Samsung Adds Soul to Ultra Mobile Range

Samsung’s new handset – the Soul, or Spirit Of Ultra – is the latest addition to its Ultra Series. This 3G, HSDPA-enabled, quadband slider is just 12.9mm thick and has a stylish metallic finish. It’s equipped with Magical Touch by DaCP, which is a unique navigation panel under the 2.2 inch QVGA, 16 million color screen.

Magical Touch navigation is essentially a miniature display panel that adapts in sync with the function you’ve selected. The icons change according to the function. For instance, if you have a video playing on the screen, the icons would depict functions like Rewind, Forward, Play and Pause, using the universal symbols for the same.

Other features include a 5 megapixel camera with face detection, image stabilizer and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), Bluetooth with A2DP profile, integrated FM radio and a nifty music player that incorporates Bang & Olfusen’s ICEpower digital power amplification technology.

The GUI has undergone a bit of an upgrade in terms of look and feel, and now comes with themes that are more customizable. External memory is supported via microSD cards.

There’s no word on the official price yet, but the Soul should be available in Europe from April. Let’s hope it doesn’t take too long to show up in our part of the world.

Samsung Announces Multimedia Phone

Samsung has announced the SGH-F490, a multimedia phone with a 3.2-inch, 16:9 wide full touch screen and intuitive user interface.

The F490 is embedded with Google Search and optimized full browser for web pages in both vertical and horizontal views and provides a panoramic view of pictures or videos as well as a larger screen space for Internet surfing.

"Samsung F490 is the solution for consumers who want to use Internet wherever and whenever they want," said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung's Telecommunications Business. "F490 is not only a powerful multimedia device but also a stylish fashion item with sleek and charming design. We are proud to introduce this new innovative multimedia handset to global consumers."

The 11.8mm slim bar is equipped with a 5 Mega pixel camera, 3.5mm audio jack, and support for compatible microSD cards, 130MB internal memory, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0.

The Samsung F490 will be available in some European countries from late January at around 530 euros and thereafter in US and Asian markets.

Nokia leaks N96 specs

An overly keen web master on Nokia's German site appears to have made a boo-boo and posted the specifications for the upcoming N96 multimedia handset a little early.

Although the page has since disappeared, it was up long enough to glean some pretty tasty information about the next top-of-the-line phone from the company.

The N96—unsurprisingly billed as an upgrade from the N95—is set to feature quad-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA on the data transfer side, which is sure to make iPhone owners green with envy. The handset will apparently run on the Symbian S60 FP2 OS, and has a 2.8” QVGA screen with the usual 16.7 million colour pallet.

The phone also comes with a built-in GPS module, DVB-H reception for watching your favourite soaps on the go, and even a TV-out port – although this only supports standard definition resolutions.

Storage space has been doubled in this version to 16GB—which can be further upgraded via microSD cards—and the camera has been improved to make full use of the additional storage, now running to five megapixels with full autofocus and a dual-LED flash. Interestingly, the company has added in Geotagging support, whereby the phone can use the camera and GPS in concert to add location information to photographs.

Finally, Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g WiFi round off the connectivity: quite how Nokia has crammed all this into a phone and made it hand-held I'm not sure, but I do know that I want one.

GSM Arena has some leaked photos of the design of the unit for those who are more image-concious. And I still want it.

Nokia's best attempt yet at something to steal the thunder of the iPhone, or is it just more functionality that no-one will ever want to use? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Nokia N96 revealed at MWC 2008

Specifications of the Nokia N96 were already leaked a couple of days ago. Today Nokia officially unveiled the new top of the line N-series smartphone, the Nokia N96.

The new Nokia N96 is packed with features including DVB-H digital TV reception. Other feature highlights of the 3G HSDPA N96 include 2.8 inch QVGA screen, 16GB internal memory, 5MP Camera, 2nd VGA camera, GPS, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, FM radio, music player, video player, and S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2.

The measurements of the Nokia N96 are 103x55x18mm(some areas 20mm).

