From the very beginning, Microsoft have insisted on keeping complete control over both the form factors and internal specs of any phone that wishes to run their upcoming OS, Windows Phone 7.
So far, however, Microsoft have only given details about one of the promised two “chassis” of their phones: the slate-style phones that you’ve seen around. It should be noted that “Chassis 1” are allowed to have slide-out QWERTY keyboards, but no known WinPho 7 handset currently has one.
So, what is “Chassis 2”, then? Well, in an interview in Silicon this week, Microsoft’s ISV developer evangelist, Paul Foster, may have spilled the beans with this little nugget:
WP7 devices will have one of two screen resolutions – either 800 x 480 for large touchscreen devices with the potential for slide-out Qwerty keyboards, or 480 x 320 for ‘BlackBerry’ style handsets that can incorporate a Qwerty on the front of the device. Microsoft expects the majority of WP7 devices to have the larger screen resolution at launch, with smaller resolution handsets coming later.
So, there you have it. While not calling out “Chassis 2” by name, it seems pretty certain that a QWERTY candybar form-factor will be coming to WinPho 7 in the future.
What form factor would you prefer to have? Are you a sucker for the slate? Or a lover of the QWERTY candy?
[via Phone Arena]