866 Cellphones
Just another Cellphones News weblog
Sony Ericsson W995a approved by the FCC
Author: +866.com28 Apr
The North American version of Sony Ericsson W995, namely the W995a, was recently approved by the FCC – which means the phone might be soon launched in the US and Canada.
Codenamed Sony Ericsson Hikaru, the W995 / W995a is SE’s second handset that has an 8MP photo camera. Despite this, it’s not a Cyber-shot phone, but a Walkman one.
So, besides the nice photography-related features, the W995a also comes with a 3.5mm headset jack, Walkman 4.0 player, shake control, TrackID, stereo FM radio, stereo speakers and stereo Bluetooth.
No word yet if the W995a will be picked by a North American carrier (AT&T, Rogers?), or if it will be sold unlocked. In the second case, the slider will probably be quite expensive.
Via Engadget
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Samsung S8300 UltraTouch / Tocco review
Author: +866.com3 Apr
Samsung UltraTouch S8300 (known as Samsung Ultra Tocco in U.K), is heading for the shops right about now, so I think it is a good time to give this handset a closer look.
Samsung Ultra Touch has quite an interesting mix within it – 8 megapixel camera, full touchscreen interface and physical T9 keypad.
It is not the first TouchWiz UI equipped Samsung phone – they have already been selling like hotcakes throughout 2008.
But this kind of feature combination is the first for the Korean vendor. In a closed position, you may never guess that UltraTouch S8300 is not just another touchphone – the sliding keypad does not significantly alter the overall size of the device.
Slide it open and you get a normal feature phone with a familiar keypad, which is a really nice bonus. You can easily get by without ever opening the slider, but the keypad comes in handy quite often - actually, I found myself using it a lot. Even answering calls by opening the slider is a much more intuitive thing than tapping a touch button.
The construction of Samsung Ultra Touch is not the only thing that sets it apart from other handsets. New generation of widgets, photo contact application, great video capabilities… I could go on and on, but let’s dive into the details already.
Samsung Ultra Touch Design
Both the inside and the outside of Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch are very good. The overall design is pretty striking, but not too flashy, and gives the Samsung S8300 almost a premium look.
When closed, UltraTouch looks like any other grey-metallic Samsung phone, the nice red bezel being its only distinguishing feature. Open the slider and its colorfulness emerges. The colors are bright, but not too much so they don’t transform the Ultra Touch into a girly phone. It’s a fully “unisex” handset, that both you and your girlfriend can carry around.
The chassis of Samsung Ultra Touch combines metal and plastic, with the prevalence of metallic parts and some plastic elements. The upper sliding body is fully metallic, while the keypad and battery cover are made from plastic. Samsung has used good quality materials to make the UltraTouch S8300, thus the handset has a nice tactile feel overall. It also does not get any smudges or dust, even after extensive use.
Well, except for the display, but the screen is very easy to clean as well.
Samsung S8300 UltraTouch Display
Samsung S8300 UltraTouch’s display is one its distinguishing features. The S8300 is one of the few handsets today that comes equipped with an AMOLED screen. The pictures on it look very good, with really bright and lively colors. Even in bright sunlight the display dims only a bit, and can be easily viewed. The display has 2.8 inches and a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels, which is common for Samsung’s latest handsets. It might feel a bit small for Net browsing, but most multimedia needs are served nicely on a display of this size.
User Interface, Usability & Ergonomics of Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch
From the usability point of view, I cannot find any beef with it. By now, Samsung has got the TouchWiz UI working pretty well and it’s very easy to use.
On the UltraTouch, Samsung has made its desktop area span beside the actual visible area of the device’s screen. By swiping a finger you can scroll up and down through it to access additionl widgets.
One of the most interesting applications on the Samsung S8300 is PhotoContacts. It allows you to associate people in the pictures with contacts in the address book. After doing that, you only need to click on a contact’s photo to make a call or send SMS to a particular person.
Any problems inherent in full touchscreen phones, on Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch are easily remedied by the physical keypad and numerical navigation options. So even when wearing gloves (capacitive touchscreen does not work with covered fingers), the phone is pretty easy to use. The only thing that I found to complain about is a separte unlock key, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
Samsung UltraTouch camera
So what does this beauty have inside of it? Well, tons of very nice things.
Let’s start with the camera on Samsung UltraTouch. Maximum resolution on it is 3264 x 2448 pixels, which gives you a total of 8 mpx. The pictures at this resolution are pretty “heavy” – 2 megabyte a piece, so be sure to use a big memory card if you plan to take a lot of them.
The camera settings are quite extensive and should fit the needs of most of the creative types. You can set white balance, autofocus parameters (macro, face and smile recognition, panorama focus), manual ISO (100-1600) settings and digital image stabilization.
