BlackBerry Thunder 9500 surfaces, taking on iPhone 3GThe full touch-based BlackBerry Thunder 9500 has been awash in rumors online. Now several officia

The full touch-based BlackBerry Thunder 9500 has been awash in rumors online. Now several official photos have leaked to prove that the Thunder is a real deal and it will boast a spanking new Blackberry Touch UI OS.

If you have accidentally felt that you may be riding the tech wave with your super latest high tech mobile phone, RIM might just be able to prove you wrong. While we are still waiting for an official announcement, meet the BlackBerry Thunder.

The BlackBerry Thunder 9500 will run on a new Blackberry OS that's fully touch-centric and will sport an extra large touchscreen TFT display (it's not really a mere 2.5-incher, sorry folks, our bad!) with 360 x 480 pixels resolution. with 360 x 480 pixels resolution. Most importantly it will be a hybrid device, working in GSM and EV-DO networks supporting EDGE/HSDPA and built-in GPS.

Interestingly enough, those press-grade photos leak just days before the Apple iPhone 3G release in what seems to be a Blackberry PR attempt to dissuade some potential iPhone 3G customers.

And indeed, it looks like Apple iPhone 3G has got a tough competitor in the face of the BlackBerry Thunder. The latter will run a carrier music store which is similar to the iPhone's iTunes store and will allow users to purchase songs directly from their device.

Internet browsing on BlackBerry Thunder will be significantly improved to match the superb Safari browser in the iPhone. We hope the Thunder will also sport the sweet auto screen rotation feature as well - it's all about accelerometers these days.

The feature-rich device will probably run on the 624 MHz CPU known from the recently announced Blackberry Bold.

The BlackBerry Thunder 9500 will be exclusively available for Verizon and Vodafone customers but its pricing and availability are not confirmed by a reliable source.

source gsmarena

MWg releases the Zinc II with full slide-out QWERTY keyboard

Today MWg announced the market availability of their full slide-out QWERTY Windows Mobile-based Zinc II. The device was announced back in May 2008 but it's only now that this high-end device will see daylight at a shop window (or at an online store front for that matter).

Despite being relatively unknown on certain markets MWg did manage to produce a handset that's maybe worth your while reading.

MWg Zinc II has quad-band GSM support as well as 3G (with HSDPA) to ensure quick network data transfers. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional-powered device also features a 2.8-inch QVGA screen and runs on a 500 MHz Samsung CPU. The built-in RAM memory is 64 MB.

MWg Zinc II also boasts Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and a 2 megapixel snapper. There is also an integrated GPS receiver with the SiRFStar III chipset. A microSD card slot is also built-in to allow extension of the internal memory. The nice feature pack and the rather powerful 1530 mAh Li-Po battery haven't been too merciful on the Zinc's waistline - it weighs 185 g.

Currently, the MWg Zinc II can be found online at about the same price as the HTC TyTN II - a bit under 900 US dollars (about 715 euro). Now if you ask us, it sounds a bit overpriced and if we were you (which sounds like an obvious case of schizophrenia), we would definitely wait up for the HTC Touch Pro to come out before we make a buying decision.

source gsmarena

Motorola quietly releases MING A1600 and MING A1800

Motorola announced two more smartphones today without any bells and whistles. The MOTOMING A1600 and MOTOMING A1800 are two powerful business devices armed with Linux, GPS, touchscreen and a bunch of other goodies.

We have posted about these devices before while they were still in their rumors stage, but now it's as official as it gets.

Motorola MING A1600

The Motorola MING A1600 flaunts a 2.4-inch 262K color TFT display with a QVGA resolution. It's touchscreen and there is also a stylus to help you get around. The signature MING semi-transparent plastic active cover protects the display and aids in call management.

Motorola MING A1600

A Motorola MING A1600 runs on the Linux OS, much like the predecessor MING A1200. The A1600 has got quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and no 3G functionality - a clear sign it's been mainly targeted at the Chinese market.

A 3 megapixel camera with continuous autofocus makes the A1600 the first to offer that feature on a mobile phone. The camera also is able to shoot a burst of images in GIF format and then save them all in one single animated GIF - that sounds so 90s. A business card scanner application also puts the camera to good use. A unique scanning translation feature allows you to shoot a sign or some text and then have it translated by the on-board dictionary.

The Motorola A1600 also packs a microSD card slot (up to 4GB), stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), a microUSB port, and a stereo FM radio. Unfortunately, there's no Wi-Fi connectivity as it was rumored.

