14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola issued a press release a few hours ago, announcing the official availability of its new PDAs across China. The handsets we're talking about are Motorola MING A1600, Motorola MING A1800 and Motorola A810, all of which are being released only in China, with no plans for a future availability on other markets.
While it's not actually great news for users outside the aforementioned country who might like the new handsets, their China-only availability explains why 3G connectivity was left out when the devices were built.
The A1600 and A1800 MING PDAs are similar when it comes to design and features, the main differences being that the A1800 comes with dual SIM capabilities and it's a bit bigger, measuring no less than 25 millimeters in thickness. Differences aside, the MING handsets both feature a 2.4 inch pen-based TTF touchscreen display with Chinese handwriting recognition, GPS, a 3 Megapixel camera with auto focus and video, Bluetooth 2.0, Music player, stereo FM radio, document viewer, expandable memory (up to 4GB) and a Linux-based OS.
Although Moto A810 is presented as an "entry-level PDA", its features are pretty nice, including a 2.2 inch TFT touchscreen display with 240 x 320 pixels and handwriting recognition, a 2 Megapixel camera with video recording, Opera 8.5 browser, email, Music and Video players, FM radio and expandable memory (up to 2GB), all in a case that measures 105 x 51 x 14 millimeters.
Talking about the new handset, Ray Yam, Vice President and General Manager, Motorola Mobile Devices, China, said: "As the next generation of our MING range, the A1600 and A1800 combine Motorola's long heritage in the PDA market with stylish design and innovative technology, delivering a personal productivity experience that has been tailored to the needs of the busy Chinese executive. The A810, meanwhile, adds new energy and style to Motorola's PDA series - it is ideal for those young professionals who are looking to work hard and play hard, thanks to the multi-functional and fully-featured set of tools we have included."
The prices of the new devices were not unveiled, although Moto says all three of them are available as of now, at authorized Motorola retailers across China.
All in all, Motorola will probably sell lots of these handsets, even though only in China. The company says that, until now, it has shipped more than 8 million units of its old PDAs on the Chinese market, hence it should have no problem selling a lot of the new ones too.
