Everyone is waiting for Motorola to finally start dealing a few Android-powered handsets and it looks like we’re now a big step closer to seeing one of its first offerings. Hardly the most interesting Moto/Android phone we’ve been privy to, the Morrison is shaping up to be a budget-friendly Android phone aimed at the younger, message-hungry tweenish demo. Apparently this little guy’s guts are sound as the FCC has just cleared it for takeoff, though we still don’t know when Moto will finally push it out. Known specs include quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G (including AWS/1700MHz for T-Mobile), a camera with video capture support, stereo Bluetooth, multimedia player and voice control. We’ve already commented on how much we love the color scheme but even that likely won’t be enough to hold our attention for more than a few hours at best. We’re not worried though, and you shouldn’t be either — trust, Moto has some sexy Android kit coming down the pipe in the near future.
As Apple’s effort to launch the iPhone in China continues, it looks like Nokia’s ever popular 5800 XpressMusic may find its way there first. This new version of the handset, dubbed 5800i, has just cleared the FCC with specs that are nearly identical to the 5800, at least from what we can tell. The 5800i rocks WCDMA 900/2100MHz alongside quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, which lines up nicely with China Unicom. Oh, and then there’s the fact that the label is in Chinese. As for the rest of the specs, we’ll have to wait and see — though the 5800i does in fact have Wi-Fi as opposed to the China-bound iPhone. It would be interesting however, if this turned out to be the capacitive screen-rocking 5800 refresh that rattled around the rumor mill a few months ago. Unlikely, yes, but interesting. Hit the jump for more shots.
LG today has officially revealed its next Chocolate phone LG BL40. The fourth handset of the Black Label Series boasts a 4.0-inch wide screen high-definition LCD with an 800 by 345 pixel resolution, enable 21:9 aspect ratio support for video viewing. The 4.0-inch display also features a Dual Screen UI that can efficiently display two different types of content simultaneously.
The new LG Chocolate’s wide screen is overlaid with curved tempered glass and is seamlessly encased in a glossy black finish and iconic red highlights. The new LG Chocolate will be available beginning Q3 in 54 countries.
Today announcement did not include a shorter version of LG BL40, which was leaked 2 weeks ago as LG BL42
LG will soon introduce another entry-level candybar phone namely the LG GB109. Targeted towards customers who need cheap, basic handsets, the GB109 offers a 1.5-inch CSTN display with 65K colors, a stereo FM radio, an organizer and a 950 mAh battery that lasts up to 6 hours in talk-time or up to 440 hours in stand-by time. The phone will be available in Ukraine starting next month for 389 UAH (about $148). [Mobile-review via Unwiredview]
AT&T is set to launch another mid-end touchscreen phone from Samsung namely the Samsung Solstice A887, formerly known as the Infinity. Some of the specs you’ll find within this new handset include a 3.0-inch QVGA full touchscreen display, a full touch QWERTY keypad, a 2MP camera with video recording, a microSD card slot, A-GPS with AT&T navigator, IM, Bluetooth and supports both quad band GSM connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) as well as dual band UMTS/HSDPA connectivity (850/1900 MHz). The Samsung Solstice A887 will be available for purchase starting from August 2nd for just $99.99 (with a 2-year contract agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate). [BGR]
Sure, the Touch Pro2 from HTC is available from a variety of carriers around the world at this point -- but you won't find many (read: none) that are offering it in the US right now, which makes T-Mobile's launch especially notable. As expected, it'll be hitting on August 12, bringing a 3.2 megapixel camera, AWS 3G, GPS, a glorious 3.6-inch WVGA display, WiFi, and that unique Straight Talk tech that should make the phone one of the best speakerphones you've ever used (frequent conference callers, take note). Pricing hasn't been announced, but expect it in the lovely shade pictures above, which is being termed 'mocha' (your choice of vocabulary may vary).
Here we were, just minding our own business and thinking that the Samsung Link was going to be christened by Bell, then bam -- out of nowhere, Virgin goes and steals some thunder. If you're looking for EV-DO, go ahead and keep right on lookin' because you're not going to find it here -- but otherwise, the Link offers portrait QWERTY on the cheap alongside a 1.3 megapixel cam, microSD slot, and stereo Bluetooth. If you like what you see, you can go ahead and grab it now for CAD $99.99 (about $92) on prepaid or CAD $29.99 (about $28) on a three-year deal. Sorry, Bell guys -- it's coming soon. We think.
Update: As comenter live_strong points out, Bell's bought out the remainder of Virgin Mobile Canada that it didn't already own -- so this is all making a whole lot of sense, though as far as we can tell, customers who are on the Bell branded service still won't be able to get in on the Link just yet.
Here are two leaked pictures of the upcoming LG BL40 Chocolate phone. The LG BL40 boasts a 21:9 ratio wide touchscreen display with LG’s S-Class user interface, a 5-megapixel camera, WiFi and FM radio receiver.
Novero has unveiled TheFirstOne, a Bluetooth headset with dual-mic noise-canceling and one-touch controls for dialing or conferencing in a third party. It comes with a bunch of accessories, including a desk stand, a charging cradle that keeps the headset close by when driving, and a necklace and wearable clip.
TheFirstOne comes in lily-white with silver accents, and can automatically pair with handsets that are turned on and within range. The headset lasts for 4.5 hours on a single call and offers 100 hours of standby when not in use.
TheFirstOne will cost $149 at launch, which is $20 higher than both the Plantronics Voyager Pro (our current Editors' Choice) and the Aliph Jawbone PRIME, the two best headsets on the market today. It does come with more accessories than those two, but still, this thing had better perform well. There's no release date yet.
So close, guys, but no cigar! Last time Nokia ran an unannounced model for AT&T through the FCC -- the yet-to-be-released 6750 Mural -- it remembered to blot out the carrier's silkscreened logos but not the giveaway CV logo on the keypad. This time, it remembered to blot out both the keypad and the logos in the external photo documentation, but not in the SAR setup files (pictured above). Of course, with 3G on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, we pretty much could've gathered that AT&T was a likely target with or without the visual confirmation -- but still, amateur mistake. Beyond the carrier, we don't know much about the phone -- but it's definitely not S60-based, it's got some form of four-digit number assigned to it (it's identified as 'XXXX' in the manual), and a dedicated Telenav button guarantees that GPS will factor prominently into its selling points.
LG Electronics today released its new 2G clamshell phone in the Korean market. Known as the Whistle, the handset is powered by four different colors including white, dark navy, hot pink and sky blue. The Whistle cell phone boasts 115 LED lights on the front panel to create users’ own emoticon designs. Other features included a car diary function, and an automatic international roaming service in 18 countries. The phone is now available for 400,000 Won($319) via LG Telecom. [AVING]
The folks at RIM have finally announced the BlackBerry Curve 8520, where this smartphone will be making its debut at T-Mobile USA and Vodafone UK sometime next month. The BlackBerry 8520 is tipped to be RIM’s latest attempt at luring in the average consumer to its line of smartphones by featuring an extremely budget-friendly price. Word has it that Vodafone UK subscribers will be able to bring the smartphone home without forking out a single cent, assuming they settle for a new contract with a £25 or more monthly plan. Folks living across the Atlantic, however, will have to wait for some time before pricing details become apparent. Would you be picking it up if you're hankering after a pocket-friendly BlackBerry?
Is there such a thing as a perfect clone when it comes to gizmos and gadgets? Perhaps, but this Sony Ericsson W995 wannabe is definitely not one of them since the Sony Ericsson label was not printed above the display as found on the original. It does retain the physical look though, where it ships with a couple of loudspeakers, a 2.6' display, dual SIM capability (is it us, or does it seem as though most dual SIM phones are clones?), an integrated FM radio and Bluetooth connectivity. Expect to fork out around $103 for this.
When we sit back and think of the coolest and most popular handsets on the market names like Apple and RIM typically jump to mind, but not Samsung. Samsung is working to change that though and is looking to field a range of Android-powered devices and other phones to woo customers to buy its wares.
GSM Arena has its hands on a pre-release sample of the Samsung B7610 Omnia Pro handset. The slider phone is a PocketPC running Windows Mobile 6.1. The device has a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 1GB of storage, 256MB of RAM and a hot-swappable microSD card slot. The CPU is an 800MHz unit with a dedicated GPU.
Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and VGA video recording at 30fps. The phone also has an integrated accelerometer to rotate the screen for landscape or portrait modes and a turn-to-mute feature. An FM tuner is also built-in. Pricing and availability are unknown.
Well T-Mobile subscribers, we wish we had more exciting news for you but alas… Win some, lose some. Pictured above is the upcoming Samsung Scarlet, a skinny feature phone that, despite the category name, is a bit light when it comes to features. Spec highlights include Bluetooth + EDR, a 2 megapixel camera, quad-band GSM, dual-band WCDMA 1700/2100, an MP3 player and a MicroSD card slot. It’s launch was reportedly pushed back to accommodate the Gravity 2 and, well, whatever. The good news we suppose, is the younger generation will now get some 3G love as well — hooray for radiation! Hit the jump for another shot.