Samsung S8300 has a GPS chip inside and is able to use EXIF geotags on the photos, so you can sort your pictures by location on most of the popular photosharing sites and applications. Samsung UltraTouch can manually or automatically upload your pictures to Flickr, Picasa, Facebook and other services.
The camera of Samsung S8300 also has pretty good video shooting capabilities. It records at 30fps, 720 x 480 resolution, and has 3 different compression modes.
Samsung UltraTouch’s camera is operational only in open slider mode, with the slider mechanism serving as a lens cover too.
Multimedia on Samsung Ultra Touch
The music player on Samsung S8300 is pretty good and easy to use. The only problem is the lack of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, but that should be remedied by the adapter.
The videoplayer cand play all major video formats, including DivX at VGA (680 x 480 pixels) resolution and 1.5 Mbps bitrate – which is really great for a mobile phone.
Samsung UltraTouch has a built-in accelerometer and switches between portrait and landscape mode automatically both in video and browsing modes. Unfortunately, it does this only in one direction – left. If you turn the phone on its right side, you still get the landscape mode, but picture will be upside down.
Conclusions
When Samsung UltraTouch S8300 was first announced, it looked like just another 8 megapixel slider. This time from Samsung and, again, with its TouchWiz UI.
But a closer look at the phone left me impressed. Great design, some interesting new approaches, and a very good usability makes the Samsung S8300 UltraTouch a very good choice if you are in the market for this type of feature phones.
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Motorola Hint QA30 to be launched by Bell Canada
Author: +866.com28 Mar
Already available in the US, Motorola Hint QA30 will soon be introduced in Canada as well, via Bell Mobility.
Reportedly, the second largest Canadian carrier will start selling the Hint QA30 on April 9, for as low as $129.95 (with a three year contract agreement). Sans contract, the handset should be available for $329.95.
In case you don’t know yet, Hint QA30 is Motorola’s first slider to come with a full QWERTY keypad.
Other than that, the phone features stuff like a QVGA display, GPS, Email, Web browser, Bluetooth, a 2MP camera and memory expansion slot (up to 8GB).
All in all, if you text a lot while on the go and don’t mind having a square-ish handset in your pocket, Motorola Hint QA30 may be a good choice for you.
Via Mobile Syrup
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Samsung Betty Boop
Author: +866.com28 Mar
A new Samsung Betty Boop mobile phone has appeared online, and considering that Samsung has previously released a Samsung Tobi, which was targeted at kids, this phone shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. This slider handset is a limited-edition model, and has the signature and theme of the famous cartoon character. The Samsung Betty Boop will support GSM/GPRS/EDGE, VGA camera, MMS, MP3 music playback, FM radio and also a microSD memory card expansion. The phone will be going for €129, though you’ll be able to pick it up from Bouygues Telecom for €1 if you commit yourself to a 2-year contract.
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Sony Ericsson to focus on Cyber-shot phones in the US – C905 confirmed
Author: +866.com20 Mar
Rumors about the arrival of Sony Ericsson C905 in the US have been around since November 2008, and now it’s all confirmed.
Reuters reports that Sony Ericsson will put a serious effort to promote its Cyber-shot camera phones in the US, starting the second quarter of 2009.
In particular, SE will introduce the 8 Megapixel C905 slider to US customers.
Jon Mulder, Sony Ericsson’s head of product marketing for North America, is confident that the C905 can attract a considerable number of buyers: “We know that this device is going to be relevant to consumers in the second half.”
The Cyber-shot phone should be sold for $199 to $249 if a North American carrier decides to offer it with a 2-yr contract agreement. And that carrier is likely to be AT&T – since we saw a C905a with AT&T firmware some time ago.
The C905 will be the second 8MP camera phone launched in the US, after T-Mobile’s Samsung Memoir, which is currently sold for $249 (with a contract agreement for two years).
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Samsung M2510 – low-end music phone
Author: +866.com20 Mar
Alongside Samsung’s first Android smartphone and the company’s new touchscreen handset line-up, the Samsung M2510 may not look that impressive.
And that’s logical, since we’re talking about an entry-level slider, targeted at users who don’t want to spend too much on a music-oriented handset.
The M2510 comes with some funky music-dedicated keys, a small alphanumeric keypad and a 2 inch QVGA display. Also, it has MP3 player, FM radio, Bluetooth, USB and a VGA photo camera.
The phone looks really nice, and this will probably help it stand out.
No details yet on when Samsung M2510 will hit the market, and neither on its retail price (but this will surely not be a high one).
Via GSM Helpdesk
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Sprint 2009 roadmap leaked: HTC Rhodium, HTC Cedar, Samsung Dash, BlackBerry Niagara and 8 others
Author: +866.com20 Mar
If this newly-leaked Sprint roadmap is legit, the second largest North American CDMA carrier will have at least 10 new handsets to offer in the upcoming months.
