Boy it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a decent looking slider. Just to remind you, this sliding Android device is a phone in addition to a potentially awesome MID. We caught a quick look at the Inbrics M1 at CES 2010. At the time, Inbrics was unsure if they’d be bringing it to the market, but it seems like after some good feedback at CES, they’re hoping to get it into consumers’ hands. At CES Inbrics was saying that they may be able to sell the device for something like $200 unsubsidized which would make this already attractive slider even more appealing.
Pocket-lint is reporting that Inbrics will be showing the M1 at the Mobile World Congress event that is starting next week (by the way, Sascha of Netbooknews.com and our very own Chippy will be speaking at MWC.) They may be showing it at MWC, but Pocket-lint also says that Inbrics plans to introduce the device in Europe in 2010 or early 2011. No word on the US apparently, but at CES Inbrics was saying that they may redesign the keyboard for the US market (more on that below).
Those dates are disappointingly far off for a device that many would likely have their hands on right now. Hopefully the guts powering the phone won’t be outdated by that point. I feel that the biggest challenge for the M1 will be proficient portrait functionality. So far I have yet to see a phone that functions well without thorough portrait support; people are used to being able to operate a cell phone with just one hand.
Some new renders of the device are showing off what appears to be a redesigned keyboard the one we saw at CES looked like it could use a little upgrade so this is a welcome change. The Inbrics M1 is definitely prominently on our radar. Stay turned for more news on this device as we uncover it.
via Pocketables.net
I think it’s awesome and love the price-point, however they could have easily stuck in a bigger (4″) screen in that frame.
Shame, other than that it’s perfect.
I wish people moved away from 3.5″ / 3.7″ already, yes it’s big enough but if you have the space for it, the bezel doesn’t do us any good and we do a lot of reading on our handhelds.