It has two active standby SIM slots. It’s made in China. It runs on Android. After nursing a cold about a week ago, I came into the possession of two prototypes from one of the more “hip” China phone manufacturers, TORQUE. Without any detailed specs, the units came in a brown envelope with no charger (as apparently you can charge these via generic USB) and without any naming spray-painted onto the real estate.

There was a piece of paper accompanying it with three IMEI numbers for the GD55 and G88, and I had concluded that the latter was the dual SIM device. Since these are prototypes, there is essentially no word on pricing, but speculations put these Android devices up for grabs at about USD $200.00.

Finally, “an Android for everyone” is something nice to look forward to. Both devices didn’t seem to have access to the more powerful HSPA networks, but WiFi and Bluetooth are stock. Also, the ROM didn’t appear to be flashed to global standards hence the non-presence of the application marketplace. I’m tempted to flash it … but the units are not mine.

The future of Android looks more and more interesting with China taking in Android as part of its stable of el-cheapo. Dual SIM even, my golly.

So does this tiny detail really mean that we just might see a Google netbook in the near future? Despite the strength of the rumors going around, no one would confirm or deny them. Even CEO Eric Schmidt would not say a word about it. He just said that “the netbook phenomenon looks very real.” He did say, though, that Google has to make sure that their products and services work well with “these devices.” Now that could be interpreted in any way one wants to. I think that they are looking into developing an operating system for netbooks of the near future. Then again, they could just be looking for ways to tweak their existing products. Who knows?

In any case, the only thing that we can do right now is to try and be part of that usability study. I am not sure if the ad is still active today. I think that most, if not all, of the slots were snapped up like candy the moment the word got out.

I don’t particularly follow the mobile phone market unless they are made of Lego blocks, but yesterday I followed the releases over at MWC. Mainly to see what Windows 6.5 would look like and in the hope of more information around the Palm Pre.

For once I must admit that the Redmonders finally got something right with WM6.5. The honeycomb setup for the phone’s homepage looks attractive and most of all usable. That must be a first for Microsoft!
Even though the background of choice too dark is and Windows Mobile still fugly looks with the humongous status bar and its icons, it certainly looks thousand times better than any open source attempt, because no matter whether as full blown distro or on a phone, Tux products always manage to look horrible thanks to their love for thick borders/line on everything.

Obviously nothing beats the looks of today’s most popular and loved phone.