Listen up, you Best Buy Rewards Zone and Silver Premier members, if you have a hankering for the iPhone 3G, mosey over to the nearest Best Buy store, flash your card and get $50 if you are Rewards Zone member or $100 if you a Silver Premier member. Of course there are catches to this: First, you have to be enrolled in the membership programs before Feb 21st. Second, you still have to sign up for 2-year contract with AT&T to get the iPhone for as low as $99 bucks.
Nokia has readied the 5800 XpressMusic, aka, the Tube, touchscreen phone for the US market and is set to release it as early as today. Nokia’s website still shows XpressMusic as coming soon and allows you to pre-order. However, according to Engadget Mobile, the company is set to release the phones to its flagship stores in New York and Chicago this week, possibly today. Nokia has priced this phone attractively at $399 unlocked and it has both GSM and WCDMA support so it should work on any network. So, if you were looking for an iPhone competitor with 3.2Mpxl camera and up to 16GB microSD support for tons of music, mosey over to the Nokia store or online and order it.
T-Mobile is gearing up to find out what is America’s appetite for 8Mpxl camera phone in this economy. They are set to release the Samsung Memoir starting today. It is the first 8Mpxl camera phone launched by a US carrier. So, there are some expectations from that perspective.The specs for this phone include T-Mobile 3G support, touch screen with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, Xenon flash, HTML web browser, A-GPS and photo functions such as smile and face detection along with geo-tagging capabilities and ability to upload your pictures to Flickr and T-Mobile MyAlbum service. However, the TouchWiz UI is not all that great and does not have the pizzazz say the HTC TouchFLO does, according to Boy Genius Report. Also, considering the underlying OS is old Symbian S40, this phone will have limited appeal, maybe for the fans of Samsung Behold who might be ready for some 8Mpxl fun.
Another issue is the price point. At $249.99 with 2 year contract, it is hard for many to justify this phone especially when T-Mobile has some attractive pricing on the Blackberry Curve.
After the escapes and the fiasco of yesterday, Nokia obtained its line of act today and officially launched N86 to the mobile congress of the world to Barcelona. This telephone has the similar factor of the shape of duel-slide block while its N97 soon-to-Be-launched bretheren. Other Spec. for this telephone are as follows:
Nokia announced that N86 will be available in the second quarters in Europe and the detail for €375. With launching so close to N97 and Spec. similar, I wonder how N86 cannabilize the N97 sales.
Both Samsung and LG have announced plans to launch solar powered phones this year. Both phones have solar panels on the battery cover of the phones. However, that is where the similarities end. Samsung’s phone is beautiful looking phone with rounded edges and 3 inches touchscreen. The phone, called Blue Earth, is made out of recycled material and avoids harmful materials. It comes with its own customized UI that promotes eco-friendliness.
LG’s solar powered phone is smaller and square compared to Samsung’s. However, it too is eco-friendly with recycled packaging, and user manuals printed with soy ink on recycled paper.
Both phones will be unveiled in Barcelona later this week at the Mobile World Congress.
[Via UnwiredView]
According to a press release put out by LG Korea, the LG Arena KM900 will launch in Europe sometime in March of this year. The press release also touted the new 3D S Class UI and the dedicated multimedia chip in the phone. According to LG it took them 100 person-years to develop this UI. Some of the key features of this UI are:
[Via UnwiredView]
Nokia today announced a new XpressMusic phone, the 5630. It is a candybar phone with dedicated music keys. It runs the new Symbian S60 OS but does not have touchscreen. The phone is very slim at 12 millimeters and comes with 3.2Mpxl camera, N-Gage experience. It also has a shortcut bar for music, radio, photos and web. Other features include:
The phone will be released in Europe in second half of this year and will retail for €199 ($256) before taxes and subsidies.
[Via UnwiredView]
Samsung today announced a new slider, the UltraTOUCH S8300. As the name suggests, the phone has a touchscreen and because it is a slider, it also has numerical keypad. The phone runs Symbian S60 OS with Samsung’s customized UI which got updated for launch at Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona. Here are the specs for this phone:
The phone will be unveiled at the MWC at which time the pricing and launch details will become clear.
[Via AkihabaraNews]
Courtesy of Expansys, the UK-based e-tailer, the specs, pricing and release date were leaked for Nokia’s upcoming E75 smartphone. This QWERTY keyboard bedecked phone is expected to be released on March 13, 2009 in UK for a princely sum of £389.99 or free with 18-months contract with T-Mobile UK.
The specs for this phone are:
Let’s see what Nokia has to say about this phone.
[Via UnwiredView]