Looking like a set-play organised by Clearwire to promote WiMax is the official Samsung announcement of the Samsung Mondi Mobile Internet Device. The Mondi is the SWD-M100 mobile Internet device that we’ve reported on a few times. Despite the fact that it might be commissioned to promote WiMax, it’s looking very interesting indeed.
Specifications:
- CPU type – Unknown
- OS – Windows Mobile 6.1
- Display Size – 4.3″ 800 X 480 (resolution not confirmed)
- Flash – 4048 MB
- Keyboard – Slider
- Size (w/h/d mm) – 120/75/16 mm (estimated)
- Physical Interfaces: Headset i/f (Mic+Line), Micro USB, Micro SD slot, HDMI
- Wireless Interfaces: 802.11b/g, BT2.0 (some blogs are reporting V2.1), Wi-Max
Additional Specs and Accessories:
- WebCam 3.0mp (rear, no flash)
- Microphone
- WebCam (front)
- Stand
- Stylus
- Ambient light sensor
- GPS
- Accelerometer
- Opera Mobile 9.5
- Touch Wiz UI
There’s no info on the weight, cpu, battery and of course, price at the moment.
I’m seeing a lot of negative comments on blogs relating to Windows Mobile 6.1 but apart from the old-style UI, I consider WM to be a productive and flexible environment and well-suited for the early WiMax customers. The Opera Mobile 9.5 browser is good quality and there’s a huge amount of software out there for the platform. It’s mature too. If (and it’s a big ‘if’ ) there’s a high-end CPU in the unit (I’m thinking OMAP 34xx platform, Snapdragon or similar) then Intel have a real competitor on their hands in the MID space. Even OQO and Nokia will be watching this one carefully.
See an interactive list of similar devices from our database.
I mentioned ‘set-play’ above and what I mean by that is that the Mondi is probably something that has been commissioned by Clearwire. I don’t see exclusivity being life-long though so I really would expect this one to appear in Europe and other places with HSDPA inside before the end of the year. It just makes sense that Samsung exploit every big market with this.
I quick though about battery life. Expect this to be a 2-3W active-online device meaning a 1500mah battery would drive it for just 2-3 hours. Looking at the battery hatch though, I’d estimate that this has a bigger, 7-10Wh capacity in it meaning up to 6 hours would be possible (with an online-standby time of way over 10 hours and an offline standby time of days.) This is just an educated guess at the moment though.
The feature list is good (I’ve picked up the features from previous videos and news items) with GPS, good camera, accelerometer and mic enabling a range of scenarios. As a navigation device, web browser, microblogging tool, ebook reader and even a gaming device, this is really looking exciting. Note, however, that this is not a phone. Apart from voice over IP, there is no standard voice capability.
Check out the video below (PhoneScoop) , the product page and the current links to find out more.
Via: many source. (See links list)
New article: Samsung Mondi MID launch, Specifications and video. http://cli.gs/J6ySSW
Is it just me, or is this basically just a Windows Mobile version of an N810 Wimax Edition?
(more storage built in, and HDMI out, though, so that’s nice, but it hardly seems interesting)
I’ll be more interested if they create a GSM/WCDMA version, and offer Maemo/Mer as an OS option (and Android).
That is exactly what I thought when I saw it.
Nokia killed the N810 Wimax pretty fast so I wonder whether this unit will be successful or not.
The resolution is a bit dissapointing, and storage space could be a bit more then that, but asfar as design goes it looks nice and slim with easily accesable keyboard.
Opera browser + turbo should make this a nice MID. I would have loved to see this one pull off a dualboot with winXP or something though, since apparently its got more power then an OQO. :’)
I’d rather have the Firefox mobile browser (not fennic, I mean the one that comes with Maemo) over Opera any day. Maemo _used_ to have Opera, and has since upgraded. Which is just my way of saying “Opera isn’t a selling point” on this device, it’s an indication that this device is lagging behind the state of the art.
As for XP … I’m willing to bet that the fact that this thing is running WinMo means that it is NOT using an x86 CPU. We don’t know what kind of non-x86, but still, I bet it’s not x86.
Opera has vastly improved lately, and theres even ajax/flash support about to hit.
Also, theres quite a few dual OS MIDs out there, i think the fujitsu flybook has win Mo and XP.
Opera on the desktop might be moving along just fine, but that’s not what I was talking about. I was talking about the Mobile version, which is what is likely to be running on this thing.
The Mobile version sucks … butt.
