AT&T's been extraordinarily coy about its
Android plans, right up through
our interview with Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega back in February -- but rest assured, the carrier does plan to get in the game, and it might just beat a number of
T-Mobile's planned launches to market. Meet the HTC Lancaster, which kinda looks like a
Magic when closed -- but open, it takes on more of a traditional
Touch Pro-ish form factor for a QWERTY slider than the
G1 /
Dream. It's got triband EDGE and 850 / 1900MHz HSPA, AGPS, a 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD expansion, and a "unique HTC social messaging user interface" that we'd assume takes cues from that
Hero stuff we've been seeing recently. It's lined up for a full six months of AT&T exclusivity and -- according to our materials, anyway -- has a target availability date of August 3, meaning we could see this pretty shortly. Unfortunately, there's a note here that "Initial Lab Entry dates were based on Google Mobile Services (GMS) UI, AT&T standard UI has been requested, which puts schedule in question." In other words, AT&T wants its fingerprints all over the interface, which risks pushing out the launch -- and that's a double whammy of suck. Follow the break for a larger shot of the phone!
posted May 24th 2009 5:17PM
I believe that is the phone that was identified as the Memphis, in the line-up leak from early in the year.
The Good:
AT&T 3G
Physical keyboard
Sleeker/sexier look than the G1
Better camera than the G1
The Bad:
4 row keyboard, instead of 5 row
I bet it's not a tilt screen (like the HTC Touch Pro 2) ... that would have been dreamy
Looks like it still has a trackball instead of a dpad.
the camera is by no means better than the G1, the g1 has a 3.2 autfocus camera, the above has a 3.2 FIXED focus cam which limits apps usuage, the only good is digital Focus which available from software not hardware... Actually the Haykura 6.1 build has Digi zoom and generally like all digi zoom SUCKS.. as its just bascially cropping the image and not really optically zooming...G1 Camera is better fo sho
Oh, and, another bad: triband GSM instead of quad.
You're right about the camera (after double checking). It is 3.1mp. The picture quality is just such crap that I always figured it was a lower resolution than that. (the only thing I use my G1's camera for is scanning bar codes.. as a camera phone it's just ... not very interesting)
good to see android expanding, but you can tell AT&T didnt try terrible hard to make it an awesome, probably to make apple happy... Fixed focus cam? 2.8" screen? either HTC is saving the good stuff for T-Mobile/Sprint or At&t just didnt want to complete.. this will probably be on the low to mid range as far as price and also more focused on the messaging capabilities..
The fixed focus is disappointing, that means top android apps like barcode scanner and shop savvy and bartorrent are all not gonna work because the phone doesnt have the required auto focus and will be in the same boat as the iphone...
i love T-mobile and would never switch to the evil AT&T who will probably put there ugly stupid interface all over android's UI and make it a horrible device...DUMB At&t,
but stil good to see that android is gonna get to the second biggest carrier and sell possibly decently well, Which means more devs and mainstream apps...
not only is the screen just 2.8" but its also QVGA, which is going to further limit the apps that are compatible with it since all the apps are currently written for HVGA
Absolutely Agree, Well Said Justin.
*nods***
1. AT&T sells a lot of Windows Mobile smartphones which feature-wise are very competitive to the iPhone. They'll also be selling the Touch Pro 2 and Touch Diamond 2 which are very anticipated among Windows Mobile fans. Let's not forget their touchscreen feature phones which obviously don't feature as robust and experience to the iPhone, but offer a better price. How are they not competing with the iPhone?
2. From the consumer's point of view, businesses are typically inherently evil. T-Mobile's a global company with a different outlook than AT&T. There's no point in vilifying AT&T here -- they can do that well enough as they did with the Slingbox debacle.
3. i have doubts that AT&T will have a custom interface for this phone. They're not Verizon. This is their first Android phone and from what i can tell, the first time we've seen it and it's only months from launch? Aside from the typical AT&T branding and possibly some crippling here or there, i don't expect much out of the ordinary.
@aoi tsuki
1. While AT&T sells WinMo, BlackBerry, and other smart phones... the iPhone and Android (as well as WebOS) are inherently different from those smart phones. WinMo and Blackberry are primarily focused on the business user and there's little there to tempt regular consumers when sitting next to an Android or iPhone. Likewise when comparing a "feature phone" to the iPhone or an Android phone there's a lot missing. I'd say that the iPhone and Android are directly competing with each other... the WinMo/Blackberry phones as well as the feature phones have their own target market.
2. Additionally, the reason for the vilifying of AT&T over T-Mobile is probably their track record for customer service. T-Mob has time and time again ranked very high for customer service where as AT&T is often mediocre at best. It's a simple perception thing.
3. Finally, it's in the post: "AT&T standard UI has been requested". There's not much else that this could mean other than that AT&T wants to customize the UI for this phone. The extent of which has yet to be determined but I wouldn't be surprised to see the phone launch with all the "feature phone" AT&T apps.
