Technogory

I had a chance to stop by the Openmoko Neo FreeRunner booth at Linux World.  Of course, my interest was in this new handheld device that is running Linux and providing GPS, Phone, Wi-Fi, and anything else the third-party open source development world would like to run on the small handheld system.  But, as with any demo at a trade show, my brief encounter left a lot of unanswered questions and a bit more to be desired.

In all fairness, one of the engineers at the booth made mention numerous times that the device was still somewhat “BETA.”  That usually means, “Hey, it works, but your experience might be impacted!”  So, having participated in a lot of trade shows where I was on the receiving end of criticism, I tried to keep my general thoughts to myself.

I grabbed a couple of the devices they had on display for the visitors to “play” with.  Obviously, no phone interface or GPS was available for demo.  Although, I asked the booth sitters a few times about GPS, no real answer.  System info and games were available to take a look at.  On the particular handhelds I used, there was one common theme - S.L.O.W!

Physical

Okay, let’s start with size. I can’t complain about the physical size, but might struggle with the touch screen.  I have large fingers, so anything I have to “touch” to interact may be a challenge.  There is not a stylus to use, which is a positive to me.  I have never been a fan of the stylus.

The device measures out at 4.75″ X 2.44″ and is about .73″ thick.  It weighs in at am impressive 6.5 ounces.  So, when it’s held, you feel like you have something to hold on to.  There is some density to the product.  That’s a plus!

The display is a “Touch Screen” 2.8″ VGA TFT.  Notice the size - so, if you have physically large fingers, some finer touch requirements may be hard to meet and frustrating for you.

My Physical grade is a B+.

Speed

The advertised processor speed is 400 MHz.  There is built in 2D/3D graphics acceleration.

My real world experience - driving the menus was intuitive on the two devices I played with.  Hitting a particular menu brought up the expected app.  However, going into the system menu left me a little confused at first.  There was not on immediate view, an icon that just took me back “Home” as I might expect.  I was not able to test WiFi or GPS.  For some reason, every time I tried GPS, the system appeared to lock up.

I did get to play a couple of games.  Here is where the finesse and fine touch requirements were a little bit of a challenge for me.  The touch screen itself worked fine, but where I touched did not always provide the expected result.

As far as speed goes, in general the device seemed slow.  That could be due to the way it loads information into memory, or actually runs a selected program.  It could even be the demo device itself.  In general, compared with other devices (commercial or otherwise) on the market today, it has some catching up to do.  Again, once an app was loaded, it would seem to respond reasonably well.  I just don’t know how the “instant gratification” crowd will respond.

My Speed Grade is C-

Hardware Highlights

As mentioned, for the show most of the features were not available.  So, the real intent on being at the show was to introduce the device, and garner interest.  Fair enough.  The glossy ad kindling says that it is WiFi 802.11b/g comliant, has AGPS (Assisted GPS), GPRS (2.5G not EDGE) General Packet Radio Service, Bluetooth 2.0, and 3axis Motion Sensors (2).

A quick mention on the motion sensors - this was kind of cool.  If I was viewing the screen, and turned it say 90 degress, it would rotate the screen for me!  That feature, I thought, was a great little addition.

You have to take the ad at faith, and I can’t grade on experience.  However, if all of the features are as described, it is a solid little package.  It has those things that are essential to a quality handheld experience.

Software Highlights

This device is really intended to allow the Open Commuity of developers another platform to target development.  In other words, they can either develop new, or translate existing open source software to fit the device.

The OS is based on Openmoko GNU/Linux-based architecture.  It is 100% FOSS on the CPU, and has GNU/Linux development tools available.  So, really it is up to the various open source communities to decide whether they want to play.  I guess a lot of the interest will depend largly on the popularity and acceptance of this device to the average everyday users.  Based on a lot of the attendees to the booth, I’d say it has a positive future!

Conclusion

This is a device that has some potential.  Without being able to really play with all the cool features, it’s hard to give anything beyond a neutral review.  I am one of those that has to see it, not just read it.  I was a little disappointed in the speed and responsiveness.  However, it’s a trade show, and hundreds of hands are messing with the hardware.  Physically, the device can take a lot of handling.  But, it really brings into question how stable and clean the OS is, and are the performance issues I observed due to a long day of running (garbage collection) or just the nature of the package.  That remains to be seen.  I’d love a better test drive, and will certainly look for one.  I think that if you are in the market for this device, you should really “test-drive” prior to making the commitment.