CES 2017- Meet GraalPhone, the 4-in-1 device

Jan 5th update - as Sascha Segan from TheVerge found out from a sitdown with Raoul Parienti (the man behind GraalPhone), the device is trying to get the attention from a manufacturer that could produce it, which might not happen at all.
Specs are not carved in stone, when Sascha noticed (as I did, too, see below) that Snapdragon 835 can hold it's own with Windows 10 Raoul said that the Intel Atom SoC can be scrapped - just like that.
We did learn that the the battery could be ~3000mAh, but take that with a grain of salt also.

Original post below...

Everyone's attention is now focused on CES 2017 which will set the trend for this years's gadgets.

Sometimes devices are leaked ahead of the CES and one particular device did caught my eye - the Graalphone .
I'm not sold on the brand name, and if you judge it just by the name you'd think it's just a phone - but the GraalPhone it's much more than that.
If you come here regularly you know that I'm a big fan of multi-purpose devices - and this one is a Mini PC, a phone, a tablet and a 3D camera (with optical zoom), so what you could possibly want more?

I can see what the French company intends to do here - most phones can take pictures and let you send and receive emails, but you might get frustrated with the fact that the pictures might not be as good as you want or that for answering an important email (or writing a blog post) you might wait until you get home to an actual computer.
So they want to give you the "actual computer" feeling on a device you can carry with you. Not bad!

Remember all those popular tablets powered by Intel Atom and with Windows 10 that got launched last year? This one will have a full keyboard, HD screen and a stylus (yes, using Windows 10 on smaller screens is a challenge).
And if you see something worth remembering, you can simply pop out the camera and use that 5X optical zoom to get a better view.
And when you're done you can simply put the phone back in it's slot and have everything packed nice and tidy.

Graalphone full specs

  • Tablet : 7", Intel Atom SoC, 4GB of RAM, 256 GB ROM, USB 3.0, HDMI, stylus, auto-stereoscopic display (3D), SD Card, Windows 10
  • Mini PC : tablet above with a handy keyboard
  • Smartphone : 5", Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC (most likely 835), 8GB of RAM, 256GB ROM (shared with the tablet), Dual-Sim, Android
  • Camera : HD, 5x optical zoom, LED flash, fixed focal length

While the exact SoC's used are not mentioned in any of the marketing materials, having both Android and Windows is kinda weird, especially since Snapdragon 835 (if they will use it) is perfectly capable of running Windows 10.
What's nice to see is a phone without that annoying front-faced camera which very few people actually need or use (except maybe schoolgirls)- and if they make it to look even remotely simular to the Photoshop rendering in the marketing materials (ie: no bezels) the phone will be quite attractive on it's own.

GraalPhone 4-in-one MiniPC GraalPhone 4-in-one MiniPC GraalPhone 4-in-one phone GraalPhone 4-in-one phone GraalPhone 4-in-one slide GraalPhone 4-in-one tablet

I'm still not a fan of the "Graalphone" brandname - I mean, if you promote this device as 4-in-1 in every marketing material, wouldn't make sense to NOT have the name ending in "-phone"?
If folks at Graalphone are reading this - guys, there's got to be a better brand name that could catch the essence of your multi-use product - on the top of my head I can find a few much better ones - even simply "Graal" or "GraalPC" would be better imho.

If this caught your interest and you're at CES you can pay them a visit at Eureka Park Marketplace in Hall G, Booth #50831 at the Sands Expo Center.
Or you can wait for the device to hit the market, which should be in a few months (2 to 11, to be exact, depends on who you ask) - one marketing material claims the device is in " in its final stages of production" while another says it will be ready closer to the end of the year.

Price? you better not ask :-)
There are no details on pricing yet but the high-end Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ SoC with 8GB or RAM plus another Intel Atom SoC with 4GB of RAM are a clue - anything between $900-1500 will be my guess.
There are many key details that are yet to be discovered, like how big the batteries are (and just how many hours you can use the tablet or smartphone), hopefully we'll find more from CES.