FreeRunner first impressions

OpenMoko's FreeRunner went on sale on July 3. I ordered early that day and my FreeRunner arrived today.

This is the only product I've ever felt compelled to take unboxing photos of:

Click for FreeRunner unboxing photos

First of all, this thing is a lot tinier than I was expecting. It is not significantly larger or heavier than my current phone, a Razr. I suppose I should not be surprised because the last smaller-than-laptop device I purchased was a PDA back in the year 2001 or so. (I've never insisted on being at the cutting edge of mobile technology.)

The texture is a lot like that on the outside of a Thinkpad.

I haven't had much time to play with it except for charging it up and making a phone call (which worked, well). The screen is amazing, by the way— higher resolution than that of pretty much any other phone-like or PDA-like device you can buy today.

The software utilities that come with the phone are still in a state of churn, and it is not yet in a state where it can exercise all parts of the hardware reliably (GPS, etc.). As far as I am concerned, none of these things are deal-breakers. If you want to make the phone the best thing it can be, you had better start by removing all the man-made problems so people can work on solving real problems. I wanted a phone with freedom, and that's what I am getting.

One of my favorite things about OpenMoko is the people and the community spirit. You can really tell that this is not only a different kind of phone but also a different kind of company. Witness this exchange from the last week:

Michael <simarillion>: can somebody tell me if I will lose my warranty when I open my Freerunner.
Sean Moss-Pultz <sean@openmoko.com>: [...] Do you really think we could get away with that kind of policy?! This is Openmoko. If you don't open your Neo, you should probably have your warranty voided ;-)