Android Gingerbread - Under 1Ghz devices need not apply

[Bateluer]

http://www.droid-life.com/2010/06/3...id-3-0-details-released-bad-news-for-droid-1/

* Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
* Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5” and higher. (We all, of course, heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU’s are coming)
* New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4” and higher. (Anyone thinking about Android tablets now? )
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
* Android’s split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2

Wonder if it'll run on OC'd Droid 1s? Of course, by October, 1Ghz devices will have filtered down to the low end segments. They've already filled out the midrange decently, and they obviously already own the high end.

Not too keen on them keeping Froyo around though, even for low end devices.

 

[boomhower]

It will be the same as it is now, 3.0 will be hacked into unsupported devices.

 

[thescreensavers]

Well it also lists 512mb of ram, the D1 only has 256. So yea.. I think that will be the limiting thing there.

 

[MJinZ]

All of this is completely, utterly, craptcularly USELESS.

I want performance but BATTERY LIFE is KING.

 

[Ballatician]

Why must they continue to fragment their market. It is getting ridiculous. Too many versions to support at once.

Simply developing for much higher-end/demanding hardware ruins the idea of optimizing software for current-gen devices. Bye bye efficiency.

 

[dwell]

I guess they're not serious about stemming fragmentation. Another UI on top of stock 1.5 - 2.2, Motoblur, Sense, Samsung, etc. How will existing apps render?

 

[thescreensavers]

^ well I think they want a high end and low end version. So people can buy cheap android devices the expensive 199.99 + phones can get the powerful OS. I think its a good idea.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I want performance but BATTERY LIFE is KING.

Your Lord-

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones...cked/4505-6454_7-33769497-2.html?tag=txt;page

The XP3 promises long battery life. The rated talk time is 18 hours and the rated standby time is 62.5 days. Indeed, our tests showed a very long talk time of 17 hours and 5 minutes.

For non 'tank' phones-

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones...cked/4505-6452_7-33527320-2.html?tag=txt;page

The Nokia E55 has a rated battery life of 8 hours in GSM mode and 6 hours in 3G. The E55 had a very impressive tested talk time of 16 hours and 14 minutes.

Given I've never actually seen either one of these phones in use by anyone, I would imagine in the real world something besides battery life is important to users

Why must they continue to fragment their market. It is getting ridiculous. Too many versions to support at once.

Too many versions to support? You target a certain OS revision, everything newer is supported, older ones aren't. This also removes Sense/MotoBlur et al from consideration, should result in a significant reduction in supported platforms over what we have today. I actually like this particular split, if devs know that they have a certain hardware baseline it gives them oppurtunities to be a bit more agressive with what they can do with the phones(honestly, I'd like to see something of a GPU requirement in there too, but can't have it all I guess).

 

[MJinZ]

Your Lord-

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones...cked/4505-6454_7-33769497-2.html?tag=txt;page



For non 'tank' phones-

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones...cked/4505-6452_7-33527320-2.html?tag=txt;page



Given I've never actually seen either one of these phones in use by anyone, I would imagine in the real world something besides battery life is important to users



Too many versions to support? You target a certain OS revision, everything newer is supported, older ones aren't. This also removes Sense/MotoBlur et al from consideration, should result in a significant reduction in supported platforms over what we have today. I actually like this particular split, if devs know that they have a certain hardware baseline it gives them oppurtunities to be a bit more agressive with what they can do with the phones(honestly, I'd like to see something of a GPU requirement in there too, but can't have it all I guess).

You must have all the capabilities of Android/iPhone... but it must LAST longer than 1 hour.

Adding more useless flashy crap to the phone while it drains even more battery life is terrible.

 

[vshah]

i would take this information with a grain of salt

 

[Pliablemoose]

Interesting.

One of the issues that's cropping up is that the manufacturers seem to be shortening the life cycle of a given handset.

How long will it take for the public to start getting pissed that every month there's a newer, better specced handset coming out?

Don't get me wrong, I love the tech, but it's getting ridiculous.

At the very least, the carriers need to shorten the contracts, 2 years is forever in cell phone years.

 

[dguy6789]

It's not really different from the way computers are. With the exception of crazy enthusiasts, I don't think many people care about how long the phone they bought is the best phone on the market.

 

[TheWart]

Interesting.

One of the issues that's cropping up is that the manufacturers seem to be shortening the life cycle of a given handset.

How long will it take for the public to start getting pissed that every month there's a newer, better specced handset coming out?

Don't get me wrong, I love the tech, but it's getting ridiculous.

At the very least, the carriers need to shorten the contracts, 2 years is forever in cell phone years.

They can shorten the contract, but I don't see people springing for a new $200-300 phone multiple times a year (other than you crazies here on AT lol).

I think people will get used to it like they do with laptops/desktops. It being the rapid advancement of technology and how it makes their purchases 'obsolete.'

 

[Bateluer]

Too many versions to support at once.

Basically two, Android 1.5 and 2.1 one right, and 2.1 has more than 50% of the market now and rising. Cupcake needs to be stricken though, no more devices launching with it.

Motoblur, Sense, and Touch Wiz, don't fragment the platform. An app that runs in Froyo will run fine in Blur, Sense, or Wiz.

 

[sourceninja]

Well, maybe I should reconsider getting a n1 after all if it will be low end by november.

 

[Glitchny]

You must have all the capabilities of Android/iPhone... but it must LAST longer than 1 hour.

Adding more useless flashy crap to the phone while it drains even more battery life is terrible.

What Android phones are you complaining about here? The battery life on my Droid is great, hell I've gone 2days(easily) on a single charge with moderate to low usage.