Thanks to the built-in GPS receiver users can also enjoy real-time GPS navigation as well as geotagging of the photos taken by the 3 megapixel camera.

Measuring 98.9 x 53.5 x 19.6mm and weighing 128g, the Motorola MING A1600 is certainly not among the most compact devices.

Unfortunately, we don't have any information regarding pricing and availability plans.

Motorola MING A1800

The Motorola MING A1800 is almost a twin of the A1600 - they share the 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen display, the 3 megapixel camera, the microSD memory card slot (up to 4GB), and the stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), and finally… the built-in GPS and the Linux OS. There's no Wi-Fi support again.

Motorola MING A1800

The MOTOMING A1800 however packs two radio transceivers - that means it offers simultaneous connection to two networks. But there's even more to that - the A1800 can hook up to both GSM and CDMA networks. The GSM support covers tri-band GSM and GPRS (no EDGE or 3G), while the CDMA support covers the CDMA 1x standard.

That makes the A1800 a really interesting cross-breed, but you can bet that we won't be seeing any of it over here in Europe, where CDMA is hardly to be found.

As you might have guessed it, there's no info on the A1800 availability and pricing.

source gsmarena

Motorola Motozine ZN5 is out, this time it's official

Well, the Motorola ZN5 is finally official - the 5 megapixel handset, which is co-branded by Kodak, offers some original cameraphone features that are bound to give shutterbugs a fair share of restless nights.

Information and photos of the Motorola ZN5 leaked online numerous times and we are glad to see it officially posted now. It turns out that the ZN5 is the first handset to be produced under the MOTOZINE lineup, which will be Motorola's new label for multimedia-rich devices. If all goes well, we hope to see more devices under that sub-brand.

The MOTOZINE ZN5 is a smartphone based on the Linux OS and runs on a Freescale 500MHz processor. All recently leaked Motorola phones seem to use that OS and that makes us wonder what happened to UIQ ones - Motorola used to be highly involved with UIQ technology in the past.

With the ZN5 users will enjoy a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT display and Wi-Fi connectivity. Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), 3.5mm audio/video jack (TV-out), FM radio, microSD card slot and some 350MB of memory are also on board.

The touch-sensitive morphing keypad, called ModeShift and first introduced in Motorola E8, is also present here. It's got haptic feedback on every key press and key designations and backlight change in accordance to the currently used application.

The Motorola ZN5 will measure 12mm in thickness, which is a rather nice achievement - it actually puts it in Top 5 of slimmest 5 megapixel cameraphones. The body thickness however increases around the camera area to up to 16mm.

The ZN5 however managed to disappoint us with the lack of 3G connectivity - having only EDGE is a bit of a downer even if it's quad-band GSM, iPhone owners will tell you that for sure. We are guessing the reason for that is the Motozine ZN5 is targeted mainly at the Chinese market, were EDGE is as fast as it gets. We really hope that this feature will be updated as the device rolls throughout 3G-enabled markets.

Now in terms of photo-centric capabilities, we already told you that the new Motorola ZN5 will be able to offer some really nice surprises. We start off with the xenon flash, the auto focus assist beam, and some cunning low-light setup. Those things aren't new, but it's getting better.

The ZN5 camera will offer two apertures values, which is a first among cameraphones. The camera will automatically pick between F2.8 (the standard for all cameraphones) and F5.6 (when there is enough light). Now that may not mean much to you, but a tighter aperture such as F5.6 will actually bring less lens issues and better corner-to-corner sharpness.

The ZN5 is also capable of shooting in RAW image format. The image data is losslessly stored in TIFF format.

The Kodak participation has brought the Kodak Perfect Touch technology to the ZN5. While it sounds impressive, it's a mere quick fix of photos that will be available straight on the handset. We are guessing something like the Sony Ericsson PhotoFix option, which improves underexposed images and adds contrast.

The ZN5 also offers direct image upload to KODAK Gallery, as well as integration of the ShoZu client, which can upload images to various social networking clients.

Motorola ZN5 will be first available in China in July 2008 and is expected to ship around the world later this year. Pricing is yet unknown.

source gsmarena

IM-R300, a New Touch Phone from Pantech

Here's a new phone made for the Korean market, the IM-R300. Under it sleek design it carries some nifty features like a DMB TV tuner, GPS, a 2Mpix Camera, MP3 player, 260Mb of internal Memory, microSD, a 2.6” LCD with a WQVGA screen (400x240), HSDPA, WCDMA, GSM, eWallet functions and payment. With a total weight of 111g and a size of 51x102x13.9mm.

