The upcoming W3D gaming smartphone by Snail isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen before. It’s pretty much a cross between an Android phone, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. It runs on Android, has a 3D screen similar to the 3DS, and gamepad controls like the Vita, making it one hell of a portable gaming device (that’s also a phone).
It uses Android 4.4 KitKat as its base (though it could be upgradeable to 5.0 Lollipop when released), has a gorgeous 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 2.2GHz octa-core MTK6595 processor, 16GB internal storage, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera, 4,000mAh battery, stereo output, and works for both 4G LTE and CDMA networks. It also has a microSD slot, two SIM card slots, and two Micro-USB ports.
The W3D will come stock with a Snail launcher, but since it’s Android, you can use pretty much any Android launcher you want. But the real killer is its eye-tracking, glasses-free 3D technology. Yes, it’s pretty much like the tech found on Amazon’s Fire Phone, but the application is much better.
The one thing yet unknown are what games will be available for the W3D, since it’s a small market for developers to adapt their games for. At CES 2015, I wasn’t even able to test out any games, since the prototypes were running a simple preview mode, but it will come bundled with some Snail-developed games to start with. Plus, it features button-mapping technology, so you can play many of your favorite Android games by configuring the physical gamepad with the on-screen buttons.
It’s said that it will be released in China after a couple of months, with a possible release in the United States in the second quarter of 2015. Pricing is not available at this time.
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