Filed under: Culture, Handsets, Others, Windows Mobile, GSM
bundled in the box. We weren't able to track down the White Pearl on VIPN's site, but if this all checks out, look for the nifty candybar to drop about the same time as its bejeweled counterpart in early 2007.Filed under: Handsets, BenQ-Siemens, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS
In the event Europeans are still unhappy with their selection of 3G-capable devices, BenQ’s trying to come to the rescue this week, showing their UMTS SL91 slider and E81 candybar — along with the more pedestrian EDGE-only E71. All three handsets share some visual cues, sporting glossy black finishes and rounded lines, though the similarities mostly end there; potentially most interesting of the three is the SL91, a Chocolate-esque, “mysteriously opaque” device featuring the LG phone’s now-trademark disappearing navigation keys. Besides UMTS, the SL91 goes big with a 3.2-megapixel camera
[Via Reg Hardware]
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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, ASUS, GSM, GPRS
After adding a slider and flip to its stable of autofocus camera
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Filed under: Culture, Handsets, Others, Windows Mobile, GSM
If you’re having a hard time justifying dropping a cool million on your next phone, might we turn your attention to the “Black Diamond,” brought to us by Swiss manufacturer VIPN. Penned by Singaporean designer Jaren Goh, there’s little question that the glossy black candybar is gorgeous — but whether it’s $300,000 gorgeous is another question entirely. Details are slim, but we know that the Windows
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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, UTStarcom, GSM, GPRS
, and you're looking to save some coin, you might turn your attention to the FCC's deets on UTStarcom's GPRS1226 (or UT1200, depending on what documentation you're reading). Like the SLVR it loosely mimics, the microSD-equipped GPRS1226 emphasizes its music playback capabilities, even offering a dedicated music player button on its side. GSM 850 and 1900 support mean this thing is likely targeted at the North American market; we're not sure which carrier would offer it, but given its meager spec sheet, we're guessing you could walk away with it nearly free on contract.Filed under: Handsets, LG, GSM, GPRS
LG is really running with the checkerboard keypad theme these days as details are beginning to emerge on the KG99, a candybar with fairly obvious Chocolate roots. No word on whether the phone falls into LG’s Black Label category, but at 95 x 52 x 9.9mm, it seems chic enough for the task. Specs are unconfirmed at this point, but the phone is reported to sport triband GSM (sorry yanks, no 850), a 220 x 176 display, microSD slot, Bluetooth
[Via Slashphone]
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Filed under: Handsets, Others, Symbian, NTT DoCoMo, UMTS
Fashion phones not your cup of tea? Looking for something a little more business oriented perhaps? NTT DoCoMo has you covered with their D702iBCL FOMA smartphone, brought to you by the good folks at Mitsubishi. The D702iBCL sports NTT’s MOAP (Moblie Oriented Applications Platform) UI sitting atop Symbian 8.1 along with a QVGA display, all while coming in at a relatively sprightly 130 x 47 x 16.8mm and 97g. A camera
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Filed under: Handsets, Others, Linux
smartphone action go big here in the States. A couple of Chinese firms might be looking to help us change that. E28 (yep, the name of the company is "E28") has gotten FCC blessing for its Faraday-esque candybar packing a 2 megapixel camera, MicroSD slot, touch screen, and WiFi. The "hipi" clamshell by Paragon lacks any keypad and trades the MicroSD slot for one of the MiniSD variety. Both devices appear to rock VoIP clients, as well. If E28 can lose the sickly mauve color, we'd be more than happy to review a unit. You listening, guys?Filed under: Handsets, Others, Vodafone, GSM
9.9mm might not be close to breaking any records these days, but Toshiba’s TS30 candybar is thin enough to confortably slip into pretty much any nook or cranny you had in mind. With a QVGA display (quickly becoming par for the course in Europe and Asia), music player, MicroSD slot, and FM radio
[Via MobileBurn]
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Filed under: Handsets, NTT DoCoMo, UMTS
, and music player, the candybar is waterproof for up to 30 minutes in 1 meter of water. We're not sure who makes the SO902iWP+ for NTT, but since it includes both a Memory Stick Duo slot and FeliCa support, we have our guesses.Filed under: Handsets, BenQ-Siemens, GSM, GPRS, EDGE
Apparently, the folks at BenQ are looking to make a run on Nokia
[Via Slashphone]
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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio
What’s a lazy Friday afternoon without a bit of completely unsubstantiated rumor mongering? Sure, it’s possible that Ed Zander himself wrote this SCPL mockup on a napkin over a recent lunch, but we’re thinking it more likely the doings of a fanboy with too much time on his hands. Anyways, the specs are as set above: 0.2-inches thick (compared to the 0.27-inch chubster X820 from Samsung), QVGA display, 512MB flash memory
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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola
What’s a lazy Friday afternoon without a bit of completely unsubstantiated rumor mongering? Sure, it’s possible that Ed Zander himself wrote this SCPL mockup on a napkin over a recent lunch, but we’re thinking it more likely the doings of a fanboy with too much time on his hands. Anyways, the specs are as set above: 0.2-inches thick (compared to the 0.27-inch chubster X820 from Samsung),QVGA display, 512MB flash memory
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J.D. Power’s 2006 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study (whew) has dropped, giving us a glimpse into the mind of the average cellphone-enabled American. What have we learned? In a nutshell, we apparently love us some cheap Sanyo clamshells. Allow us to clarify: from 2004 to 2006, the average handset purchase fell from $99 to $86. Since 2002, candybars accounted for some 70% of phones sold; that’s dropped to 39% in 2006 while clamshells have skyrocketed from 7% to 58%. To a certain extent, we have the chicken-and-egg phenomenon in effect here — flip ownership has naturally risen signifcantly as attractive models (read: RAZRs) have come on the scene. Perhaps most surprising is that dark horse Sanyo ran away with the “overall customer satisfaction” title, with LG in a distant second. Satisfaction in the “phone operation” category — that is, ease of use — rose a whopping 5% across the board from last year, indicating that phones are getting simpler or users are getting smarter. Either way, we’re all for it, as long as it doesn’t lead to more people choosing ringtones in restaurants. [Warning: PDF link]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Handsets, LG, GSM, GPRS
The folks at LG are no stranger to slim phones, and they look to have a winner with their new KG320. Beyond the 0.39-inch thick form factor (the same as Samsung’s recently launched T509) the LG phone features a 2.2 megapixel camera
[Via MobileKorea.TV]
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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE
If you’re looking for a slim candybar-style handset with decent data capabilities, you should definitely take a gander at T-Mobile’s Samsung t509, which just got priced at merely fifty bucks after rebates, discounts, and such. You’ll probably recall that the ~0.4-inch thick t509 is a tri-band model that also features Bluetooth and a camera with 4x zoom (whose resolution is still unspecified, which almost certainly means VGA). This model gets its Internet on through T-Mobile’s EDGE network, and also sports such amenities as a speakerphone, pre-loaded IM clients, and some kind of ringtones that must be good because their names are trademarked.