So far only Available on Korea's SKY network. Pretty girl, unfortunately not included...
source akihabaranews

Samsung i900 Omnia announcedSamsung i900 Omnia announced, live pics inside, live pics inside

The highly rumored Samsung i900 is finally unveiled by Samsung. Called Samsung i900 Omnia, this Windows Mobile PocketPC seems as a strong competitor of the rumored 3G iPhone, which should be announced today too. Of course, the feature set puts it head-to-head with HTC Touch Diamond too. However we have the feeling that the HTC TouchFLO 3D might be a bit more spectacular than what the Samsung i900 offers.

Samsung i900 Omnia will be first displayed at the CommunicAsia expo held in Singapore from June 17 to 20 but all details about its specifications are already made public.

Based on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, the Samsung i900 offers a 3.2-inch WideQVGA display (240 x 400 pixels) and an optical mouse much like the one found in the Samsung i780. Camera-wise the Samsung i900 Omnia is one helluva amibitious handset - offering a 5 megapixel auto focus snapper with face and smile detection plus auto-panorama shot. Geotagging is also among the camera features since the i900 also packs a built-in GPS receiver.

As style has it, the Samsung i900 Omnia waistline is only 12.5mm and the brushed metal back certainly adds to its refined looks. That figure along with the other dimensions makes it rather identical to the Apple iPhone. Most importantly the i900 shares with the iPhone the same massive internal memory - both an 8GB and a 16GB i900 versions will be available with the microSD still present for further expanding those with up to 16 gigs worth of storage.

Samsung i900 Omnia official photos

The specs sheet of the Samsung i900 is then boosted by the quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus HSDPA 7.2Mbps. Thanks to the built-in accelerometer, the UI automatically rotates to follow the handset's current orientation. Wi-Fi support is also on board to make the i900 sound even juicier.

The USB port, FM radio with RDS and stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) are among the final touches to this loaded PocketPC.

And since touch-optimization is of critical importance when you strive to compete with Apple's iPhone, Samsung have also ported their TouchWiz user interface for use on Windows Mobile. We saw that Touch UI for the first time on the Samsung F480 and we surely enjoyed it.

The Samsung i900 Omnia will be market available from June 2008 (Europe - July 2008), which also coincides with the projected availability of the new 3G iPhone.

Since we had the opportunity to spend some time with the Samsung i900 Omnia before its official release, we can gladly provide you with some more detailed real-life shots as well as a 3D view of Samsung i900 Omnia. Enjoy!

source gsmarena

Nokia E66 and Nokia E71 finally out

After tons of leaked info and photos, Nokia finally announced officially the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 Symbian smartphones. They shouldn't have bothered, since the full specs and press photos surfaced online quite some time ago, but nevertheless it's good to know that Nokia keeps track of its future phones.

The Nokia E71 has got a full hardware QWERTY keypad and comes as a successor of the Nokia E61i. The Nokia E71 brings much more style to the E-series since it packs a waistline of only 10mm. However the display has shrunk a bit to 2.36 inches (as compared to the 2.8-inch one of Nokia E61i).

Nokia E71 White Steel and Nokia E71 Grey Steel

The Nokia E66 is the same business-grade device as the Nokia E71, however without the QWERTY keyboard. It comes as a successor of the Nokia E65 and is equipped with a large 2.4-inch TFT display of QVGA resolution. Infrared port (are they serious?), microUSB port, and Bluetooth (A2DP and EDR) are also on board.

Nokia E66 will also sport a built-in accelerometer, which would allow auto screen rotation, as well as silencing of incoming calls when the device is turned over.

Nokia E66 White Steel and Nokia E66 Grey Steel

Besides that both the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 feature built-in GPS receiver which works with Nokia Maps, 3 megapixel auto focus cameras capable of shooting video in up to VGA resolution at 22 fps (which is actually usable) and of course - HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. Also both come equipped with microSD card slots that will allow expanding the available 110MB memory with up to 8GB worth of additional storage.

Email messaging is the highlight of both devices as they both support a wide range of personal and corporate email standards such as Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email solution, as well as System Seven and Visto Mobile. These new Symbian smartphones also come with a new switch mode for switching between personal and work home screens. Encryption is also on board as well as mobile VPN support.

