Pantech's Sirius Sky smartphone does Android 2.1 on Snapdragon
By Tim Stevens 
posted April 15th 2010 9:58AM
posted April 15th 2010 9:58AM
posted April 15th 2010 9:58AM
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Too bad the snapdragon can't do 3d at all and is holding back game development on the android platform.
@Shalabi
What the hell are you talking about?
@TheGM
He means that the now ubiquitous 1Ghz Snapdragon can only push about 22m polygons compared to the 28m of the iPhone 3GS. However, I don't think that is what is holding back game development. There simply isn't the critical mass in the Android market yet. Apps are relatively easy to develop compared to (good) games, and 3D games doubly so. If you're a game studio, there simply isn't a large enough market yet to justify the cost of development of high-end games. Of course, that will change but it remains to be seen how long we'll have to wait.
@Shalabi
Heres a 3D game running on snapdragon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCwtOioGR8c
Next time do research, instead of making things up.
@Shalabi Plenty of 3D games on the HD2 which has a snapdragon inside, like OCEAN CLAK said, do some research first.
@OCEAN CLAK It says on the video description that the game was designed specifically for the Qualcomm Adreno 200 GPU, not the Snapdragon CPU. So a dedicated GPU is running the 3d in that game, not the Snapdragon, do a little research first.
@Shalabi The Adreno 200 is the integrated GPU inside Snapdragon.
@OCEAN CLAK - thats all great and all but when will we be able to play games off the memory card?
@Frankenstein Black Sigh, true. But that's an Android limitation. I don't know the details of Windows Phone 7 but I expect as apps become bigger (read: games), the popular phone OS's will get this feature.
@Frankenstein Black
XDA has various threads about installing apps to memory card and running them from memory card
here one but be warned it only works with some devices, some version of anndroid
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=468959
@OCEAN CLAK
heres another
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=462882
''WARNING: Proceed at your own risk, this may damage your phone and/or make it unstable. This is for advanced users only''
@Frankenstein Black
Whoah whoah, step back. You can't play games off a memory card? Ferreals? So what happens if you're a Nexus One owner, which only has 512MB of built-in memory, less than half of which is available to users? No, SERIOUSLY? There's some workaround, right? But you can run non-game apps off memory card, right?
@tonicboy Technically, the games themselves must run off the internal memory, but all their data files can be on the storage card. Those tend to be what makes up the vast majority of storage needed, the executables are pretty small. As others posted, however, I have yet to have an android phone that couldn't be modified with "apps2sd", basically mounting an ext2/3/4 partition on the SD card into the main filesystem, thereby bypassing that limitation.
@Swervo
Well that's good to hear, otherwise it would have completely changed my opinion of a phone like the N1 which has almost no built-in memory. Still, that sucks for the average consumer who would have no clue how to go about hacking his phone to enable that, and that doesn't bode well for mass-adoption.
@Shalabi Actually, the Adreno 200 GPU is on the Snapdragon, so it is still Snapdragon running the games. The GPU is integrated into the chip.
Why 3.7 inch? It seems thats the new standard with Android-Devices. But I allready have the Milestone (Droid) at its got 3.7 inches and my next Phone should have a bigger screen, like 4.3 inches or 4.5.
And the Evo 4G is not availible here (Germany).
"OLED screen that does look rather vivid in the above shot -- presumably taken indoors"... couldn´t resist it again, could you?
@rj7855
Couldn't resist what, the truth? The truth that OLED screens suck outdoors? Because they do.
@tonicboy Exactly, there's nothing wrong with what Engadget said. OLED screens are hands down some of the best screens when indoors, but it's absolutely terrible anywhere outdoors. It's just a tradeoff due to a technical limitation.
android.
its sirius business.
Nice... looks like the 1ghz + 3.7"screen + OLED + Android 2.1 club is getting more members...
@TareG
but still no hard-qwerty. where are the android high-enders with keyboards?? this is madness!!
@skyblaze
Well I guess you'll have to wait for the enterprise version of the Nexus which Andy Rubin mentioned...
Though I'll have to say, the only reason for me to get a qwerty phone would be games and game emulators... If it will cause the phone to be thicker than the Droid, well then it's not wirth it.... (and I have a DS for portable gaming...)
@skyblaze To be honest, I think hard qwerty keyboards will be a thing of the past. As smart, predictive text becomes better, few if anyone will cling to tiny-sized keys.
As for game emulators, I imagine the future of gaming will be controlled by gestures and the accelerometer.
@TareG
@TareG
personally, thickness doesn't bother me that much. i rocks an N900 (along with a Nexus One) and the convenience and speed/accuracy gained from typing on physical keys far outweighs any extra bulk (for me anyway). i absolutely suck at typing on screens... sure im somewhat used to it cuz the nexus basically forces me to... but i still suck at it.
i only got my nexus because my n900 screen died and i doubted nokia would repair it.. but they did. so now im torn between the power, beauty, elegance, and androidness of my nexus and the hack-ability, versatility, keyboard heavenness of my n900... (oh, and its overclocked to match my nexus's processor) but i would drop cash for this enterprise version the day it comes out... if it ever comes out
@skyblaze
THIS IS PANTECH!!!!
nice ui. not.
@CrackRocks Agreed!
@CrackRocks
Looks okay to me. Better than the standard grid.
I dont knw MAN (next podcast line from Josh!) Snapdragon + Android 2.1 + 3-ish screen doesn't appeal anymore to me... Blame the EVO for it!
Huh. Nice looking phone to me. Not even sure why.
This phone looks like it was designed by nokia. Good specs, but these seem to be the norm now. Really waiting on the DELL streak / new iPhone before I decide.
So Many android 3.7 screen. 1ghz. I hope apple release something magical from 3.8-4.2 n 1.5ghz. That would be magical.
Not bad specs, could be a sirius contender, maybe.
I'll definitely buy this if the price is right and it's solidly built.
Horray!
More Android On Steroid phones that T-Mobile USA won't get! Bring on the blue balling everyone, I need the torture! :D
Sky is a brand of Pantech
so the phone should be called Pantech Sky SIRIUS
Now that Pantech is in the Android game, I hope that means we'll eventually see an Android-powered Matrix/Ocean-esque dual slider sometime down the line!