Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Wearables, Wireless

Apple's been dogged with rumors of an iPod / phone hybrid (the real deal, not a rehash of a Moto E398 with iTunes support) for nearly as long as the iPod's been kickin' around. Apparently looking to beat the dead horse yet again, an analyst mentioned Sony's success with their Walkman line of music-oriented phones during Apple's Q3 earnings call, prompting CFO Peter Oppenheimer to respond with a fairly solid non-denial: "As regards cell phones, we don't think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And we're not sitting around doing nothing." Knowing Apple, of course, this is about the biggest admission we'll get until the iPhone actually drops, so relish in the moment, keep your eyes peeled in a year or so, and if you're really hard up, you could fashion your own, like the pictured Nokia 6682 makeover.

[Via MacDailyNews]

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Reviews, Sony Ericsson, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

The W300i may not be the most fascinating phone out there, but golly, it's good to see a midrange flip once in a while coming from someone besides Samsung and LG. The music-oriented W300i earned a 7.6 on CNET's 10-scale, earning praise for its "remarkable" call quality but getting knocked for its tricky button placement, lackluster VGA cam, flimsy feel (attributed to the phone's feather-like 3.3oz), and tendency to freeze for a few seconds on occasion. In our opinion, the dismal 20MB of internal storage doesn't really jive with its Walkman branding -- thankfully, the Memory Stick Micro slot is there to bail you out. No word on any US carriers picking the W300i up, but it's rockin' quadband GSM plus EDGE, so feel free to buy your own if you can stomach the $299 Sony Ericsson is asking.

[Thanks, Jen B.]

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, BenQ-Siemens, GSM, GPRS

BenQ-Siemens has been looking to jump on the “Is it a phone? Is it a music player?” bandwagon with its Q-fi series of music-oriented devices, and although the EF51 isn’t the first device announced in the series, it appears it’ll be the first to ship. The EF51 is supposedly so music-oriented, in fact, that BenQ Mobile is calling it “a music device with an integrated mobile phone.” It packs A2DP, which is all well and good, but what’s the one thing you absolutely cannot live without in a music player, folks? That’s right, memory, and BenQ has ominously left that aspect of the phone’s specification off the press release. We’ve seen reports that the phone might be shipping with a scant 20MB, and if that’s the case, the EF51 is dead in our eyes as a music device. As a phone, the EF51 holds its own on the low end with tri-band 900/1800/1900 GPRS, 1.3 megapixel camera, and a 128 x 128 display. A MiniSD slot is mercifully included, but in our opinion, a music player that can scarcely fit five MP3s without the aid of a memory card is not a music player at all. The EF51 drops this month in tri-band friendly parts of the globe.

[Via Slashphone]

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Samsung, EV-DO, CDMA

Do you find that the SCH-B570 is just a bit bulky to fit comfortably in your pocket? Are you cool with carrying around roughly one-eighth the tuneage? Do you live in South Korea? If you answered “yes” to all of the above, Samsung’s new SCH-V940 might just be for you. Its 15.8mm of thickness might not make it the thinnest slider in the world, but it’s pretty darn impressive considering the 1GB of flash it packs away for your music-toting pleasure. Besides the relatively vast storage, the EV-DO V940 gets you a glorious QVGA display and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Motorola, are you listening? This is how you make a sexy music phone.

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, ASUS, GSM, GPRS

ASUS, better known for motherboards and laptops, has been dabbling in the cutthroat cellphone world as of late; their latest offering is the J206 “music phone.” In this case, we say “music phone” with giant air quotes because the device ships with an absolutely anemic 60MB of internal flash to its name. Fortunately, you have a MicroSD slot at your disposal, but we have a hard time taking any music-oriented device seriously with this kind of capacity out of the box (unless, of course, you’re only interested in bringing a hundred songs with you). Storage issues aside, this looks to be a decent midrange tri-band GSM slider, rocking a pretty standard 220 x 176 display, 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3, AAC, and WAV support, Bluetooth, and iPod-esque touch control for music and basic phone operations. No word on US availability, but without coverage on the 850 band, we’re not holding our breath. More shots after the break.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Sony Ericsson, KDDI, CDMA

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Samsung

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian

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Filed under: Handsets, Sanyo, Sprint-Nextel, 1xRTT, EV-DO, CDMA

While Sanyo’s phones are known for their tendency to leave customers delighted here in the US, one thing they’re typically not known for is keen industrial design — with the possible exception of the Katana released earlier this year. The Katana’s proven to be a decent low- to midrange piece, but now it looks like the Japanese manufacturer is gearing up to take on the SCH-A990s and Blades of the world with the rather attractive (as best as we can make out from the smallish picture) M1 clamshell. As music phones go, the rumored specs leave almost nothing to be desired, with a QVGA display, 2-megapixel cam, external controls, Bluetooth with A2DP, microSD expansion, and an impressive 1GB of storage on board. We don’t quite know what to make of the circle on the phone’s front, which we’re guessing plays into the external music controls somehow — but if its a scroll wheel, get out of our way, people; we’ve got a Sprint store to get to.

[Via phoneArena]

 

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Nokia, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

If the hoard of N-series Nokias raining down from Espoo yesterday was a bit too much on say, the fuddy-duddy side of the generational slope, then check these new XpressMusic cellphones kiddies. Well “new” only if you missed the 5300 and 5200 peeped before. Still official is official so let’s run ‘er down again. The 5300 slider is the biggest news here, going tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900MHz with GPRS/EDGE support and 262k color TFT LCD, QVGA (240×320) resolution. It features up to 2GB of microSD storage, dedicated music keys, an adapter for 3.5-mm headphones, built-in IM software, FM radio (with Visual Radio), 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and an expected retail of €250 pre-tax, or $317. The 5200 shares the looks of the 5300 but features an even lower rez camera and display for a pre-tax price of €200 or $254. Meanwhile, the original XpressMusic 3250 twister sports a new look with added support for 2GB microSD cards. Expect the 3250 to pull a pre-tax €400 or $507. All phones, according to Nokia today in New York, will “begin shipments in select markets within weeks.” MobileBurn however claims that a US variant of the mix will hit Q1, so who knows. Click-on for a snap of the updated 3250.

[Via MobileBurn]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.