Picture of the HTC Passion / Dragon’s screen?
Pardon us while we think out loud, but that high resolution screen with an HTC Sense UI-looking clock/weather widget looks like Android to us. We’ve also confirmed that this photo was taken of a Verizon handset, and with all signs pointing to an impending release, we’re just going to venture out on a limb and say that we believe this photo is of HTC’s next Android device for Verizon Wireless. In case you forgot, the rumored device we’re talking about is supposedly one bad ass piece of telephonery — 5 megapixel camera, Android 2.0, and much, much more. One of connects said this thing could be out as early as Black Friday, and while it seems a little far fetched, we’re slowly coming around to the possibility.
UPDATE: Actually, I meant to write mid-December. Our previous scoop said either the Curve2 or Dragon would come out around Black Friday, and we know that the Curve2 is being released on November 20th.
I played with the Eris, I liked it, except for a few little annoying quirks in the menus (having just one too many clicks to get to the menu or unlock the screen and all that). The virtual keyboard was very good when I tried it, was typing fast easily
I don’t really see what this pic tells us. I don’t see how it means it’s a bad ass screen or phone
Liked.
+5
yeah i was on the brink of pulling the trigger on the droid, when i started reading about the random reboots. who knows if it’s symptomatic of a serious quality problem, but i erred on the side of caution.
the point of the 350 etf is that the new droid based phones are unlocked as required by open handset alliance and droid. Therefore you can get a very expensive phone and flip to a dif carrier for only 175… ya Verizon is NOT gonna let that happen
Dude, I think you are completely wrong. If that were the case, then why does the 350 ETF apply to all advanced devices, as well as some dumbphones? Check out VZW’s legal page for the details.
Allright, enough is enough. I live in Seattle and I’m doing a midnight raid on HTC headquarters in Bellevue. See if I can find me a Dragon. Hehehe!!
Grab me one too!
looks like this iphone hack to me…http://macthemes2.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16800022&p=1
Nice catch. Looks like BGR’s “source” is taking them and us for a lil ride.
Ooooooh, snap! Darn it, looks like we’ve been had. I was very suspicious about the fact that the picture is so close-up that it doesn’t reveal anything about the phone itself. Also, the numbers are a different font than what HTC uses. Well, unless we get any more solid evidence than this, it looks like I’m safe with my Droid Eris on a 1-year contract.
Btw, last week, I dug around on the FCC website, looking for submission documents that gave any indication of being anything like the rumored Passion. I checked back as far as September, and all I found was submissions for GSM phones for T-Mobile and/or AT&T. Nothing showed CDMA bands. Unless they certified it before September, it doesn’t look promising. Of course, they might fast-track it, certifying it just a couple weeks before release, which means there’s still time. However, I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Well I guest… YOU GOT IT! wow… until I saw this I told it was actually the famous HTC Passion. Well, I guest I’m jumping ships and getting me a Moto Droid next month with a 1yr contract.
Thats all well and good, but I have a hard time believing that BGR receives random photos from random people and then take that photo and create a story like this. You ruin your credibility in a hurry. They obviously have a relationship with the person sending the photo and some trust has been built. Also, BGR’s contact called it a Verizon handset. Pretty sure iphone isn’t a Verizon device.
Bottom line, this doesn’t mean that IS a photo of the Passion, but let’s have a modicum of faith in BGR’s reports or we don’t belong useing this site for our tech news.
In addition the cropped out of focus pic looks like a low res narrow screen. Notice that the “mostly cloudy” forcast takes two lines where as the screen on the HD accommodates the forcast description on one line with pixels to spare notepad
http://www.cellphonedigest.net/images2/HTC-HD2-Smartphone.jpg
Well, physical screen size would be irrelevant. The resolution is what matters in that case. The iPhone has a 3.5″ screen, but runs the same 320×480 resolution as the 3.2″ screens on the Hero/Eris. Unless you change the dimensions of the widget itself, or the font size, it’s bound to display basically the same way.
Yeah I hear you and BGR have been right on the dime every time, I hope he’s right this time too (well, his source in this case).
THATS WHAT I SAID.
heres a screenshot of my iphone using the theme (im in baltimore as well haha)
http://web11.twitpic.com/img/42140843-752cf1e9076b2330286f7923e1f58b7c.4afa6c04-full.jpg
wow good catch! BG? I hope this isn’t the same connect that sent the info about Curve 2 and Passion coming out before the end of the year.
But I can’t fault them for this… Usually the info here is spot on. Keep it coming!
This could be any phone with a HTC looking clock/weather widget on it’s screen. I have one running on my Droid right now (with this widget: http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-levelup-beautifulwidgets-jtDA.aspx) that if I took a close-up of no one would know what phone it’s from.
I would like to think that BGR has other photos verifying that it’s a new phone but isn’t at liberty to release those yet at risk of outing his source.
iName is right…after looking at the website it does look exactly like the ipone hack, this has to be fake
the photo is somewhat irrelevant to the news that’s actually being presented by this post.
I, like many f you, was going to purchase the Droid. After having my hands on the device, I found that it was a good attempt but missed the mark. The Eris was actually the better device of the two, but it’s processor seems to limit the device to Android OS 1.5. The sales person in the store (in very confidential tones) told me that he thought the would see the “Passion” (aka Dragon) out by Black Friday. Kinda disappointing to hear that will be delayed but I think this might be the device we are waiting for. Let’s just hope it doesn’t looked as ugly as those “leaked” pictures…
The iPhone hack doesn’t discount anything. You can make a similar picture with any Sense UI phone.
@Beau
I heard that when/if the Passion comes to VZW then they will update the Eris with Android 2.0 as well.