The desktop version doesnt have ajax/flash ABOUT to hit, so yeah mobile version..
And I have yet to see a better browser for winMO. (No, safari is NOT better)
Assuming it really is the best browser for WinMo (I wouldn’t know), that doesn’t make it a decent mobile browser. It just means that on WinMo, it doesn’t have any competition (“big fish in a little pond” syndrome). On Maemo, however, there’s a better alternative to Opera Mobile (and possibly on other mobile platforms).
How can you compare this device with the OQO? This Samsung is just a PDA or smartphone with a bigger display and without the phone. It certainly has an ARM processor, much slower then Intel Atom.
to bad about its limited availability.
i have been pondering a winmob device just to have a look at it (that ipaq 214 may be a option, tho), as i have yet to fork over the cash for a proper smartphone…
btw, i could have sworn i read that the cpu was a samsung/arm11 clocked at around 500-600mhz.
could be from a engadget china article…
There is no 3G. No chance.
No 3G because it is aimed at 4G. If you have 4G why do you want 3? This is also why limited availability, where do you get 4G?
Why would I want 3G if the device has 4G?
Well, for starters, because 4G coverage is abysmal. I want 3G in a device because I want to be able to actually use it. Not just flash it at my friends and say “wooo! I have a 4G device, aren’t I cool?”. Even if I lived in a WiMAX market, it would be nice to be able to travel more than 50 miles from home with it, and still have WWAN connectivity.
So far, the ONLY 4G device I’ve seen that is worth a damn is the HTC device for Russia that has both WiMAX and GPRS/EDGE/HSPA … you get the advantages of 4G service when you’re in an area with WiMAX coverage, and you get the advantage of any service at all when you’re in 2G/3G areas.
As for this Samsung, it needs two things:
1) 3G to backup/supplement its 4G (for the US, that would probably mean EVDO, since its 4G will be associated with Sprint)
2) OS choices for Android and/or Mer (Maemo on non-Nokia devices) and/or Ubuntu-ARM
Ideally it would have the VMWare for ARM that was demo’ed not too long ago, and give you choices for WinMo, Android, Mer, Ubuntu, and maybe even Symbian. THAT would be a killer pocketable.
The best possible pocketable:
– Physically, like this or an N810, maybe like an HTC Rhodium 100 or Nokia N97 in styling and tilt screen, but definitely big enough to have the 4.1″ or 4.3″ screen (800×480 is plenty, but supporting external displays that are much larger would be nice). 5 way dpad on the face. Some buttons whose functions can vary between Android, WinMo, etc.
– Dual SIM GSM/WCDMA with GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA. Quad-band GSM (voice, messaging and data), at least tri-band WCDMA, but preferably quad-band WCDMA (euro, asian, at&t/nam, and t-mo usa). And, obviously, wifi. Other variants for single SIM GSM/UMTS + WiMAX and single SIM GSM/UMTS + LTE would be nice. I’d probably be absolutely charmed if it had a variant for dual GSM + LTE … maybe dual GSM + WiMAX.
– VMWare + at least Android and Mer, Symbian would be nice, but isn’t actually necessary (I don’t care one way nor the other about it having support for WinMo, and I wont need Ubuntu-ARM if it has Mer, but I wouldn’t sneeze at Ubuntu-ARM support, either). If it was Atom based, instead of ARM, then I’d probably drop Symbian (and just go with Android-x86 and Mer-x86).
– An interesting “also” might be a VMWare compatible splashtop/instant-on OS (esp. if the vmware hypervisor itself can start relatively instant-on), and a VMWare compatible wireless router OS (like Cradlepoint’s products, or the Novatel Mifi products).
– LOTS of battery, and large/easy-to-use external battery accessories.
– LOTS of RAM, decent internal storage, at least one MicroSDHC slot, USB client for charging, USB host/otg for peripherals, Apple’s new display port (in a micro size) for video out. Maybe a docking station port.
Yup, that’d be my ideal pocketable.
You are absolutely right point by point !!!!!
One more. A webcam support for Skype should be integral part of it.
I don’t, personally, care about a chat cam, but it would be nice to see a decent quality portrait camera on the back.
an ARM device that doesnt even have a phone built in, so you would need this AND a phone? NO THX.
Why release something whose spec is so close to the n810 when n810 is about to be replaced any time now?
As for Maemo OS2008 vs WM 6.1. I can not think of more than a handful of appo that runs better on WM than on Maemo. Maybe chinese input support… music player… PIM app… that’s about it.