GeeksPhone Keon with Firefox OS, first impressions

GeeksPhone Keon is one of the two first developer preview devices specifically designed for Firefox OS. Let’s take a peek at what Keon and Firefox OS has to offer by reading our first impressions below.

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GeeksPhone is a Spanish start-up company and producer of smartphones that was founded in early 2009 and used to make Android phones. Their most recent projects are the Developer Preview smartphones for Mozilla’s Firefox OS, namely the Keon and the Peak.

keon

The GeeksPhone Keon is the lesser-powered model, sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 7225AB clocked at 1Ghz and 512MB of RAM. It has a 3.5-inch HVGA (480 × 320) so it’s a relatively tiny device. Although small, it’s one of the nicely-built smartphones we’ve encountered. The removable shell is made of durable plastic with a smooth rubber-like finish which feels great in the hands.

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Running the whole show for the Keon is Mozilla’s Firefox OS which is built entirely using open web standards, where HTML5 apps can do “phone things” like make the phone vibrate, make a phone call or send a text message. It’s a Developer Preview version so it’s not complete yet but is regularly updated. Basic smartphone functions are already working though like phone and texting capabilities, WiFi, mobile data, and camera functions.

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The UI looks clean and pleasing to the eyes and somehow looks like a marriage between Android and Meego. Navigating the UI is easy to understand and feels like a simplified version of the Android OS – swipe left or right to see the apps, swipe down to see notifications and shortcuts, use the home button to exit or see background-running apps.

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Even if it’s just running a Developer Preview version on a not so beefy hardware the Firefox OS feels snappy and relatively smooth, so everything looks promising indeed. We’ll be publishing a thorough hands-on of the Firefox OS in the next few days so stay tuned.

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Mozilla announces Firefox OS Developer Preview Phones

We’ve seen Mozilla’s Firefox OS being ported to a number of devices during its development, now we’re finally seeing it in its own home in the form of the Developer Preview handsets.

The Firefox OS Developer Preview Phone, as the name suggests, is a developer’s phone which aims to help developers create software for the Firefox OS. The phone is made by Geeksphone in partnership with Telefonica.

Peak

The first one is the Geeksphone Peak which sports the following specs:

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 8225 1.2Ghz x2
  • UMTS 2100/1900/900 (3G HSPA)
  • GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (2G EDGE)
  • 4.3″ qHD IPS Multitouch display
  • 8MP camera (back) with LED flash + 2MP (front)
  • 4GB ROM, 512MB RAM
  • MicroSD, WiFi N, Light & Prox. Sensor, G-Sensor, GPS, MicroUSB
  • 1800 mAh battery

Keon

The second one is the smaller and less powerful Geeksphone Keon:

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 7225AB 1Ghz
  • UMTS 2100/1900/900 (3G HSPA)
  • GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (2G EDGE)
  • 3.5″ HVGA Multitouch display
  • 3MP camera
  • 4GB ROM, 512MB RAM
  • MicroSD, WiFi N, Light & Prox. Sensor, G-Sensor, GPS, MicroUSB
  • 1580 mAh battery

No details on pricing as of the moment but developers will be able to purchase the units from Geeksphone starting next month.

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