This site is no stranger to the Motorola Sholes, which ended up launching as the Verizon Droid. We had a handful of reliable sources that provided us with inside information that we leaked over and over and over and over. Not every single prediction came true (because many of them fell victim to delays), but the majority were spot on. Some people were not happy with our Sholes coverage, but it created huge buzz across the Internet and the Droid went on to become the best selling Android device.
We reported back in August that Motorola was working on a “trimmed down version of Sholes” without the physical keyboard and it was headed to a U.S. GSM carrier in early 2010. This device became to be known as the Sholes Tablet when it was spotted on a leaked Motorola roadmap.
We got our first preview of the phone earlier this month when Motorola officially announced the Motoroi for Korea.
The Specs
The Sholes Tablet is essentially the same internals of the Motorola Droid with a few improvements. The main additions over the Droid are a higher megapixel camera with xenon flash (8MP vs 5MP), HSDPA 10.2 Mbps (vs 7.2 Mbps), a mini HDMI port, and Motoblur.
I’m really pleased to see the inclusion of HSDPA 10.2 Mbps. This will pair nicely with T-Mobile’s 3G network upgrade to HSPA+ which supports speeds up to 21 Mbps.
The Droid shipped with stock Android, but that was because Google was in charge of the software for that phone. Our old reliable sources tell us Motorola has complete control over the U.S. Sholes Tablet and intends to include their Motoblur customizations. Yes, this does mean that the U.S. version will support multitouch implementations like pinch zoom.
- Display: 3.7 inch capacitive touch FWVGA (480×854)
- Dimensions: 60.9 mm x 115.95 mm x 10.9 mm, Weight: 140 g
- Processor: TI OMAP3430 (550 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX 530 GPU)
- Memory: 512 MB Flash ROM, 256 MB RAM
- Camera: 8 megapixel autofocus with xenon flash. 720p HD video recording.
- 3G Network support: HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.6 Mbps
- Wireless: WiFi 802.11 b/g with DLNA support
- Operating System: Andorid 2.1 with Motorblur
- Other: 720P HD video out via HDMI port
The Carrier
We have speculated for a long time that this phone was headed to T-Mobile so it doesn’t come as a surprise to see Engadget and TmoNews report the device passed through the FCC with T-Mobile 3G bands. I’ve heard T-Mobile is a huge fan of Motoblur and the Sholes Tablet could be their next flagship device for retail stores.
The Launch
The first launch date we ever heard was early 2010. This was narrowed down to Q1 2010 in the leaked roadmap and now TmoNews is reporting T-Mobile will launch a Motorola phone on March 10, 2010. Some have speculated this could be the Motorola Zeppelin (low-end Android phone) which was also on the leaked roadmap, but the Sholes Tablet was planned to launch first.
Upcoming Android events where Motorola could announce the phone include Mobile World Congress (2/15), Game Developers Conference (3/9) and CTIA (3/29). If the phone is revealed at MWC then I think the device could hit the March 10 target. Look to CTIA for a big announcement if Motorola remains quiet in Barcelnoa (we don’t think they will).
The price points remain unknown, but expect it to land somewhere close to the Droid and Nexus One. That means $179-199 with 2 year contract and $500+ full price.
The Question
Given what we know about the Motorola Sholes Tablet, how many of you would choose it over the Nexus One? The Droid has a better camera and flash, HDMI, faster 3G, faster GPU, and Motoblur while the Nexus One has a faster processor, more memory, a trackball, and stock Android.
Bonus: Video of the Motorola Motoroi headed for Korea.
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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.
21 Comments
Definitely the nexus one over this. HTC is a better manufacturer than Moto and the nexus isn’t hindered with their crappy blur ui which also delays future versions of Android. I think I’ll stick with my pure Google Android experience device for sure.
@Richard
Everyone has been behind with android updates. I’m running with the Google Ion and the HTC website only has 1.6 images available. LAME.
Can somebody comment on how this 550Mhz processor fares against the current industry standard – the 1Ghz Snapdragon? I’m guessing not that well…
I’ll have whatever Cyanogen and the community are working on.
Well I would rather have an N1 because of the trackball and vanilla OS, BUT if Tmobile is going to subsidize this phone for those of us with family plans then the choice is obvious.
Xenon Flash, WOW!
European Milestone also has HSDPA 10.2 Mbps…
Are you sure that Sholws GPU co-processor is clocked @ 530 MHz? It should be 430 MHz, the same of moto milestone, palm pre and samsung omnia hd.
However great news! Tnx a lot!
SGX 530 is the model number. Not the MHz.
ah ok! tnx!
No OLED display on this one? N1, then.
I just want someone to rip motoblur off this and make a rom for the droid XD
Moto Blur sucks, it makes the phone slugish if all the widgets are being used, i’d rather have either Sense UI, or Vanilla rather then Moto Blur.
That is a tough choice. I think it comes down to the form factor and the change in UI. I think both are really great phones. Which would I chose…for now Nexus. I love my Nexus phone but then that could change in March..
although droid has faster CAPABLE 3g…it doesnt matter….verizon’s 3g is much slower than tmobile 3g speeds…u will never those speeds until verizon improves 3g…
I choose neither because I need a real keyboard
But if I had to choose, Id go with the Nexus.
I prefer a trakball (or optical joystick) and I dont need a bunch of proprietary widgets slowing my phone down.. i dont do the social thing anyway.
Plus the nexus seems more comfortable in your pocket.
$179-199 on-contract price ? 500+ otherwise.
You’re kidding, right ? They were publishing around $800 USD in Korea, so you think the unsubsidized price in the US is going to be over 300 USD lower ? Please. Get real.
This phone will probably be introduced at $299 subsidized at the lowest. I hope I’m wrong. I really do.
Regardless of how much it costs in another country, if it’s not priced competitively in relation to other devices in the same class, it’s not going to sell. Based on the price of the Droids, iPhones, etc. a subsidized price of ~$200 would be expected, though I wouldn’t put it past TMo to make a bad business decision and overprice the sucker.
I don’t understand why they put that lip jutting out of the bottom right of the phone. It would make it harder to reach the screen with your thumb and is just plain ugly.
not impressed with any tablet except the dell mini 5