İphone News : Qtopia Green Phone

Category Phone, iPhone, 3GSM, Apple | Permalink | 18. February 2007

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The Qtopia is the latest in Linux powered mobile phones. It was launched at the CES 2007 show earlier this month.

The plan behind Qtopia is that the phone runs on a Linux powered operating system which removes the restrictions and ties that current mobile phone manufacturers have.

The initial target audience appears to be mobile application developers who need a GSM/GPRS platform to test their solutions on without paying fees to get their code licenced to run on a phone.

The GreenPhone features a Linux 2.4.19 kernel running the Qtopia interface from Trolltech. The hardware includes a QVGA touch screen display, 312Mhz processor and 64MB RAM.

A Mini-SD card slot is provided for data storage, along with bluetooth and mini-USB port connectivity.

The handset features a rather poor 1.3 megapixel camera. The keypad is pretty bog standard, and includes a 4 way directional thumb-stick for navigation. A stylus is provided for touch screen operations, but like Steve Jobs recently said in the iPhone launch - who wants to use a stylus with their phone?

The Greenphone form-factor reminds me a lot of the Sony Ericsson candy-bar hardware - a lot.

Right now the phone’s hardware is ready, but the Qtopia software just isn’t up to scratch for consumers. Right now the bluetooth doesn’t work due to missing drivers, and you can’t playback any of the current media formats mobile phone operators offer (video OR mp3 music!).

I can’t help but feel that this geeky hackers phone is too little too late.

You can find out more about buying your own mobile Linux toy from the TrollTech shop, but at $695 per phone, it isn’t cheap - costing even more than the high-end version of Apple’s new iPhone.

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