I guess I can wait until Black Friday to buy the Eris and then hope the Passion comes out within 30 days of my purchase.
I think that’s what I’m going to do too.
About the photo: After looking at the iPhone hack and comparing it to the supposed leaked photo, I think it’s pretty dead on. I’ll admit that I missed a few things before when comparing the HD2 and Hero clocks to the leak image. But, if you look at the gradient that goes from dark to light and back to dark from side to side, you’ll see this is the same as the iPhone hack. Sorry guys but I see this as proof positive that the image above is a fake. Of course this has nothing to do with the actual viability of any other rumor however, whoever this image came from just lost some credibility in my opinion.
I just saw an AT&T commercial with a HTC phone that looked like the HD2 it was on Tuesday. The commercial was of a baseball fan getting in taxi with his HTC phone showing google maps. I refuse AT&T because of coverage… someone please tell me that I am wrong. If I am right then I hope AT&T gets the HTC HD2 with WinMo 6.5 and Verizon gets a version of HTC HD2 with Android. Anyone else want to confirm or research this?
I even see it in AT&T video library http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/video-library/
guess the one in the video library is a different phone but the one on TV commercial, I am pretty sure was the HD2
It seems that the one on that commercial is the HTC Pure.
http://www.htc.com/us/product/attpure/overview.html
Would love to see the HD2 in person soon.
I work for Verizon, can tell you that us as agents we have no info on this phone. Sorry, i want it myself but like i said not a single word. As soon as i get something ill report back.
Just read over at another site that a guy was at the VZW store and the rep was hinting at a new device coming out in December.
My problem is where is this phone on the FCC?
For all the people wondering how it couldn’t be on record with the FCC: Does anyone remeber the PS3 slim? Sony snuck it through the FCC under a false name, no one picked up on it until it was announced… htc could be doing this as well…
I’m still waiting for the htc passion as my next phone… (An HD2 running android… That would be soo sweet…)
I just saw verizon’s Island of Misfit Toys commercial and they showed the Eris with the weather/clock widget. It had three lines for the location and weather. Line1 was “North Pole”, Line2 was “Mostly Cloudy” and Line3 was “with Snow”.
Not that a mockup on a commercial means much, but I just chuckled a bit when I saw that.
I didn’t realize that the first time. Hilarious!
so do you guys wonder why there was a picture of a time released…maybe no one else as caught this, but 0720 backwards is 0270..and 27 is black friday!
wouldnt that be sweet!!!!
I hope you are right. If this is the case I can return my Droid and get the Passion –
There is high confidence from inside Verizon that the Passion will be a pre xmas release. The curve 2 is already confirmed as a pre Black friday release
Sweet… where’d you get the info?
not gonna say since my job would be in jeopardy
Didn’t they already confirm that the V-Phone was going to be Verizone’s third Android phone?
Anyone knows if it’ll be having a front facing camera for 3G Video Calls?
That would be the first Android phone with front camera if i’m not wrong.
And lacking it on HD2 is the reason why i don’t buy it.
V-Phone won’t be a Verizon phone in the sense that you are thinking. It will be an open development phone so no subsidy or maybe a very small subsidy. It won’t officially count as a Verizon phone though since it isn’t being released the normal way that phones are. Plus its a big chunky underpowered brick of a phone that needs to change with the times. Qwerty keyboards are old school. Give me a capacitive touch screen Saygus V-Phone!
Interesting. I didn’t know that. But yeah, it looks like a really dorky design.
Re:”Qwerty keyboards are old school.”
I couldn’t agree more but I think you’re going to have a hard time convincing everyone else.
That’s actually one of the reasons I didn’t get a Droid. I know I don’t have to use it but I would rather just not have it there at all. I have an iPod Touch and I’m pretty fast at typing on it so I have no issue at all with on screen keyboards. Plus, you can type in landscape or portrait whenever you want. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t.
Exactly why I don’t like qwerty keyboards any more. My fingers fly over the virtual keyboard on the ipod touch/iphone BECAUSE they don’t have to press actual buttons and i’m no less accurate when i type on the virtual keyboard then i am on a physical keyboard and that is just on the portrait keyboard. don’t even get me started on the landscape keyboard. I would accept a phone as thick as the Droid without the physical keyboard if they used the extra space for a bigger processor, GPU, etc. That would be a beast of a multimedia phone.
We need more information on the Dragon/Passion. Come on now BGR. most of us are dying to know more! and me having the ERIS already i want to know if I return in before the 30days if the wait wont be too long till I can get the Dragon.
I really doubt we are getting it. Too little information plus a FAIL iPhone picture posted by BGR means this is all a hoax. So close Verizon, so close.
E-mailed VZW Support on the 17th and asked when the Passion/Dragon was going to be available. In a voicemail response a Verizon Support Rep stated that he didn’t know when the “Dragon” will be available.
He said they get an e-mail a week before release and He didn’t have one yet.
That tells me that it will be on Verizon and it will be the Dragon.
When it actually gets its Droid lineup name, I’m doubting it will be the dragon. “Droid Dragon” just sounds terrible. Desire became the Eris (almost Desire spelled backwards)… What if the next phone used part of the other names… Like Psion… or Rage?
Perhaps Verizon is keeping such a tight lid on the Passion until after the 30 days has been up for the release of the Droid and Droid Eris? Which is also probably why they are raising the early termination fees for smartphones as well.
I really don’t care what it is called.
I just want to get my hands on it.
I have already been getting my VPN configuration instructions lined up in anticipation of having a nice big screen for RDP.
If it only has USB Host support like the Saygus V1 I will be in Heaven.
I like the droid it looks like a great device but i have big fingers and have the dare and mess up texting a lot but texted great with my envy. So i need real buttons so i hope whatever its called it has real buttons.