Android News
Motorola Sholes Tablet shows up again, turned on and running Android 2.1
December 4, 2009 | by Evan Selleck
Android, Android Devices, Android OS, Android Phones, Carriers, Motorola, Uncategorized
The Motorola Sholes Tablet made an appearance earlier in the week, but those pictures weren’t all that informative. Luckily, Androidin.net got a chance to pick up and play with a device that looks remarkably like the leaked photos from Wednesday. There are a few changes to that list of features we mentioned in the first article, especially regarding that camera. But, if this really is the Sholes Tablet, there’s no reason to still not be excited about it. Oh, unless you’re not in China.
Why China? Because it looks like the Sholes Tablet is in fact heading over to their neck of the woods, and grabbing a very utilitarian moniker: XT701. Honestly, I think I like that a bit more than Sholes Tablet. As for the changes, we’re apparently losing that aforementioned 8MP camera for a 5MP one. But, with losing something, the XT701 is obtaining an FM radio in its wake. There isn’t any word on whether or not the innards of the phone are changing, so it’s likely that the 550 MHz processor is still in there.
And lastly, it’s running Android 2.1. And that HDMI port we spoke about in the initial post might still be there, but the photo that would show it has a huge shadow where the port was displayed before. So, those lucky customers on China Unicom are set to get a pretty great looking phone. Sure, there’s that strange-looking corner on the bottom right side of the device, but that’s probably designed to make it easier to hold. Either that, or they just wanted the phone to look distinct. Either way, it’s there. Now for the bad part: this isn’t coming to the States. There might be a glimmer of hope, but this is more than likely just a taste of what’s to come. What do you think? Is this a DROID cousin you’d be willing to buy?
[via Androidin.net]
You mentioned that this is not coming to the states. Did you mean just this exact model or has there been some confirmation that the TmoNews leak is incorrect? This article actually suggests that both the Sholes and a Sholes Tablet will be coming to T-Mobile USA. No idea when, but Motorola seems to think it will happen: http://www.tmonews.com/2009/10/please-let-this-be… Hopeful.
Just this model; as in the XT701. Motorola has hinted before that there could be a possibility of a DROID without a physical keyboard. It's just surprising that it would appear this quickly. They (Motorola) could be testing a keyboard-less device in another market, to see how well it fares, before they release it here. Plus, I don't know about you, I don't want an FM radio on my phone. I'd rather have that 8MP camera, if I could choose.
"Yes" on all points. I definitely don't care about an FM radio. Perhaps an FM transmitter for tuning in on any vehicle, but nobody is handling that. Truth be told, I don't much care for a tablet-style phone anyway (esp with the Sholes being so thin). My main hope is getting it into the US and hopefully to T-Mobile.
In the end, I just want T-Mobile to get better Android devices. That's all that matters.