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  • Quanta working on 3.5-inch smartbook-as-phone, hates our thumbs

    by 
    Paul Miller
    Paul Miller
    01.20.2010

    Without pictures or firm form factor details, it's hard to tell exactly what Quanta is driving at here (or who it's driving at it for), but the concept of a "computer in an iPhone form factor," as Quanta Chairman Barry Lam so tactfully puts it, doesn't fill us with much hope for usability. At least it probably won't look as terrifying as this modded Dell netbook pictured above. Quanta says it's building a "smartbook" device with a 3.5-inch touchscreen, with voice calling and web browsing the primary functionalities. We're not really sure what even qualifies this as a "smartbook" if it's really in an iPhone form factor, but perhaps it's to run some sort of full-featured OS. Unfortunately, Moblin and Windows seem out, because there's Qualcomm and ARM under the hood. If this is indeed in some sort of fold-up form factor, our greatest fear is another Viliv N5 or UMID mBook BZ experience -- we just don't think we could relive that sort of pain.