I have always thought that including a (more conventional) BT headset in the box would be a good way to market these larger devices.

Also, for evenings out, or other non-geek, non-work events, a more stylish phone is just a sim swap away.

Of course you’re talking to a guy that is pretty serious about ordering one of those banana handsets, always wears cargo pants, and (sometimes) carries a WiBrain in his back pocket, so I may not represent the average consumer.

Last summer, they didn’t say they will announce Tegra 2 in April 2010, they said it will be in devices April 2010. This is completely believable since 18 months ago, Tegra seemed to be way past experimental and testing phases. Nobody said they just started working on Tegra 2 last summer. I’d say they’ve been working on it for no less than a year, esp since Qualcomm had already announced its detailed plans for Snapdragon for well over a year.

Original Tegra was unveild almost a year and a half ago, do we see smarphones run by Tegra? No. We only have media players for now. So that mostly means that if Tegra will be unveild as soon as April next year that means finished products will be out in Summer 2011. OMAP 4 comes also next year and it will be also amost twice as powerful than previous OMAP3 and that same OMAP 3 is already at least twice as powerful(if not three times) as current Tegra. So that means when Tegra 2 comes out it will be outperformed by “big guys”.

I have to mention again that there are already players in GPU embeded market like Imagination Technologies and ARM it’s self with Mali GPU platform.

http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/ip-communications/articles/67242-st-ericsson-inks-deal-with-arm.htm

There are many producers now that have similar performance records, all that nVidia has now shown is Zune and few other media players and it still needs to prove it’s self beside bolstering it’s PR stunts (like with that fake mockup Fermi GPGPU card).

Nvidia said that “xxxx” will be out by “xxx”. Take it from me, i have been in this business a long time to know that Nvidia has the habit off going overboard with there statements.

How many times did they not say that a Video Card was going to be out, only to do paper launches… Hell, take a look at there Tegra 1 vs Snapdragon comparison. That they even dare to fake data that much said a lot about a Nvidia.

Do not forget, the Tegra 2 needs a complete new CPU core. That means restarting the entire production process. This is not just a simple upgrade, or fix. They need to redesign the Tegra ( different core sizes, etc ), resample, etc. Take a look at how long several GPU upgrades take, when they come down to mostly “doubling” the gpu.

Its very optimistic to trust that Nvidia will have the Tegra 2 “IN DEVICES” by April 2010. In order to pull off something like that, they now already need to have active samples, and those samples need to be with smartphone etc designers. Take a look at other SOC solutions, between announcement, sampling, and actual products.

And regarding the Snapdragon graphics. I have also asked that question, and in the same forum where you are pointing at, there is also a answer. Take a look at the TestOpenGL benchmarks. It looks like those old benchmarks are having problems with the GPU used.

— — — — — HTC Touch HD — HTC Leo — Improvement
alpha texture (128×256 rgba) 30340 kPixels/s 140125 kPixels/s 362%
torus (3k triangles) one light 6272 kPixels/s 120564 kPixels/s 1822%
color blending 31498 kPixels/s 152825 kPixels/s 385%
sub texture (128×128 15×15) 10762 kPixels/s 112983 kPixels/s 950%

This will look like a mess i fear in this post… But you do have some numbers.

HTC Touch HD HTC Leo
SPB Benchmark Index 1040.77 1597.12
CPU index 2272.2 6494.18
File system Index 502.96 747.02
Graphics Index 4002.07 1988.03

So… The graphical Index is 50% slow on the HD2, compared to the Touch HD using this benchmark. But, the HD2 shows a 362% to 1800% speed increase compared to the Touch HD, when using testOpenGl benchmark.

Its clear that there is a problem somewhere, but it does not look to be the hardware. Maybe how the GLbenchmark works, or a driver problem that happens with that benchmark? Who knows …

Till foldable/flexible screens are the norm, I don’t think a +4.3″ device could be pocketable…

NVIDIA said that Tegra 2 will be “IN DEVICES” by April 2010. That’s not so far away. Besides, I believe that Tegra 1 won’t pick up momentum outside the MID market, where I think it was meant to be all along.

The reason why I’m not excited by Snapdragon (other than the normal/below average battery life issue), is that extremely weak GPU benchmarks. Take a look at this shocking comparison, comparing the HD2 with older non-Snapdragon models:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4744947&postcount=77

Both the TouchPro 2 and OmniaPro trump the HD2, graphics-wise. In addition to that, say whatever you want about Snapdragon, but it cannot accelerate flash. Tegra would be able to not only play HD movies fluently, but also run YouTube HD, from the browser, as smoothly as your desktop. I’ve seen N900 in action on this site, and it plays normal low-res youtube, which is somehow of a waste on a WVGA screen. If I need to wait till April 2010 for superior web and graphical performance in an ultra-low power device, I’d gladly do it. By 3-year E65 phone is a testimony to how long long a high-performance phone could last. It plays SNES GBA games on emulators and Skyfire run flash content just fine… I can wait till April 2010…

Who carries an MID around?

– Uh, Me. As these devices grow in capability, screen size is bound to increase just as it has on the desktop.

For a single device solution including media, gaming, productivity, and a phone, I would gladly carry a 5″ mid. I can see it as the only device I carry even on travel.