Gigabyte Reveals the g-Smart i200 (VGA Pocket PC Phone)

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/handhelds/0,39001709,61960257,00.htm' target='_blank'>http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/handhe...61960257,00.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"At the five-day tradeshow, Gigabyte demonstrated several of its current and upcoming PDA-phones including showcasing the g-Smart i200 PDA-phone for the very first time in Asia. Slated for launch early next year, the i200 will come with a built-in DVB-H receiver, although the company plans to pack in a DVB-T receiver chip as well. The i200 will also feature a VGA display, limited recording capabilities and 512MB of onboard memory. The device will come with Windows Mobile 6.0 (codenamed Crossbow) if this is ready at the time of the i200's launch, said Chen."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20061018-i200.jpg" /><br /><br />Yes, you read that right, folks. Gigabyte has a new iPod-esque Pocket PC Phone (g-Smart i200) in the works, complete with a 2.69" VGA display, on-board DVB-H and DVB-T receivers, a USB 2.0 port, and 512MB memory. Other devices such as the g-Smart i120, i128, and i300 are also coming or already available. These were first revealed at Computex earlier this year. But hey, what's the bet that we'll never see these outside of Asia? ;)

[bnycastro]

8O did i read that correctly? 2.69 in VGA display wow that must be the smallest screen on a ppc yet... and in VGA! wonder how it will look... :roll:

[Yorch]

more inportant than that......USB 2.0!!!!, wow, I thought I never see that on a pocketpc phone.

[kkantchev]

8O did i read that correctly? 2.69 in VGA display wow that must be the smallest screen on a ppc yet... and in VGA! wonder how it will look... :roll:

Good point, but why they wasted so much space for the buttons?!?
I guess they really want the device to look like iPod, which is kind of childish btw.

[JKingGrim]

Windows mobile 6??? Are crossbow devices already comming?

[bnycastro]

more inportant than that......USB 2.0!!!!, wow, I thought I never see that on a pocketpc phone.iirc the htc wizard is usb2.0 but i'm not entirely sure though sold it after 5 months :D

[Nurhisham Hussein]

But hey, what's the bet that we'll never see these outside of Asia? ;)

No takers :lol:

[Paragon]

Windows mobile 6??? Are crossbow devices already comming?

Yeah, they are only 1 1/2-2 years away.....still excited?

[palur]

I really want to see a VGA ppc phone with at least 3.5" screen. I am tired of these 2.8" and less screens. I use these a lot for teaching purposes. I am hoping HTC Omni will fulfill my dream.

[bnycastro]

Making it look like an iPod might do them wonders actually... A couple of friends and my bro opened up a small gadget store and well since the new iPods came out [around 2 weeks ago] we've sold close to 20 units [take note we have a kiosk with no credit card terminal, all our customers pay cash we even had one customer who bought a total of 8 ipods for family and friends, so there may be something to the copying of the iPod look] the damned things are selling like hotcakes. Anyway enough of the iPods... palur mentioned the Omni any news on that or any other VGA pocketpc coming up seems to be quiet on the VGA front... all we see are qVGA devices with sub 3in screens :(

[pocketpcadmirer]

Will I be getting a magnifying glass with it?

or think like this..you are using real VGA on it !! :cry:

[Lykaon]

I saw the device today and I liked it. Especially the TV-functionality :mrgreen:

The tiny screen is in VGA as for you say... a problem. I hope, I am able to see the device, but at the moment, I say... this is my next device

[Darius Wey]

Will I be getting a magnifying glass with it?

It's worth remembering that text isn't any smaller than a similarly-sized QVGA display. Windows Mobile's modified DPI setting for VGA displays scales everything accordingly, so in fact, the size of rendered elements remains the same, and it has the added bonus of being sharper.

[Janak Parekh]

or think like this..you are using real VGA on it !! :cry:
I think it is safe to say that most people will not use "true VGA" on this device. I'd still want it nevertheless. :)

--janak

[King_Dani]

well i've been longing to see a sub 3in ( or the 3 itself) VGA display , man i'm sick of this 2.8 - 2.7 - 2.5 average Quality displays , VGA is magic , and i know , it costs a lot more .
but hey , who is not up for a good Movie watch on the go or reading an ebook comfortably?

hope this idea won't die so soon.

[huangzhinong]

Really hope the final product will be completely different. This prototype is just too ugly. The LCD and buttons are almost half half. Can't understand. They have enough space to put 3.5inch LCD there.

[Craig Horlacher]

8O did i read that correctly? 2.69 in VGA display wow that must be the smallest screen on a ppc yet... and in VGA! wonder how it will look... :roll:

I agree...I can't see how small text can be readable on a 2.69" screen at 480x640 resolution. I think the some of the text is almost too small on my e830 4" vga display but I wouldn't want to use anything less than vga since I know how great it is to see text on my pocket informant month view!!! I can't imagine that same calendar view on a 2.69" screen.

[Janak Parekh]

I agree...I can't see how small text can be readable on a 2.69" screen at 480x640 resolution.
Of course text that's barely readable at 4" won't be readable at 2.69". But the VGA still gives you a much sharper experience over QVGA at any given size, and that's still a win. If you don't want a 2.69" device, then this is not for you, but there's plenty of us that'll sign up for a compact unit with the high DPI.

--janak

[davea0511]

... but there's plenty of us that'll sign up for a compact unit with the high DPI.

I have the HTC Universal (3.5 VGA) and the DPI on it is to the point of diminishing returns. A 2.69 VGA screen for most people won't look much better than a 2.5 QVGA screen.

This unit could easily have the wide screen on it. Why don't they make 640x320 screens (2:1 aspect ratio)? They could make a small device that way that would have a ton of viewing area. Seems like the best of both worlds. Seems rediculous nobody is doing it.

[davea0511]

FYI... a 640 wide screen is real nice for viewing webpages. Even though most webpages are made for 800 wide now, it still makes a big difference to be able to view 640 wide natively. In my opinion, viewing webpages easily is the #1 reason for having a wide pixel screen. The #2 reason is to resolve more data - and this device fails that criteria because it's too small.

[Janak Parekh]

I have the HTC Universal (3.5 VGA) and the DPI on it is to the point of diminishing returns. A 2.69 VGA screen for most people won't look much better than a 2.5 QVGA screen.
For some applications, i.e., photo viewing, it could definitely make a huge difference. I also disagree with your assertion. My Treo's 240x240 display is hugely pixelated. Maybe 480x640 is overkill, but it's certainly better than 240x320.

This unit could easily have the wide screen on it. Why don't they make 640x320 screens (2:1 aspect ratio)?
Pocket PC doesn't support it. We're locked into multiples of 240x240 or 240x320 for now until a true resolution-independent platform is developed.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

FYI... a 640 wide screen is real nice for viewing webpages. Even though most webpages are made for 800 wide now, it still makes a big difference to be able to view 640 wide natively. In my opinion, viewing webpages easily is the #1 reason for having a wide pixel screen. The #2 reason is to resolve more data - and this device fails that criteria because it's too small.
That's where we disagree. A high-res, large screen is for viewing lots of data. That does not invalidate a high-res, smaller screen for finer text, better photographic quality, etc.

--janak