Dressed in stainless steel cases and etched graphics (E51-style), the new handsets will be available in grey steel or white steel colors. Both Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 are expected to begin shipping in July and both devices are expected to retail at 350 euro before taxes and subsidies.

source gsmarena

8 megapixel Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot leaked

Well, Sony Ericsson have been covering this one up until now. Their uber cameraphone is finally in the wild with all the sweet details. The Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot codenamed Shiho is an 8 megapixel shooter and believe us when we say this - this one is not a mock up, we've seen it live with our very own eyes.

The Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot packs auto focus (but you already knew that), face detection, image stabilization and both a xenon and a photo flash (this one's for video), as well as a nice new feature called Smart Contrast.

The C905 photos can be geotagged thanks to the built-in GPS receiver. The accelerometer will allow for screen auto rotation when you go through your camera album. It's also got a TV-out port for watching your images on the TV.

The Sony Ericsson C905 is also armed with a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT display with scratch-resistant mineral glass cover. It's the first Sony Ericsson feature phone to feature Wi-Fi support - and there's even more. The Wi-Fi feature supports DLNA, which is basically a wireless media sharing protocol that runs on top of Wi-Fi. Nokia N96 has it too by the way.

The Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot is somewhere in the line of 104 x 49 x 18 (or 19.5) millimetres and weighs good 136 grams. It'll be available in Copper Gold, Ice Silver & Night Black in early Q4 2008 with a bundled 2 GB Memory Stick Micro M2.

Connectivity wise, it comes in three variants, two with full support for UMTS and HSDPA for the respective regions (yes, the Americas too). The battery is good for 380 hours of standby or 9 hours of talk on GSM networks, or 360 hours of standby or 4 hours of talk on 3G networks.

source gsmarena

HTC Raphael hailed as Touch Pro

HTC have finally unveiled their commercial incarnation of the HTC Raphael platform - we welcome the HTC Touch Pro. Based on the appealing Touch Diamond design, the HTC Touch Pro throws in a full QWERTY keyboard to the equation and really impresses with its specs sheet.

Based on Windows Mobile 6.1, the HTC Touch Pro delivers 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 512MB internal storage, 288MB RAM, a microSD slot, a 2.8-inch VGA screen, 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera, GPS receiver, and a 1350 mAh battery that is tounted to provide up to 8 hours of talk time (as opposed to the 900 mAh battery in the Touch Diamond).

The HTC Touch Pro is a worthy successor of the HTC TyTN II. HTC should have started producing VGA-resolution devices a long time ago. The HTC Touch Pro is shorter, narrower and most importantly lighter than the HTC TyTN II - the latter PocketPC could hardly be called pocketable (pun intended!).

The HTC Touch Pro features a newly designed 5-row QWERTY keyboard (as opposed to 4 rows in the HTC TyTN II) - and it's with a QWERTY keyboard that Windows Mobile Pro really shines. So choosing between the HTC Touch Diamond and HTC Touch Pro will be a touch choice for fans of the extra smart Windows devices.

Among the other highlights of the Touch Pro is the latest TouchFLO 3D user interface that allows intuitive finger-based operation. The new Opera 9.5 is also part of the pre-installed package which offers unsurpassed web browsing experience on the Windows Mobile platform. A HTC-developed YouTube client will also allow users to watch online videos.

The HTC Touch Pro will be available in Europe, Asia and the Middle East in late summer. The North American and Latin American versions of Touch Pro will be available later in 2008.

source gsmarena

Samsung L870 unveiled - Symbian smartphone in metal

Yet another Symbian S60 joins the ranks of Samsung high-class sliders. Reminding strongly of the Samsung G810, the Samsung L870 has a great-looking brushed stainless steel body and some capable hardware.

The Samsung L870 is powered by the same Symbian OS and user interface as all Nokia N-series smartphones. This new pup is only 13.5mm in thickness and has a 3 megapixel camera and a 2.4-inch 16M color TFT display with QVGA resolution. Unfortunately we still don't know whether the camera has an auto focus system or not.

The Samsung L870 will have tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus HSDPA 3.6Mbps for fast wireless data transfers. Speaking of wireless, the only thing that let us down in the L870 specs sheet is that it lacks Wi-Fi functionality. Pity indeed, since the device is the first Symbian smartphone to have the Safari mobile web browser on board. Whether it's exactly the same browser as in the Apple iPhone is not yet sure. However we should point out that the excellent Symbian S60 3rd edition mobile web browser shares one and the same platform with the iPhone's Safari mobile browser.

