Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia gets the lion’s share of the attention when it comes to the S60 platform and Symbian generally — perhaps rightfully so, considering they ship far more Symbian-based smartphones than any other vendor — but Samsung would like to politely remind everyone that they’re an S60 licensee, too. Their latest effort, the SGH-i520 slider, had its coming-out party this week at the Symbian Smartphone Show, and the spec sheet looks to give Nokia’s E- and N-series multimedia powerhouses an honest-to-goodness run for their money. The typical 2-megapixel camera and QVGA display aside, the i520 packs an HSDPA radio — something no released Nokia handset has managed to do; granted, the N95 does it, but we’ve got a little wait ahead of us for that monster. Lucky owners also get a microSD slot should they find the 45MB of usable storage a bit light, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and a front-facing VGA shooter for those ever-popular video calls. Per protocol, it doesn’t seem that a US launch is in the works, but one can never be sure; stranger things have happened.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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, QVGA display, and FM radio with RDS. One notch down the food chain is the E81, giving up some screen real estate with its 220 x 176 display and trading 3.2 megapixels for the more standard 1.3, but mercifully hanging on to the microSD slot. Finally, the EDGE-only E71 steps back up to QVGA, but the real draw here should be its “innovative non-stick coating” that promises to hide fingerprints on its shiny exterior. All three phones look to drop before the year’s out, though odds are slim Americans are invited to the party. That’s alright, BenQ; we prefer our phones good and smudged with fingerprints, anyway.

[Via Reg Hardware]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, GSM, EDGE

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, LG, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, Helio, EV-DO, MVNOs, CDMA

Your interpretation of the Google translation is just as valid as ours, but we’re getting that Samsung has entered an agreement with SK Telecom (one of Helio’s parents, the other being Earthlink) to provide at least one handset to the MVNO’s stable in the October timeframe. No real deets on the device itself, though this pictured Z400 ”phone of champions” may be the culprit. Anything is an upgrade from the Hero, although the Z400 lacks the Kickflip’s style; at any rate, if Helio wants to save itself, we’re hoping Bluetooth finds its way into the mix this time around.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

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Filed under: Handsets, Others, CDMA

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, GSM, HSDPA, UMTS

A month after SK Telecom rolled out Korea’s first commercial HSDPA network with the SCH-W200, #2 Korean carrier KTF is getting theirs, launching the lookalike SPH-W2100 along with its own 3.5G service. Deets on the W2100 have been hard to track down, but we know that it trades the W200′s S-DMB for terrestrial DMB and comes in at 21.1mm thick; if we were betting folk, we’d wager that the W2100′s innards are otherwise similar, likely sporting 2 megapixel external and VGA video calling cameras, music player, and multitasking capability. Apparently, the W2100 allows the user to text and video call at the same time, though we think that might be information overload for our little brains. Koreans readers needing 1.8Mbps of sliding KTF action best have some available credit limit — expect the SPH-W2100 to retail in the neighborhood of $800 USD when it drops next month.

[Via Slashphone]

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Filed under: Cellphones

The guys over at PhoneScoop have sure made the site live up to its name today: not only did they get some serious hands-on time with Motorola’s upcoming RAZR slider — codenamed Capri — they also got to preview the next version of Moto’s much-maligned Synergy UI that will show up in such models as the Canary and the SCPL. At least on paper, the Capri seems to offer a very compelling feature set that will probably attract anyone into the RAZR lifestyle- you’re getting a model only slightly thicker and heavier than its clamshell counterpart, but which sports a 2.0 megapixel camera, A2DP-capable Bluetooth, and what sounds like a greatly improved user interface. Especially noteworthy in the overhauled Synergy is an address book that seems to work much more intuitively than past iterations (remember the one on the StarTAC?), allowing you to organize entries by name and search for contacts using multiple letters. Although Phone Scoop was only testing a pre-production model, they have identified some potential problems to watch out for on the final version, such as the unusually crappy quality of what should be a decent camera, and most importantly, a spring-assisted slider that’s difficult to activate due to the raised antenna bulge so familiar to RAZR owners. Click on if you want to peep a few more snaps, but you’re really doing yourself a disservice if you don’t head over to PhoneScoop for the full gallery and a very thorough write-up…