At a glance, Samsung's recently-announced Omnia Pro B7610 seems like a sweet hunk of Windows Mobile love -- especially if you're cross-shopping it with the Touch Pro2 -- but is there more than meets the eye? GSMArena recently put a prerelease unit through its paces, and it's not a perfect situation by any stretch; first off, apparently not very pretty in the flesh, owing in part to its girth and in part to the weird red battery cover. The resistive touchscreen isn't great and the OLED display washes out in sunlight (as they typically do), but on the plus side, the QWERTY keyboard is said to be stellar and it seems that Sammy's done a great job of completely concealing WinMo 6.1's sad, sagging skin with TouchWiz. In the final analysis, the site concludes that the phone easily matches the high bar set by the Touch Pro2 -- strong words considering HTC's market dominance and the fact that we're still looking at a prototype Omnia Pro here, so this should get even more interesting.
Garmin-Asus has finally and officially released its Nuvifone G60 phone. The G60 will be available in Taiwan on July 27, 2009. Meanwhile, the phone will be also released in Singapore and Malaysia in August 2009. Also in August, Garmin-Asus will launch the Windows Mobile Nuvifone M20 smartphone in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. There is no info on pricing of these handsets. Both the G60 and the M20 will be launched in Europe later this year. The Nuvifone G60 will be available in the States before the end of 2009.
Philips has added a new member to its Xenium series with the introduction of Philips X650. This new slider phone sports a 2.4-inch TFT LCD display with 240 x 320 resolution and 262K colors, a 3.2MP autofocus camera, an FM radio, a 30MB internal memory, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, a USB port and comes with an impressive battery lifetime that lasts up to 8 hours in talk-time, or up to one month in stand-by mode. The phone also supports Tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) connectivity with GPRS. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing and availability yet.
Apart from the Zune HD, the impressive Nvidia Tegra chip is confirmed to be headed for use on smartphones with the earliest release date scheduled for Q4 of 2009. True to this report, Samsung has just disclosed that they are indeed working on a Tegra-based phone albeit keeping mum on its other specs and features. Likewise, since there’s very limited available info at the moment, we’re not exactly sure if they’ll actually be the first to release a Tegra-powered smartphone in the market this year, but as far as the record books are concerned, they are the first to officially admit it which is good enough in our books.
Motorola is the other company said to be working on a Tegra smartphone, but we’ve yet to get confirmation on this.
China's ZTE is still sticking to the low end in North America, but in its home country, the manufacturer is a huge player. Evidence of that lies strewn about ZTE's booth at Wireless Japan this week, where it's showing a pair of WinMo devices plus a Linux-based model that look ripe to compete with some of the best in the world. First up, the RAISE and XIANG do WinMo and HSPA for China Unicom's Wo network, rocking 5 and 3.2 megapixel cameras, respectively. The D820 reps the open-source world (though we're not sure what kind of Linux distro is running on it -- it's not Android, if we had to guess) and runs CDMA with WiFi, GPS, and a 2 megapixel camera. We're not sure if ZTE is using phones like these as warmups for more global launches, but given what we're seeing here -- and the low price points they're likely looking to hit -- we're all for it.
By Sean Captain - Several years on, LG's special twist on the clamshell phone is still going strong. As always, messaging fiends can fold the latest enV open to reveal a roomy keypad and now enjoy a large (three-inch) internal screen with a generous 800-by-480-pixel resolution. The phone now sports an equally spacious screen on the outside. In place of a keypad and mini LCD, this enV has a roomy full-frontal screen with - you guessed it - a touch interface. Unfortunately, it's the cheapo resistive-type that requires more of a firm press than a true iPhone- or Palm Pre-style touch.
If you like the LG GD910 watch phone, then check out the latest touchscreen watch phone from Samsung. Dubbed as the Samsung S9110, this wearable phone is able to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook. Measuring at just 11.98-mm thick, the Samsung S9110 is also touted as the world’s thinnest watch phone so far. The phone provides a 1.76-inch touchscreen display, Bluetooth integration, Voice Recognition, e-mail, speakerphone and a music player. The Samsung S9110 will be launched in France later this month for 450 Euro ($638). [fnnews]
Complete with full QWERTY keyboards, T9 predictive text and auto word completion, Samsung Mobile and T-Mobile USA today announced their latest text-friendly messaging phones.
The Samsung Comeback, available in pearl white plum or frost silver cherry, is a stylish messaging phone with a unique side-flip that reveals its full QWERTY keyboard. The Comeback takes messaging to the extreme with access to E-mail and text, picture, video and instant messaging. A built-in 2-megapixel camera with digital zoom and T-Mobile’s 3G network allows users to send pictures or upload images to their favorite social networking sites. The Comeback also features a MP3 player and support for up to 16 GB of expandable memory.
Similar to the Samsung Gravity that launched last year, the Samsung Gravity 2 also features a horizontal, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and boasts a thinner, sleeker design. The Gravity 2 offers a pair of fun color options - berry mauve and metallic pumpkin, multiple messaging capabilities, a 2-megapixel camera and camcorder, a built-in MP3 player and expandable memory up to 16GB.
The Samsung Comeback are currently available at T-Mobile, the Gravity 2 will be available in August.
Ever since we first messed around with an HTC Hero a few months back we’ve been dreaming about it. Unfortunately we weren’t able to snag one from HTC, but one of our ninjas came through and the one we got (no offense) is so much better — it’s the Teflon Don white version! Instead of that soft-touch rubberized coating, the white variation has a Teflon-based coating which apparently holds up better to nicks and scratches while providing a luxurious-feeling finish that’s pretty much fingerprint and smudge free. Because this isn’t a final device, there’s no box, but do we really care? Nope. While we bang through the review, bounce over to our gallery to check out some flicks!
Today has been a hell of a day for info and live shots of unannounced handsets and guess what… The trend continues. Above, we have our first glimpse of the upcoming HTC Click — a handset that definitely doesn’t put the ‘roid’ in Android, but it may open up some new doors for the young OS. We’re seemingly looking at a low to mid-range handset that could potentially be priced well below current Android offerings. As such, Android could find itself falling into the handsets of a completely new demographic; a step that may be necessary if Google’s OS is to substantially increase its market share any time soon. We’ve got nothing right now as far as specs go, save for a touchscreen and an odd pad/click wheel for navigation. Hopefully we’ll get more soon but in the meantime, hit the jump for another shot.
Samsung has recently announced that they will make available the Samsung Mondi to the masses - touted to be the most advanced Mobile WiMAX-enabled handheld device in the U.S. This touchscreen-enabled Mondi was specially designed to be used with the Clear Mobile WiMAX service from Clearwire that is readily available in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Portland, OR and future WiMAX markets. The Samsung Mondi is able to take full advantage of upload and download speeds which are twice as fast compared to devices running on 3G networks, all the while enjoying the widespread connectivity of Mobile WiMAX. Other features on the Mondi include Wi-Fi connectivity, a full QWERTY keyboard, multimedia features, GPS navigation with turn-by-turn instructions, Opera 9.5 and a 4.3' touchscreen display.
Feeling flush and heavy around the pockets, but have no idea on what to spend your hard earned money on? Well, just so that you can have bragging rights among your mates, the Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre luxury cellphone will be making its way to the rich and famous from next month onwards. Handcrafted in England, each handset will include ‘the optimum amount of carbon fibers and resin’ that were specially combined so that it can ‘achieve a flawless uniform look on both the flat and curved parts.’ Features aren't really out of this world, although you do seem to be able to pawn this for a handsome fee during harsh times. The Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre will reportedly come with a 2' QVGA display, 3G connectivity, 4GB memory and a 3.15-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Earlier this month, the first photos of the Rachael touch phone from Sony Ericsson surfaced. Expansys has published detailed (but partial) specifications of the handset under the XPERIA name, but with the photo of the device known as Rachael. Here are the highlights:
The specification don't mention the CPU speed, although it is believed that Sony Ericsson will use a 1Ghz SnapDragon processor. There's no word on things like graphics acceleration, but there's probably an OpenGL-compliant GPU in there. At this point, the price and release date are unknown, but'the fact that one can pre-order it would indicate that it is coming 'soon' (within the next 3 months).
Our friends living across the Atlantic will finally be able to get their hands on the Nokia 6760 Slide pretty soon. Somewhat similar to the Surge in terms of design, this new handset will feature the following specifications, so decide whether it is your cup of tea or not by checking it out below :-
Sliding QWERTY keyboard
Google Talk, Windows Live Instant Messaging, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace support
Symbian S60 operating system
2.4' QVGA display
A-GPS navigation
3.2-megapixel camera
2GB memory card included
Expect Nokia to price the 6760 Slide for €199 when it arrives in that part of the world in Q3 this year. You can only choose the black color model at this point in time, although the future will see red and white versions rolling out.
We do know that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 is already in the works, so here are more specifications and a newly leaked image of the upcoming handset for your perusal.
