Group Sense preps Euro smart phone

Full M68 specs revealed

Published Thursday 10th February 2005 16:15 GMT

Exclusive Far Eastern smart phone maker Group Sense is preparing a new Palm OS-based handset, called the Xplore M68, and this time it's pitching the handset at the European market.

GSPDA Xplore M68 To date, Group Sense has shipped a number of PalmOS-based phones, in each case targeting local markets in Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Thailand. Now it's time for the company start pitching its stylish handsets in the West.

An official M68 specification sheet seen by The Register today reveals the device will ship in the US and Europe, in both cases pitched at GSM networks with appropriately tri-band handsets.

The M68 will be based on PalmOS 5.4 - aka 'Garnet' - running on an Texas Instruments OMAP 310 ARM 9 processor. It contains 64MB of RAM and 32MB of Flash memory. There's a 2.2in, 65,000-colour, 160 x 220 LCD and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It's said to have Bluetooth built in, along with an SD/MMC card slot.

In addition to all the usual SMS, MMS, WAP and email support, the M68 also handles MP3, MPEG 4 and 3GPP playback. There's a voice recording function too.

The M68 weighs 127g and measures 10.9 x 5 x 2.3cm. Inside the shell is a 1300mAh battery providing juice for five hours' talk time and 300 hours on stand-by, according to Group Sense.

The handset will be available in white, black and grey casings, but it's not yet clear which colours will be available in each territory.

As yet there's no indication as to when the M68 will ship in the US and Europe, but with the 3GSM mobile phone industry shindig next week, we'll go out on a limb and forecast something's going to happen there. ®