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  • Hands-on with the Nokia 6120 Classic

    Filed under: Handsets , Features , Nokia , Symbian , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , HSDPA , UMTS Remember the good ol' days when life was simple, global GSM phones had two or three bands, and Nokia's S60 devices had four digits? Yeah, us too -- and we've gotta admit, there's a nostalgic little piece of us that's delighted to see that Nokia hasn't abandoned S60 outside of its Nseries altogether. The 6120 Classic is a great incognito smartphone; the casual observer would never suspect it to be anything more than a run-of-the-mill S40 device (albeit a particularly attractive one). It's small, the pearlescent white shell looks fantastic against the chrome accents, and the screen's bright. If there's anything negative we can say at a glance, it's that the phone's soft keys are a little awkwardly placed, causing us to hit the Menu and C keys accidentally on several occasions. Hit the gallery to see how Nokia does a four-digit smartphone up right! Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup! %Gallery-6565% Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Nokia announces XpressMusic 5310 and 5610

    Filed under: Handsets , Nokia , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , UMTS Nokia has added two models to its music oriented XpressMusic series today. The 5310 candybar clocks in at just 9.9mm thick, offers 18 hours of music playback -- through the 3.5mm jack if you're so inclined -- a microSD slot supporting capacities up to 4GB, dedicated music controls, and a QVGA display for €225 (about $307) when it ships in the fourth quarter. Next up, the 5610 rocks a slider form factor and features a nifty slide navigation bar underneath the display, metallic and high-gloss finishes, a 2.2 inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, and close to a full day of music playback for a tad more than its sibling, €300 (about $410), with a drop date also in Q4. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Samsung J200: Korean for "boring candybar"

    Filed under: Handsets , Samsung , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , UMTS Though the E590 was already considered a midrange device, Samsung's looking to bring 3G to an even wider audience with the J200 -- which, as Unwired View points out, appears to share most of its guts with the former. Besides having the uncanny ability to make you physically sleepy by merely glancing at it, the SGH-J200 features a triband UMTS radio (no 850MHz, surprise, surprise), 1.3 megapixel and VGA secondary cams (compare that to the E590's 3.2 megapixel primary), microSD slot, and 40MB of memory on board its rather portly 15mm thick case. We're not seeing any pricing or release info for this one just yet, but we imagine it'll start showing up in Europe over the next few months. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Nokia sneaks 6263 with T-Mobile 3G through FCC

    Filed under: Handsets , Nokia , T-Mobile , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , HSDPA , UMTS Welcome to 2005, T-Mobile! No, seriously, this is great news -- following news of Samsung's t639 with AWS band coverage, Nokia looks poised to contribute its own midrange handset to T-Mobile's upcoming HSDPA service on the 1700MHz band. The 6263 is likely an Americanized version of the 6267 , a fairly pedestrian flip bearing a 2 megapixel cam, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot. That means there's still plenty of room up top for companies like Nokia to contribute a few smartphones to the cause, but for now, we'll take what we can get with a smile on our face. [Via Phone Scoop ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Pantech C150 and LG Trax now on AT&T

    Filed under: Handsets , LG , Pantech , ATT , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , HSDPA , UMTS As expected , AT&T has officially added a couple to its stable -- one on the midrange and one at the very bottom. The LG Trax -- once known as the CU575 -- has gotten plenty of press recently as the anticipated replacement for the CU500, offering stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, HSDPA, and a cool external touch strip for music control. The Pantech C150 , meanwhile, looks like a great candybar for the price (free, that is) considering that it still manages to rock a VGA cam and Bluetooth support, and we're digging the pure white. Grab both now for $130 and $0 on contract, respectively. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Read - Pantech C150 Read - LG Trax Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Lenovo serves up ThinkPad-inspired phone for China

    Filed under: Handsets , Others , GSM , GPRS We hear nary a peep out of Lenovo's handset division in these parts -- but in China, they do a fairly brisk business , offering the full range from commodity candybars all the way up through Windows Mobile-based powerhouses. You'd think, then, that if the company chose to grace a phone with its treasured ThinkPad branding, it would be one of those higher end pieces, yeah? Apparently not. This here P768 is the first Lenovo we've seen to evoke the storied laptop marque, lacking any sort of smartphone operating system (as far as we can tell) but offering up a metallic shell, 2 megapixel cam, 64MB of storage with microSD expansion, and an FM radio with a thumbstick that looks vaguely like a real ThinkPad's track stick. Grab it in Lenovo's domestic market for 999 yuan, or about $132 -- a far cry from even the cheapest Lenovo lappie, we reckon. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Nokia makes Prism collection officially official

    Filed under: Handsets , Nokia , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , UMTS Despite Asian availability for a few weeks now of the 7500 model, it seems Nokia has just today decided to make its so-called "Prism collection" official. Perhaps a great gift for the mathematics professor or physicist in your life, the two span the spectrum of radio coverage and features; the 7500 is naturally the lower-end of the two, featuring a QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, and data topping out at EDGE speeds. The 7900 adds a fourth band of GSM coverage (Americans may want to stay away from the 7500 thanks to an absence of GSM 850), WCDMA 850 / 2100, 1GB of internal storage, and a trick 2 inch OLED screen. Both phones ride atop Series 40 3rd Edition and should be in shops this quarter -- if they aren't already -- for €210 and €400 (about $288 and $549) respectively. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Hands-on with the Nokia 7500 Prism

