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We’re not quite sure what to make of this just yet, but here it is anyway: there’s an official CyanogenMod phone coming, and it’s going to be unlike anything else on the market right now. Trusted sources have revealed to Phandroid that the smartphone will house a mysterious 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapragon “8974AC” processor, which would indicate it’s only a slight bump from the MSM8974AB (Snapdragon 800 family) that currently pushes 2.4GHz of power (which is already sitting inside upcoming smartphones such as the Xiaomi MI3).
The phone “Steve” always wanted?
So what’s the deal with this thing? Sources revealed to Phandroid that the phone in question won’t be like the Oppo N1 — that is, it won’t just be a phone that officially supports installing CyanogenMod. No, this mystery phone has actually been designed specifically with CyanogenMod in mind.
What does that mean in the grand scheme of things? Well, for one, it means it’s going to be the device that Steve Kondik has always wanted to build. It’ll be nice to see the dream phone of one of the scene’s biggest developers come to reality. It also means that you can expect the beast that is CyanogenMod to work seamlessly and near-flawlessly, because the two were literally made for each other.
It takes two to tango
So just who will this phone be made by? Some would probably guess Oppo, considering that was the first big company to publicly do business with Cyanogen Inc by making it easy to install on the Oppo N1 (there’s even a special edition of the phone that comes with CyanogenMod pre-installed). That might not be the case when it comes time for the details to flow in, though. We’re hearing from sources that Oppo might not be the OEM involved in this huge undertaking.
Where do we go from here? Perhaps this report from Chinese outlet Yesky could help shed some light. A recent report by the publication suggests a smartphone dubbed the “ELIFE E7” will soon be launching (the photo below is the ELIFE E6), and would launch with the very same Snapdragon 8974AC processor that we mentioned above.
A bit of sleuthing reveals that the ELIFE series is made by Chinese manufacturer Gionee, who has a pretty long track record in the smartphone game despite not being well known.
A quick stroll through Chinese social network Weibo reveals the profile of Gionee CEO Lu Wei Bing, who couldn’t help teasing the E7 and its Snapdragon 8974AC processor. Gionee’s corporate profile also saw fit to do the same, with the following rough translation being thrown out there:
E7 uses the CPU is Qualcomm 8974AC, small partners, you guessed it yet?
Small partners, eh? Could mean something. Could mean nothing. You never know with these translations. Nevertheless, it’s interesting.
Like Xiaomi, Gionee is aiming to be another one of those companies looking to break out of the Chinese market and become one of the big boys by taking on the likes of Samsung, HTC and more. Aspirations are one thing, but to actually work toward achieving those goals is another — such a move could be the big step they need to become what we’d call “the next Oppo.”
That these two reports have come out in such close proximity might not be mere coincidence — it could be the connection we’re looking for to figure out the who, the what, the when, the where and all the rest of those W’s. Of course, it could very well end up being Oppo (which would make the most sense under current circumstances).
Either way, one thing is for sure — a CyanogenMod phone is coming, and it’ll be sure to make some waves in the smartphone game. We’re still digging for more, folks, and we wouldn’t be surprised if more and more information about this starts to trickle out more rapidly in the weeks to come. Stay tuned!
I bet they will launch there own app store instead of getting a Play store license. Hard sell without Google apps. I guess you they will be able to sideload them…we will see
They already let you install the gapps and they could make it a painless install with their new installer that is out.
Wouldn’t this mean users will have root access to begin with since you require root to insert those particular files necessary?
What I’m assuming is what if they have a temp root for the function, then have “root the device” under the developer options, which require the little cheat to reveal? That would be nice.
you don’t need root to flash a custom recovery which is what you need to flash zips like gapps. just need an unlocked bootloader and that is already supported in the cyanogenmod installer.
I wonder how big is the Chinese custom ROM scene?
The western world did create Miui so pretty probably pretty big.
Yeah but that’s closed source.
You mean the Western world embraced it right?
MIUI was developed by Xiaomi and they provide updates and participate in its worldwide porting along with independent devs.
That’s a good question. Any readers in Asia?
Ok … Better question would be if it is coming to Canada or US?
So what’s the principal difference between this and any other Android OEM, who do their own skins and apps?
Frankly, I like them more when they were talking about CM on every major phone. This one is destined (read “doomed”) to be another Facebook phone.
Updates, updates, updates. That is the difference between all manufacturers and CM.
Including Nexus which only gives you 2 years and then you might as well be on touchwiz.
This is true. CM has made it to a lot of old school devices. That means you can see updates on older devices be on par with iOS devices. Also, I hope they do come out.
If CM can do good and get their device out there, this may push other OEM’s to update their devices beyond 2 years. This is amazing.
If that phone really comes out!!! I would respect/love it as much as i do a NEXUS product…
2.5ghz?…port pcsx2 to it.a 2ghz machine can run ps2 emulator,phones have officially reached laptop status.
Hate to say it. But you’re comparing apples and oranges here.
The architecture between laptops and ARM based devices is quite difference (CISC vs RISC). While ARM based SoCs are getting really powerful, they still don’t have the raw compute power of today’s laptops.
*patiently waiting for them to*
I can see the day happening. People will be complaining that they’re board and have no more GameCube emulators they want to play on their phones.
wonder whether BT will work? or the GPS or the camera… just sayin.
With the proper blobs, it will all work. Don’t blame CM for not having access to proprietary blobs from Sammy, HTC etc.
Lol! :)
Touche
You already said what you said, so you don’t have to add “just sayin”. just sayin.
Can’t wait to activate one on my VZW unlimited data plan.
Ha. I just went from a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU to a 2.3 GHz quad-core one.
They keep upping those frequencies, memory bandwidth, and other things. Gotta love progress.
That was the cool thing about being on a contract. I went from a E4GT (GS2) to the HTC One. I was like “WTF!? This is AMAZING!!” LoL!!
Everything just got tremendously better.
Yeah, I had an even larger jump back in 2011. I went from a single core 528 MHz ARMv6 with 288MB of RAM and a 3.2 inch screen (HTC Hero), to a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARMv7 with 1GB of RAM and a 4.3 inch screen (EVO 3D).
That was a monstrous upgrade. When I got my EVO 3D, it was for the specifications, not the 3D, and boy did those specifications blow me away coming from that HTC Hero.
I’ll pass……that’s all…..
If it is in fact the “ELIFE E7″ I hope it’s not a blatant iClone like the E6.