8.1-megapixel auto-focus, VGA video capture @ 30fps (MP4 HQ)
3.5' WVGA OLED display
GPS navigation
3.5mm audio jack
Built-in accelerometer
512MB RAM
Customized Windows Mobile 6.5
Modified XPERIA panels
You can always upgrade to Windows Mobile 7 when it arrives, although there is no word on pricing or availability.
AT&T's subsidized Acer Aspire One, Dell Mini 10 and Lenovo S10 netbooks launching nationwideNot sure what AT&T's thinking as it takes its subsidized netbook lineup nationwide, but it just announced the Dell Mini 10, the Lenovo S10, and the 10-inch Acer Aspire One will now be sold online and in stores, priced at $200 each with your choice of two-year contract: a totally pathetic $40/mo 200MB plan or a $60/mo 5GB plan. Yeah, that's some stiff kitty for two years of XP on last year's netbook hardware -- especially since you can score the similar Compaq Mini 110 from Sprint for just 99 cents on sale with the same $60/mo 5GB data commitment. Of course, we're still standing by our suggestion that you just grab a MiFi and share the 3G love with as many machines as you can, but if these numbers somehow seem tempting sales should be starting in the next few days.
The internet is abuzz this morning with the rumor that a new clamshell smartphone is coming soon from HTC. Evidence of the handset, codenamed LEO, is said to have been found within a TouchFLO 3D 2.5 ‘Manilla’ ROM. Its purported specs include a full-QWERTY keypad, external QVGA display, internal 16:9 WVGA display, support for OpenGL 2.0 and a Snapdragon processor. Mmm, Snapdragon. This rumor is pretty messy though, because there is every possibility that the Leo is actually the Omni — a device long rumored to be the successor of the HTC Universal, a Pocket PC that made its retail debut in late 2005. After all, when one thinks about it, the thought of HTC dropping a device it was rumored to be working on very early in 2007 just seems, well, so un-HTC.
InfoSonics Corporation has started to offer their line of verykool i300 and i410 handsets in both Central and South America areas, where the former will come in a clamshell form factor, being a dual-band handset with speakerphone capability, music playback and a microSD memory card slot. As for the verykool i410 (pictured here), it shares a similar clamshell design albeit being a quad-band handset with an 1.8' internal display alongside an 1' external display, boasting Bluetooth connectivity, MP3 playback and a camera of unknown megapixel count that doubles up as a webcam when connected to a computer. No idea on pricing, but you can choose from black and blue colors.
This is in the running for most ridiculous fakery we have ever written about. A manufacturer from Shenzhen China, where else, has designed a phone that he wants us to believe has been approved by the Swiss watch maker Rolex. The Rolex A699 has a real ticking watch on the front with gold-plated details, but when you open up it’s just your regular clamshell that should be a profitable unit for the manufacturer at its current $101 MSRP.
What would you get if you took Motorola's QA1 Karma, gutted it of 3G, and dialed up the boxy factor a notch or three? We think you'd end up with something a lot like this, a phone alleged to be the A45 'Murano.' The A series is still a rarity in Moto's lineup so we don't have a ton of hardware to compare it with, but one member of the series is Verizon's Rival -- and you can definitely see a little familial resemblance there. Looks like it'll have a 2 megapixel camera, but otherwise, this sucker's a mystery; Motorola's been making moves in Brazil lately, though, so we could definitely buy that this'll end up popping in South America before we see it stateside.
Word has it that the zany modular phone platform known as Modu will be released on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 for around $130. The phone will only be sold to select customers through their website. The lucky few who are going to get the Modu experience were identified by the carrier as ‘technology oriented’ and will be asked to fill long feedback forms. The Modu supports 2.5G data communication while Israel is a ‘dominant 3rd generation market’. [Gizmodo]
Actually, on second thought, there might not be anything right about Alcatel's unusual entry to the FCC, a phone that's apparently supposed to match up with the fashion collection of the same name. That's all well and good, but we're struggling to associate the word 'fashion' with a red plastic flip trimmed with faux antique brass highlights -- especially when said phone is nothing more than a rebadge of the mega low-end OT-660a. If GPRS and weird, out-of-place gold trim is your cup of tea... well, your phone has arrived, but otherwise, we plan on steering well clear of whatever retailer plans on offering this little gem.
Guess what the Gadget Stork delivered on our doorstep today? A robot baby? No. Better. An actual, real, in-the-TeflonHTC Hero. Let's just say this -- it's pretty much the sexiest Android device ever created. We're not going to go into too much detail right now, as we're planning on delivering a full review next week, but we do want to say that this thing has our eyes glazed over like Scrooge McDuck checking out a pile of gold... if you know what we mean. HTC has truly outdone themselves here, not only with build quality (the thing kind of feels like a luxurious rock in your hand -- it's a good thing), but so far the software seems truly outstanding as well. Of course, we haven't taken the deep dive yet, so for now, feast your eyes on these photos, and get ready for the main event.
Update: Oh why, HTC? Apparently, this thing ain't covered in Teflon at all. According to the company's PR, only the white models are getting the dirt-resistant treatment. We're guessing the unit we have is just sporting a regular, soft-touch coating. It feels good and all... but now it seems so much less special
Remember the Philips Xenium X830 that we mentioned back in June? Now Philips has released two official photos including official specs of this upcoming candybar phone. So here are the specs, a 3-inch TFT touchscreen display with 320 x 240 pixels and 262k colors, a 5MP camera with autofocus, a music and video players, an FM-radio with RDS, a 47MB of internal memory, a microSDHC card slot (up to 8GB), a mini USB port, Stereo Bluetooth and supports quad-band GSM connectivity with GPRS and EDGE. What’s more, the phone also comes with an impressive battery lifetime that lasts up to 10 hours in talk-time, or up to 1.5 months in stand-by-time. Sadly, there’s no word on pricing and availability yet.
Symbian-loving photogs are officially on notice… Nokia has just announced that its first 8 megapixel offering is now on its way to the US. That’s right, the N86 8MP will be hitting store shelves within the next few weeks and if you have a hankering for S60 3rd Edition FP2 and more pixels than you can shake a stick at, this little guy might be just what the doctor ordered. Of course the camera isn’t the only focus here, though for many it will be hard to get past an 8 megapixel shooter with a shutter speed of up to 1/1000 of a second, an f-stop range of 2.4-4.8 and a wide-angle lens. Once you do however, you’ll find a 2.6-inch AMOLED QVGA display, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band UMTS, 8GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi and aGPS with Nokia Maps 3.0 pre-installed and plenty more. There is some bad news to report as well unfortunately — despite being announced at €375 abroad (about $530 at today’s exchange rate, $474 when announced), the NAM N86 8MP is going to run you $558. If photography is your game however, that’s hardly a tall order for an unlocked top-of-the-line camera phone. Anyone in?
Talk till you drop with the Motorola T215 Bluetooth car speakerphone, where it boasts three days of talktime and was specially designed to work with other hands-free car kits. Features include a 2W speaker with noise cancellation functionality. While the Motorola T215 might feature the latest technology, sadly the design seems stuck in the past. It does make us wonder whether this will ever become a classic or not, but chances are with the Motorola label on it, the answer would sadly be in the negative.
After a patently absurd amount of delays, it actually feels like the Garmin-ASUS nüvifone tandem is approaching a proper launch. Whether or not anyone actually cares anymore, however, remains to be seen. Across the sea over in Malaysia, one particularly lucky soul seems to have stumbled upon both the Linux-based nüvifone G60 and the WinMo-powered nüvifone M20, and he claims that both handsets will be shipping en masse to the region 'within 30 days.' Best of all, that totally jibes with what we've heard directly from Garmin today, which has informed us that the smartphone will be in Singaporean stores in August, with a few other Asian nations seeing it in late July. Now, if only North Americans could look forward to the same...
It's not officially available yet, but the fine folks at Android Community have gotten their hands on a HTC Hero and posted up a quick unboxing and overview. Their unit is an unaffiliated generic whitebox model, so it's likely that the retail packaging the rest of us see from carriers will be different, but none of that changes the device itself, which AC thinks is the 'best Android device to date.' That's quite a statement, but we're inclined to agree -- we'll see if anything changes when we get that US 3G version in our hands. More pics at the read link, video after the break.
The more we see of LG's latest Black Label handset -- the mysterious BL40 -- the more we want to touch it, play with it, talk on it, and put it (or, at least try to put it) in our pockets. Shots of the bizarre-yet-beautiful phone have appeared over on a German forum where we're told the interface is S-Class-based, the screen is 800 x 345, and the camera is 5 megapixels strong with Schneider Kreuznach optics -- all specs that fall in line with what we've heard so far -- and there's also apparently WiFi, an FM transmitter, and about 335MB of free onboard storage (easily rectified with a huge microSD card, of course). What has us even more intrigued, though, is a single picture in the bunch that shows the BL40 next to a smaller, stouter device with virtually identical industrial design. We have no idea what it is, but it looks like LG might be poised to roll out a whole series of phones in this new Black Label line -- and which ones are Chocolate-branded is anyone's guess at this point. See what we mean after the break or hit up the read link for all the pics.
