Cell Phones

Verizon can’t be feeling too hot about being the straggler to the Galaxy S party, but the wait seems to be almost at an end. Best Buy’s just started taking in-store pre-orders for the Fascinate, while the latest internal document leak from VZW indicates a specific September 9 launch for the 4-inch Android handset. That’s when you should be able to snap the Fascinate up along with a prepaid data plan from Big Red, which fits in nicely with earlier unsanctioned disclosures on the matter. Either way, Samsung’s quest to conquer all networks with its Super Gorilla phone will be coming to a victorious end pretty soon.

[Thanks, Brian G.]
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SOURCE:Best Buy, Boy Genius Report

We imagine that LG’s security forces are combing Poland as we speak, because Android.com.pl has just provided us with yet another high-end handset leak. This LG C900 (last seen combing AT&T trenches) reportedly joins LG’s E900 in housing a 1GHz QSD8650 Snapdragon chipset under its sliding-QWERTY hood. Though our first look at the device suggested a plasticky matte frame, our erudite Polish informants tell us the phone’s mostly metal inside — despite a comparatively teensy 3.2-inch capacitive screen, they say it weighs about as much as an original Motorola Droid. A 3.5mm jack and a miniUSB port will play nice with headsets and charging cables respectively, and the site says it’ll run 1,100 zloty (about $350) if or when LG’s marketers recover from the shock of these leaked details and decide to ship. Find a video after the break and a host of similarly excellent pictures at our source link.

Update: Did we say 1.3GHz? We meant 1.0. As it turns out, Google Translate enjoys adding the letter “A” to acronyms immediately preceding a Polish comma, which made a 1GHz QSD8650 SoC look like a 1.3GHz QSD8650A to our tired eyes. Apologies! [Thanks, Anudeep]

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SOURCE:Android.com.pl

Wherever it is that Mr. Blurrycam calls home, Poland isn’t it. Android.com.pl has the best pre-release shots of the 3.7-inch LG E900 yet, replete with some titillating specs. We’re told that the upcoming Windows Phone 7 device will be driven by a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650A system-on-chip — basically a Snapdragon with the training wheels taken off. It promises better 2D and 3D graphics acceleration, integrated GPS, HD video recording and playback, and multi-mode UMTS and CDMA 3G connectivity. As to the handset itself, light and proximity sensors have been spotted on its body, along with a miniUSB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Navigate past the break to see some more of that tantalizing WP7 UI.

Update: It turns out Google Translate’s played a little trick on us, adding an A to the end of the SOC codename. The Polish fellas actually had a QSD8650 in the house, a less crazy 1GHz part [Thanks, Anudeep!].

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SOURCE:Android.com.pl

We know, half of you aren’t even going to read past the headline before you start angrily banging away about Apple’s admitted antenna gaff and the still-not-totally-fixed proximity sensor, but we’re urging you to look deeper. Think harder. Critique your criticisms. In all seriousness, Apple’s iPhone 4 garnered more attention (negative or otherwise) than any other phone released this calendar year, and for good reason — in fact, Apple itself had to hold an emergency press event just to announce what could’ve been announced in a PR blast: everyone’s getting a free case. That said, Cupertino has still managed to move millions of units in just a few months, and that demand doesn’t seem to be dropping off at any significant rate. If you’re one of the lucky (or unlucky) ones that have managed to procure Apple’s latest iPhone, we’re overly anxious to hear your thoughts on changing it. How would you have addressed the antenna issue? Would you have preferred a less drastic departure from the 3GS form factor? Would you have offered more colors than white and black? Thrown in Bluetooth 3.0 for kicks? Go ahead, the floor’s yours — just don’t abuse it, cool?
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While Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile customers have been enjoying their epic, vibrant and captivating Galaxy S variants for weeks, the only thing fascinating about Verizon’s take on the Samsung smartphone is how long it’s taken to arrive. Come September, however, that’s all liable to change, as a very familiar-looking SCH-I500 has just allegedly appeared in Verizon warehouse databases. Coupled with the fact that the MTV Music Video Awards (airing on September 12th) are now officially sponsored by “Samsung Fascinate a Galaxy S phone” and Verizon Wireless itself, we’re thinking it’s a safe bet that early September will find the 4-inch Super AMOLED handset on store shelves.
VIA:Android Central, Boy Genius Report
SOURCE:Phandroid, MTV Video Music Awards

Nokia is being coy this morning by revealing a trio of pictures of what it only describes as its “new device.” Of course, being a devoted Engadget reader, you’ll instantly recognize the visage above as that of the Nokia 5250 — the already leaked successor to the 5230 ( aka the Nuron). Specs are promised for later today, so contain your excitement until a more civilized hour. For now, you’ll find one more pic — of the bodacious, camera-adorned back — after the break.

[Thanks, Adam B.]

Update: That wasn’t a long wait. Nokia Conversations has S60 5th OS with a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 pre-installed, along with an FM radio and a media player slap bang in the middle of your 2.8-inch homescreen, all to underline this new phone’s musical inclinations. The touchscreen panel fits 640 x 360 pixels (16:9 display ratio), and battery life is rated for 18 days of standby, seven hours of talktime, or 24 hours of music playback. Not bad at all. Shipping in Q4 [Thanks, Keith!].

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SOURCE:Nokia (Facebook)

It’s a sad day for fans of Android, brushed aluminum exteriors, and retina-searing AMOLED displays. Bell’s HTC Legend seems to have come to the end of its days, the provider moving the phone to “end of life” status due to “ongoing supply constraints from the manufacturer.” Phandroid speculates this is due to AMOLED shortages slowing down HTC manufacturing, and that certainly seems like a reasonable conclusion. We also checked out some other suppliers of the phone and they too are not listing it in stock, so this could be a rather abrupt end of the road for one of the best looking, though not necessarily best performing, Android handsets.

