• Tweet
• Email

Qualcomm is continuing to show off its new Snapdragon CPU, and last night I got to play with a prototype touchscreen tablet-style netbook the company is using to demonstrate the chip’s capabilities. The device in the pictures is just a prototype and may never actually come to market. But it was a working prototype, so I shot some video, which you can see below.

The Snapdragon platform features an ARM-based CPU designed to optimize battery life and provide access to WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, and other wireless networks. Qualcomm says they’re shooting for “all day battery life,” which means 8 hours. The reps at the Qualcomm booth wouldn’t tell me how long the battery in the prototype lasts because… well, because it’s just a prototype. Apparently it didn’t even have a working battery until a week ago.

There are two versions of the Snapdragon platform, a single core 1GHz chip and a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU. Both are capable of decoding HD video, with the 1GHz chip able to handle 720p video, and the dual core processor handling 1080p. There are also several different chipsets, with support for a variety of wireless networking protocols including Edge, GPRS, GSM, HSPA, CDMA2000, and EV-DO.

Check out the video of the prototype netbook running a version of Linux developed by RedFlag after the break.