Leaked at the same forum as the LG BL40 black label, it looks like LG is producing a smaller size of its new chocolate series with LG BL42. It will feature a similar specs with a 5 megapixel camera, LED flash, HSDPA connection but has a touch sensor buttons and sliding keypad.
LG has previously announced that it will reveal the next chocolate series in August,
‘We’re returning to an all-time favourite to re-create the original experience,’ said Jeremy Newing, head of marketing, LG Mobile UK. ‘Over 21 million LG Chocolate handsets have been sold to date, spanning across 54 countries. We believe LG Chocolate’s successor will have a tremendous impact on the market, while adding to the growth that LG has experienced during the first half of this year.’
The unlocked version of Samsung Omnia II is now available in Singapore for SGD$898 (US$618). The Samsung Omnia II is a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone (upgradeable to WM 6.5) that features a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with 480 x 800 pixels, TouchWiz 2.0 3D User Interface, HSDPA/HSUPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a 5MP digital camera with Autofocus with DVD-like video recording. Korean giant Samsung will also release the Symbian-powered i8910 Omnia HD in Singapore on August 1st, 2009 for SGD$1,098 (US$756).
You know for sure something smells fishy when the handset is called the Windows Mobile Version HTC G2, since everyone (and their dog) knows that the HTC G2 will be Android-powered. Apparently, this handset is said to come with similar specifications with its flagship device, the P660, where it will be powered by a Huawei K3 460MHz processor, supports quadband GSM/EDGE/850/900/1800/1900 connectivity and will run not on Google Android, but Windows Mobile 6.1. We say go for the original, although chances are this one is going to be dirt cheap in comparison.
Remember that slightly stouter but still rather obelisky-looking Black Label cousin of LG's BL40 we spied earlier this morning? We've now spotted a lot more pictures of the thing -- and its crimson slide-out keypad. Dubbed the BL42, it sports light-up nav buttons, a 240 x 320 screen, and what looks to be the same five megapixel camera found in its slightly taller brethren, specs that should allow it to slot quite neatly into the Chocolate lineup -- at some indeterminate time and place in the future.
The Samsung Omnia HD smartphone is a very slick device. One of the most important features of the phone is its large HD capable screen that is touch sensitive and offers 720p resolution.
Cypress has announced this week that the screen that makes all that HD love possible on the I8910 is its TrueTouch solution. The company says that its screen tech was chosen for the fast response time, gesture support, and character recognition capabilities.
The handset also uses the Cypress MoBL dual-port to connect the application and baseband processor for more multimedia and computing performance while reduce the power consumption of the device. The I8910’s screen is a 3.7-inch AMOLED unit and is sexy enough to make other phones jealous for sure.
SKY of Korea has just released its latest CDMA clamshell phone known as TILT, where it boasts a built-in electronic dictionary that makes it useful to tote around, since it saves you the trouble of carrying another device especially when you're often thrust into situations where you're at a loss for words. Specially designed with a straight line body and metal frame, the TILT's dictionary will offer support for 330,000 words alongside 2,467 conversations in native speaker voice. Other features include a 2.7' display, seven LED lights, video playback, T-DMB support, a 2-megapixel camera and external memory among others. No idea on pricing though.
Samsung has unveiled a new version of the existing device, designed for girls or for everyone who digs pink color (actually that’s ‘Sakura pink’) for their handset. It’s called Samsung Anycall Ultra S S7350H Elegant Edition and it comes together with a pink leather pouch and a makeup mirror — ok, it’s for girls, only!
There’s also a special mobile content pre-installed on the S7350H, including ‘romantic mobile theme’ and ‘smart seasonal wallpapers,’ which change automatically according to the upcoming calendar event. For instance, there are special wallpapers for such days as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and so on.
Specs wise, there’s a 2.6-inch WQVGA screen, 3G, GPS, 5 megapixel camera, and microSD memory card slot. Pricing is unknown at this stage, but we think it will be just a little more expensive than the original S7350…
Watch out, Nokia E71x, it looks like there’s another slim smartphone gearing up to try to steal your thunder. While it certainly doesn’t appear to be able to lay claim to ‘AT&T’s thinnest smartphone’ title, it certainly does look like the upcoming LG GW600 will be popular within enterprise circles — provided there are a few other color options, perhaps. Known specs:
Windows Mobile OS
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band WCDMA
Resistive touchscreen
20-key half-QWERTY keypad
3.1 megapixel camera
GPS
Bluetooth
Video Share
Proximity sensor, light sensor, accelerometer; flick and gesture controls
microSD slot
Not bad. No word yet on when the GW600 might see the light of day but we’ll definitely keep an ear to the ground. Hit the jump for more shots and as a side note, is it just us or do FCC testers seem to be getting a little saucy with their images lately? From dark, blurry shots of old to well-positioned sexy angles like the ones below… They know we’re watching and they like it. Dirty FCC.
At this point we're not sure why Dell won't just come out and say it's working on a smartphone, but for whatever reason the company's executives keep hinting around it. Case in point: Dell consumer division VP Ron Garriques, who told analysts yesterday that the company would 'work with the top three to four' carriers 'and see what their needs are.' That's only slightly more concrete that what we've been hearing Michael Dell say for a while now, but apparently Ron got a little more specific: reports from the event also say he indicated that plans are being drawn up to launch products in the US, Asia, and Europe. We'd love a full transcript to figure out exactly what went down, but remember that Mr. Garriques here is the ex-head of Motorola's mobile devices unit, so he's got some experience cranking out handsets for every market. Just a note, though, Ron: if you ever pull an Adamo on us and reveal a product without specs, you are so not invited to sit at our table for lunch anymore.
You might recall the Samsung Comeback — though its name was unknown at the time — from a group of four T-Mobile-bound headsets we spied back in early May. Sure it was likely the least interesting of the group but you’ll be hard pressed to find a T-Mobile subscriber who isn’t at least somewhat excited when news of a new 3G handset rolls around. Well T-Moblers, the next piece of the puzzle just fell into place as the complete specs of this little QWERTY have been uncovered. Highlights include the QWERTY keyboard of course, a 2 megapixel camera with video capture, microSDHC support, integrated email and IM support, Bluetooth, 75MB of internal memory, a 960 mAh battery and a pair of low-quality displays. Oh, and let’s not forget 1700MHz 3G. We’d say this little guy has the potential to make a decent showing with the tween demo as long as we see a price tag around $50. Hit the jump for the full specs.
Bluetooth SIG has reportedly announced the specs of the upcoming Samsung Armani 2 smartphone (official model name Samsung B7620). According to them, the handset will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro and feature a 800MHz processor, A-GPS, WiFi, a dedicated graphics chip, a HTML browser, Bluetooth, a stereo FM radio with RDS, a music player (MP3, WAV, e-AAC+, WMA, AMR), a video player (DivX, XviD, MPEG4, 3gp, H.263, H.264) and a business card scanner. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing and availability yet. (the picture above is the first-generation of Samsung Armani) [Via Unwiredview]
It’s not a T-Mobile myTouch 3G (aka the dumbest name in marketing history), but Samsung is going to take care of that feature-phone segment with a new 3G handset — or at least try to. The Samsung Highlight will be available this month if you’re interested. It’ll retail for $150 after rebates and here are the official specs:
Large touch-screen display, thin-profile design
Available in two colors options: fire and ice
3 megapixel camera with 3x digital zoom and video capture
Stereo Bluetooth
microSD slot for up to 16 GB of optional removable memory
Music player supports MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+
Support for SMS, MMS, instant messaging (IM) and e-mail
IM support: AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger
If you had always been itching for some of that Sony Ericsson Walkman goodness but were hoping for something wrapped in a slightly more attainable package, this is your bag. Sony Ericsson has just announced the W205 and W205a Walkman phones, a pair Sony Ericsson promises to be the most affordable handsets to ever grace its Walkman line. Highlights:
Enjoy your music with the high quality Walkman experience
FM radio – catch up with the latest news and views
TrackID – name that tune at a press of a button
1.3 megapixel camera – take great shots and share the fun instantly
Video recording – capture your favorite moments on film
Bluetooth™ – share your favorite songs, pictures and video clips, or connect to a wireless headset
Multiple phonebook – keep your contacts in order and share your mobile phone with your family
Memory Stick Micro (M2) support up to 2GB
While the press release throws the word ‘affordable’ around willy nilly, no pricing information has been provided at this point. There’s also no word on exactly when the W205 or W205a will be released — SE says they’re both expected to launch within three months — though we do notice that USA is missing from the W205a’s local availability list despite the presence of GSM 850/1900. This either means a carrier deal is still in the works or SE is skipping the US — and we doubt many BGR readers will miss it. Besides, we’ve already seen plenty of newtweenphones this week. Hit the jump for two more shots.
Well boys and girls, call this one confirmed. We scooped it last week and now Sony Ericsson has made AT&T’s C905a official. July 19th is indeed the date you can get your mitts on the 8.1 megapixel beast and as far as pricing goes, you’re looking at 179.99 after rebate on a 2-year contract. A quick recap of the spec highlights:
8.1 megapixel camera with a xenon flash, auto-focus and video capture
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band HSDPA
On-device image editing
Scratch-resistant mineral glass display
GPS
FM Radio
Bluetooth
Memory Stick Micro (M2) support up to 16GB
Ok photogs, stop drooling on your keyboards. It’s definitely no ‘Rachael’ but its also a hell of a lot more exciting than the W205/W205a SE (re)announced this morning. Anyone planning to check this puppy out this Sunday? Hit the jump for more shots.
