You may not have heard of E28, but they have something particularly rare on show at the Mobile World Congress: a current, off-the-shelf handset that’s running Google’s Android cellphone platform. I stopped by to shoot some video and find out exactly how well the Android OS works, away from reference designs and hardware test-beds; remember, this is basically E28’s E2831 quadband GSM smartphone, with WiFi, a 2.2-inch QVGA touchscreen and 1.3-megapixel camera, entirely stock aside from the OS. The good news? Android works pretty damn well indeed.

What makes this particularly interesting is the specs of the E2831: it uses a relatively old OMAP TI 730 chipset, running at just 200MHz, and has a mere 64MB RAM and 64MB ROM. Android runs with no modifications, and the E28 team were even able to download applications coded for the platform from the internet and install them directly to the handset. This, then, is some of that unlocked, open-source simplicity we were promised when the platform was first announced. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muIqc7TP1bs[/youtube]

Qualcomm have demonstrated an Android prototype cellphone capable of playing Quake, and PHONE Magazine have the video of it in action! The device, which uses Qualcomm's 3D hardware graphics acceleration to give 30fps VGA gaming, is intended to demonstrate the potential for gaming and GUI design on the Android platform.

Just when you thought Android is boring, recently announced are six new games to help you make it through your boring day. These games include Wi-Fi Army, SpaceBugs, Parallel Kingdom, and Monolith Android. They're still pretty early in development but by the time Android is released to the world, I'm pretty sure they're going to be all polished up. [Via PHONE Magzine]

Vincent attended the AT&T Media lunch where Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T discussed the company's plans to collaborate with Google in producing handsets running the open-source Android OS. In discussing upcoming handsets, de la Vega revealed that, following demonstrations of Android prototypes and discussion with the Google team behind the platform, he was convinced to one day include cellphones based on it in AT&T's range.

"What I'm saying is I like it a lot more than before ... We're now looking to see when it's ready to be developed. Now I'm in the camp where I'm positive that it's something I'd want in our portfolio" Ralph de la Vega today, president and CEO, AT&T

According to de la Vega, one of the key positive points of Android is the flexibility handset manufacturers and carriers have in customizing the OS, leading to the possibility of an AT&T branded cellphone that runs the Google platform but is unique in its appearance. Google has always maintained that it will not limit Android handset to its own suite of mobile apps, but allow developers to add to, edit or replace them with their own preference. Current partners to the Open Handset Alliance have verbally agreed not to modify the OS to the point that applications coded for it will not run on other Android-based devices; it is unclear what affect, if any, AT&T's intentions will have on this. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdTzQ4cqq0c[/youtube] [Via AT&T in talks with Google for upcoming Android handsets - PHONE Magazine]