Hasta La Gadget!

You’ll be familiar with the LG eXpo and its specs already — which include a slideout QWERTY keyboard and 1GHz Snapdragon under the hood — but we thought we’d go try the handset out for ourselves and tell you what we thought. Construction on this little machine was plenty sturdy to withstand the bumps associated with its unusual shape, while the keyboard slider mechanism had a reassuring feel to it. On the whole our impression was that you’ve got a middle of the road modern phone with a sales hook that depends on just how into projecting your images you are. Trust us, the sharp and large picture you may hope for from this device is possible only in very limited circumstances — even a moonlit night seems likely to mess with your enjoyment of the attached pico projector’s output. For the most part, you’ll have to be content with either watching 14-inch movies with the curtains drawn, or projecting ill-defined naughty pictures on the whiteboard while the teacher isn’t looking. Even if neither of those sounds like your kind of thing, feel welcome to peruse the hands-on gallery below.

LG eXpo projector hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that Snapdragon-powered Lenovo smartbook we peeked back in November of last year? No? Fret not, as the aforesaid outfit has just come clean with the details surrounding the previously elusive device. The Skylight is Lenovo’s first-ever smartbook, and while we’re still struggling to see what niche these things are designed to fill, we definitely can’t knock the internals. It’s the industry’s first ARM-based, Qualcomm smartbook, and it’s powered by a 1GHz processor. Other specs include a 10.1-inch display (1,280 x 720), a customized version of Linux, 20GB (total) of flash storage, 2GB of cloud storage, an 8GB miniSD card, twin USB ports, 1.3 megapixel camera, WiFi and a battery capable of humming along for ten hours on a full charge. It’s also apt to be a lot like the unorthodox IdeaPad U1 Hybrid on the software front. The clamshell enclosure weighs under two pounds, and the integrated AT&T WWAN module ensures that you can get connected wherever a tower is available. The unit will ship this April with 18 preloaded web gadgets (including portals to Amazon MP3, Facebook, Gmail and YouTube), and pricing is set for $499 (MSRP). We’re told that AT&T will offer it up as well, but it’s unclear whether or not it’ll subsidize the Skylight should you commit to a two-year DataConnect contract. Rest assured that we’ll be getting some face time with this bugger in short order, but till then, you can peek the press release and a promo /hands-on video just after the break. Oh, and we should mention that we snapped an extremely brief hands-on with the machine a small bit ago, and we’re still flabbergasted by how thin it was. Expect a more thorough look tomorrow!

Continue reading Lenovo Skylight: its first ARM / Snapdragon-based smartbook, coming in April for $499

Lenovo Skylight: its first ARM / Snapdragon-based smartbook, coming in April for $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for something a little different and exciting in the Android space? Acer’s Liquid A1 probably fits the bill. Sure, it’s another in a long line of slate-style phones with Android, but the quirky (if chunky) design and zippy Snapdragon processor are certainly worth paying attention to. The best part? It’s shipping now in the UK, with a price hovering in the £330 range (about $540 US). If someone manages to shoehorn Android 2.0 onto this thing we might start talking serious, but for now it’s probably a stretch for a bit of EDGE-only (or 3G if you win the tri-band lottery and us AT&T) import action in the US. The price of liberty and happiness, we suppose.

Acer Liquid A1 starts shipping its Android wares in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever since the WinMo-powered HTC HD2 started to drip, drip onto our pages in the form of leaked images and details, we’ve been asking ourselves one question: where’s the Android version? And while we’ve heard whispers of a supposed Snapdragon-based Dragon device running Android ever since early October, we’re left to rely on Motorola’s Droid / Milestone to fulfill our Android 2.0 dreams this holiday season. And if DigiTimes is correct, that picture likely won’t change until early 2010. Taiwanese DigiTimes‘ sources have its Taiwan-based neighbor launching its Passion handset running Android 2.0 (or even 2.1 by then) on a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset with 3.5-inch multitouch OLED display sometime in early 2010 (not 2009 as previously tipped) as HTC continues to tweak the device’s software. And if previous rumors are true then this CDMA variant of Dragon will be making its debut on Verizon at that time. DigiTimes‘ sources also claim that HTC will announce a QWERTY-toting Android device, possibly named Espresso, at the huge Mobile World Congress event in February. Of course, all this is rumor for now so hold tight as HTC’s roadmap unfolds.

HTC Passion runs Android on 3.5-inch OLED and Snapdragon in Verizon’s early 2010? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard anything about LG’s Monaco, but now it seems as if the wait for this to transition from presentation slide to reality is almost over. Unfortunately, Windows Mobile 7 won’t be onboard as previously rumored, but prospective Telus customers can look forward to LG’s S-Class interface sprucing things up somewhat. Other specs purportedly include a Snapdragon processor, WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, though nitty-gritty details beyond that are nil. Peep that read link if you’re lusting for a few more angles, and don’t kid yourself — you are.

LG’s Monaco (IQ) spotted in Telus garb, rocking WinMo 6.5 and Snapdragon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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