Update: David D. wrote in to point out this Forbes article pointing out that chip shortages could also be at least partly to blame here.

[Thanks, Tati]
VIA:Phandroid
SOURCE:MobileSyrup

Whatever wraps Windows Phone 7 handsets were being kept under seem to have all but vanished. Following in the glorious footsteps of the Samsung i917, the HTC Schubert, and its own brand-mate, the C900, here we have LG’s E900 WP7 device. It does away with the physical keyboard of its brother, allowing for an aggressively thin design, and still features Microsoft’s mandated three buttons across the bottom, though only the Start key is delineated in white. It would seem the Back and Search buttons either haven’t yet received their lick of paint or are going to be kept monochromatic to stick with the minimalistic aesthetic. Slide past the break to see the E900 in richly blurred motion.

VIA:wmpoweruser
SOURCE:abcod112 (YouTube)

digg_url = ‘http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/19/exclusive-dell-thunder-prototype-preview-video/’; Christmas came early at Engadget HQ this year, as evidenced by the picture above — you’re looking at two Dell Thunder prototype smartphones, each with some surprising quirks, and hints that they might include global HSPA, AWS for the likes of T-Mobile, and maybe even a dash of CDMA support. We’ll warn you ahead of time that these are labeled EVT1 for “engineering verification test” and date back to the April leak, so they’re about as early as you can get — don’t expect the final handset to arrive without some significant differences. Good? Then peek the gallery below, hit the break, and let’s get on with the show.
Screen: There are two things you should know about the Thunder’s curved glass screen: the glass is awesome, and the actual LCD panel underneath is not. Using the glass is like looking through a window into the world of Android, with off-angle views distorted in a manner that’s as useless as is it cool, but in this case the window has a pretty dismal picture on the other side. If these If these prototypes have the OLED panel we were promised, we’ll eat an Engadget T-shirt, as they appear to be dim, standard LCDs, and though one unit is running at 800 x 480, the other is pushing something more like 1,280 x 768… but the screen doesn’t actually sport enough pixels to make that resolution comfortable to read. Honestly, both screens reek of prototype and we expect both to swapped out for rich, saturated OLED screens — especially considering Dell’s debug app includes a suite of AMOLED-specific tests. Here’s hoping it’s high-res, too, because if the Thunder had a pixel density akin to Apple’s Retina Display, then this handset would be unrivaled.

Software: Bone-stock Android 2.1 (Eclair) was loaded on one unit, and a developer version of Android 1.6 (Donut) on the other, with no Froyo tweaks or custom Stage UI to be found, though the latter rig did have have an interesting piece of software loaded: a test suite for Qualcomm CDMA programming. Most compatible apps worked right off the bat, but we couldn’t get the camera or camcorder to launch without a force close, so we weren’t able to tell which resolution the camera uses to record video.

Performance: Debug code and a variety of apps all but confirm what’s under the hood — we’re looking at a 1GHz Snapdragon QSM8250 CPU with Qualcomm Adreno graphics, much like Google’s Nexus One. Without the overhead of custom UI, transitions and programs were pretty snappy throughout, though there was a certain amount of lag when swiping the apps drawer. Raw CPU performance was actually slightly weaker in benchmarks than a pre-Froyo Nexus One, pulling 6.2MFLOPS in Linpack and taking 3600ms to complete a BenchmarkPi run, though graphically the Thunder pulled ahead with a respectable 37.1fps in Neocore and 18.6fps in Nenamark. GPS was missing or completely disabled on both devices, so we couldn’t test how long it took to get a fix, but we reliably pulled down 5Mbps (on an up-to-18Mbps internet connection) over 802.11n WiFi. Though we didn’t test its accuracy, there also appears to be a full set of inertial sensors on board, with a working three-axis magnetometer and a three-axis accelerometer that will hopefully fuel motion-controlled games in months to come.

Educated guesses: There are a number of features referenced in the Thunder’s bootloader and debug software that didn’t actually make into these prototype machines, namely FM radio support, dual microphones, HDMI output and a hardware dock connector. Furthermore, Dell’s debug apps have tests for quad-band GSM plus AT&T / Rogers / Telus / Bell and Europe-compatible 3G data. Meanwhile, the second phone identifies as AWS, suggesting a possible T-Mobile launch, and of course we’re very excited about that CDMA test suite — Verizon or Sprint, anyone? A “Hynix 4G + 4G” label suggests the phone may have 512MB RAM and 512MB ROM, like the Droid 2, and though we didn’t see a spot for it on the device, there are references to a VGA, possibly front-facing camera to accompany the 8 megapixel imager on the back.

These handsets date from April and are obviously pretty far from the finish line, but we like what we’ve seen. Check out the video below, then let us know in comments if there’s anything else you’d like us to test that doesn’t involve disassembly, blenders, or stabbing pens into the expensive prototype screen.

Chris Ziegler contributed to this report.
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It’s hard to call Meizu a straight-up KIRFmeister at this point, but the company certainly does like to flirt with copyright disaster. The M8 started off as an iPhone clone, but we’ve been hoping its successor, the M9, will be a bit more original. Meizu’s Jack Wong has been dropping hints about the thing since January, and now he’s tossing out a few more nuggets, like a Retina-matching 960 x 640 display — making us wonder if this isn’t just going to be an iPhone 4 wanna-be after all. Jack indicates the phone will run a heavily customized version of Android 2.2 (shown above) and is now pledging a proper release by the end of this year, with demo units making the rounds in October. Please forgive our cynicism, but we’ll be using something non-permanent to mark that onto our calendar.

Update: It’s 960 x 640, not 480.

VIA:Meizu Me, Electronista
SOURCE:Meizumi