But I agree with gregpilling. Why did they have to add all of those untested features to the spec. Is sapphire glass really better or is it just a fancy sounding gimmick? And what's up with "Silicon-anode Li-ion?" More RAM sounded good to me and the whole ubuntu in your pocket thing also sounds great, but premium pricing and new hardware technologies that are unproven worry me.
Is sapphire glass really better or is it just a fancy sounding gimmick? And what's up with "Silicon-anode Li-ion?" More RAM sounded good to me and the whole ubuntu in your pocket thing also sounds great
As far as I understand, that was the entire point. To see if that stuff was worthwhile in a phone. To push the boundaries. If all that stuff was a gimme, then phones would already have it.
Presumably there were certain feature requirements for it to work as an effective desktop computer that are missing on many smart phones.
I mean, the early adopters paying for the Edge are probably have desktops with quad-core 1GHz+ processors, 2GB+ of RAM, 100GB+ of hard disk space, connector and graphics card for a WSXGA+ resolution monitor, USB host capability and so on. My smart phone has none of these features.
Sapphire glass will be used on several new upcoming high-end smartphones, and is already used by Vertu. So, yes, it is just a fancy sounding gimmick and will be commonplace in 2014.
Sapphire glass is far from being a 'fancy sounding gimmick'.
It is, in fact, the "transparent aluminum" from Star Trek. Which was an elaborate joke on the fact that pure aluminum oxide is harder than anything except elemental boron and diamond.
Keep emery boards away from your sapphire screen and it simply will not scratch. I can't wait, personally, and have been disappointed that the camera lens on iPhones is not yet sapphire since the 4.
I haven't heard many people complain about scratches on their smartphone screens, but I have seen a lot of people operating phones with shattered screens.
I'm sorry if I was being unclear. By "Fancy sounding gimmick" I meant it's not something that special. Many quality watches have used sapphire for a long time, and the use on phones is a result of scaling up production.
Scratch resistance is not the only measure of a desirable screen material. It has to bend and resist breaking due to flexing and impact. Sapphire is unlikely to take over all phone screens because it is unlikely to have superior properties for all parameters.