I'm liking the massive battery capacity, although its only 200mah better than the G1 and that has reports of garbage battery life so we'll see if this fares any better.
2.8 QVGA WTF? What were they thinking??
Gah... close, but no cigar. I love the combination of this form factor + Android + ATT 3G, but a lot of the details are disappointing. The FF camera, the small, low res screen, the keyboard layout... what is the point here? I could understand if they were simply aiming this at the low end smartphone market, but shouldn't there be a nice midrange or high end Android entry first? Why can't we get a nice camera/screen to go along with Android? I'd love to see Android on some of the other hardware I'm seeing out there, like the Touch Pro 2 and so on.
This looks like the same asso who photoshopped the PRE ad on engadget mobile.
I think although it's far from perfect it still is a big step for AT&T (second to the iPhone) I for one am looking forward to this device. I'm currently using an unlocked G1, which everyone knows has it's own major flaws, and a carrier release of an Android handset isn't bad, seeing as how I have an AT&T unlimited data plan. I think for some it will be appreciated in it's own way. I know I will buy it.
Are you using a Google Android phone with AT&S service? I have a Google Android phone, but have to leave T-Mobile. It is unlocked, but I didn't know if I could still access Internet and GPS with it through AT&T service. Can you do this? If so, how? Do I just put the AT&T SIM card in and it's ready to go or is there a trick to it?
1. AT&T sells a lot of Windows Mobile smartphones which feature-wise are very competitive to the iPhone. They'll also be selling the Touch Pro 2 and Touch Diamond 2 which are very anticipated among Windows Mobile fans. Let's not forget their touchscreen feature phones which obviously don't feature as robust and experience to the iPhone, but offer a better price. How are they not competing with the iPhone?
2. The screen is tiny. But it's the same size as HTC's Touch Pro (AT&T's Fuze). i'm not surprised it has a tiny screen when they're selling this as a messaging device
2. From the consumer's point of view, businesses are typically inherently evil. T-Mobile's a global company with a different outlook than AT&T. There's no point in vilifying AT&T here -- they can do that well enough as they did with the Slingbox debacle.
3. i have doubts that AT&T will have a custom interface for this phone. They're not Verizon. This is their first Android phone and from what i can tell, the first time we've seen it and it's only months from launch? Aside from the typical AT&T branding and possibly some crippling here or there, i don't expect much out of the ordinary.
Also, just a guess, but i think that is a 4-way d-pad and not a trackball. The HTC Touch Diamond featured a similarly designed d-pad, although the center button was concave. i think a d-pad would make more sense on a smaller device like this anyways.
The above post was supposed to be a reply to justin. Also, i realize there's two 2s.
Post editing please, Engadget.
@aoi tsuki
1. While AT&T sells WinMo, BlackBerry, and other smart phones... the iPhone and Android (as well as WebOS) are inherently different from those smart phones. WinMo and Blackberry are primarily focused on the business user and there's little there to tempt regular consumers when sitting next to an Android or iPhone. Likewise when comparing a "feature phone" to the iPhone or an Android phone there's a lot missing. I'd say that the iPhone and Android are directly competing with each other... the WinMo/Blackberry phones as well as the feature phones have their own target market.
2. Additionally, the reason for the vilifying of AT&T over T-Mobile is probably their track record for customer service. T-Mob has time and time again ranked very high for customer service where as AT&T is often mediocre at best. It's a simple perception thing.
3. Finally, it's in the post: "AT&T standard UI has been requested". There's not much else that this could mean other than that AT&T wants to customize the UI for this phone. The extent of which has yet to be determined but I wouldn't be surprised to see the phone launch with all the "feature phone" AT&T apps.
@john: The trackball is subjective. I personally prefer it over a directional pad but that's just me. To each their own.
This phone is alright for what it is, I suppose. The HTC Dream has better specs but this one is much easier on the eyes, IMO.
Based on the specs, this looks like it's going to be pushed as a messaging phone, not a smartphone. I'd be surprised if it even has access to Google's Android Market, everything will probably be locked out in favor of AT&T's services.
The QVGA screen alone is enough to prove that this isn't going to be the high end device that it appears to be at first glance.
people that state that t-mobile is better then at & t are wrong because at&t has been giving the best phones since the begining the g1 was the best phone that t-mobile has had but thats sad because at&t has had many different phones that has been amazement to many people eyes.
this phone that is being displayed is beautiful i would go out an by this phone just because i know the phone has many different tricks and apps that is similar to the iphone.
Wow, are you Learning Impaired Also? I'd say Yes.
Cool beans
I live in Lancaster i want to use android and i have at&t i must have this haha!
I am very excited about this development. This is the phone I've been awaiting for years!
I'm going to be very disappointed when AT&T delays the release and cripples it to hell. I hope it's easy to overwrite their firmware with something less crappy.
Yeah...soo....Gonna see this tomorrow?
Unlikely
doubt it. Not sure if I would buy or not but I've eliminated the other AT&T phones so it would have been nice to see if this one would work for me.