The Nokia N96 multimedia computer is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated sales price of approximately 550 euros (~$800), before subsidies or taxes.
More details about the Nokia N96 are available on the N96 mini-site.

The Mobile World Congress 2008 (former 3GSM) will open officially on the 11th of February. We will keep you updated on all interesting mobile technology announcements at the MWC 2008 in our Mobile Phone section.

Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 Takes the Windows Mobile Plunge

Barcelona this week is the world showcase for new cell phones. Here is a collection of those handsets that interested us the most (warning--not all will be available in the U.S.) For instance: Due in the second half of this year, the Xperia X1 goes where Sony Ericsson has never gone before--into the realm of Windows Mobile. But thanks to a custom interface featuring nine square panels--each of which launches a different application--you might not realize that you're looking at an HSDPA handset based on the Microsoft platform for mobile devices. The X1 is the first entry in Sony Ericsson's new "premium" (read, expensive) Xperia line; future models may be based on other operating systems. But observers say the company chose to stray from its Symbian/UIQ roots to reach out to corporate customers.

Xperia X1 Slides Open to Reveal a Landscape-Mode Keyboard

Xperia X1's large (3-inch) touchscreen (see previous slide) exemplifies another handset trend. But it also lets you navigate via an optical joystick underneath the display. When closed, this Sony Ericsson's metal-finish rear case shows nothing but the lens of its 3.2-megapixel camera (above, left). However the X1 does have an unusual design feature: It slides open sideways in a gentle arc (above, right) to reveal a roomy portrait-mode keyboard. As with other sideways sliders, the display adjusts automatically.

The G700--Another Touching Experience from Sony Ericsson

The G700, another eye-catching touchscreen phone announced by Sony Ericsson, sports an unusual sticky-notes application. Tap the note icon in the upper left, and a new blank note fills the screen. You choose the note's color and screen position, and use the phone's stylus to scribble or draw memos. Sony executives compared this handset to the Post-It-covered Filofaxes of a decade or two ago. This handset may not appear in the U.S. very soon as the model shown here runs on European GSM frequencies.

Nokia has announced the Nokia N78, a sleek looking phone designed for navigation, photography and music. The Nokia N78 is the model that’s set to replace the N73.

The Nokia N78 is one that would satisfy the music lovers out there, with the ability to access the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Internet Radio and Nokia’s new personal media sharing community dubbed ‘Share on Ovi’.

Following onto the phone’s music capabilities, the feature that stands out would be the FM transmitter built into the phone, allowing the phone to transmit on an available FM slot to be tuned in from a car or Hi-Fi set.

Moving on to its imaging capabilities, the phone comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a built-in A-GPS system that geotags the photographs taken with the phone. This would be a useful function for trips and vacations as information about the time and place the photograph was taken is automatically captured and embedded into the image file.

Apart from the above, the N78 will come with microSD support for up to 8GB, WLAN, HSDPA and Bluetooth 2.0 compatibility.

The N78 is slated for a 2008 2nd quarter release, just before the arrival of the Nokia N96.

Nokia introduces camera-free variant of popular Nokia E51

Nokia has today introduced a camera-free variant of the Nokia E51, the popular Eseries device aimed at business users. The new device, which features all the same powerful functionality for businesses as Nokia E51, was developed in response to demand from professionals who require a high performing mobile device, but work in industries where security reasons restrict the use of cameras. The camera-free Nokia E51 is expected to begin shipping in the 1st quarter of 2008 with an estimated retail price of 250€, before subsidies or taxes.

The Nokia E51 is ideal for people working in industries and institutions such as automotive, research laboratories or governmental organizations.

From powerful voice capability, such as long battery life (13 days standby) to 3G, WLAN and HSDPA connectivity ensuring quick access to emails and web content, the Nokia E51 has all the features you would expect from an impressive business device. It is simple to use with one-touch keys taking the user directly to, ‘contacts’, ‘email’, ‘calendar’ or ‘home’ – one short press accesses the function and one long press on the key creates a new contact, email or appointment.

