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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.

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2008 Sebastien St-Laurent

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DIY SmartPhone

My second project (which is intended to run in parallel with my Home Automation project) is the design and implementation of my own cell phone. I know, this project may seem somewhat redundant since there is a good selection of devices our there but the project is came to me with a few realization on my end.

  • No cell phone (or smart phone) really has the features I want. Personally, I don't care for these low-quality cameras but yet a GPS feature could come in handy. At the same time, I would rather have something that is more somewhere closer an UMPC than a slim cell phone such as a RAZR.
  • Are we overpaying for cellphones? When you look at it, and disregard cellular provider discounts, the high-end smartphones are in the $600+ range. Which seems like alot to me. So another part of my project is to determine if a DIY project could be done for a comparable or smaller price tag.

Main Goal

The main design goal is to create a DIY smartphone which emcompases the features that I want and remove the features that I don't. Below is a rough brainstorm of the requirements for my smartphone:

  • Large touch screen. At least 3.5", maybe more depending on cost 
  • Usable keboard. I still don't understand the miscroscopic keys on some of the phones out there 
  • Built-in GPS 
  • Take out common features which I could not care less for (such as these low quality cameras) 
  • Form factor is not as much of an issue. I would prefer something a little bigger along the lines of an UMPC. 

Project Progress