Bashed: We received an email from Samsung apologizing for the misunderstanding about the mentioning of the Safari browser in their press release. The Samsung L870 is equipped with the latest version of the S60 web browser and not the Safari mobile browser by Apple. As we already pointed out, the two mobile browser share the same platform.

The Samsung L870 will also host FM radio and Bluetooth and USB connectivity. The internal memory is 100MB and the memory card slot can take a microSD card with a capacity of up to 4GB.

source gsmarena

Fujitsu Introduces Its Latest Mobile Phone, the F906i

We've just returned from a Fujitsu Press Conference in Tokyo (Shimbashi), where they introduced their new mobile phone, the F906i. The first thing we'd like to highlight is the very warm welcome we received from Fujitsu's employees!.

About the new F906i… It's is a pretty phone that comes with 3.2'' FullWide rotary screen with a VGA resolution of 864x480. It carries two cameras with a CMOS sensor, 3.2Mpix for the outside one, and 320,000 pixels for inside one, a slot for microSD/SDHC (8GB Maximum), OneSeg TV Tuner, FM radio, GPS. It can also read MP4 and ASF video formats, and is 3G +

Here are some other nice functions found on our F906i:

- Research function: With a simple press of a button (look at the pictures) you can find anything, a stored contact, an MP3 file, a restaurant on the Internet, or a place…
- The ability to split your screen in order to watch TV and navigate the Internet simultaneously.
- A small finger-print sensor on the back that acts as multi directional keys.
- Rainbow-color keypad illumination (in seven colors - the key pad can be set to change colors as desired).
- Something I really like, just hit your phone in order to silence an alarm.
- Adobe Flash 8 compatible, allowing you to navigate to almost any web site on the Internet.
- Quick Zoom-in and zoom-out function.

source akihabaranews

Samsung Announced the Launch of Their Latest Mobile: "Spirit Of Ultra"

Samsung announced its new "Spirit of Ultra" in bar form factor. Our mobile phone features a 2.0'' QVGA screen, a 3MPix camera, a new UI, 1GB of internal memory, and a MicroSD Slot. This new device is Tri-Band (900, 1800, 1900MHz), HSDPA (2100MHz) compatible. It supports MPR/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA/RA audio files, and allows you to record and edit your videos in 15fps. Available in five colors: Soul Grey, Platinum Silver, Metallic Black, Soul Pink, and Amethyst Violet.

SEOUL, KOREA – May 30, 2008 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a leading mobile phone provider, announced the launch of Soulb, “Sprit of Ultra” (Soul) in bar form factor. By containing all the merits of Soul DNA, Soulb outstands from all of the other bar type handsets available in market today, setting a brand new standard for bar handset category.

Continuing the legacy of Soul, Soulb captures the eyes of the viewer at once with its astonishing state-of-the-art design. Just as Soul, Soulb is fully covered in an elegant metallic body which is softly brushed with hairline pattern. Soulb‘s trim graceful outline with mere 9.9mm thickness undoubtedly resembles the sleek silhouette of Soul. Just as its precedent, Soulb once again amazes the viewer with its utterly splendid yet minimalistic design.

Available in five luscious colors, Soul Grey, Platinum Silver, Metallic Black, Soul Pink and Amethyst Violet, Soulb will satisfy even the most unappeasable style-conscious users’ needs.

Soulb is not only beautiful to stare at from the outside, but it is also fully equipped with attractive up-to-date features inside. An embedded 3-megapixel camera with Power LED, office document viewer and editor, full speed internet browser and Bluetooth v.2.0 will fully support convenience users need without compromising style.

Quality entertainment features such as music player, video editor and recorder and FM radio with RDS are also embedded within Soulb. 1GB internal memory and microSD slot provides sufficient space for users to store all the music and pictures they love.

“Soulb is an important stepping stone for Samsung.” said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung’s Telecom Business. “Soulb proves the world that Samsung is not only a predominant leader in selective form factors, but that it continuously seeks after becoming the leader in all variety of form factors, including slider, clamshell and bar.” he continued.

Soulb will first become available in Germany early June. It will then continue the Soul legend in numerous other countries and regions, including Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia (China), Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and South America.
source akihabaranews