Lightning, Thunder, Smoke and Flash – Gladiators, ready!
The Dell Lightning - cracking
Dell has supposedly leaked four new smartphones from its upcoming line – the Smoke, Flash, Thunder and Lightning.
These were from an apparently leaked internal Dell presentation, and show mock ups of the potential phones, so we don't know if it's strictly all real.
Lightning strikes
The Lightning appears to be the pick of the bunch, with all the mandatory high end Windows Phone 7 specs necessary to let it be part of that camp.
That means a huge 4.1-inch WVGA OLED display, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a 5MP camera and here's the best bit: full flash support.
Coming out in Q4, does this mean we could see other WP7 devices with Flash integrated? We certainly hope so.
When the Thunder calls you
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The Thunder is the Android version of the Lightning, coming with some very similar specs, with a 4.1-inch OLED screen and an even better 8MP camera – along with the latest 2.2 Froyo version of Android.
However, we're still waiting to hear which processor this model has - we'd be surprised if it wasn't a 1GHz Snapdragon given how similar it is to the Lightning.
It will also feature some nice social networking (read Twitter and Facebook) integration, and Flash 10.1 looks likely too. This is supposed to also hit in Q4 this year, hopefully as a joint release.
Flash – boom – aaa-aaah
The Flash is another Android device, also taking the 2.2 Froyo route – but with a slightly lighter spec sheet.
Still using Qualcomm, this one has an 800MHz MSM7230 core, but more importantly it's hewn out of glass (not all of it, just the chassis) and is just 11mm thick. It will support microSD cards up to 64GB apparently, and pack a 3.5-inch WVGA LCD screen with TV-out socket too, with a mooted Q1 2011 UK release date.
Smokin'
And saving the weirdest to last: the Smoke. We're still on the Android tip here, but this one is weird: a candybar design with 2.8-inch QVGA screen and a full, portrait, QWERTY keyboard. Yup, and as you can see it's as weird as you'd think.
It has the same processor as the Flash in the shape of the 800Mhz MSM7230, and the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS spec list we're used to with Android phones – plus a 5MP camera with autofocus.
While we're all for new designs, given this one's been pegged for a released in Q2 2011, we've got quite a while for someone within Dell to look at the Smoke and go: 'Actually, nah, let's leave this one. Who wants soup?'
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.