Sony’s Ericsson’s day in the sun continues with the announcement of the AT&T-bound W518a. Slim and sleek, this clamshell Walkman phone packs as much music-centric functionality as it can into a tight little package. Highlights include ‘Shake Control’ technology that allows users to shuffle, skip and control volume by shaking the handset, and ‘Gesture Control’, which lets users ignore incoming calls or snooze alarms by waving a hand over the camera lens. Pretty sweet. Beyond that, the W518a touts a host of social networking features — just like every other handset in the world these days — and of course the beloved Walkman music player. Pricing is set at a very reasonable $49.99 after rebates on a 2-year contract and like the C905a, this little guy will hit store shelves this Sunday, July 19th, Hit the jump for more angles.
'Compact and sleek productivity' might be a bit over the top, but the bottom line is this: at $29.99 on contract after rebates, LG's new LX290 for Sprint is one of the cheapest ways to get Sprint Navigation and email access in your pocket. The slider packs a 1.3 megapixel camera for basic shooting needs, instant messaging capability, AGPS (naturally), a 320 x 240 display, and a 2.5mm audio jack -- we would've preferred 3.5, of course, but at that bargain-basement price, we'll take what we can get. The phone is available now, so go on, get productive.
So you're like, 'man, I love the E52 -- I just wish it had more... keys!' Yeah? Well, there's a phone for that, and it just passed the FCC. The 'dash 1' variant of the E55 just garnered approval from the American powers that be, but sadly, this particular unit is a special kind of useless in the States because it's doing HSPA on 900 and 2100MHz alone. That's not to say you couldn't use it on EDGE in the Western Hemisphere, but what's the fun in that?
For Sharp's domestic carrier partners, solar power is all the rage right now, and now NTT DoCoMo is hopping up on the exceptionally eco-friendly bandwagon with the SH-08A. Bearing the same SOLAR HYBRID badging as its sister device on SoftBank, the 936SH, the SH-08A flip features IPX5 / IPX7 compliance for splashes and submersion up to a meter, an 8 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and -- of course -- a wide VGA display. You'll get one minute of talk time for every 10 minutes of time spent baking in the sun, which certainly isn't bad when you're in a pinch and there's not a wall outlet for miles. The SH-08A will go on display at Wireless Japan this month with sales following on in September.
While one could argue that Sony Ericsson should really be focusing its efforts on getting a Rachael / Android-based handset out on the double, it's evidently content with digging up a year-old phone, slapping an 'a' on the end of it and passing it along to AT&T. The 8.1 megapixel C905 that we were so jazzed about in June of 2008 has indeed been certified for AT&T as the C905a Cyber-shot (left and center), offering the same 8.1 megapixel sensor, face detection, AutoFocus, Xenon flash, GPS tagging and 3G support. In related news, SE is also offering up the 518a Walkman (shown right) on the same carrier, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera, an obsession with Facebook, Shake Control and OTA music downloads from Napster and eMusic via AT&T Music. Both sets will be available on July 19th for $179.99 and $49.99 (respectively) after mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement, which sounds 'way too high' and 'too high' to us (also respectively).
Nokia and AT&T have officially announced the Nokia Surge, an entry-level S60 handset with slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 3G connectivity. The Nokia Surge has a 2.4-inch (240 x 320) LCD display, a 2MP shooter, A-GPS with AT&T Navigator support, and AT&T Video Share for video calls. In addition, the phone also supports a full messaging suite, including IM, SMS, MMS and email. You can easily upload and share pictures or videos from the phone to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr using JuiceCaster. The browser has Flash support for streaming video, and various mobile music download options such as Napster, eMusic and XM Radio.
The Nokia Surge will be available on AT&T from July 19th, 2009 for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. It will require a two-year agreement on both a voice plan (minimum $39.99) and data plan (minimum $30), which adds up to $1,759.75 over the course of the contract.
The Blackberry line is one of the most popular series of smartphones available. I personally don’t care for the devices to much; my wife has a Curve that is nowhere near as good as my iPhone for net surfing for me. Still there are many who wait for the next Blackberry with glee.
According to Boy Genius Report, it has some information that makes it seem that the Blackberry 9550 may indeed be the Storm 2. The Storm 2 is due to hit Verizon later this year and may hit Vodafone overseas as well.
The big new feature for the Storm is Wi-Fi, which seems very two years ago to be a big feature in my book. We can also hope the device gets a better screen; the original Storm drew criticism for its screen. Features of the 9550 include CDMA 1x RTT/EVDO Rev. A, quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, a 3.2-megapixel camera, 360 x 480 capacitive touchscreen and more.
Want a peek at a phone you'll almost certainly never have the opportunity to own? Look no further than T-Mobile UK for the GT500 from LG where the well-equipped HSDPA full touch handset that we've been tracking for a while now is apparently now shipping. Headlining features include a 5 megapixel cam with image stabilization, AGPS, tethering capability, 130MB of onboard storage, and microSD expansion (though really, what phone in 2009 doesn't have a microSD slot besides the Pre, the iPhone, and a weird Pantech here and there?). Rumors persist that this might eventually show up on Rogers, so one way or another, you're probably going to have to end up in a Commonwealth nation if you want this thing badly enough.
We know you. You're the type of self-styled individual that likes to play by your own rules. You effortlessly mix work and play, transitioning from power lunches, to 2PM meetings, to 5PM happy hours, and you never change phones. You want your BlackBerry to make a statement -- a bold statement (but not that Bold). For you, Sprint and RIM proudly present a new color of the Curve 8330, 'Inferno' -- and as the name implies, it blinds the retinas. It's available for $49.99 after discounts on contract, the same you'll pay for the far less statement-making titanium and red variations. You do want to make a statement, don't you?
Coming off that epic BL40 tease, it's hard to take something from the same company that looks like this very seriously -- but hey, you've got to cover every market segment to be a global top-five manufacturer, and that's exactly how LG rolls. The GB130 is an ultra-simple slider destined for the Russian market, featuring a 2-inch screen at 160 x 120 resolution, an integrated FM radio (conveniently accessed via a dedicated button), and 6.5 claimed hours of talk time. Look for it on your next trip to Moscow for 2,990 rubles (about $91).
Next up in today’s line of handsets eager to fight their way into the pockets of the 14-and-under crowd is LG’s LX290. Available nary a day after Sprint’s BlackBerry Tour hit the scene — just to help ensure our readers would barely blink — this latest offering from Sprint features, well, basically nothing:
ENTERTAINMENT & PERSONALIZATION
NFL Mobile Live providing live audio broadcasts of every regular season game and watch the live broadcasts of all NFL Network games. Get real-time red zone alerts, scores, stats, live NFL Network 24/7 and more. Manage your fantasy football team like a pro with up-to-the-minute insights, analysis, stats and alerts.
1.3 MP camera with 2x digital zoom and Picture Messaging to shoot, share, print high-resolution digital photos instantly, and upload photos directly to social networking sites.
2.5 mm headset jack
PRODUCTIVITY
Sprint Navigation with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings
Four conveniently-located shortcut keys for quick access to texting, email, personal calendar and alarm
Easy, one-touch access to all your personal and work email including AOL/AIM, Yahoo!, Windows Live (Hotmail and MSN) and more
Record a voice message and send it to as many as 25 friends at once, without even making a call
Built-in productivity tools such as planner and scheduler, memo pad, world clock, alarm clock, calculator and more
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: 4.09 x 1.94 x 0.63 inches; 3.6 ounces
Display: 1.33 x 1.77 inches TFT (240 x 320 pixels QVGA and 262K vibrant colors)
Standard Lithium (LiIon) battery: up to 6 hours continuous talk time*
Imagine… A handset with specs so sparse that a 2.5mm headset jack is actually worth mentioning. Right on. The LG LX290 is available immediately for $29.99 after mail-in rebate on a 2-year contract. The line forms to the right this time.
It looks as if we no longer have to wait on LG to complete a slow and painful unveiling of its brand new Black Label series phone — if this is the real deal, of course. A very convincing promotional video popped up on YouTube that, if genuine, not only gives us our first shots of the device but also details the majority of its specs. As expected, the BL40 appears to be a very formidable phone with features that include a 4-inch 345x800 capacitive touchscreen display (note the very unusual 21:9 aspect ratio) under scratch resistant glass, 5 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens, 7.2Mbps UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, aGPS and the what appears to be a suped up S Class UI. While we feel it necessary to again stress that this video is in no way official yet and could certainly be a farce, we would love nothing more than to see this puppy materialize. Hit the jump to check out the video.
