Windows Phone Thoughts: GPS-maker NDrive Prepares HSDPA and GPS S400 Phone

"Tired of the same 'ole, same 'ole when it comes to Windows Mobile 6.1-based handsets? Yeah, well you probably won't dig the NDrive S400 too much. Sure, it has its own personal charm, but by and large it's fairly predictable. Not that we're kvetching about a 624MHz Marvell PXA310 CPU, 128MB of RAM, quad-band GSM connectivity, HSDPA support, a VGA (640 x 480) display and aGPS, but there's no denying this thing could use a dash of personality. At any rate, we're also informed that it'll arrive with Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, a microSDHC slot, video out, a 1,500mAh battery, accelerometer and an FM radio module, and being just 16.9-millimeters thick with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard isn't too shabby, either. As these things always seem to go, pricing and availability is anyone's guess."

This little guy popped up on the Portuguese website, PocketPC.net. Primarily known for it's GPS devices, last year Portuguese-based NDrive released it's first GPS phone, the S300, in Europe, Africa, and South America. The S300 offered WiFi, 2g connectivity, and GPS, but only had 64MB of RAM and was made by their device partner, TechFaith Wireless.

Perhaps learning a lesson, the S400 has a beefier 128 RAM and a new manufacturing partner in SIM Technology. As you'll note in the specs below, it also contains 2 processors, both the Marvell PXA310 624Mhz + Qualcomm 6280. In this interesting split, the Marvell seems to be for applications and the Qualcomm for utilizing the HSDPA and GSM. (The MWg UBiQUiO 503G also uses dual processors, including the Qualcomm 6280). Interesting, the Qualcomm MSM6280 Chipset can also support video encoding and decoding, still cameras up to 4 MP, and 2D/3D video support, so the S400 might be distributing some graphics tasks to the Qualcomm for faster performance, especially for something like video telephony. It will be interesting to see the benchmarks once this ships.

Ndrive S400 Specification:

* OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
* CPU: Marvell PXA310 624Mhz + Qualcomm 6280
* Memory: 256 MB ROM / 128 MB Ram
* Network: Quad-band GSM/UMTS/HSDPA 7.2MBps
* Display: 2.8-inches with VGA (640 x 480) resolution
* Camera: 3.0 megapixel with auto focus
* GPS: A-GPS
* Bluetooth 2.0
* Wi-Fi
* MicroSDHC card slot
* 1500mAh Battery
* Video Out
* Accelerometer
* FM Radio with RDS

In looking over SIM's website, the picture and specs look a lot like the U1, so it will be interesting to know if NDrive requested anything special for their version. At this point, costs, release dates, and carriers are all unknown, as well as whether North America will ever see one.