There are many Android phones out there with good battery life, unless for some reason you need 2 days of constant 3G streaming or some other ridiculous thing.

Edit: Also I'd like to point out that all of this info is a RUMOR and that nothing has been confirmed considering the last time the modders/devs knew Gingerbread = 2.3 not 3.0.

Also note that the original site has now posted an update

Update: As many of you have pointed out, who the heck is Eldar Murtazin and why is he any sort of authority on Android releases? And are we even sure Gingerbread will be 3.0? Questions which will likely go unanswered until we hear from Google.

​

 

[Ballatician]

From a development standpoint, having a more powerful and less powerful version means optimizing for two hardware baselines. Just seems like it would be more complicated and I think while playing catch-up on quantity and quality to iOS apps, the less complications the better.

Agree about shortening cell contracts. Now if only we could keep those nice 2-year contract prices for the phone...

 

[vshah]

if you care about having a top end phone, you need to suck it up and buy it as soon as it is released. otherwise 6 months down the line something better pops out. unfortunately early adoption has its costs, both monetary and in terms of unknown issues.

for me, it paid off with the Nexus One though.

 

[CurseTheSky]

if you care about having a top end phone, you need to suck it up and buy it as soon as it is released. otherwise 6 months down the line something better pops out. unfortunately early adoption has its costs, both monetary and in terms of unknown issues.

for me, it paid off with the Nexus One though.

Agreed. The two types of buyer's remorse that I hear the most are buyers who bought something and then are disappointed when something newer / more flashy / more powerful is released a few months later, and buyers who are disappointed because they were an early adopter, and the device isn't absolutely perfect.

I still get the remorse myself from time to time, but generally speaking, unless a device doesn't do it's job and do it well, I don't care anymore. When I mentioned to a few people that I was getting a free iPhone 3GS, they suggested that I just go buy an iPhone 4 "because I would inevitably want one." Personally, I don't give a rat's ass; the 3GS is a huge step up from the LG Vu I'm using now, so who cares.

 

[tatteredpotato]

If Android is Open Source, how can Google force HW requirements?

 

[BenSkywalker]

You must have all the capabilities of Android/iPhone... but it must LAST longer than 1 hour.

The Nokia E55 is a fully featured smartphone with app support, Exchange support, GPS, it can even edit Office docs out of the box(which my Android phone couldn't do). If battery life is truly king, the E55 handily whips the iPhone 4.

Adding more useless flashy crap to the phone while it drains even more battery life is terrible.

That is what the iPhone 4 offers over the E55, at the expense of battery life. If I had to chose between the two I would take the iPhone4 at $500 over a free E55- to hell with battery life

Motoblur, Sense, and Touch Wiz, don't fragment the platform.

Yes, they do(mainly seems to be a game or related to games issue). Motoblur requires special support to get Wii controllers functioning on any of the emulatros as an examlpe. Certain games won't run at all on Sense depending on the version. Haven't seen anything particular for Touch Wiz, but Sense and Motoblur absolutely cause issues.

From a development standpoint, having a more powerful and less powerful version means optimizing for two hardware baselines.

Personally I'd like to see a bit more game support headed to Android, it has everything else at this point and some time killers besides YouTube would be nice for plane rides/layovers etc. By requiring a baseline of something like 1GHZ, you open up possibilities that aren't possible on the ~500MHZ phones. Obviously your typical dev is just going to target 2.2 and 3.0(if this rumor is true) will run it just fine. For apps that need more power, requiring 3.0 is a very simplistic way to list hardware requirements.

If Android is Open Source, how can Google force HW requirements?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

I suppose you can say that Google can't force it, but it isn't like people who run companies are stupid enough not to realize the issues they could have if they don't follow the hardware requirements.

 

[MotF Bane]

All of this is completely, utterly, craptcularly USELESS.

I want performance but BATTERY LIFE is KING.

I'm with you on that.

 

[dwell]

If Android is Open Source, how can Google force HW requirements?

Android's openness is a bullshit for the purpose of marketing. Yes, *some* of the source code is available for download but the Marketplace, most Google apps, etc are all closed source. It's like saying my clock radio is "open" because it runs a Linux kernel.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Agreed. The two types of buyer's remorse that I hear the most are buyers who bought something and then are disappointed when something newer / more flashy / more powerful is released a few months later, and buyers who are disappointed because they were an early adopter, and the device isn't absolutely perfect.

I still get the remorse myself from time to time, but generally speaking, unless a device doesn't do it's job and do it well, I don't care anymore. When I mentioned to a few people that I was getting a free iPhone 3GS, they suggested that I just go buy an iPhone 4 "because I would inevitably want one." Personally, I don't give a rat's ass; the 3GS is a huge step up from the LG Vu I'm using now, so who cares.

I have the original Droid, which I got for free (gf got the Droid after the dog chewed her Blackberry Curve and 2 weeks later they started their BOGO offer). Now with the DroidX, Incredible, etc I have the "I want the new phone" kind of buyers remorse, but I love the Droid (save for I think the microphone sucks ass on it).

I won't go buy the latest and greatest phone, just because it's better than mine. I'll wait for contract renewal and get top of the line phone then for cheap/free.

 

[MJinZ]

What Android phones are you complaining about here? The battery life on my Droid is great, hell I've gone 2days(easily) on a single charge with moderate to low usage.

There are many Android phones out there with good battery life, unless for some reason you need 2 days of constant 3G streaming or some other ridiculous thing.

Edit: Also I'd like to point out that all of this info is a RUMOR and that nothing has been confirmed considering the last time the modders/devs knew Gingerbread = 2.3 not 3.0.

Also note that the original site has now posted an update

This 3.0 Android phone which will inevitably last 1 hour before dying.