Recently, an unpublished HP webOS The smartphone WindsorNot was exposed by the foreign media webOS Nation. It is reported that WindsorNot was originally planned to be released after Pre 3 in 2011, but because of the lack of supported software, the American operator AT&T, which planned to operate this device before, has lost interest in continuing to operate WebOS system, and AT&T was developing vigorously at that time LTE network However, WindsorNot does not support this technology, and finally this mobile phone is stillborn.

But for HP fans, it is more or less a pity. Recently, the WindsorNot engineering machine obtained by webOS Nation is one of the few windsorNot engineering machines that are out of the ordinary. It is very rare.

The WindsorNot engineering machine obtained by webOS Nation uses the same Qualcomm CPU as the Pre 3. The model is MSM8255, the main frequency is 1.4Ghz, the RAM is supplied by Micron, and the built-in storage capacity is 8GB. Although the CPU of this mobile phone is single core, only a few flagship models can be equipped at that time. The front and rear cameras and battery components of this WindsorNot engineering machine are exactly the same as those of the Pre 3. If you take them apart, perhaps more components on the motherboard are identical to those of the Pre 3. However, considering the rarity of WindsorNot, the editors of webOSNation did not open it for verification after several hesitations.

The screen resolution of WindsorNot and Pre 3 is 800 × 480, but the screen size of WindsorNot reaches 4 inches. The 3.65-inch Pre 3 has a ppi of 255, while the WindsorNot has a relatively low ppi of 233. Frankly, there is no visual difference. Of course, the pixel density of the WindsorNot screen is not worth mentioning today when the high split screen is flying all over the sky. Unlike the Pre 3's gesture area+full keyboard mode, the straight board full touch screen WindsorNot is similar to the TouchPad, which uses the combination of the physical Home key+gesture area. Although the size of WindsorNot is larger than that of the Pre 3, because there is no full keyboard, the weight is correspondingly lighter, and the thickness is several millimeters smaller than that of the Pre 3.

In order to improve the holding experience, the side material of WindsorNot is similar to the shell material of Pre 3, which shrinks from front to back to form an inclined plane that is easy to hold. Since the engineering plastic panel made by the back is polished, the designer makes the bottom edge of the side frame more prominent than the back to prevent the polished surface of the back from being scratched, which is very considerate. Unfortunately, WindsorNot does not add anti fingerprint coating on the front and back, which makes it easy to collect fingerprints on both sides of WindsorNot.

The buttons on the side of the fuselage are similar to those on the Pre 3. On the top is the power off button and the classic mute switch. The 3.5mm headphone interface is in the center, and the volume key is on the upper left side. It is worth mentioning that the top shutdown button of WindsorNot cannot light up the screen like other webOS devices. To open the screen and unlock it, you need to press Home key This may be because the WindsorNot system is not perfect. In addition, webOS Nation found during the test that pressing the power off button when the machine is turned on has a 50% chance of causing the system to crash.

Does the bottom of WindsorNot look familiar? Indeed, it is really like the bottom design of the iPhone 5. The speakers are located on both sides of the bottom, evenly separated, and the middle is a Micro USB interface. The front of WindsorNot has no components other than the Home button. Therefore, its microphone should be hidden near the bottom speaker and receive audio signals through the holes in the bottom speaker.

It is reasonable to say that the system development of WindsorNot is still in an early stage. The system of WindsorNot is 3. X, and the interface is not different from what we see on TouchPad. The TouchPad screen is 132ppi, which is significantly different from the WindsorNot 233ppi. However, the WindsorNot system gives the impression that it is just like a reduced TouchPad screen, that is, the basic font size adaptation has not been completed. Since this WindsorNot engineering machine is only a prototype, and the proprietary webOS 3. X has not been fully adapted, there will be no corresponding webOS Doctor to repair the system.

Press and hold the power off button, and the system will start. As you know well about webOS, it takes a long time to start. Because its system version is on the high side, its CPU is only a single core, and at the same time, it is only an engineering machine, so its boot time has not surprisingly consumed more than 3 minutes. Sometimes, WindsorNot will crash during startup. Unlike before, it will display an icon of a floppy disk and a text reminder of "Entering Main Console Loop" on the screen. According to international practice, the only thing we can do at this time is to pull out the battery and restart it. Therefore, WindsorNot at this stage has nothing to do with "stable operation".

WindsorNot was defeated in the previous comparison with Pre 3, and the project priority was reduced, but it was not to stop the research and development. The release time of WindsorNot was originally scheduled to be a few months after the release of Pre 3, that is, the end of 2011. However, because HP terminated the development of webOS system in August, the WindsorNot project was also forced to terminate completely. In terms of project completion, it is second only to the TouchPad GO tablet released by its neighbors. Before terminating the project, a small amount of webOS 3. X software in the WindsorNot system has adjusted the UI layout. The most direct proof of this is its built-in native virtual keyboard.

this virtual keyboard It is very similar to the built-in virtual keyboard of Open webOS later, and the experience from driver to input is very good, which is close to completion. The input logic of the virtual keyboard of WindsorNot is similar to that of TouchPad. Long press the key to input the corresponding Latin characters. When the keyboard is in horizontal screen, it will adapt to the corresponding horizontal screen state, and the proportion control is very good. Obviously, this virtual keyboard is not designed for this model. It should be a component specially designed for a series of subsequent webOS devices.

Virtual keyboards are just the tip of the iceberg. Starting from 3. X, webOS is to follow the path of integration of mobile phone and tablet systems, like Android 4.X That's what I'm doing. Unfortunately, the plan was forced to end at the very beginning.

The author is Chen Zimu. Original address:

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