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[Rumor] Is this the HTC Bravo/Passion?

[Rumor] Is this the HTC Bravo/Passion?

The HTC Bravo (also known as the Passion), is billed as “nearly identical” to the Nexus One in terms of core specs, and will be launching on T-Mobile near the end of January if a report from the phone site Omnio can be believed.

Rumored to boast Android 2.1, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC, 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM, and a 3.7″ AMOLED display, the Bravo does indeed bear an uncanny resemblance to the recently launched Nexus One. The two devices differ, however, in their user and mechanical interfaces, as the Bravo is said to shun the trackball in favor of an optical trackpad and is also said to run the Sense UI, seen in the video below, made popular on the HTC Hero.

Other specs for the Bravo/Passion include:

  • 16GB microSD storage, expandable to 32GB;
  • GPS & A-GPS;
  • Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
  • a compass;
  • an FM radio;
  • 900/1700/2100MHz HSPA;
  • 802.11b/g;
  • and dimensions of 4.4″ tall, 2.2″ wide and .46″ thick

Comments

  1. GnomeQueen I'm not a fan of trackballs, so the HTC Passion might actually be an improvement upon the physical form of the Nexus One in my opinion. It'll be interesting to see how the Sense UI integrates with Android 2.1, since I'm assuming that they'll update it before releasing the new phone.

    Has anyone played extensively with both the Sense UI and regular Android? How do they compare?
  2. Thrax Many feel that HTC's Sense UI is the way Android should be experienced. I've never played with the Hero, so I can't agree or disagree, but I will say that Sense is quite a bit prettier than any version of Android, with the possible exception of 2.1 (killing the shade helped a lot).

    Given the Bravo's hardware specs, it's easily considered a flagship phone, which makes it altogether rather likely that Sense will indeed be sitting atop Android 2.1.
  3. Snarkasm Sense is really excellent. It's probably not fair to compare a Hero to a G1, but that's the only stock Android phone I've played with. Sense on the Hero is a massive upgrade - it's so much more graphically appealing.

    And I'm kind of a fan of the glowing trackball. I'm not too sure how I feel about this. The N1 has 512/512mb, right? So this guy has a slight reduction in available RAM.
  4. Thrax Yeah, N1 is a 512/512 device.
  5. kryyst If the optical trackpad on this device works similar to the optical trackpad all the new blackberry's are using then it's a thing of beauty.
  6. AlexDeGruven The Moment has the optical trackpad and I much prefer it over the BB ball interface. It took a little getting used to over my old Vogue/Touch's DPad-only setup, but I really like it now.
  7. Thrax As somebody who just had to dismantle his Bold to clean the trackball which had stopped rolling in the upward direction, just say no to trackballs. Optical or d-pads, or gtfo.
  8. Snarkasm I don't actually USE the trackball for navigation -- that's what the screen is for -- but on the Hero, it lights up in a brilliant white pulse every couple of minutes as a notification that you've missed some kind of event. For some completely ridiculous and silly reason, I love it.

    And d-pads? Come on. No way.
  9. Thrax I say d-pads because they're vastly more reliable than a trackball, and if they're not going to use an optical trackpad, it might as well be a d-pad (Droid). It's irritating as hell to position a cursor accurately without something like that, though, that's for sure.
  10. QCH I have dismantled my BB Curve trackball several times and replaced it once. And I only had it for 18 months. :(

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