I got to use the device briefly at International in Las Vegas, following a thorough demonstration of the device by Pankaj Kedia, 's director of global programs for smartphones. Although exact specs haven't been released yet, it looks to be about 6 inches long and 2.5 inches wide, making it longer than any smartphone I've seen or used before.

As smartphones go, it felt heavy to me, but Kedia didn't offer the actual weight. The capacitative touchscreen was instantly responsive to my touches and movements, certainly matching the ability of the popular iPhone.

Notably, the GW990 will run on the second-generation Atom-based Moorestown processor. Kedia said Moorestown will help support 720p high-definition video in 3D on the phone's 4.8-inch diagonal screen. (It's not quite five inches as some reports have indicated.)

The resolution is 1024 pixels by 480 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 2.13 to 1, which gave a striking image when I played a video clip from the movie Avatar . Kedia showed how the phone, when used in landscape mode, can be a suitable movie player.

With a quick adjustment, he also showed how the phone could run the movie in a square image covering a third of the screen; the next third showed an e-mail box; and next to that on the screen was a display showing a phone call in progress.