BBX Touch/Torch/Curve

[Huot]

I'd love to see the below as the specs for the BBX touch phones. I think RIM needs to hit well in all the benchmarks the phone will be put through, and should find hardware to help it make a good showing. Many of these are in the playbook. What would you like to see?


Touch/Torch

Screen
4" (1)
Super AMOLED Plus or
HD Super AMOLED
Gorilla Glass
lipophobic coating

Processor
OMAP 4470 (2)
Qualcomm MSM8960 (3)
Tegra 3, Kal-El (4)

RAM
1 GB

HDD
32 BG
Micro
Cloud

Camera
3 MP Front facing
8MP Rear facing
1080p 30 fps full HD
Auto focus
Flash not too close

Casing
Like 9900
Carbon fibre
Rubberized Plastic

DUAL mic

Quality Speaker

Battery
Great Battery (5)

Thickness:
less then or = .9 mm

Weight:
Less then 130g

Sensors
NFC
6 axis gyroscope
Magnetometere
Accelerometer
GPS
Assisted GPS
FM Radio

Network
WIFI
3G
LTE
HSPA+
Blue tooth

Ports
Micro USB
Micro HDMI


(1) a 4" screen size or a similar aspect ratio of the playbook with a good screen, could allow the BBX phone to access all the apps available for the playboook. Allowing the phone to have thousands of apps out of the gate.

(2) Android's pick, Presently the playbook uses the OMAP 4430, while it is likely what we will see in the QNX phone, since there would be little need to code and test for a different processor. It would be better to make use of the 4470 which will run faster and more efficient. It also has a dedicated 2D graphics core freeing up the GPU.

(3) Window's pick, integrated 3g/LTE, NFC, FM band etc. It is also 28nm, it is efficient and low power but will be lighter on gpu. But as it is just making its way to manufacturer's now it would be a current chip for a QNX phone. Snapdragon is also the chip used in OS 7 devices.

(4) Nobody's pick at the moment. While the Tegra 2 had issues the Tegra 3, will be faster with better GPU. But may not be right for RIM.

(5) Rumour has Apple choosing a battery 30% lighter and more powerful, but costs more. If there is a comparable battery I'd pay the extra cash for it.

[CrackBerryTorch9800]

Sounds like you know what your talking about tech wise but i ask you this. Why re we catching up to Apple all the time. Why not lead? Why not a 5MP front and a 10-12 in the back? Apple has a 8MP in there's right now, which means iphone 5 time it'll be more. Currently BB has a 1.2 GH processor. How about like 2 (if its even made i unno). I'd add a little weight for a bigger and faster phone. Just my idea's

[Alberta Blue]

There is no point in upping specs just to have the highest number. I don't need/want a 5 MP FFC just to video chat - thats borderline ridiculous.

RIM needs to make sure that the OS is polished and feature-rich. Megappixels is not the only measure of how good your camera is, and megahertz only measures the speed of the processor, not how well the phone actually runs.

[deRusett]

IF we are talking the perfect Launch BBX phone with Full touch screen

I'd like to see it

120mm x 66mm x 9.5mm
Approximate weight 135g

The Screen should be 3.8-4" and it should have a swiping bezel like the PlayBook has
The Screen should be around
600 x 1024 (I'd like a 280ish PPI)

I would like to see 8MP AutoFocus for the Primary Camera 3MP FFC with a LED flash
Ideally RIM would focus on Sensor size, over MP count for the Camera to get high quality images

The I'd like to see the All touchscreen device include LTE even if it is a bit of a Battery hog, just include a 1550 mAh battery

NFC Support, and BT 3.0 Support, and USB 3.0 Support are all Must haves.

MicroUSB, and MicroHDMI ports would be a given, this is a MINI PlayBook device.

I would like the Body to be very PlayBook looking, I don't need the stainless band around it, and the reducing antennae strength isn't worth the look, the PlayBook looks sharp.



I think the OS will be what REALLY can make them shine, RIM needs to have a BBX Theme Developer Kit,
I would like to See RIM try something fun with their UI, Include a few locations for docking maybe upto 3 widgets?
I'd like to see Menu's that tap and open on the home screen, scrolling left to right rather than up and down, I suck at graphics so I'm sure that what I am envisioning wont be what people are thinking so I wont go into it.
I'd like to See RIM actually allow split screen!
it would be awesome to have my Excel file open in half the screen and my email on the other half with landscape keyboard for typing.

I would like to see RIM have Native installed
BlackBerry Travel ( needs some improvements)
BlackBerry Protect (Needs a more detailed set up screen)
Documents to go Premium ( improved Excel / Powerpoint support)
BlackBerry Bridge (Promote the PlayBook, from within the device!)
BlackBerry MAP's with Turn by Turn Navigation
BBM Music + 1 Month free subscription
Wikitude

RIM also would need to push this phone out with NEW features on the BlackBerry Internet Service, possibly Cloud storage, and device management (maybe through BlackBerry protect), Maybe a Cloud based Contact manager / Calendar manager so you can share them with your friends/family, Publish Calendars for viewing, and Maybe a Printing service for sending files to Printing partners to pick up Like Staples, or SNAPFISH


A BlackBerry is more than the hardware in your hand, and other devices are becoming the same, RIM needs to make sure everything about owning a BlackBerry is better in 2012 than it was in previous years

[Huot]

@Crackberry torch

The OMAP 4470 and Snapdragon MSM8960, are the most advanced processors from their respective companies released early 2012, the next processors from them won't be out till Fall 2012. The OMAP is a 1.8 Ghz. Tegra 3 has more cores, but while consumers seemed keen on it, manufacturers haven't leant towards them. Tegra 2 had alot of issues.