[Thanks, Chris C.]
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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE
Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Others, Cingular, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS
VK Mobile seems like a very flashy company to us, what with their fashion-over-function ethos, their, shall we
say, liberal
"borrowing" of design elements from some of the sexier phones on the market, and who could forget the
airbrushed nude models that they employed to hawk their products at CeBIT this year? We think PC Mag would agree that
the company’s quad-band GSM VK2020 musicphone — that, like the models, we also
at CeBIT — falls in line with this assessment, as their review highlights the handset’s RAZR- and SLVR-killing
thinness and "wow factor," but knocks it on nearly every aspect important to people who actually like their
stuff to function properly. Among the laundry list of flaws reported are this model’s small, dim screen, barely
acceptable MP3
support, and flaky Bluetooth
date, in that you’re a lot more likely to accept its faults just because it looks so damn good. If you’re the type that
rushed out to buy LG’s silly
Bluetooth headset when it
from Verizon this week, then you’ll probably be just fine with forking over $400 to Dynamism in order to sport one
of today’s hotter-looking imports.
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Filed under: Handsets, GSM, GPRS
playback and 1.3 megapixel camera are fairly standard by now, but the phone
features some sort of touchscreen, along with touting 30 days of standby -- if the text on the screen can be believed.
The slim phone is also supposed to be tri-band GSM, but that's about all we have for info right now.Filed under: Cellphones
, Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity, and a camera of undetermined
resolution. Samsung actually isn't spilling much info on this phone for as hyped up about it as they are in their PR. We
still know barely more than we skimmed off the FCC site in March, but it does look like this phone will be making its
way to T-Mobile users. Catherine Zeta-Jones will be so
proud.Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, Samsung, GSM, GPRS, EDGE
We’d generally expect that you’re going to give up some functionality, usability, or both when attempting to cram a phone’s worth of electronic wizardry into a 6.9mm-thick package. In testing Samsung’s X820, though, phoneArena found otherwise — not only is the phone’s screen surprisingly bright (though impossible to read in direct sunlight) and the speakerphone loud and clear, but the keypad apparently provides some solid tactile feedback, too. Menus lagged a bit during normal operation, but frankly, we’ve experienced the same phenomenon in much thicker phones, so we can’t much fault the X820 for that; now if they’d only throw in a little GSM 850 action, we might be willing to give this thing a ringing endorsement ourselves.
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Filed under: Handsets, Others, CDMA
As a phone manufacturer, it could be argued that one of the first steps you’d better take to get yourself out from under the financial gun is to release some quality products. That’s exactly what VK Mobile looks to be doing here — or trying to do, anyway — in offering the VK-X200 for Korea’s SK Telecom. The smart-looking X200 clocks in at 9.9mm, slim by all but the most extreme standards, and apparently rocks a 2-megapixel cam and media player. Good luck to ya, VK; we hope this thing sells like hotcakes.
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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS
We’re always willing to sacrifice a couple millimeters to add 3G data to our handset, particularly when said handset clocks in at a positively anorexic 6.9mm thick. Samsung’s hoping its European customers agree, taking their paper-thin X820, adding UMTS, and rechristening it the SGH-Z370. Besides the addition of some wicked fast data, the Z370 throws in a microSD slot for good measure, all while adding a mere 1.5mm to the thickness of the phone — that still leaves it a good 2.6mm thinner than a SLVR, for the record. We don’t expect the Z370 to come in an American flavor, but for what it’s worth, it did just hop the FCC fence this week.
[Thanks, TC]
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Filed under: Handsets, Others, O2, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS
Sprint’s been working with Qualcomm on uiOne-enabled handsets for the better part of a year now (you know, Qualcomm’s solution for skinning handsets’ user interfaces with themes) but Europe’s been left out of the fun — until now, that is. Coming it at a fairly reasonable £0 on contract, O2′s clever looking “Ice” candybar isn’t exactly high end, but it still manages to pack a reasonable punch with 3G data, Bluetooth
[Via Slashphone]
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Filed under: Handsets, Others, Palm OS, GSM, GPRS
It weirds us out a bit these days to see a Palm OS smartphone that doesn’t share the classic Treo look, but sure enough, Group Sense PDA is back at it with another Palm OS 5.4-based handset, the Xplore M70. We’re guessing we’re not going to see it in these parts any time soon — the QWERTY-less device sports Chinese input and lacks GSM 850 — but for the good folks that get a crack at buying one, you can expect a 220 x 176 display, 1.3-megapixel camera
[Via TamsPalm]
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