Road S101 ‘HandyPC’

Posted on 04 March 2009, Last updated on 11 November 2019 by

I briefly mentioned this back in late 2006 so I was surprised to see it in the flesh at CeBIT 2009 yesterday. Rather disappointed to hear that it still hasn’t hit the market though. Fortunately for ROAD, they were way ahead of the game so they’ve still got a chance to get this out without the specs looking too outdated although something tells me that the 2.5G data capability isn’t going to impress too many ‘road’ warriors .  JKK and I did a quick video overview of the device which you’ll find after the jump.

S101

Full Specifications:

  • Processor Marvell PXA270 at 512MHz
  • Memory 128MB RAM and 512MB Flash
  • Battery 1800mAh Lithium-Polymer
  • Linux kernel 2.6.x with graphical user interface Qtopia
  • Phone
    – Display: color 128×160
    – Keyboard: 21-key standard-phone
    – Audio: microfone and receiver/speaker
    – Alarm: acustical/optical/vibration
  • PC
    – Display: TFT color 640×240 with touchscreen
    – Keyboard: 63-key PC-compatible
  • Multimedia
    – 4 external keys for control
  • Camera 1,3 Megapixel (optional)
  • Battery Life: Phone: 4h active, 7 days standby
    Battery life: PC: 5h active, 30 days standby (phone off)
  • Wireless Connectivity
    – GSM Triband (900, 1800, 1900 MHz) with EDGE/GPRS Class 12
    – WiFi 802.11b
    – Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, class 2 (30m)
  • Hardwired Connectivity
    – USB 2.0 OTG Microjack AB (Host/Client), incl. charging
    – SD-card 2GB (+SDHC compatible) and SDIO
    – headset or stereo headphone

P.S. Excellent keyboard on this device.

ROAD Website.

11 Comments For This Post

  1. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    Road S101 ‘HandyPC’ http://www.umpcportal.com/?p=6043

  2. GeoffreyM says:

    It’s cute, but the processor and wireless specs sound like they started development in 2004 and the price is absurd.

  3. anon says:

    I guess the delayed introduction to market shows. If they can get full 3G on it and provide a great software stack, it might be a very nice and productive device for some.

  4. Vakeros says:

    Put Android on it, change to 3.5mm jack and 3G and it is a decent Smartphone.
    Don’t like the fact it is designed with stylus in mind.

  5. T says:

    miniE90??

    its screen just the same with the pocketsurfer~

    512MHz, 128MB RAM and 512MB Flash, very normal smartphone~

  6. ardnimr says:

    800 euros? where I live you can get the E90 for the equivalent of 550 euros, that is without contract.

  7. John says:

    I love the idea of an E90 like device that runs Android … but…

    1) Needs more resolution … It needs to have AT LEAST as nice a screen as the G1, but I’d really like to see something with a 4″ screen that’s 800×600. I’d pay a premium for it, too.

    2) Needs at least quadband GSM (I’ve been toying with getting a Cradlepoint router, so I’m not too worried about not having 3G data, but I do wonder about the implications of not having 3G voice/messaging once 2G towers start being deprecated; aside from that, I’m not worried about not having WCDMA)

    3) I love that it’s Dpad based, instead of trackball based, but I’m not sure I like the way that keyboard handles it (vs the E90). If they made the screen bigger, then they might also be able to give a little more room to an E90 like dpad. Though, honestly, I love the look of the keyboard layout on this thing: the most like a real qwerty of any phone I’ve seen. So I wouldn’t to take away from the current keyboard layout — move the arrow keys into a dpad, replace those keys with something Android-ish, but otherwise leave the keys alone (assuming they have a feel as nice as the G1).

    4) As ardnimr points out, it’s less than an E90 in capability, but more than an E90 in price. Why not just see if someone is going to port Android to the E90 and get one of those?

    5) dual SIM slots wouldn’t hurt, either :-)

    I also wonder what exactly is running on the front display. Is it a 2nd, but otherwise fully functional, Android display? is it a custom app that just does a subset of Android’s functionality (call based stuff only)?

  8. John says:

    (this article says Linux + Qtopia, but I actually got here not via my usual UMPCPortal RSS feed, but from an article talking about this phone running Android: http://androidcommunity.com/road-picking-android-for-s101-handypc-video-20090305/ … thus all of my references to it being an Android phone)

  9. Uli says:

    The device will actually be available with either dual sim option or sim + smartcard option.

  10. John says:

    What do you mean by smartcard in this context?

  11. Richard Schmidt says:

    Op deze #HandyPC http://bit.ly/c26FnU zat ik lang te wachten. Vanaf '06 al bezig met ontwikkeling. Volgens mij zijn ze nu outofbusiness. :(

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