Okay Geek Farm
Microsoft's new Kin One and Two devices: An in-depth look
Daniel Carey
For some time now Microsoft’s Pink devices were sheltered from the harsh reality of human existence; however, that’s now destined to change forever. Announced today, Microsoft made official that their Kin phones (formally known as Pink) will be hitting the market sometime in the near future. Aimed at teens and tweenies (that’s early twenty’s for you none cool cats) both Kin devices aim to provide the end-user with a similar experience to that of the sidekick (minus the loss of everyone’s data). So how do the Kin One and Kin Two compare as viable phones? We’ll have the answer to this question and many more after the break. So what are you waiting for? Get reading!
Hardware:
So, you’ve heard about the Kin(s) and now you’re wondering how they compete on a hardware front. Kin One — the phone that we’ve seen rumoured as Turtle — is essentially a curved / rounded square like slider with a QVGA (320 x 240) multitouch / capacitive display. Rocking 4GBs of internal storage, a 5-Megapixel camera with LED flash, full QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a NVIDIA Tegra silicon chip the Kin One’s specs are towards the latter end of the mobile spectrum. In case you were wondering you did read that right: According to Kin product manager Derek Snyder, both devices were built on the same foundation to that of the Zune HD ergo Tegra chips.
Kin Two — rumoured as the Pure — slowly moves up the hardware spectrum. Rocking a HVGA (480 x 320) multitouch / capacitive display, a more traditional landscape QWERTY keyboard, 8-Megapixel camera and 8GBs of internal storage, the Kin two looks oh-so-more appealing than its rounder brother, but not by much. — As with the Kin One, the Kin Two is also powered by a NVIDIA Tegra chip while also making use of WiFi and Bluetooth.
To be as blunt as possible these phones seem more like a “toy” than anything else. Compared to phones such as the Evo 4G, Nexus One or even the Motorola Droid, both Kin devices look more like a disposable cell phone than anything. Sure, they may appeal to teens, but with the imminent release of Windows Phone 7, we’re left scratching our heads wondering what Microsoft is really doing.
P.S. SanDisk lied. According to Engadget there is no evidence of a microSD slot.
Software:
Right off the bat we’re going to point out that both devices are being marketed as Windows Phones, and while they are built off of a Windows Phone 7 core, in retrospect they are completely different OSs. Jumping straight into the user-interface you’ll notice the heavy social media integration. And unlike previous social aggregation skins such as Motorola’s MotoBlur, the Kin OS can be seen as one giant social aggregator with an OS baked in between.
Despite the Kin’s somewhat unprepossessing design on the hardware front, the overall user-interface offers well… a rather interesting look into the world of social media. Borrowing from its bigger brother (i.e. Windows Phone 7) the Kin OS makes use of a blocky like interface. Within this Microsoft developed two unique features, simply naming them “Spot” and “Loop.”
- Loop is similar to that of a homescreen, pulling in social content from your friend’s Twitter, Facebook and well yeah, you see where this is headed. Unlike other social aggregators, Loop classes friends by priority so status updates from close friends (or those interacted with the most) are pushed to the top.
- Spot is an ever-present omnipotent green dot at the bottom of the screen where you can drag content. Put simply its like an attach button, allowing the user to attach just about any content whether it be maps, images, status updates or videos.
So you may be thinking that the user-interface is new and different, but what about applications? Well, to settle your qualms neither device has support for third party applications. Disappointing yes; but as to be expected the induction of third party apps “could” potentially result in competition between Microsoft’s new flagship OS (a la Windows Phone 7).
Both phones currently have full support for Zune music and video (but not Zune gaming); and as to be expected the Zune interface is similar to that of the Zune HD. Soliciting several Zune HD features, both Kin devices are rumoured to implement a custom browser built from the much loved Zune HD browser.
Wrap-up:
By now you’ve probably developed your own opinion on Microsoft’s Kin One and Two so we won’t try and wow you in our conclusion; just remember, whether you love them or hate them these devices will be interesting to watch.
