It looks like the XPPhone guys are at it again with their ultra-converged solutions. This time a 4.8″ mini slate ‘phone’ running on a 1.6Ghz Atom platform.

Not much information is given in the press release regarding specifications but given that all the Images are renders, this is likely to be something for 2012, and a rather niche market given that the weight and active standby time on this ‘phone’ is going to be restrictive.

We doubt its a Medfield phone but we’ll keep an eye on this one as a Viliv S5 alternative. In the meantime, enjoy the press release!

http://en.xpphone.com/news/kuaibao/114.html

The last time I met ITG was at Computex back in July. The XPPhone was actually shipping in limited quantities then but  it seems that it’s now availble worldwide.

Remember the XPPhone is running windows XP Embedded so this isn’t your average desktop OS. There’s also a rather old AMD Geode inside (they call it ‘Super Mobile CPU’ – we know it as Geode LX800 or LX900 as seen in the original Everun) so don’t expect desktop performance either but, as always with UMPCs, they’re aiming at a specific type of segment. The transport industry comes to mind immediately. The price, with 3G, voice but without taxes, is just shy of $800.

Other UMPCs including a desktop OS and voice capability include the Viliv X70 and Viliv S5 although they do not have the unique wake-from-standby-on-call feature of the XPPhone which is important for long-duration usage.

Here’s a video we made in July demonstrating the features.

News via:
ITG’s long-awaited xpPhone finally and unbelievably available for purchase!.

The XPPhone story has been quite a long one and many of us wondered whether the device would reach the market but it has, and we took a look at it at Computex. The mechanics were very solid, the operation very easy and the keyboard quite good. The phone functions work and even the battery life appears to be acceptable. This is definitely a specialist device but if you’re prepared to carry it around with you it’s going to reward you with a relatively fast, and totally complete Internet experience, access to many of your desktop apps and a good quality input system. It’s not as powerful as the OQO but has longer battery life. This is an alternative for those that have been looking at the EKing S515 / PSiXPDA.

At last. We’ve been seeing tiny slivers of information on the XPPhone for months but without a price, no-one could even start to consider it.

The wait is over. The XPphone team have just sent us this info:

2999 ~ 4500 RMB (400 ~ 650 USD)

Clearly there will be a range of models to choose from but although this is, in ultra mobile PC terms, a fairly low computing power device, the web experience should still match everything you get on a high-end smartphone today. (I used to own a ‘netbook’ in 2006 that used the same CPU) and if you’re getting 3G thrown in for $400, er, this isn’t a bad choice for a basic UMPC. Suddenly we’re quite interested in this one because the battery life should be in the 4hrs range.

It looks a lot better than when we saw it at Computex but of course, you’ll be looking at something like $499 before it gets to the US or EU and that certainly takes a little of the shine off.

More images here.

We’re trying to get availability details. [We’re also adding it to the database. Stand-by]

Update: XPPhone added to database.

Xpphone specs

I wonder what AMD think of this!

There has been a rush of news around the xpPhone recently culminating in a rush of posts by top blogs and, over the last 24 hours, an article from the IDG news service that hit PCWorld and others top-tier reporting sites.

The xpPhone news has been around for a while and at Computex, we even got some hands on with a prototype. JKK has a video and I’ve got some photos of the prototype.

Since Computex we’ve had two updates from In Technology Group. One, a general marketing info-set and the other including the ‘leaked’ (bloggers like to use that word!) photos of the user interface and an update include a link to the latest information on the website.

“Xpphone” —The world first breakthrough “Mobile Phone, GPS, Notebook, Three-in-one pocketable mobile terminal”
it creatively breaks through the technical bottlenecks of the mobile phone and PC industries, achieving their functions based on
x86 platform at low cost and becoming the global first x86-based mobile phone. it supports all three 3G standards globally and the
future 4G , has many built-in wireless modules, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G modules and auto rotated 4.8 inch touch screen,
and supports various VoIP calls and numerous Windows XP softwares.

It’s not the first XP/Phone device we’ve seen so why the blogging excitement? It all appears to stem from one line in the product literature, ‘AMD Super Mobile CPU.’

Just a quick heads up to you all that this isn’t anything new from AMD. It’s the, rather old, but ahead-of-its-time (why did you kill it AMD?) Geode LX CPU that was found in early UMPCs and netbooks. The Raon Digital Everun was an example and funnily enough, that had a phone function too. [Post and Video here]

There are still people out there that swear by the Geode so don’t discount it yet.

In Technology Group appear to have done quite some work on integrating the phone into the Windows XP ‘pc’ side of things so from a technical angle, I’m quite interested in testing one out but I can’t see this being used by too many consumers.

Some Promotional materials and UI images are shown below.

All product and UI photos in the Gallery.

We saw an influx of these sort of devices at this year’s Computex, but it looks like we are now seeing the first honest attempt to bring one to market.

You’ve probably picked up by now, but the XPPhone is a mobile computer (running Windows XP) that packs in a bunch of wireless and ceullar radios to make it also function as a phone. It supports most 3G specifications and even has optional WiMAX.

In general, the idea of a Windows XP running phone isn’t one that I’d be very excited about because it would mean most likely having a really hot phone in your pocket that would quickly run out of battery life. However, adding some viability to the device, the XPPhone claims to be able to wake up from standby when there is an incoming call or SMS, which makes this whole concept a bit more realistic. Still, I don’t know how fun it will be to pull the thing out of your pocket, send a text, then put it back into standby. I’m sure someone out there will love it though. Here are the specs according to the official website:

• • CPU： AMD Super Mobile CPU
  • Memory：512M/1G
  • SSD: 8G/16G/32G/64G
  • HDD：30G/60G/80G/120G
  • LCD: 4.8′ TFT Touch-screen LCD 800*480
  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP
  • Network：GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA (HSDPA/HSUPA)CDMA/CDMA2000 1X/CDMA1X EVDO,TD-SCDMA，TD-HSDPA
  • Wireless：WiFi 802.11b/g,WiMax(optional),Buletooth,Stand-alone GPS
  • Camera Specifications:CMOS, 300k/1.3 Million
  • Ports:1 x earphone jack,1 x microphone jack,Docking Connector (include VGA output signal ),1 x USB 2.0, SIM Slot
  • Power Management:
  • Battery: Removable Lithium-ion
  • Talk time: about 5 hours,Stand by time: about 5 days
  • Real life: about 7 hours(Standard), about 12 hours(Large)
  • Talk time，Standby time，Operation time may vary depending different usage.
  • Weight: 400g (include battery)

Earlier you may have seen the DigiCube MIDPhone, and the idea behind the XpPhone is not much different. Take a look at the video and you’ll see jkk looking at another slider device which runs Windows XP, and also has voice capability. While I somewhat lambasted the DigiCube MIDPhone for its 2 hours of battery life, the 5 hours that the XpPhone purportedly provides is just barely starting to reach a level of practicality as a phone. Of course these devices are probably best served as concepts of even ultra-early adopter devices, but once Moorestown hits, we’ll have good battery life such that a device (hopefully smaller than this) can be viably always-on and in-pocket, functioning not only as a phone, but a computer as well.