In addition, the camera-free Nokia E51 features integration with a wide range of business email solutions, including Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email and Mail for Exchange to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server, and consumer email, all for a streamlined email reading experience with easy access to attachments.

MOTOROKR E8 Makes a Fashion Statement with Top Nominees

Motorola will deliver the ultimate in music luxury when it hits the red carpet and debuts the ROKR E8 in true Hollywood style. Continuing its yearly tradition, Motorola presented each of the Academy Award® nominees in the directing and four acting categories with the not-yet-available ROKR E8 – making them the first U.S. consumers to experience the product.

Each nominee received their ROKR E8 in a personalized, custom-made box. Keeping up with the latest red carpet trends, the ROKR E8 arrived encased in a keepsake box wrapped in an iridescent faux iguana print with a contrasting, yet complimentary, textured inside. Female nominees received a fashionable fuchsia colored box (with a rose pink interior), while the male nominees received a handsome cobalt colored blue (with a dusty blue interior) box. Each box was personalized with the nominee’s name and category.

The nominees also received the Motorola S9-HD™ headset, giving them a wireless music experience. The Motorola S9-HD is the new benchmark of wireless music powered by Bluetooth® wireless technology[1] and enhanced with high-definition audio and ear buds that reduce background noise and improve comfort. The unique behind-the-head design creates a secure and stable fit, plus easy to use controls for track selection, volume, play/pause and send/end that allows the user to manage music and calls from the headphones.

Motorola designed ROKR E8 to deliver an uncompromised consumer experience for music or talk. Using breakthrough and patented pending ModeShift technology which presents which presents users with only the controls they need, at the time they need them, magically transforming from music player to phone with the touch of a button.

When powered off, the surface of ROKR E8 is smooth, with no visible keys. Power on the device and it presents a virtual numbered keypad on the front surface. With one “press” of the virtual music key, the phone keypad disappears and control keys for the music player – play, pause, fast forward and rewind – appear in its place.

ROKR E8 marks the debut of the new FastScroll™ navigation wheel from Motorola, a variable-speed touch control that lets consumers easily scroll through all of the content stored on the device. With a gentle slide of the thumb, the wheel quickly scrolls through your music (music mode), contacts (phone mode), calendar (phone mode), or multimedia (imaging mode) content. With 2GB of internal memory and optional external memory up to 4GB, you can take your music wherever you go. Music transfers quickly with USB 2.0. The device is compatible with Windows Media Player 11 on the PC, which also provides access to more than 200 online music stores.

In phone mode, ROKR E8 provides outstanding voice quality using Motorola CrystalTalk technology. The powerful device can receive calls while downloading or playing music, text messaging, surfing the Web2 or taking pictures. Quality construction and materials help make ROKR E8 durable and reliable, and a high gloss front, aluminum soft back, spun metal side keys and engraved banding offer the modern style expected from Motorola.

LG Viewty is First to Record Video in High-Quality DivX Format

--LG Electronics, Inc. and DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIVX), a digital media company, today announced that the LG Viewty camera phone (Model: LG-KU990) is the first mobile phone with DivX Certification to natively record video in the high quality DivX® format.

The LG Viewty enables consumers to capture high-resolution video, comparable in quality to what they would expect from a video camera, on their mobile phones, DivX videos recorded through the LG Viewty can easily be uploaded to online video sites or can be played back on any DivX Certified® consumer electronics device, including DVD players, gaming consoles and portable media players.

"Users of the LG Viewty have come to expect innovation and quality," said Dr. Skott Ahn, LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "The addition of DivX recording capability to the Viewty will open up the media experience and enable our users to do more with the videos they capture, from sharing that content online to playing it back beyond the phone on a wide variety of devices."

"Our goal is to make it easy for consumers to enjoy a high-quality video experience on any kind of device," said Kevin Hell, CEO at DivX, Inc. "The LG Viewty is a perfect example of this experience. It allows consumers to capture video on its 3-inch screen and then easily transfer that video to a computer or virtually any kind of consumer electronics device."

