O2 XDA Zinc, Graphite and Vodafone VDA IV

[Guest nedge2k]

[teaser]

This just in from our bland department: grey is the new..er...grey! :rolleyes:

Following on from i-mate, AsusTek (makers of the Zinc and Graphite) seem to be making their devices ugly and bland in an effort to make them less "stealable". At least that what I hope is the reasoning behind the design of these new devices...

The Zinc (aka Mars II) is your basic HTC Hermes clone:

• GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz + UMTS 2100 MHz
  
• Windows Mobile 5 for Pocket PC Phones
  
• Intel PXA270 520 MHz Processor,128MB ROM, 64MB RAM, MiniSD slot for memory
  
• 1300 mAh Li-Ion battery
  
• Side-sliding full QWERTY keyboard
  
• 2.8-inch QVGA 65k color display; 2-megapixel camera with Auto-Focus
  
• 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth v2.0
  
  
  
  • 3G
    
  • Forward facing video calling camera
    
  • 128MB ROM
    
  • 64MB RAM
    
  • Intel PXA270 416Mhz CPU
    
  • Bluetooth 2.0
    

  Interestingly, AsusTek also made another, lower spec'd, version of the Graphite, said to be heading over here to the UK as the Vodaphone VDA IV:

  [*]3G

  [*]128MB ROM

  [*]64MB RAM

  [*]Intel PXA270 312Mhz CPU

  [*]Bluetooth 1.2

  Lots of piccys after the jump (you may want to sit down for the blandness :( )...[/teaser]

  O2 XDA Zinc

  

  

  O2 XDA Graphite

  

  Vodafone VDA IV

  

  Release dates, places? Your guess is as good as mine at the moment! However, don't expect to see the O2 devices in this part of the world any time soon...

[Guest m@rty]

The graphite may not be far off: a collegue just got (yesterday) an O2 XDA IQ (aka imate sp5m) on our corporate tarrif. He had a bit of a rigmoral getting it and when asked what the problem was he was informed that they were just about to/ had very recently discontinued them.

I really hope the graphite will have wifi & 2MP even though the breeze doesn't

[Guest HerpezP]

I'm pretty sure I have seen a 2-megapixel camera mentioned somewhere.

Also, WiFi is tested in the FCC reports, so it's very possible it will have that too (though O2 can choose to leave it out of course).

[Guest Rob.P]

I was hoping they would improve the casing of the Zinc, but I don't think they will, looks ugly, glad I went for the Vario II and certainly couldn't wait until Jan'07.

The Register - Zinc Story