designed for the power user, but the average kid/young adult. Stop blabbering on about how Microsoft is stupid for not making this a WP7 phone, and realize that they did it on purpose. WP7 is something totally different FOR a totally different crowd.
All MS need to do is deliver full flash support and they will negate the need for a large number of apps. Come on MS, make us like this phone!
@New Reformation
Read 'good flash support' I personally can't think of a mobile platform that utilizes flash in a way that is viable for apps. Considering flash isn't on WP7, I wouldn't hold my breath for it on this platform.
I have only one question...... why Microsoft?
@grapeDrank "basically making software AND hardware MS would become... Apple!"
They'd have to lock it down and charge exorbitant amounts for an incomplete version at luanch with obvious flaws that people still wait outside in lines for after more campaigning and advertisement thrown at the people than for a top runner candidate on election years to pull that off. ;)
@ssgadget
First time I read your post I thought you said "courier details". X(
If this is the fabled Zunephone, BIG FAIL!
Gosh, is there a way to block all this MSFT coverage? It sure is driving me crazy! How much are they paying Engadget?
@Lordstrom Billions upon sweet billions of dollars.
@Lordstrom Boatloads of money. Yachtloads, no Titanicloads.
@Lordstrom less than frickin Apple did few weeks ago, that's for sure
@Lordstrom
LOL Sarcasm detector went off. Well played, sir. Made me rofl
Too bad it doesn't basically look like a Zune HD.
@Spaces agreed, the problem is that would be too close to Win7 phone
So far I like what I see.
Gotta be honest with you, at first, I wasn't so sure about all this, but now I'm actually starting to like it a lot.
All they need to do is add full flash suppose, or have a bigger app store. When that's done, I'll definitely consider getting it.
Hopefully it'll have Mac support.
@mtnDewFTW Yup, it will. http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/microsoft-kin-one-and-kin-two-announced-windows-phone-roots-wit/
"To loop in the Mac community, Microsoft will be offering a Mac-compatible music side-loader -- in other words, it won't be a true, native Zune client and you won't be able to use it to shop for music, but it'll happily connect to iTunes and sync your non-DRM collection."
@N900 I could not be anymore pleased with this.
Thank you MS, you have restored my hopes in you.
@mtnDewFTW What would you want an app store for, when you can't install apps on the Kin phones?
@mtnDewFTW
I agree. An extensive App-store is of big importance if you release such a youth-focused phone. I'm pretty sure that a big number of teenagers have a iPhone just because of all the apps and games they can put on it.
@grapeDrank I don't think Kin will be pretending to register as an iPod when syncing to iTunes.
Engadget Readers
MSFT has unveiled (currently) all 2009/2010 leaks
1. WP7
2. Project Pink Kin 1/2
3. Allowing third party storage for xbox 360
That only leaves one more item.
The Courier *deep voice movie guy*
@eminisp Nice catch on that! The Courier sounds good to me.... deep voice or otherwise :)
@eminisp Xbox 360 Slim.
So this fills the gap of the sidekick.
@SirDigby337
no, the mytouch3g slide will...since sidekick fans are on t-mo
I thinks its awesome but maybe its because they focus on the camera and thats a big deal to me. I wish they would up the sizes a little but i'm sure that will come later. I think this is a perfect phone for people that just want simple and don't need all this extra stuff that only "nerds" can figure out.
hooray for platform fragmentation: zune, winmo 6.5, windows phone 7... "kin"...
@h0rk From what I can tell, Kin ties into Zune.. It's not too fragmented.