Before you begin jumping for joy, this is nothing but an unverified rumor. It just happens to be a good one that we hope to see materialize in the near future. You may have heard about Sprint event that will bring us an industry first, so could it be a 3D Android phone? Some people may already be denying the possibility, but we just got in contact with some one who just had a hands-on with this mystery device.
While the source who got some hands-on with the phone is reliable, the connection to the Sprint event isn’t, it just makes sense. LG recently announced their glasses-free 3D display, and with David Blaine appearing (and possibly disappearing) at the Sprint event, who knows what to expect? We really have no reason as to why we can actually expect Sprint to announce the device, but an “industry first” will hopefully involve a device, and not some sort of plan.
The handset was said to have a large screen “similar to the Droid X,” so we can expect around a 4.3 inch display, which is the size of the display LG recently announced. A front-facing camera is also on the phone, but other than that, the specs were sparse. The one thing that was obvious were the standard four Android buttons at the bottom of the handset. The handset wasn’t branded at the time, but was told the manufacturer later on in the viewing. The UI, which wasn’t shown much, looked similar to the 3D scrolling wheel from the Nexus One, (or stock Android) but in “‘steps’ to a more 3D look and feel”. The source said that most of it looked rather cheap, but was enjoyable enough to see past the gimmick.
Don’t worry, Samsung, you still hold the gimmick crown for the ‘Cube” on the Samsung Behold 2.
What’s more intriguing is that the handset can record video in 3D as well, as it features two (count ’em two) cameras on the back at angles and a large flash. The “large flash” could either be a dual-LED flash, or possibly, and hopefully, and actual Xenon flash. This wouldn’t be the first time LG has thrown a Xenon flash on a phone, but it would be the first time in long time.
This mystery device’s UI was described as cube-like, which is found on devices like the LG Viewty Smart, and Arena. Instead of trying to make a cheap UI look 3D, LG is making the UI 3D. As with many glasses 3D displays you look at, you need to adjust your focus to the screen, but it’s usually not uncomfortable to do so. The same thing happens with the phone, but the source goes on to say that “the vertical lines become pronounced and have potential to ruin the effect at certain angles.”
So could Sprint announce this device come February 7th? Sure, but they could also announce something very, very different. Nonetheless, we do know that LG has a glasses-free 3D Android phone up and running with what looked to be “final hardware”. Hopefully we’ll see this pan out in the next couple weeks.
One thing is for sure, if this device is fully in 3D, and can record in 3D, I hope that it has some powerful innards.