martinlong1978
04-03-2003, 10:41 AM
HTC have recently been give FCC approval for their latest innovation, the Falcon, but will it live up to expectations? So far very little information has reached the public domain regarding the features of this little gem, but there does seem to be a drizzle comming from somewhere. Whether it be just rumours, or journalists making assumptions remains to be seen, but the feeling I'm getting is that there will be a mixture of excitement and disappointment when this device finally reaches the market.
In my opinion the manufacturer of both devices, the XDA and the Falcon, made a bad judgement call when putting together the spec. Ok, I'm not going to bad mouth the phone that we all love, but I know that a lot of people believe it could have been so much more. You see, they made the assumption that because the XDA intgrates a phone with a PDA it should be a compromise of the two. The problem is, that someone who has bought an XDA would have probably (eventually) bought a PDA anyway, but they'd have got a really good one - or when they buy a phone, it's a really top notch one.
So what do we know about the Falcon? So far very little. We know it uses CDMA networks (3G) and has a built in GPS reciever - these should certainly be well recieved by the XDA community. We also know that it has a voice memo button - so no need to scramble though the menus when you remember the name of that CD you wanted to buy. That's about it.
Many sites are publishing a limited spec sheet for the falcon, and while incomplete, they seem to be suggesting a lack of further improvements. A disappointing 32Mb of RAM, lack of SDIO, a 4096 colour screen, and none of the really useful extras like consumer IR or a built in camera. The biggest kick in the balls, still, is the lack of any WLAN device - they really want you to use those expensive data networks even from your own armchair.
At last we are getting a PDA phone with 3G functionality, although without the video phone. This is something that has been long awaited and will be welcomed. Unfortunately, the customer waiting for the serious PDA combined with a serious phone may have a long time to wait. Perhaps they just can't fit it all in the box yet.
In my opinion the manufacturer of both devices, the XDA and the Falcon, made a bad judgement call when putting together the spec. Ok, I'm not going to bad mouth the phone that we all love, but I know that a lot of people believe it could have been so much more. You see, they made the assumption that because the XDA intgrates a phone with a PDA it should be a compromise of the two. The problem is, that someone who has bought an XDA would have probably (eventually) bought a PDA anyway, but they'd have got a really good one - or when they buy a phone, it's a really top notch one.
So what do we know about the Falcon? So far very little. We know it uses CDMA networks (3G) and has a built in GPS reciever - these should certainly be well recieved by the XDA community. We also know that it has a voice memo button - so no need to scramble though the menus when you remember the name of that CD you wanted to buy. That's about it.
Many sites are publishing a limited spec sheet for the falcon, and while incomplete, they seem to be suggesting a lack of further improvements. A disappointing 32Mb of RAM, lack of SDIO, a 4096 colour screen, and none of the really useful extras like consumer IR or a built in camera. The biggest kick in the balls, still, is the lack of any WLAN device - they really want you to use those expensive data networks even from your own armchair.
At last we are getting a PDA phone with 3G functionality, although without the video phone. This is something that has been long awaited and will be welcomed. Unfortunately, the customer waiting for the serious PDA combined with a serious phone may have a long time to wait. Perhaps they just can't fit it all in the box yet.