The first phone equipped with the "Mango" update to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system will be available in Japan Aug. 25, Fujitsu has revealed. The Fujitsu Toshiba IS12T will have a massive 32GB of storage, a 13.2 megapixel camera, plus both water (IPX5/8) and dust (IP5X) resistance, according to the company.
The "Mango" Windows Phone update, first promised in February by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, enables application multitasking for background processing, audio and file transfer, and fast application switching. Holding a phone's back button down will provide a card-like view (pictured) of all running applications.
On July 26, Microsoft said it had released Mango to manufacturing, putting it in the hands of phone manufacturers and carriers. (For extensive details on the upgrades included in Mango and the revised developer tools, see our previous coverage.)
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Observers immediately began to grumble, however, that carrier customization could delay the operating system upgrade's availability to end users until mid-September or later.
For example, responding to a July 26 "we can't wait to get it into your hands" posting on the Windows Phone Blog by Terry Myerson, a Microsoft vice president of Windows Phone Engineering, commenter "tsrbike" griped, "first the cell makers get to fiddle with it, then the providers get it. So even if the cell makers only take six weeks to 'optimize,' AT&T and others will likely test for another six-plus weeks, putting us into October at the earliest."
But now, Fujitsu and the Japanese carrier KDDI -- who on July 27 announced what was touted as the first phone that would come with Mango preinstalled -- have pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Instead of being offered in September as initially promised, the IS12T (below) will go on sale Aug. 25, the companies say.
The Fujitsu IS12T
(Click to enlarge)
The early launch of the IS12T is doubly surprising in that Nokia, thanks to its special relationship with Microsoft, was widely expected to be the first company to release a Mango-equipped phone. Back in June, Nokia Stephen Elop showed off a device code-named Sea Ray at a "private" meeting for employees that wound up being leaked on video.
Since then, though, Nokia still hasn't provided a Sea Ray announcement date or final name for its device. Microsoft and Nokia staged an Aug. 17 event at the GamesCom convention in Cologne, during which some had expected the phone to surface. Since it didn't, observers are now looking to the manufacturer's annual Nokia World conference in October for the Mango phone's final launch.
More about the IS12T
While the press release noting Aug. 25 availability for the IS12T came from Fujitsu, the phone appears to feature Toshiba logos and is described by KDII as the "Windows Phone IS12T by Toshiba." This branding ambiguity is the result of a 2010 agreement though which Fujitsu and Toshiba agreed to merge their mobile phone businesses, leaving Fujitsu as the majority shareholder in the new company.
Enjoying bragging rights as the first Mango device, the IS12T is also noteworthy for being one of the most lavishly equipped smartphones around. It comes with 32GB of built-in memory "and a 13.2 megapixel camera that is among the top of its class in smartphones," according to Fujitsu.
The IS12T will pack 32GB and a 13.2 megapixel camera
(Click to enlarge)
Fujitsu says the IS12T, capable of capturing HD video at 720p, will have a 3.7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Offered in yellow, pink, or black, the phone is claimed to be waterproof (IPX5/8) and dustproof (IP5X).
The IS12T features GSM and CDMA compatibility, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a FM receiver, according to Fujitsu. Other specifications released by the company include the following:
Dimensions -- 4.64 x 2.32 x 0.4 inches (118 x 59 x 10.6mm)
Weight, with battery -- 4 ounces (113g)
Standby time -- approx. 280 hours
Talk time -- approx. 400 minutes
The phone's CPU wasn't revealed by Fujitsu. According to reports by WPCentral and others, however, the device will feature a 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor.
The initial crop of Windows Phone 7 devices, whose hardware specifications were tightly controlled by Microsoft, all featured Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 or 8650 processors. Both chipsets feature "Scorpion" application processors, but the QSD8250 supports only GSM, GPRS, EDGE and HSPA networks, whereas the QSD8650 supports both these and CDMA2000 1X, 1xEV-DO 0/A/B networks, according to the chipmaker.
A new Windows Phone 7 hardware specification unveiled at Microsoft's MIX11 conference in April added support for additional Snapdragon CPUs: the MSM7x30 and the MSM8x55. While still single-core devices, these processors allow OEMs to offer a wider range of clock speeds (from 800MHz on the MSM7x30 to 1.4GHz on the MSM8x55, according to Qualcomm), and they also provide Adreno 205 graphics -- said to offer over twice the performance of the Adreno 200 included with the earlier QSD8x50.
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