Orange has come out this morning, in advance of the official UK unveiling of the phone, to confirm it will be the exclusive UK carrier of the TG01. We can confirm availability from July 10 (i.e. tomorrow), and the phone can be had for free on a 2-year contract costing £39.15 per month. To figure out if that sort of investment is worth it, we'll have an intrepid reporter stationed at this afternoon's event, who'll be bringing you up-to-the-minute details and imagery of the first Snapdragon handset to hit British shores. You'll find the full PR at the read link, or continue reading for an unshaven Orange rep walking you through the phone's specs.
T-Mobile USA today announced its special pre-sale program for the myTouch 3G Android smartphone. Customers who order the handset from July 8th until July 28th can qualify for myTouch 3G delivery before the national retail launch on August 5th, 2009. T-Mobile customers are also able to pre-order myTouch 3G in limited quantities beginning today at T-Mobile site. The myTouch 3G Android smartphone will be available nationwide at T-Mobile retail stores and online beginning August 5th, 2009 for $199.99 with a two-year agreement. [Android Community]
Well T-Mobile customers, it looks like you can’t have your myTouch 3G and eat your Hero, too. Great news trickled through this morning as the myTouch 3G became available for pre-order to current T-Mobile subscribers. On the flip side of the coin however, T-Mobile USA CTO Cole Brodman confirmed at a T-Mobile event today what many had expected — the highly anticipated HTC Hero will not be coming to the nation’s number four wireless carrier. Brodman’s exact words: ‘[T-Mobile USA] has no plans to bring the HTC Hero to market.’ It’s definitely a shame considering the high desirability factor carried by HTC’s upcoming handset but there’s still hope the Hero will drop with AT&T in the near future. So what do you think, T-Moblers — sad to learn there’s no Hero in your future or will the myTouch 3G suit your Android-loving needs while we wait for the next generation of T-Mobile Android handsets?
Motorola has come out with another full touchscreen music slider phone for the Korean market. Dubbed as the Moto ROKR ZN50, the handset offers a 3.2-inch TFT color display with 240 x 427 resolution, a 3.2MP camera, Motorola’s Panorama UI, a microSD card slot, a T-DMB2 TV tuner, SRS WOW HD sound system, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, a USB 2.0 (HS) port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a 950 mAh battery and supports WCDMA 2100, GSM 900/1800/1900 as well as HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivities. Sadly, there’s no word on pricing yet.
We're not sure we understand the market for a global phone on Verizon that's so low-end that it doesn't even support 3G, but Pantech seems to understand it -- or at least it thinks it does -- with the latest info leaking out about its upcoming Escapade flip. The phone will apparently support CDMA with 1x data alongside GSM with GPRS data, which makes it next to useless to getting serious work done from your handset no matter where you happen to be in the world. Otherwise, it's expected to feature a 2 megapixel camera and a measly 2.5mm headphone jack, but it's said to be lacking a microSD slot -- something found on even the most basic phones for the last year or two. Global or not, this thing better be within a few bucks of free when it launches; as of right now, we don't know when that'll be.
LG’s latest super-snapper cellphone has broken cover, and from the spec-sheet at least you’d think this was the handset to quash all point-and-shoot digicams. The LG GC990 Louvre is tipped (despite LG’s own denials; see after the cut) to launch later on in 2009, taking the place of the existing LG GC900 (aka the Viewty II), and brings with it a 12.1-megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach optics, Xenon flash and what the company suggests is ISO 3200 sensitivity.
Call us terrible skeptics, but we’re wondering exactly how much noise will be in images at those sort of ISO levels; this may be a case of ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.’ Elsewhere the camera can be re-purposed as a camcorder, grabbing 720p HD video at 30fps. Like the iPhone 3GS it supports touchscreen-controlled focus and GPS geotagging, and LG are claiming zero shutter lag too.
Elsewhere there’s a 3.2-inch 16:9 aspect touchscreen with the company’s S-Class UI, WiFi and Bluetooth, together with DivX and Xvid playback plus TV output. It can also stream media to and from other DLNA compatible devices. The phone was demonstrated by LG’s Korean arm at a product expo, but according to the company is a concept rather than a model destined to hit shelves:
‘The GC900 or ‘Louvre’ mobile phone from LG, is a great example of the type of mobile technology innovation LG is developing. This is a concept model only however, and as such there are no confirmed plans to bring it to market. As we have further details on our camera-phone portfolio or other mobiles, LG will provide information on where and when they will be available to consumers.’ LG statement
LG is working on a new low-end messaging phone called GW300. We don’t have all the details at this stage, but we do know the upcoming device will come with pre-installed Facebook, email and IM clients, as well as the full QWERTY keyboard. Rest of the specs include 2.4-inch QVGA screen, Bluetooth, some camera (we don’t have the megapixel count) and EDGE data (no 3G). Moreover, we know it will be quite light device, weighing only 95 grams.
And that’s about all there’s to say about the LG GW300 at the moment. As soon as we hear something new, we’ll certainly write about it. Stay tuned…
Australian carrier Telstra's taking the 'go big or go home' approach with its latest announcement, dropping no fewer than seven phones this month compatible with its Next G HSPA network -- table scraps for a Japanese carrier, granted, but a bounty by any other standard. Among the phones in the new lineup are the Xenon, Viewty Smart, and the Windows Mobile-powered GM730f from LG (the first version of the GM730 to launch anywhere, interestingly), the Touch Pro2 from HTC, and Sony Ericsson's W508 and W995. All will be available before the month of July draws to a close for prices ranging from AUD $30 (about $24) on contract for the W508 up to a mind-numbing AUD $1,499 (about $1,190) contract-free for the Touch Pro2.
Call us hopeless optimists, but some part of us was holding out some truly foolish belief that we might yet see a version of Nokia's pretty 5530 XpressMusic with 3G on board. Despite the fact that it looks considerably better than the supposedly higher-end 5800, the 5530 tops out with EDGE for the WWAN, relying instead on WiFi for the heavy data lifting in exchange for a dirt-cheap unlocked retail sticker price. That said, we'd still take one if they were available. At least Nokia stuck this FCC lab with the less attractive black / red color combo, so our usual bout of raging jealousy is just a tad tempered this time around.
This phone vaguely reminds us of the Samsung Memoir for some reason, but rest assured, it's Pantech through and through and it's being sold thousands of miles away. The SKY IM-U460K 'Love Actually' will see action on South Korean carrier KTF, rife with global roaming capability, HSDPA, an integrated DMB tuner (par for the course with domestic Korean handsets), a 3 megapixel primary cam, and microSD expansion. The big feature here, though, has to be the 3-inch QVGA display that shocks and delights onlookers with a biggie-sized dot matrix display that's just low-res enough to be more retro chic than annoying. As with all of Pantech's SKY-branded goodies, we'd expect to see this one outside Korea... oh, right around the same day that Apple licenses iPhone OS to third party manufacturers.
It's already being stocked by its German cousins, so it stands to reason that O2's British outpost would be looking to carry the mighty i7500 Galaxy from Samsung as well. Indeed, TechRadar is reporting that O2 UK has confirmed that the Android-powered OLED beast is on the way in August, though pricing is yet to be reported in any official capacity; for comparison's sake, O2 Germany is offering it for €69.99 (about $98) on contract, so we can certainly imagine the new launch coming somewhere in the same range. Then again, we can also imagine it being completely free on the right plan, in which case we're packing our bags and filing for our visas.
We’re not exactly sure this upcoming handset from Sony Ericsson is deserving of renowned 90lb supermodel’s name — even as a codename — but slender form or not, the SE Twiggy is the star of a new round of live shots. Rumored to have been canceled (and it very well still might be), the Twiggy is a Walkman phone with a thin flip above the keypad common to various Sony Ericsson handsets over the years. In this new iteration, the face of the flip cover is home to a single touch-sensitive play/pause button. Nifty, but we would’ve liked to see forward and back buttons as well of course, as are present on the face of the W350. Beyond that, little is known about the music phone other than the fact that it has a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back. Canceled? Still in the works? It’s hard to care with the Rachael fresh on our minds. Hit the jump for more shots.
Is this the first Android phone from Sony Ericsson? mobile.nu said they have got images from some internal documents and the first Sony Ericsson Android smartphone will carry Xperia branding with a codename called Rachael. As what we reported in May, Sony Ericsson was saying that they are putting more company resources into Android smartphone development. When it is ready, it would most likely featuring the same approach as HTC, which will come with its custom UI on top of the Android OS.
Rachael is rumored to be powered by a fast 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, comes with a 8 megapixel camera and 3.5 mm headphone jack. There will be 3 hardware keys below the display touchscreen and it comes without a hardware QWERTY keyboard.
You won't find the mega-slim (9.9mm, to be exact) E52 in the hands of any businessfolk just yet, but as usual, some FCC lab has the guilty pleasure of putting this one through the RF wringer well ahead of release. The version tested here is a Band I / VIII piece, which means it'll do full HSPA on the 900 and 2100MHz bands -- not exactly what your average North American S60 geek is looking for, but with the crazy precedent the N97 has set for launching in NAM flavor first, who knows what'll happen?