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Filed under: Handsets, Okwap, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS

Filed under: Handsets, Others, Pantech

Korean carrier KTF is spreadin’ some more slider love courtesy of Curitel. The PT-K2100 is undoubtedly Korea-only, but fret not, friends; there’s not much to get excited about here. GPS is integrated to offer support for KTF’s K-Ways voice navigation service with 3D mapping. Otherwise, the phone weighs in with a 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player, and that’s about it — not enough meat to justify its 19.9mm of relative chubbiness.

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Filed under: Cellphones

If the true measure of a company was the thickness of its products, Samsung would have a lock on the title. Besides the “world’s thinnest phone” – the SGH-X820 that you can virtually hide by turning it on its side — our South Korean friends are rocking the “world’s thinnest slider” as well in the SGH-D900. Apparently, the FCC is cool with that, as they’ve just given the thumbs-up for the D900 stateside. The phone manages to pack in some reasonable specs despite its size, bringing a QVGA display, 3.13 megapixel camera, A2DP, 80MB flash, and MicroSD expansion to the table. Most importantly for our US readers, this is a quad-band EDGE phone, meaning there might be some actual weight to the FCC grant for a change of pace.

[Via Unwired View]

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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: Handsets, Samsung, Cingular, GSM, EDGE

Quick: what phone form factor was conspicuously missing from Cingular’s lineup? An ultra-thin slider, that’s what. Enter the SGH-D807, Samsung’s thin slider du jour, coming in at a trim .61 inches thick. Essentially an Americanized D800 minus the glorious QVGA screen, the D807 sports a more pedestrian 176 x 220 display, quad-band GSM, EDGE, a MicroSD slot, and the obligatory 1.3 megapixel camera. Available now for $129.99 after rebate with a new contract.

[Thanks, Scott T, Jason K, and Brian K]

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Filed under: Handsets, Others

It appears that egg-shaped white sliders are all the rage in South Korea these days. KTF is bringing it strong with their Korea-only EV-KD330, including DMB (naturally), a 1.3 megapixel shooter, Bluetooth, an MP3 player, and GPS. Does anyone else think that DMB antenna looks like a stylus? Well, don’t get your hopes up — it’s not.

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Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM

We don't talk much about Alcatels on this side of the pond, but that doesn't mean they aren't holding down the low to mid range, with a full 14 cellphones in their current lineup. Latest among them is the OT E260, a GSM 900/1800 no-frills slider that lacks a camera (gasp!). For its lowly market segment, the E260 is a looker, sporting a simple glossy black face and weighing in at a svelte 90 grams. Besides a straight-outta-2002 102 x 80 color screen, you'll get 16-channel polyphonic ringtones, and that's about it.

[Via Mobilewhack]

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung

Just when you thought that cellphone form factors had been pushed to the very limit of reality and pocket bulge, Samsung pushes it a little bit further. They’ve just been rewarded a patent for a “sliding-clamshell” design, claiming to beat the respective limits of clamshells (small screens), and sliders (size and screen damage). To us it looks like they’ve managed to adopt all the bulk of a slider and then wrapped a chunky clamshell around it, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. When open the device can serve as a gaming device or just a big ass handset, and when closed the corrugated hing wraps around the bulky screen to keep it safe and warm. With as much crap as we give this thing, we’d still love to see it in action, but we’re not quite ready to buy a man purse or two just to carry it around.

