Of course, in this industry, product cycles are very short, so it’s only going to be a matter of months before someone (Nokia?) comes out with something better (I mean a better smartphone, not an experimental device like the 7700! :»).
The Sendo X should be priced around 500 € (unsubsidized) and actually includes pretty much everything you could wish from a smarphone: compact, true phone form factor, normal keyboard, color display (17622016), integrated camera with flash, recording and playback of video (15 fps), sound, music, support of standard formats (mp3, mpeg…)
And of course, it runs on Symbian + Series 60 with Java/MIDP support.
One thing I was pretty unsure of until now, was if it was possible to connect a stereo headset for mp3 playback as an alternative to the built in accoustic system. Not only is it possible, but the headset is provided in the box! B)
The other good news is that the device supports SD cards up to a 1GB capacity and beyond. That’s exactly what you need to store the mp3s you want to listen to and all those sound/video recordings you’re going to make. Even better: the SD cards are hot swappable! B)
Actually, the only drawback I could find so far is the lack of support for SD/IO.
Also, I had written before that many pocket devices were going to converge soon and this time has definitely arrived (it only lacks an emebedded GPS! :> ) However, I stated that we’d still want PDAs with larger screens and a pen interface to take notes.
Well… the fact is you don’t need to take notes no more! Just record or picture the info! You’ll process it later anyway. ;) Moreover, when you really need to enter text (for email for example) you can always use T9. (That is for western countries with limited alphabets… :») However, for massive emailing, you’ll probably want to get the external keyboard accessory. Plus, stylus technologies aren’t so reliable anyway!
I am glad I managed to wait that long to replace my aging PDA and phone, because the SendoX is definitely going to replace them both at the same time, with increased efficiency on all my previous plans! ;D
Can’t wait! Gotta check availability in France. :)