This phone here isn’t a stunning revelation like the others we generally cover here on CB. Yet, it bears credentials which did push us into giving it a mention here. The Samsung Guru E1107 is the first solar powered mobile to be commercially sold (in India) and Samsung intends to incorporate this technology into a number of phones from the mainstream lineage as well. It has been almost a month since it came into reckoning but it didn’t create the hubbub it should have and probably the pricing of about $55 (INR 2,799) had something to do with major technology sites ignoring this development-we assume. The E1107 can provide 5 to 10 minutes of talk-time with an hour of solar charging which sounds good enough to help you in emergency situations. All that is required is to place the switched-off phone in sunlight with the rear atop (it bears the solar panel). To fully charge the phone, the battery requires 40 hours of solar charging.
We haven't heard a solitary peep out of IXI Mobile in a hot minute, even though its Ogo line -- once a member of Cingular's lineup -- had found some niche popularity among teens and the deaf community. We'd even thought they'd gone into R&D hibernation, actually, but apparently not -- they're innovating. They're innovating so much, in fact, that they've innovated themselves right out of the landscape clamshell form factor that made the Ogo famous. This Inventec-sourced CC-10 we just spotted in the FCC looks more Centro than Ogo, though all of the original's features -- notably strong IM and social networking support -- carry on through to the new model. At any rate, we can say that IXI doesn't intend to break back into the North American market -- at least not with this exact unit, anyway -- since GSM 1900 and Bluetooth are the only features it bothered testing.
The Samsung Glyde upgrade, the Glyde II is definitely around the corner and an indication of the development is the photo leak. Other than the images, there isn’t much known about the (Verizon Loyal) Glyde II barring the obvious QWERTY keypad, TouchWiz User Interface and an accelerometer for orientation awareness. It will house a big touchscreen, probably an AMOLED variant but we just cannot affirm. More images after the jump.
ZTE, the Chinese handset maker who makes devices for operators world wide and has a nice chunk of market share in China, has submitted the Coral 200FM to the FCC for approval. It’s a budget device, specs are unknown, but the thing that stands out is the solar panel on the back. We heard about this thing back during Mobile World Congress, and people said it would be nothing by vaporware. Looks like they’re wrong.
If you’re going to watch a video about the Samsung Omnia II (i8000) then you may as well watch a long one, and thankfully Hdblog.it have just the thing. Their 10 minute video review - which you can see after the cut - puts the 3.7-inch WVGA 800 x 480 touchscreen smartphone through its paces, and you can see that Samsung have done a pretty decent job covering up Windows Mobile.
Video demo after the cut
Samsung have obviously got Windows Mobile field-leader HTC in their sights, packing the Omnia II with a 5-megapixel camera and the usual WiFi and GPS. Both UMTS/HSPA - supporting HSUPA 5.76Mbps and HSDPA 7.2Mbps - and CDMA/EVDO Rev.A versions will be on offer; Verizon are tipped to be launching the latter sometime this month.
We’ll have to wait for our own hands-on experience, but going by the images in the gallery below the Omnia II’s display manages to make even the iPhone 3G’s screen look dowdy. Whether that’s enough to tempt people to Windows Mobile remains to be seen, however.
The HTC Hero has just passed by the office of the FCC and got approved for distribution in the US market.
While there was no specific release date given for the North American when it was announced last month, thanks to the FCC, we now have an idea as to which carrier might possibly offer it in the region. Approved with 850/1900MHz 3G bands, AT&T is now the leading candidate to carry the HTC Hero in the US, and Rogers/Fido in Canada. Of course, this isn’t official yet, but it’s worth noting based on what we currently know about the HTC Hero so far. It’s also being rumored to be headed for Sprint as well, but there’s nothing available confirm this report just yet.
That’s about it for now, but nevertheless, we are hoping to get more info on the HTC Hero NAM within the next couple of months since it’s already been approved by the FCC.
For the past two weeks, the Android scene has been all Hero this, Sense that but apparently there are a few other players in the Google game trying to make a name for themselves. Enter Vobis Computer’s HIGHSCREEN PP5420, the newest Android handset to hit the street complete with an IRS tax form sounding name. In terms of specs, the PP5420 is not exactly cutting edge but it’s still sharp enough to go toe to toe with the majority of its competition: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band 7.2Mbps HSPA connectivity, a 528MHz processor, 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM, 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, 3 megapixel auto-focus camera, Wi-Fi, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and a 1080 mAh battery. The cost? $500ish unlocked.
Celebrity tie-ins are always a surefire way to put a little more oomph behind the launch of an otherwise bland handset, and in Mexico, carrier Telcel is doing exactly that to celebrate the launch of its latest Pantech piece. The C570 is a pretty basic GSM phone with some stylish color accents, FM radio with RDS, and dedicated music controls, but what immediately turns up the interest knob by a notch or two is that they've hooked up with local star Paty Cantu to preload the phone with artist content. Further helping the handset's street cred as a music phone is the fact that it's also got a 3.5mm jack, a remote with yet another set of music controls, and microSD expansion up to 8GB -- but with the brooding expression on Paty's face here, we can't rightfully say we're sure whether she's delighted, horrified, ambivalent, or utterly unaware of the offering.
Now this is one truly mixed up clone that doesn't really know where its original heritage lies. We suppose it was supposed to reflect the HTC G2, better known as the HTC Magic. Unfortunately, you know for sure that the $102 price point would translate to run-of-the-mill specifications that won't drop jaws anytime soon - although it does feature dual SIM card slots for the busy executive, an integrated TV tuner and FM radio support alongside a 2.6' touchscreen display at 240 x 320 resolution. This won't run on the Android operating system, that's for sure.
Samsung has finally rolled out its SCH-W760 cellphone in South Korea, making it the first handset in the world to come with an infrared camera, letting you hold video calls even in low-light situations like a club, where such a situation would best go with a bone conduction Bluetooth headset. In addition, you will still be able to snap much clearer images with the 3-megapixel camera behind, viewing the results on a 2.8' AMOLED display with 240 x 400 resolution. Other features of the SCH-W760 include 8GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card slot, S-DMB TV support and high speed 3G connectivity. Folks in South Korea can expect to pick up this handset for approximately $457, and it remains to be seen whether Samsung will make available this handset in other markets.
The Dopod A6188 does resemble the HTC Magic in many ways, but it is based on the OMS (Open Mobile System) that is developed by China Mobile, not Android. Features of the A6188 include the following :-
Having been talked about for quite some time and then all of a sudden dropping off the radar, talks of an Android-powered device from Dell has once again resumed. This time The Wall Street Journal has supposedly confirmed that Dell does indeed have ‘several Android-based smartphones that it plans to start selling later this year,’ something that meshes nicely with the 2G and 3G devices we spoke of some two weeks ago. Perhaps more interesting however, is that Dell is believed to be working on an MID that is also said to run on Android, and it will reportedly be a little larger than Apple’s iPod touch. The WSJ cautions those who are prone to getting ahead of themselves that while Dell intends to release the MID later this year, the possibility its launch will be delayed or canceled cannot be ruled out. Duh. At least the phones are allegedly a lock.
Having already given you the AT&T spec sheet and images on this new Nokia, the only things missing are launch date, price, and a bit of video. Well, a janky QIK video just made its way to YouTube claiming that Nokia's Mako is coming to AT&T in mid-July as the 6790 Surge. It should be 'priced pretty well' but those details haven't been finalized. So if a quick messaging device running S60 beneath a 2.4-inch 240x320 pixel display with HSDPA data and 2 megapixel camera is enough motivation to prompt another mouse-click then by all means, click through for the video overview provided after the break. Stay cool, bye.
Yes, folks, that day you've been so eagerly awaiting is nearly here. Soon you won't have to suffer the agony of pixel envy on your cellphones thanks to Samsung's M8910 Pixon12 and its whopping 12 megapixel sensor, capturing light through a 28mm wide-angle lens like that in the Nokia N86 (which has a miserly eight megapixels on tap). Sammy's handset has been put through its paces ahead of release, stacked up against the likes of a Canon A620 and a 350D SLR. The phone does quite well, producing images as good or better than its compact competition, but we're not quite sure we agree with the assessment that it 'can reach the detail resolved by a true DSLR' -- at least, not in this batch of images. We want to believe, though, we really do; those SLRs are heavy, and we're not a particularly strong bunch.
It's already out in Japan and a few select countries in Europe, now Toshiba's skinny TG01 is hitting London on Thursday, July 9th. Presumably the invite will be met with an official UK launch of Tosh's deftly skinned Snapdragon handset with a Windows Mobile 6.1 core. Then again, it could be a lot of tech reporters eating mini triangular sandwiches slathered with pickle spread discussing the HTC Hero for four hours. We'll let you know next week.
Sony Ericsson today announced it’s new slim, elegant and stylish slider phone T715. The new Sony Ericsson T715 combines excellent design and premium finish. Along with slim stick phone T700 and beautiful clamshell T707, the new T715 continues fashion T-series from Sony Ericsson.
The new Sony Ericsson T715 is not only about style. The phone has very good features like 2.2’ 240x320 pixels TFT scratch-resistant screen and supports up to 262,144 colours. Screen is working fine even in direct sunlight! The phone also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with Photo light. Unfortunately, the camera of Sony Ericsson T715 has no autofocus.
