Freerunner v. HTC v. ....

Al Johnson openmoko at mazikeen.demon.co.uk
Sat May 24 12:45:45 CEST 2008


On Saturday 24 May 2008, Ajit Natarajan wrote:
> It would be great if someone who has used or is otherwise aware of the
> feature sets of the Freerunner, HTC, and other smart phones to compare
> and contrast these.
>
> I was especially worried about a posting a day or two ago saying that
> the Freerunner is 1990s era hardware.  I would like to know what makes
> the hardware 1990s era.

I don't think you have much to worry about on the hardware front. Here's the 
spec of the HTC TyTN according to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_TyTN

Manufacturer: HTC
Type: Smartphone / PDA
Communications 
UMTS / HSDPA tri band: UMTS 850, UMTS 1900, UMTS 2100
GSM / GPRS / EDGE quad band: GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 without EDR
CPU: 400 MHz Samsung SC2442A with Qualcomm chipset
Operating System: Windows Mobile 5, with a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 
available through HTC e-Club
Camera(s): 2.0 MP still/video camera (excluded on AT&T 8500). Video 
conferencing camera (excluded on AT&T 8500/8525) .
Memory: 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM
Memory card: MicroSD/MicroSDHC (Not officially supported)
Screen: 240x320, 2.8" (42 x 57 mm) TFT-LCD, switches to Landscape 320x240 when 
retractable keyboard is extended.
Weight: 176g (6.2 ounces)
Size: 112.5mm (L) x 58mm (W) x 21.95mm (T)
Battery: Li-Po 1350 mAh. Li-Ion 1300/1350 mAH on AT&T 8525.

Comparing with the FreeRunner hardware wiki page:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware

Comms: Freerunner only has GSM/GPRS triband.
Connectivity: WiFi equal, Freerunner has Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
CPU: same core and clock
Camera: Freerunner doesn't have one
Memory: Freerunner has double the RAM and double the ROM
Memory card: Equal
Screen: same size, Freerunner is 480x640 but has no keyboard.
Weight: Similar? Freerunner 110g without battery, battery weight not quoted.
Size: Similar, but different shape. Freerunner is 120.7 x 62 x 18.5 mm
Battery: Freerunner has 1200mAh

USB host mode: only Freerunner. I don't know of another phone that has this.
GPS: only Freerunner

media decode/3D: both have the hardware and neither do much with it yet. 
Openmoko have been open about exactly what the capabilities are, while HTC 
were rather evasive when customers started questioning the media performance. 
There are other phones that are better in this area.

The only part that is remotely 1990s is the GPRS connection. Depending on 
where you live and what you want to do this may or may not be an issue. 




More information about the community mailing list