The rumored
Charm has just gotten a proper unveiling from Motorola -- and while it's not getting nearly the media fanfare its
Droid X corporate cousin did, it's arguably even more unique. The phone features a full portrait QWERTY keyboard placed directly below a 2.8-inch landscape touchscreen, but for most operations, you don't have to touch it if you don't want to because you've also got a touchpad mounted on the back of the phone (the so-called "Backtrack") much like AT&T's
Backflip. Not only is this the first widely-launched Android phone to employ such a form factor, it's also the first to run Android 2.1 with Blur -- and interestingly, they've carried over the old version's general look and feel rather than going with the Droid X's updated skin. It's got a 3 megapixel camera (with Kodak co-branding, something we haven't seen on a Moto
in a long time), WiFi, and a noise-canceling second microphone. Pricing and availability haven't been announced, but T-Mobile customers can expect it "this Summer."
posted July 7th 2010 11:04AM
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
You've posted that 3 times now. We get it. You don't like the phone. Chill..
Guys, keep in mind this form factor is for communication-centric users, not for multimedia-centric users. The texting crowd and business suits who are attracted to this form factor, don't even care if here will not run because the screen is in landscape all the time.
If I didn't hate Google as much as I hate Apple, this would be the Android phone I would get.
There's a sentence that wasn't handled properly by Engadget's posting system. I meant to say: "The texting crowd and business suits who are attracted to this form factor, don't even care if (InsertGameTitleHere) will not run because the screen is in landscape all the time." My bad for using less and greater signs.
"The phone features a full portrait QWERTY keyboard placed directly below a 2.8-inch landscape touchscreen..."
wait...isn't the orientation of the keyboard in direct correlation with the screen? meaning, if the screen is landscape, what makes the keyboard portrait and the others landscape? (yes I know the default orientation of the phone, but it doesn't make sense when you get right down to it)
Cool -- just what I had been looking for. But a bit late. It would be funny if people buy these things then wind up doing all their text input using Swype+Backtrack.
I suppose this kills the original Blackberry form factor segment, for the most part.
It seems T-Mobile is going for more of the teens/tweens and people that love social networking. If you look at all their phones, you'll see thats the direction they took with Android. Its not a bad thing, the everyday person would love T-Mobiles selection, but of course others want something high-end.
@EggoEspada Yeah, a lot of smartphones like that are geared towards social networking a lot. I guess that's what the majority of the audience/customers need a phone for.
Buyer beware of Motorola devices; unless of course you are on Verizon network.
Eight months and counting for an Android 2.1 update for the Motorola Cliq and we are still waiting.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000505461612#!/group.php?gid=129646190409226&ref=ts
I like the form factor. It's good for the casuals. However, Android without a high end cpu is not an experience I care to re-live. I'll wait for the Samsung or Dell Streak.
I kinda like it :)
It's like that Nokia smart phone with a QWERTY keyboard, they all look like Blackberrys, so I'd rather have one of them instead.
Phone looks weak
Rumour Motorola DROID PRO
Processor: 2 Ghz
RAM: 1 Gb
Chip: TI OMAP
OS: Android 3.0 (GingerBread)
Video Card: 850mhz GPU PowerVR 540
Screen: 4.3"
Resolution: 1280 x 800
Camera: 12 Mega Pixel
Video Recording: 1080P Quality / Full HD Quality
QWERTY Keyboard
Network: Verizon Wireless LTE 4G Network
Estimate time to release: End of year 2010.
Nokia Smartphone Share Market will died sooner.
KIN copy.
Enough with the skins! Slowwwwww!
good job motorola, but where is the quadband? where is the pentaband? stop locking us down.
i like the design except for the t-mobile branding. can it really do android well at that speed though? if it had an actual gps receiver and came unlocked without the branding i'd be tempted.