I think a high quality 8mp, is better than 12mp phone camera. More megapixels don't equate better pics and are more expensive. They also take up a lot more memory, and you would likely use WIFI to send them to someone. But I understand where you are coming from. Many front facing camera's are .3 mp, 3 mp is pretty good.

@deRusett

I agree with most of what you said. Though I'd like to see the device a bit thinner. The camera info I whole heartily agree with. And if they could make the phone take pics quicker that would be great as well. The playbook camera is a 3:5 and does great HD vid, but has low light issues and pics aren't quite as good.

We know a newstand is coming to BB, I would like to see BB Music and Video. Those three I would make a lot of purchases from. And of course a lot of TAT. I like the cloud contact management. I could also go for a good photo video editor built in, maybe incorporating the postcard app TAT did.

They probably won't make it too playbook like though. Maybe rubberized plastic, but given the issue with Quanta and Amazon using the playbook design. I don't know how RIM didn't own the design rights, even if Quanta designed it for them. They may need to make changes to the design so they can own the design.

[netviper]

Here is what I want to see.

1. better than iPhone 4s in every possible way. nuff said

[deRusett]

Originally Posted by Huot

@Crackberry torch

I agree with most of what you said. Though I'd like to see the device a bit thinner. The camera info I whole heartily agree with. And if they could make the phone take pics quicker that would be great as well. The playbook camera is a 3:5 and does great HD vid, but has low light issues and pics aren't quite as good.

We know a newstand is coming to BB, I would like to see BB Music and Video. Those three I would make a lot of purchases from. And of course a lot of TAT. I like the cloud contact management. I could also go for a good photo video editor built in, maybe incorporating the postcard app TAT did.

They probably won't make it too playbook like though. Maybe rubberized plastic, but given the issue with Quanta and Amazon using the playbook design. I don't know how RIM didn't own the design rights, even if Quanta designed it for them. They may need to make changes to the design so they can own the design.

I would be willing to take a little more thickness of 9.5mm with tapering edges like the 9900, Audio Jack on the top, for slightly longer battery life and a quality Autofocus camera and flash, when making the device you have to pack a lot in, we've got our 5 button's which is more than any other phone iPhone having 1, Samsung having 3, that takes up some space, having the sensors for bezel gestures, NFC, Bigger CMOS, things really start getting full in the body, I really don't want to see something with as big of footprint as the Samsung Galaxy II, but with similar components plugged into it, you've got to take some thickness,

also IMO LONG periods holding a phone in one hand too thin gets painful I NEEDED a case on my Torch for long typing sessions when they were getting into the 1h of typing

[deRusett]

Originally Posted by netviper

Here is what I want to see.

1. better than iPhone 4s in every possible way. nuff said

Not even CLOSE to "nuff said"

How one defines better is subjective.
Hardware only?
Interface? in what way?

[ph03n1x]

Originally Posted by deRusett

Not even CLOSE to "nuff said"

How one defines better is subjective.
Hardware only?
Interface? in what way?

i have to agree a smooth os and device like the 9790 is supposed to b would b good for me and cutting edge hardware

[visceralberry]

Some great ideas here. The additions of BB Newstand, BBM Music, BB Video, along with the roster of BB Travel, Blackberry News, Gist, Jaycut, screen swipes, widgets, updated social feeds, dual-core processors, 4"+ high-resolution screen, and all the other items man have mentioned here...... It leaves you feeling very hopeful for DevCon!

You guys should also have a look at Bongs' updated work here: (What do you expect to see tomorrow?)

He's kind of laid the groundwork for what we might be able to expect from BBX design-wise.... Really liking his work so far, and am sure RIM will be able to both match and exceed it with BBX.

[bschultz66]

Did they say an approximate date for release of the new phones? I am impatiently holding out as long as possible waiting for these.

[FunktasticLucky]

it's gonna be atleast april before these things show up I'm sure. I went ahead and just bought a 9850 and I'll buy the QNX phone when it releases.

[Huot]

Yeah, I believe they said early first quarter. But I don't see a device release till April. They will use their big event.

[Huot]

With news that the screen size etc will be the same on the phone to match the playbook, it confirms the use playbook apps on it. But it also may confirm swipe gestures on the phone as well. After all the apps use swipe for menu. Unless they stick a Menu button on the device to bring down the menu.

Saw Windows 8 has the browser address bar appear only on swipe. This looks like a great idea. Not having the address bar on the screen all the time would mean more room for browsing space especially on a phone and even the 7" playbook. What do you think?

[FranzJoseph]

I want it to have insane battery life. All the complaints about the Bold 9900 battery life are starting to get old, so RIM don`t cheap out on battery this time around!