    Filed under: Handsets , Features , Nokia , GSM , GPRS , EDGE If you close your eyes and think of a Nokia candybar -- even a particularly stylish one -- we're guessing the 7500 Prism is about the furthest thing from what you'd envision. The oddities don't stop with the unusual geometric pattern adorning the phone's surface, either; despite using the latest and greatest version of Series 40, the 7500 is merely a 2.5G handset, unusual for even a midrange Nokia in the year 2007. But wait, it gets even better: take a gander at the bottom of the phone and you'll find a mini USB port where you might expect to find a Pop-Port (yeah, we know Nokia's been doing this as of late , but it's still a little bit of a shocker every time we see it). Was Nokia's little venture off the beaten path worth it? Read on to find out. Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup! %Gallery-5582% Naturally, the first thing you notice when you tear open the Prism's generous packaging materials is the handset's design. Nokia gives you a little preview of the goodness inside by printing similar geometric patterns on the box itself -- thoughtful, no? Anyway, the face is entirely glossy, while the back alternates between glossy and matte black triangles in a seemingly random pattern (the camera and flash peep through diamond and triangle windows, respectively). The sides transition at a hard, 90 degree angle -- befitting the phone's geometry theme, we suppose -- with chrome and blue (?) stripes sandwiched between black. The styling cues seemed to draw out all sorts of emotions; we personally didn't hate it or love it, but we definitely didn't think it had a particularly "premium" appearance. From a distance, we figured we'd have all sorts of trouble with the triangular keys, but we were pleasantly surprised -- we consistently busted out numbers with total accuracy and reasonable speed. Our biggest problem ended up being...
  • Hands-on with the Haier "Sterling"

    Filed under: Handsets , Features , Others , GSM , GPRS While devices like the iPhone , the N95 , and the RAZR 2 get the lion's share of the spotlight, a variety of less well-known manufacturers plod along in the background, quietly creating a plethora of decent handsets capable of servicing just about every segment of the market. One of those darkhorses is Haier , a company with a pretty sizable device lineup outside the US that, by all appearances, is now gingerly trying its hand at scoring some points with the fickle American consumer base. Its first serious effort was the Elegance -- alias "Black Pearl" -- a tiny, mirrored candybar that left us fairly impressed in our brief time with it earlier this year. Now we're getting a peek at the "Sterling," and while the name has changed, the concept has not. %Gallery-5329% From everything we remember of our encounter with the Elegance, we'd say that the Sterling is simply a reinterpreted version of it; it's ever so slightly larger than its forebear and adds a 1.3 megapixel camera, but the lovely, disappearing OLED display, integrated 3.5mm headphone jack (thank goodness), FM radio, microSD expansion, and highly mirrored finish all carry over. For folks that liked the Elegance's concept but didn't love the rather unusual keypad, that's a great thing -- but for current Elegance owners, there's really no reason to work yourself into a jealous rage here unless the lack of a camera has been a major issue. By and large, we found the Sterling to be a great phone for the fashion friendly, high-function segment -- official pricing hasn't been announced, but if Haier can keep this thing within earshot of its $199.99 deposit price, it has a winner on its hands. Our complaints were few and far between, though potential buyers may want to take note here: we weren't in love with the small, finicky navigation rocker at the top of the keypad (we actually preferred the Elegance's...
  • T-Mobile to trot out Nokia 2610 and Samsung t219s

    Filed under: Handsets , Nokia , Samsung , T-Mobile , GSM , GPRS T-Mobile's newly expunged Samsung t219s seems like an ordinary, low-end Sammy flip with nothing particularly striking about it. That is, until one discovers the "network address book" inside the menu system. Maybe that "s" suffix has some meaning, after all. Is this a new (yet unannounced) feature that allows contact sharing via SMS? If so, that would be hailed as a semi-masterpiece. We're still fond of Bluetoothing contacts across the room, but hey -- that's not always possible. Anyhoo, the Nokia 2610 , which includes myFaves support like the t219s, cements Nokia's place as the entry-level candybar of choice and has the humdrum, standard feature set expected for en entry-level Nokia on T-Mobile. No prices on these yet, but we're figuring they'll be freebies with a contract. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Hands-on with the Samsung SGH-U100 Ultra Edition II

    Filed under: Handsets , Features , Samsung , GSM , GPRS , EDGE A heck of a lot of phones pass through our grubby hands in the course of an average week, so it usually takes something of a minor miracle to get a rise out of us with a new handset. Well, Samsung, ya did it -- your crazy U100 is positively the most ridiculous feat of phone manufacturing we've seen to date. It's hard to accurately express with words or even pictures just how thin this thing feels in the hand. Whether that's a good thing, well... we reckon that's a matter of personal taste, but needless to say, we don't think this one would survive even a single smashing or bending unscathed (as one observer astutely noted, "this is a purse phone, not a pocket phone"). Despite its minimal girth, the Ultra Edition 5.9 sacrifices virtually nothing, offering A2DP, 80MB of onboard storage (no expansion slot, sadly), a 3.2 megapixel cam, and even TV out. The tri-band radio is a bit of a bummer, but we still found ourselves rocking out with four or five bars of signal strength virtually everywhere we went. Color us impressed! %Gallery-5026% Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
  • Vertu's 3G Ascent Ti hits FCC

    Filed under: Handsets , Vertu , GSM , GPRS , EDGE , UMTS You've gotta give credit to Vertu for maximizing the life of its Signature and Ascent models by tweaking colors and precious metals ad nauseam, but at some point, you knew they had to just gut the thing and start anew. This here "Ascent Ti" just passed through the FCC, taking the Ascent formula and updating key specs to bring the luxury phone well into 2007. Namely, the Ascent Ti offers UMTS 2100 (for 3G data pretty much everywhere but here), a whopping 3 megapixel autofocus camera with flash, and what appears to be a well-updated, Vertu customized build of Series 40. No word on release date, but unless your last name happens to be "Rockefeller," you may need the time to save the dough anyway. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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