[Thanks, Allen]

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Filed under: Handsets, LG, EV-DO, CDMA

Nothing too exciting, but it looks like the US might be getting a couple more handsets from LG: the VX8400 and VX8500. The VX8500 (pictured right) is a bit camera shy, and we’re otherwise short on deets, but we can tell it least has a camera, and it could be a slider — or something. As for the VX8400 clamshell (pictured left), the FCC was kind enough to share the manual, so we know it’s a musicphone with 128MB of storage, Bluetooth, a 2.2-inch 176 x 220 pixel screen, external color display and a 1.3 megapixel camera. The EV-DO phone also promises to have a 3D graphics GUI, so that should be exciting. Phone Scoop is predicting Verizon on this one, but no word on price or availability of either handset.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Read – LG VX8400
Read – LG VX8500

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, GSM, EDGE

Though always the first to cram a few more megapixels into a cameraphone or shave a few millimeters off a slimphone, Samsung hasn't ever really seemed to try very hard on their UI. Well they're trying something new with their E900 called "Black UI," which looks pretty snazzy and even (heaven forbid) usable. That's not to say they forgot about the hardware this time, the E900 looks to be a respectable slider phone, with a touch-sensitive control pad not unlike that of LG's Chocolate phone. The phone measures 0.65-inches thick, and has a 2-inch display, 2 megapixel camera, microSD storage, and Bluetooth. The phone also boasts music playback functionality, and the control pad switches from phone mode to music player mode based on what you're using it for. We're not sure what carrier(s) are getting this phone in Europe, or the price, but it looks to be a solid contender for at least a few hard earned Euros. Click on for more pics.

Filed under: Handsets, Pantech

New to the South Korean market: the Pantech and Curitel PT-S200 handset, a multimedia slider featuring a 2 megapixel camera and all-important subway map. This 17.9-millimeter thick model also sports a QVGA display, MicroSD slot for MP3s, mobile banking capabilities, and the requisite (for Korea, at least) electronic dictionary. Available only in white, the PT-S200 seems to be on sale immediately for the Korean equivalent of $425.

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, GSM

Not a big surprise on specs or anything, but Samsung is getting that trim n' fit D520 slider of theirs out the door in Korea today. The tri-band GSM phone is pretty light on features, with a mere 176 x 220 display, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and 80MB of non-expandable memory, but it manages to do it all while weighing 3.3 ounces and measuring 0.6-inches thick. Not too much of a phone to miss out on, but it wouldn't hurt if they at least offered to ship it over here.

[Via Aving]

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, GSM

The Motorola rumor mill is in full grind mode lately, with word of an impending slider version of the RAZR, called the "Capri," coming hot on the heels of the "Canary" photos that have been fluttering around lately. According to Cnet's Alpha blog, the quad-band GSM Capri will be no thicker than the SLVR, sport a "high-resolution" CCD (what that means for cameraphones is unclear -- 1.3 megapixels? 2.0? 3.2?), and also a TransFlash slot, probably for storing tunes. Although no pics of this rumored model are available yet, Cnet speculates that it will be quite similar to the Korea-only MS600 (pictured, also referred to as the "RAZR slider), which is a bit thicker than the SLVR but takes many of its design cues from the trusty RAZR.

[Thanks, Hitechy and Corey]

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung

Samsung just knocked a couple more phone models outta bed to show-off their new SCH-V890/SPH-V8900 cellphone. This slider measures in at 13.8-mm and 85-grams and features a 2.12-inch, 240 x 320, 262K color TFT LCD, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel shooter, MP3 player and that Nate Drive service popular in South Korea. We're not sure, but we'll bet you can even hold it up real close to your pie-hole for making calls. At least it better for that roughly $525 US equiv.

[via Akihabara News]

Filed under: Handsets, LG

LG has just filed a patent for a new type of slider phone wherein a motorized, protective covering containing the microphone and antenna slides up to reveal the screen and keypad, and of course, extend the antenna. Called a "drawer-type" phone, this design supposedly offers numerous advantages over traditional form factors, taking the best attributes of different phone styles while attempting to minimize their shortcomings. For instance, a drawer phone maintains the compact profile of a flip phone or slider while in a bag or pocket, while at the same time situating the mic closer to your mouth when in-use, a la some of the better candybar mobiles. You also get the screen protection and dual display benefits of a clamshell, because the sliding section contains a clear window, but none of the finger strain involved with manually opening and closing the flip. This design definitely seems to have its benefits, but since this patent has a long way to go before being approved, we're not sure when or even if we'll ever see it in production.

[Via Mobiledia]