General Mobile DSTL1

We just received a note from cell phone manufacturer General Mobile telling us that it plans on showing off the world’s first dual-SIM capable Android powered phone at the 2009 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next month.

The phone, called the DSTL1, is shown in a few renderings in the gallery below.  Astute readers will note that the button configuration on the phone, as shown, won’t fly for Android.  Android phones currently need 5 hardware buttons in order to work (home, back, menu, call send, call end).  General Mobile says that the front of the phone will change from what is shown in the renderings in order to accommodate Android.  But I’m also a bit worried about the display, which is said to be a 400×240 pixel unit manufactured by Sharp.

The potential issue is that if the Kogan Agora’s 320×240 pixel display didn’t offer enough resolution to run future Android apps reliably, will 400×240 be all that much better?  We’ll see.  For its part, General Mobile has told me that if the display proves to be a problem, it will increase its resolution.

Lastly, I was told to expect the device to ship during Q3 of this year.

Current specs (which are not the same pre-Android ones as those listed on the company’s website) and photo gallery after the jump:

The specs as they stand today are as follows:

• Dual-SIM cards with dual-Standby mode
• 624MHz Marvell PXA 310 processor
• Tri-band GSM/EDGE support (900/1800/1900MHz)
• 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, 260k colors
• 802.11b/g WiFi support
• Bluetooth
• 135g (4.75oz), 112 x 54 x 16mm (4.4 x 2.1 x .6 inches)
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (made by Sony)