Yesterday I saw an article on UMPCportal.com describing a pocketable with a rather extreme aspect ratio. It looks sort of like a very long iPhone (until you see the OS and side buttons; watch the videos). For discussion purposes, they're calling it the "Moorestown X".


Today, there's an article on engadget about the Lenovo Pocket Yoga which is conceptually the same thing with a physical keyboard.

I thought they might be interesting to discuss here.

At first look, they seem kind of crazy, but after watching the videos on the first one, I thought "this could be do-able". Even though I despise virtual keyboards, I like the split-thumb keyboard on the "Moorestown X", it sort of reminds me of a Samsung Q1 Ultra or WiBrain. With the right OS (phone version of Maemo, phone version of Ubuntu, Android, maybe the iPhone version of OS X), it could be a decent pocketable solution.

(but not with WinMO, and most likely not with Symbian)

The Lenovo, which is a 2 year old concept that is confirmed to not go into production, seems similarly "possible", but just adds a keyboard you could use for a little bit faster typing.

They're both as long as a more traditional phone, making for a slightly more comfortable phone experience for us older types. But they would be more "jacket inside breast pocket" pocketable than "jeans pocket" pocketable. I think that might be my one reservation -- I don't need this device to be my netbook, my netbook needs to be bigger. But I do want a pocketable to be "pocketable". So I'd have to see if this really would fit comfortably in my pants/shorts front pocket.

Though, I wonder if, using the new flexible oled screens, if you could make the Moorestown X fold in half length wise (in either direction), giving you a short touchscreen device or clamshell when closed, and this elongated device when open.

Thoughts?

I like the lenovo concept....

I like the concept a lot. I want the device to be reasonably small, with as big a screen as possible. I don't like side-to-side scrolling in the web browser (like I have to do now with my N800, most sites expect 1024 pixel width). I don't mind up-and-down scrolling so much.

I like the Lenovo hardware keyboard better that the software keyboard. But who knows? If it is done right, I maybe could live with it.

I also really liked the Lenovo concept. There was a lot of good in the model:
-bigger keyboard than with a slide out design
-"pure" tablet mode with keyboard folded back
-screen and keyboard are protected when device is folded the other way round

The two downsides that comes to mind are that opening it takes longer than just sliding out the keyboard on N810 and the keyboard might break if you keep it in a pocket folded to "tablet mode" a lot.

I think Nokia could create a device like this quite easily, as their E90 already has similar hinges.

Oh cripes, I'd love one of the Lenovos.

The Lenovo is exactly what I'm looking for.

So, of course, it's just a concept that was played with and discarded, never to be produced.

As I get older I'm having to get used to the idea that the gadgets and other (sometimes) useful stuff I find appealing does not appeal to the mass market that manufacturers want to reach.

Otherwise, why would I be here?

If the Lenovo can do the same split-thumb virtual keyboard as the Moorestown X, and it can comfortably fit in my pants front pocket, and jacket inside breast pocket, and ran something like Maemo, Ubuntu, Android, or OS X lite ... then, yes, the Lenovo would be just about perfect.

If it can't do the split thumb virtual keyboard ... then I actually like the lenovo a LOT less. I don't see typing on the large physical keyboard while I'm completely mobile (no place to set it down and do _real_ typing on it). That would be amazingly awkward and slow.

Wonder how hard it would be to get Nokia to make a clone of the Lenovo Pocket Yoga, as a Maemo based device? :-) Either as a full phone (non-voip-voice + SMS/MMS), or as a ZER01 and/or Google Voice compatible device with built in GPRS/EDGE/HSPA? How many guaranteed customers do we have to come up with? Or how much unit cost for a limited run prototype-ish device?

I was just reading on Digg earlier an article from another site that's hinted more info on the Lenovo concept. I don't have the exact link, but a little quick digging should bring it up. From what I here, it'll be more or less the n900 in a wide, wide, widescreen format. hehe.

... you're gonna make us Digg for the URL!? hmph!

If that folded, and had some physical keys (a la palm pilot), it would be great. However, its just too large to be a pocketable device, yet to clumsy to be a netbook.