The T715 comes with a special Project Capuchin application, which is called AccuWeather.com®. This free java application can give you access to three day weather forecasts. Sony Ericsson T715 also have build-in Google Maps™.
The new T715 is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 2100 phone. Like all latest Sony Ericsson phones T715 supports microSD™ memory cards. According to the press release, to the package of the new Sony Ericsson T715 beside the phone will be added a battery, battery charger, Stereo Portable handsfree and user book.
The new Sony Ericsson T715 will help you stand out from the crowd with two pretty nice colours: Galaxy Silver and Rouge Pink. Galaxy Silver has a piano finish, while Rouge Pink colour has a mirror finish. T715 is really so compact! It has sizes 91.5 x 48 x 14.9 mm and weight only 96.5 grams. The new T715 will be available in the shops in Q3 2009.
T-Mobile’s new Dash 3G made by HTC picks up right where the original Dash left off. I guarantee you’ll fall in love with its slim 0.47-inch body, weighing a mere 4.2 ounces. The width is slightly narrower than the original Dash making it that much more comfortable to hold. It’s got the same 2.4-inch, 320 x240 pixels, and 65K QVGA display running Windows Mobile 6.1. The new trackball (think Sidekick and BlackBerry) is the first major change you’ll notice – it lets you scroll up, down, right or left and press to select. The QWERTY keyboard layout and texture is possibly one of the best if not the best I’ve used. The keyboard and trackball also light up in the dark! And speaking of texture, the Dash 3G’s bottom half is made up of the same-soft suede-like material of the original Dash. The upper/top half is smooth, with the exception of the buttons.
Starting from the left is the Send key, followed by the Left Soft key and Home key. On the right hand side of the trackball is the Previous Screen/Back key, Right Soft key End key. The Charger/Headset Jack resides on the top right hand side and the Volume keys are on the left hand side of the Dash 3G.It has a 2-megapixel camera with digital zoom on the back. Unfortunately, HTC forgot to add a flash of any kind. Positioned immediately above the camera is the speakerphone, and yes voice-activated dialing is possible.
Under the hood is T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network and Wi-Fi supporting Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA (AWS Band IV and Band I). The Dash 3G is by all means a worldphone thanks to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz). There’s also assisted GPS with location base services by Telenav. Taking off the back cover reveals a 1500 mAh battery, SIM slot and microSD card slot right below it. In fact, the only place you’ll find HTC branding on the Dash 3G is on top of the battery. Battery life is yet to be determined and we’ll report results in the review.
While a full review is forthcoming, my overall initial impression of the Dash 3G is – wow, love at first sight. It feels great, has an exceptionally awesome QWERTY keyboard and as a big bonus, Windows Mobile 6.1 is speedy. Seeing the new Dash 3G brought back oodles of memories I’d shared with the first Dash.
It has been too long since I was this excited about a ‘smartphone’ powered by Windows Mobile.
Just when we thought HiPhone is winning the cloning wars by a huge margin, SciPhone suddenly made its biggest leap yet in cloning terms. First, the SciPhone N12 is the first SciPhone Nseries phone we’ve ever heard of and, second, it runs a genuine Android OS. Not only that, it’s got crazy specs like WiFi, GPS and CMMB TV support, powered by a 624MHz processor. Yes, it’s also 3G WCDMA. Wow. Price tag must be worth at least a Meizu M8, right? Well, no, because you can have this baby for 1600 yuan ($234). It should be out late this June. Apparently, M8cool is saying there’s a virtual keyboard but a trackball is also provided for navigation. Well, aren’t you aching to see one in a demo video?
We’ve seen some weird mobile phone designs over the past few years, and even a couple of mobile phone watches. Now, if this Sony Ericsson concept design ever goes into full production, we might even see a bracelet mobile phone sometime in the future.
Dubbed as the Mobile Terminal, this mobile phone transforms into a bracelet for convenient portability. Here’s an excerpt from the patent application submitted by Sony Ericsson describing the device:
…when the mobile phone terminal is worn like a bracelet by putting the ring section on the user’s arm or the like, the portability of the mobile phone terminal is improved, and the user can see the display surface of the display device and can operate the key buttons with fingers of the other arm different from the arm on which the ring section is worn. On the other hand, when the ring section is removed from the arm, the user easily can see the display surface of the display device of the terminal body section while holding the ring section with both hands and operating the key buttons, which can achieve high operability and convenience.
Needless to say, as far as off-beat mobile phone designs are concerned, this one definitely takes the cake as being the most peculiar.
Anyway, we’re not yet even sure how determined Sony Ericsson is in pursuing this bracelet mobile phone. Considering that their current financial status isn’t that stable, it won’t be surprising at all if this doesn’t exactly get prioritized in favor of more successful models such as their Cybershot and Walkman series. Heck, we’ll even pick the outdated XPERIA X1 over this one if given a choice.
Nevertheless, kudos to them for trying to be unique.
It looks we don't have ol' SciPhone to kick around anymore. Sure, we had some laughs -- mainly due to the fact that the irony-resistant handset manufacturer was ripping off an open source OS -- but now it looks like all that has changed. The SciPhone N12 (apparently) runs genuine Android, sports both quadband GSM and WCDMA (3G), and packs a 3.2-inch touchscreen, WiFi, a GPS module, CMMB TV support, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a 624MHz Marvell processor under the hood. Listed for CNY $1,600 (roughly $234), this bad boy should be out June 25. Check out a couple more pics after the break.
Despite it being another sleepy Sunday, yesterday Samsung decided it was good timeto announce four new entry-level handsets that it hopes will prove popular with the average consumer. Starting off with the S6700 that Samsung has previously shown off at various trade shows, we find a dual-band HSDPA slider with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash, GPS and 120MB of internal memory plus microSDHC support. Next up we have the C5510 with its basic 2 megapixel shooter, smaller 2.2-inch QVGA display and microSDHC support. Taking a more music-centric approach is the M2510, which has dedicated music keys, a 3.5mm headphone jack, DNSe audio enhancement, FM radio tuner with RDS and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Finally we have the M2310, the only clam shell device in the bunch and easily the most underwhelming handset we’ve seen in quite some time. It has a VGA camera, 9MB of internal memory, 8GB microSD support and quad-band EDGE connectivity. Pricing and availability for the S6700, C5510, M2510 and M2310 have yet to be announced.
Somewhere along the line, some higher-up at Samsung clearly said 'I've got it: geometry-themed d-pads.' The rest, of course, is history -- Samsung ran with that theme, giving birth to the Jet and the Omnia II. But wait -- what if you could go back in time, take something like the S5600, and facelift it just a bit to give it a similarly unusual appearance? That's exactly what Vodafone has chosen to do in launching the midrange full-touch featurephone, apparently working with Sammy to add in a diamond-shaped nav pad and rechristen it the fierce-sounding 'Blade.' With a 3.2 megapixel cam, HSDPA, and GPS, it's nothing to sneeze at; whether it's worthy of a name as awesome as Blade, though, is another story altogether.
Philips has unveiled their latest handset namely the Philips Xenium X630 that boasts a super long battery life. This new candybar phone comes with a 1530 mAh battery capable of lasting up to 12 hours in talk-time, or up to 50 days in stand-by time. Other interesting specs include a 2.4-inch QVGA display with 262k colors, a 3.2MP camera, a music player, an FM radio, a microSDHC card slot (up to 8GB) and Bluetooth with A2DP. Sadly, there’s no word on pricing and availability yet.
In North America, Rogers has a reputation for getting the most cool GSM handsets the quickest (that's not the only reputation it has, but we won't go there right this second) -- but this is one case where T-Mobile USA beat 'em to the punch by a mile. The Canadian carrier is adding the Nokia 7510 to its TalkSpot-compatible lineup, meaning you'll be able to offload calls to WiFi when you're within range of a hotspot and transfer seamlessly to and from GSM. There's no 3G, but the colorful flip does come with changeable faceplates, a concealed secondary display, 2 megapixel camera with flash, and microSD expansion. Look for it for CAD $49.99 (about $43) on a three-year deal.
Motorola wows us not with another RAZR-like handset, but with the Celestial Edition of its Motorola Aura in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. This is but the standard Aura with additional extras including original NASA content from the moon landing such as video footage, stills and famous audio snippets like ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’, and ‘The Eagle has landed’. Bear in mind that Motorola were the ones who provided the original radio transponder aboard Apollo 11 that in turn, relayed the first words and visuals from the moon to Earth. There is no word on pricing, but knowing how commemorative editions of anything in the world is expensive, this will surely cost you a handsome amount - not that the Motorola Aura is dirt cheap in the first place.
We know, we know. This isn’t like last year when we were the first to have an iPhone 3G, but come on, we’re the first to have one that’s not supposed to have one yet. That’s got to count for something? Since the phone isn’t activated at the moment, there’s not much to show besides some glamor shots. So click on over to the gallery to get your fill of iPhone 3G S greatness, my OS X-loving friends.
Here we were, just minding our own business and thinking that the 
