We found a reason to get excited about the upcoming Motorola Droid Devour (aka Calgary, A555) that is headed to Verizon Wireless soon. One of our reliable robots has shared the missing specs of the Devour – it features the Qualcomm MSM7627 processor, which is a first for Android phones.
This happens to be a fairly new chipset from Qualcomm and it was recently featured in the Palm Pixi and RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530. The MSM7627 is still from the ARM11 family like many first generation Android phones, but it has a couple of new enhancements.
Technical specs of the MSM7627:
- Two ARM cores integrated into a single chip – a dedicated CPU core and a dedicated modem processor – for an unparalleled level of integration:
- 1. 600MHz applications processor with floating point unit and L2 cache
- 2. 400MHz modem processor
- Supports both CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A and UMTS HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps, and GSM
- In addition to the two ARM cores, features 320MHz application DSP for multimedia supporting full 30 fps WVGA encode/decode, 200MHz hardware-accelerated 3D graphics core supporting OPEN GL 2.0, high-resolution camera, integrated GPS
- 12mm x 12mm footprint
- Optimized power consumption
As you can see the MSM7627 has a 600 MHz applications processor which is an improvement over the 528 MHz of our old favorite the MS7201 (platform of the G1, MT3G, CLIQ, etc). The other important addition is the dedicated 200 MHz GPU which supports OpenGL ES 2.0, so the Devour should be a nice gaming device.
A recap of the rumored Devour specs:
- 3.1 inch capacitive display HVGA (480×320)
- 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7627
- 512 MB flash ROM, 256 MB RAM
- 3 megapixel camera
- Android 1.6 with Motoblur
- Others: Optical joystick, 3.5mm headset jack, GPS, Wi-Fi, microSD card slot
It is interesting to note that this phone might ship with Android 1.6. This phone has also been referred to as the little brother of the Droid and we had speculated it might run Android 2.1 by launch. I would expect to see this phone in Q1 2010 based on the fact it will not include Android 2.1. However, we still expect Motorola will provide an update to Android 2.1 by Q2 2010.
The other thing to note about the software is that this phone does include Motoblur, which is a first for Verizon. The first two Motoblur phones (CLIQ and Backflip) were built off the Android 1.5 firmware, so this will be the first Motorola device to feature Android 1.6. This would mean the phone could run some of the newer Google Android apps like Maps Navigation, Google Goggles, and the updated Android Market.
Finally, I think the most exciting thing about this phone could be its price. The MSM7627 was designed for low-cost smartphones and the inclusion of a 3 MP camera (instead of 5 MP like the CLIQ) tells me Motorola is aiming for the low end. The Palm Pixi Plus which features the same platform goes for $99 with a 2yr contract or $399 full price.
So that’s the Devour in a nutshell. The Verizon Android phone for those who want a full QWERTY keyboard, but can’t afford the Droid.
The Motorola Devour with Motoblur.
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Taylor Wimberly
Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He loves playing with all kinds of gadgets, but most importantly cell phones. His other hobbies include cooking (BBQ hero!), politics, football, and watching every MMA event possible.
27 Comments
Phones released in 2010 should not be shipping with anything less than Android 2.0. Google/manufacturers better put an end to this fragmentation ASAP. And while doing that, give us some nice desktop software so that we can find all the wonderful apps these devs are making. The Market experience, especially on my 1.5 Hero fails.
Agreed. Fragmentation is not our friend.
(On another note… there are some great 1.6 ROMs for the Hero that I’d highly recommend… just saying..
)
Yup, I often switch between using the default 1.5 ROM and some of the 1.6/2.0 ROMs and I love them, but that’s not helping the average consumer. 3 of my co-workers have Heros, but they have absolutely no clue what it means to “root” the phone or that a better Market experience is available on other phones. Although it is fun for me to show off stuff like Live Wallpapers lol.
Shipping without 2.0 is hurting android. Stop it!
If its not about a android device that is 2.0 or higher why keep writing about them. The average person that would buy such a device does not read these blogs or look at specs, they look at ads. We need the next best thing to the N1, where is that device?
They will be written about as long as they are released. And a good consumer is going to do some research about a product before purchasing it. It does a service to those potential consumers to write about it.
Contrary to what we might like to think, most Android users are probably “average” people, and probably do want to know more about their phones… and they come to these sorts of sites for that information.
Anyone buying any type of smartphone whether just the average joe or a complete geek like myself will look into the actual phone before buying it, especially in this day and age when you could end up getting a phone and that particular phone not being able to get updated past a certain version of Android.
Most people would also do a little research to see what each kind of phone (when deciding/comparing to buy an iphone/android/whatever) can do and inveitably the Android version would come up in that convo. People don’t just walk into a retailer and decide to buy a smartphone without bothing to look at anything but the phone outside looks =P
1.6? please. what leads you to believe now that Motorola wasted their time making an entire 1.6 build just to update it to 2.1 within the next three months? You guys really should wait for some confirmation before just saying the first thing that comes to mind…
Surely, you agree that it is a at least a possibility that Motorola would do a 1.6 version of MOTOBLUR. You truly believe that Android and Me just made that up? Perhaps, there was confirmation, and you just aren’t privy to that confirmation.
Okay, I’m just not really gonna argue this with you. It’s simply infeasible for any of the manufacturers to be messing around with Donut right now.
However, please, please tell me about this “confirmation” you speak of that I’m not privy to. I would love to know what “confirmation” came about when this article is just filled with the word “rumor”.
We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola_DEVOUR_US-EN.alt
Proof enough for you?
Haha awesome
YAY, a phone my grilfriend will proably enjoy! (She was going to get a Nokia)
It seems like Moto is all about phones your girlfriend/sister/daughter would be thrilled to use
At least the got the keyboard right.. 4 lines, not the crippled 3 like the droid.
Hopefully it open up quick and snappy and not slow and slothy the that other moto phone
Looks like the sidekick slide….Wow! Where is the innovation