First of all – as expected – it’s said the Palm Pre will be introduced in the second quarter of 2009, thus in April, May or June.
Unsurprisingly, the Pre is targeted at “high-end consumers and business users who need to stay connected to their office and who will benefit from fast EV-DO rev. A data speeds and a full functional device.”
Next, Q2 2009 should also bring the following devices to Sprint:
- Samsung Dash, featuring a 320 x 480 pixels touchscreen display, 5MP camera and EV-DO Rev. A connectivity. It’s presented as the ”second generation Instinct”
- HTC Cedar – a “low cost smart device” with WM 6.1, a QWERTY keyboard and EV-DO Rev. A connectivity
- Samsung Mini, which is obviously the Instinct Mini / Instinct S30. It should come for an affordable price
- Samsung Lucello (or Cello) – messaging phone with an alphanumeric keypad and a full QWERTY keyboard
- Sanyo 2700, a low-cost messaging device with a QWERTY keyboard
- LG LX-370 – a basic slider
In the third quarter of 2009, Sprint should release the following handsets:
- Samsung Chianti – QWERTY slider presented as a “green device” and targeted at “affluent female customers”
- Samsung Ace II – obviously replacing the first Samsung Ace. It has Windows Mobile 6.1, QVGA display, QWERTY keyboard, 3MP camera, EV-DO rev. A and GSM connectivity
- BlackBerry Niagara
- Kyocera-Sanyo 3810 – simple clamshell
There’s also the HTC Rhodium on Sprint’s roadmap. This is actually the HTC Touch Pro2 with EV-DO rev. A and HSDPA connectivity. It should be out in Q4 2009. What’s weird is that the Rhodium appears as running on “Windows 7.X”, although Windows Mobile 7 will only be launched in 2010.
Anyway, since for the moment we can’t confirm that all the above-mentioned devices will be indeed launched by Sprint, we can only wait for more official details to come up.
Source: Phone News via BGR
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Samsung C3310 surfaces – a simple slider
Author: +866.com20 Mar
Samsung is getting ready to release yet another entry-level phone, the C3310.
It’s a tiny 3G-less slider that will be introduced in China (via China Mobile), as well as across Europe, for an affordable price: around 110 Euros ($150).
There’s nothing exciting about the C3310, as it has a simple design and a set of basic features, but people who don’t need more will probably find the handset good enough for them.
The phone’s specs and features include:
- Quad band GSM connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with EDGE
- 176 x 220 pixels display with 262K colors
- Bluetooth
- MP3 player
- FM radio
- USB
- MicroSD card support
- 99.9 x 48.5 x 13.8 mm
- 93 grams
No word yet on when Samsung C3310 will be on sale, but we know it should be available in three color versions: black, silver and blue.
Via Mobil.cz
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T-Mobile branded Nokia 5330 XpressMusic leaked
Author: +866.com20 Mar
Nokia 5330 XpressMusic, the new slider officially announced last week, will apparently be released by T-Mobile – probably in both the US and Europe.
The phone was recently spotted in a black/blue color version (unseen until now), with T-Mobile’s logo on it.
According to Cell Phone Signal, this version should be introduced in the US in June or July.
T-Mo USA already has two XpressMusic handsets (5310 and 5610), and the new 5330 should be a perfect replacement for them.
Nokia said the 5330 would have a retail price of 160 Euros ($210), so let’s hope that, with a contract agreement, the slider will be offered by T-Mobile for under $100.
The features of 5330 (plus a hands-on video) can be seen here.
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Motorola Evoke QA4 more specs (GPS included), live pics
Author: +866.com16 Mar
The official announcement of Motorola QA4 EVDO touchscreen slider must be coming really soon.
We’ve seen QA4 press pics, some specs and Evoke trade name, and even interface details leak out to the net these past few months.
Today, thanks to FCC, that made earlier confidential live pics and users manual public, we get even more info about the specs and also some live pics of Motorola QA4 Evoke:
Most of the specs of Motorola Evoke QA4 were already known and included:
- Touchscreen display with virtual QWERTY keyboard (the screen’s resolution is probably 240 x 400 pixels)
- Bluetooth with A2DP
- MP3 player
- E-mail, Instant Messaging
- Voice recognition
- 2MP camera with video
- MicroSD / MicroSDHC support
- 108 x 50.5 x 17.5 mm
- 128 grams
What I can add today is that Motorola QA4 will also have built-in A-GPS navigation, will come with widget support for weather, news headlines, etc; tethering mode for data and built-in accelerometer. MotorolaQA4 will also be able to Sync with Google Contacts, YouTube and Picasa accounts.
Well, that’s about it for now. Stay tuned for more info on QA4 Evoke as we get it.