Nokia N96 gets in-depth review months ahead of release
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:51 am -
Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year — if not longer, depending on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going — to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they’re taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96’s strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone’s socks off — especially for a sticker price that’ll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn’t bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a “shovel”-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone’s generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it’s released later this year — and hey, at least Nokia’s got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now — so we’re keeping our chins up that this’ll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.
[Via Tech Digest and NokNok]
Tags: mobile review, MobileReview, n96, Nokia, review
Posted in CELL PHONE, EDGE, GSM, HSDPA, Handsets, Multimedia, Nokia, Symbian, UMTS | No Comments »
Rogers getting the LG Vu in May, too
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:46 am -
It turns out that AT&T won’t be the only network picking up the Americanized version of LG’s Prada — the blacked-out, touch-tastic Vu — come this May; Rogers wants in on the action up north of the border, too, and they’ll be keeping pace with their GSM brethren below the St. Lawrence by launching the phone in the very same time frame. We can only assume that Rogers will be launching the CU915 variant (or TU915, as it’ll probably come to be known to them) since the carrier doesn’t feature a MediaFLO network that would warrant the need for the CU920’s additional hardware and expense. As we already know, the phone will feature a 2 megapixel camera, HSDPA, microSD expansion, and it comes as no surprise that the phone will support access to the full host of Rogers’ media services. It looks like pricing will be announced closer to launch, but you might want to just start putting away the occasional dollar now, because this one ain’t exactly going out the door free on contract if you catch our drift.
[Via Mobile In Canada]
Tags: canada, lg, rogers, Rogers Wireless, RogersWireless, vu
Posted in CELL PHONE, EDGE, GSM, HSDPA, Handsets, Rogers Wireless, UMTS, lg | No Comments »
LG Vu further slides into view
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:41 am -
Those eagerly anticipating the LG Vu now have a little more to go by — at least visually, anyway. The specs floating around jibe with everything we’ve heard, and apparently include a nice 3-inch 400 x 240 display. Head on over to Phone Arena for more.
Tags: cu915, cu920, vu
Posted in AT&T, CELL PHONE, EDGE, GSM, HSDPA, Handsets, lg | No Comments »
LG’s Viewty KE990 is downgraded KU990, destined for China?
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:36 am -
Remember the KU990 Viewty? Of course you do, well, meet its twin — but decidedly duller — sibling, the KE990 — notice that E? That means EDGE. This handset apparently brings most or all of the same goods to the table as the KU990 did but lacks HSDPA and dumps tri-band for dual. So yeah, rather than stuffing this thing with another HSDPA band — ah-frickin’-hem — LG has chosen to head in another, less interesting direction by stripping it of some of what made it glorious in the first place. Of course, if rumors of it going to China prove true, we get that removing the 3G radio will improve battery life and shrink the price a bit for that market — as not all markets want that 3G speed — but this still hurts as we’re way cooler with more, better, faster around here. Hopefully we’ll hear a little something announced at CTIA but until then, we’ll simply pretend none of this ever happened.
Tags: China, KE990, KU990, lg, Viewty
Posted in CELL PHONE, EDGE, GSM, Handsets, lg | No Comments »
BlackBerry Curve 8330 launching on Verizon in May
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:33 am -
After seeing it kicked around the Net for a few months, it’s good to see the BlackBerry Curve 8330 finally go live on Verizon Wireless. Well, almost — you’ll have to wait until May to lay thumb to QWERTY while riding that cool EV-DO wave of data. It’ll cost you $270 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract with further discounts available when signing up for eligible voice and data plans. Your cash will be rewarded with the wee 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6-inches / 4-ounces curve sporting a 320 x 240 pixel display, 2-megapixel camera, media player, stereo Bluetooth audio, microSD / SDHC expansion, and 260 minutes talk / 11 days standby. Unfortunately, it’s missing WiFi like the early prototype and GPS like the rumored Sprint version coming in April.
Update: Sorry, scratch that. It does have GPS which Verizon touts as vzNavigator.
Tags: 8330, blackberry, blackberry curve, BlackberryCurve, curve, RIM, Verizon, verizon wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw
Posted in CDMA, CELL PHONE, EV-DO, Handsets, RIM, verizon wireless | No Comments »
Sony Ericsson Z750a coming to AT&T in early April
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:29 am -
It’s not a surprise, but it’s still overwhelmingly refreshing to see Sony Ericsson finally (and we do mean finally) bringing some 3G action onto AT&T. The “a” variant of the glossy, colorful Z750 clamshell will be hitting AT&T in an official capacity come early April, featuring an OLED external display cleverly concealed by the phone’s translucent shell, a 2 megapixel camera and media player both backed up with Memory Stick Micro M2 expansion, stereo Bluetooth, and of course, that lovely HSDPA 850 / 1900 that’s eluded Sony Ericsson’s AT&T offerings for far, far too long. Look for it to go out the door for $49.99 after a $100 rebate.
Tags: , breaking news, BreakingNews, clamshell, ericsson, flip, sony, Sony Ericsson, SonyEricsson, z750, z750a
Posted in AT&T, CELL PHONE, EDGE, GSM, Handsets, Sony Ericsson, UMTS | No Comments »
Lime green Motorola Q9c headed to Alltel, US Cellular
Written by admin on May 5, 2008 – 4:25 am -
Don’t you dare say green wasn’t already in style, as in all actuality, it’s US Cellular and Alltel following the crowd yet again. As the run-up to CTIA 2008 continues, the aforesaid outfits have both announced that a lime green variant of the Motorola Q9c will soon be on their shelves. Aside from that, prospective customers can also snap up the WinMo 6-powered Q9c in licorice, and of course, they’ll find a 1.3-megapixel camera, 2.4-inch display and 128MB of onboard memory. As for pricing, you can call Alltel’s version your own for $99.99 on contract, and while US Cellular is being mum on the subject, both providers will have ‘em available “this summer.”
Tags: , ctia 2008, Ctia2008, green, lime green, LimeGreen, motorola, q9c, US Cellular, UsCellular
Posted in Alltel, CDMA, CELL PHONE, Handsets, US Cellular, motorola, windows mobile | No Comments »