Dual-boot tablets and laptops are rare enough, but an OS-switching smartphone is basically unheard of--until now. Geeksphone recently announced a new smartphone called Revolution, which allows users to switch between Android and Firefox OS.
Geeksphone is a small Spanish company that has been doing some very interesting things of late. So far, the company only offers a few smartphones, but it often comes up with interesting concepts such as the Blackphone, which Geeksphone plans to announce at MWC 2014 and their new OS-switching smartphone called Revolution.
The Revolution features both Mozilla's Firefox OS and Google's Android OS, so that users can choose which one they want to use. The company's first smartphone was powered by Firefox OS, so the company has a certain fondness for the open-source OS. Firefox OS is much more popular in Europe than it is in the United States, but even so, it's not nearly as popular as Android. Geeksphone added Android to the Revolution in hopes of attracting more customers.
Since most Firefox OS smartphones are mid-to-low-end devices, the Revolution is something of a high-end Firefox-based smartphone with its 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor and 1 GB of RAM. The Revolution also features an incredible 4.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. That's the kind of display you'd find on almost any respectable, high-end smartphone.
Geeksphone included just 4 GB of storage on the Revolution, though, but thankfully, the company added a micro SD card slot, so that users can expand the memory up to 32 GB. The Revolution comes with an 8-megapixel back camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, as well. The Revolution's 2000 mAh battery should keep things moving for a good chunk of time. The smartphone has an accelerometer, light and proximity detector and electronic compass, too.
Unfortunately, the Revolution only has 3G onboard, which uses HSPA, HSDPA and WCDMA standards. Nonetheless, for what it is, the Revolution is a very good smartphone, especially at that price of $327. The Geeksphone Revolution will go on sale at stores in Europe on Feb. 20. Those who are interested will also have a chance to preorder the phone for a discounted price of $304 from the online store. It is unknown whether the Revolution will spread outside of Europe, but the odds are starkly against it ever making its way to the United States.
