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Will Lightning strike with Dell’s leaked Windows Phone 7 slider?

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Engadget managed to sneak a peek at top secret documents showing off an upcoming Windows Phone 7, uh, phone* from Dell they’re calling Lightning. Could be a code name, but regardless, it’s clear they’re aiming for speed and power with this one.

It’s also clear Dell didn’t have all the latest data on Windows Phone 7 when they put this material together. The specs cite a 1GB ROM and microSD card slot with an 8GB card, but we know WP7 requires 8GB minimum built-in storage. Still possible with this, but that card can’t be user-accessible without reducing the requirement to an option. The ‘Core Experiences’ section also cite “Full Support of Flash, Flash Video and Silverlight,” which we already know is not being fully supported by WP7 at launch. But the biggest indicator this is outdated material? The OS is named as “Windows Mobile 7”.

In other words, don’t take any of these specs as final. Most of it should stick just fine, such as 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor, WVGA 4.1-inch OLED display, 5 MP autofocus camera, GPS, accelerometer, compass, and FM radio, but they’ll need to re-think or re-word a good chunk of this before launch. As for the form factor, I’m no fan of sliders (or any phone with a hard keyboard), but I gotta think those right angles at the bottom will make using the keyboard uncomfortable at some point. Still, looks pretty slick, but I’ll wait on final specs before judging.

*Okay, I officially rescind my approval of the “Windows Phone 7” name. Windows Phone 7 phone. Tell me people won’t look at you funny if you call it that in public.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. JOe

    04/21/2010 at 11:05 pm

    thanks for the article Mark. One thing though. I really don’t think any of the phones will be called Windows Phone 7 so I really don’t see the big deal with the name. It is simply the name of the OS. For example, this phone is called lightning.

  2. Ben

    04/22/2010 at 7:47 am

    In the alternative, we could call each device a “Windows Phone 7”, as in “iPhone 3G”. Nobody says “iPhone 3G phone”, either.

  3. Sumocat

    04/22/2010 at 8:18 am

    Joe, Ben, please. You know everyone uses the terms “Android phones” and “Blackberry phones” and “Windows Mobile phones”. It’s not used for iPhone because that describes the whole device, but even Motorola describes DROID as an Android phone.

    • Tim

      04/22/2010 at 9:02 am

      Perhaps it’ll just be called a “Windows Phone”?

      • Sumocat

        04/22/2010 at 9:10 am

        That could catch on, but confusion will be inevitable since Windows is automatically associated with PCs. The strength of the Windows brand is a double-edged sword in this case.

        • Tim

          04/22/2010 at 12:04 pm

          I think that’s Microsoft’s intent though. People should be seeing a link between Windows computers and Windows phones so that they feel it’s one ecosystem.

          Not saying that it’s necessarily the most accurate or best system, but I think that is the marketing intent.

          If you consider it in relation to “Windows mobile phone” it seems to suggest that there’s more power, more similarity to the full capabilities of a PC than a watered-down “mobile” version.

          • Sumocat

            04/22/2010 at 12:27 pm

            We’re on the same page here, Tim. They are using the strength of the Windows brand to boost their phone OS marketing, but while “Windows phone” could lead to people thinking it offers the full capabilities of a PC, it doesn’t and that’s where the confusion will come in.

  4. Amy

    04/22/2010 at 9:22 pm

    Word out of peHUB is that Google put a downpayment on Agnilux, a stealth tech startup founded by ex-employees of P.A. Semi, the chipmaker bought by Apple believed to be responsible for the A4 chip in the iPad. So what could Google want with a company composed of engineers from that know how to make […]

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