The LG Viewty is a professional-level camera phone with features that surpass most phones on the market and includes 5.0 mega-pixel still image capture, manual focus, image stabilizer, handwriting recognition for photo editing, a document viewer, voice recording and 120 fps 640 x 480-pixel DivX video encoding. The LG Viewty has undergone a rigorous testing program, as do all the products that bear the DivX Certified logo, to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience. LG Viewty, currently for sale in Europe, will begin shipping immediately with DivX encoding capabilities.

E-TEN unveils Glofiish M810 and V900

At its booth at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, E-TEN has showcased two new products that mark a change in track for Pocket PC Phones – from productivity and communications tools for mobile professionals to always-on-hand entertainment and connectivity devices designed for the modern web-enthusiast.

"With the growing popularity of blogging, instant messaging, and social networking, as well as online services such as Google Maps, it’s no longer just professionals who need to maintain constant access to the Internet, consumers are wanting to spend more and more time online too." commented CEO Simon Hwang, "To this end, E-TEN has harnessed our mobile technological expertise and the power and versatility of the Windows Mobile platform to create a range for feature rich, portable, Internet-ready phones, that put the focus on fun and entertainment."

The Glofiish V900 is E-TEN’s first Pocket PC Phone to feature mobile TV. With major events such as UEFA Euro 2008 and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games scheduled this year, there are sure to be events that people just don’t want to miss, and thanks to the V900’s support for DVB-H, DVB-T, TDMB and DAB broadcasting standards, they won’t have to. V900 also offers the benefits of VGA display and all-in-one connectivity solution comprising of HSDPA, GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Along with the Glofiish V900 E-TEN will debut its newly developed touch-based user interface. The V900 is scheduled to launch in the second half of the year.

The Glofiish M810 is a sleekly portable, HSDPA, Wi-Fi b/g and GPS ready handset, designed to help the new breed of bloggers, podcasters, video makers, and chatters, stay online and updated wherever they are. A full QWERTY keyboard makes blogging, text messaging and chatting quick and convenient, while a 2-megapixel auto-focus camera is great for capturing pictures or video that can be uploaded easily to a web-album or video sharing site. Finally, built-in JAVA support allows fun mobile games to be downloaded and played anywhere

The M810 and V900 will be on display at the E-TEN booth (Hall 2, 2A126) during 3GSM (February 11-14) along with a showcase of other Glofiish products, including the recently released M800 and X650, designed to satisfy the demands from a variety of market segments.

HTC Touch Cruise

The HTC Touch's claim to fame is its heavily modified WM (Windows Mobile) interface which makes it more convenient to get basic tasks done. The original Touch has been a hit so far, thanks to its great design and low price, and we won't be surprised if HTC replicates that success in the Touch Dual as well. The third and latest of the series is the Touch Cruise, a handheld which doesn't leave out any connectivity features--a niggling complaint we had when reviewing the first two in the range.

Design

The design of the Touch Cruise isn't quite the same as the others in the Touch series. You could probably liken the HTC Touch and Touch Dual to flattened pebbles because of the generous use of curves around their edges, but this is not the case for the Cruise. In fact, it looks more like the Dopod P800W (also known as the HTC P3300), one of the company's earlier GPS-enabled devices. Given the resemblance, we wouldn't be surprised if the Cruise was meant to be a follow-up to that model but modified to fit into the Touch line of products.

The glow inside the scroll wheel when in use.

This isn't a negative point, though. Admittedly, the designs of the Touch and Touch Dual PDA-phones are prettier than the Touch Cruise's, but this handheld does have its appeal. The black finish gives it a sophisticated look. The front of the device has a shiny finish around the LCD, while the rest of it comes in a soft touch finish, which makes it feel pretty good in the hands. The Cruise weighs 130g and has dimensions of 110 x 58 x 15.5mm. For comparison's sake, the HTC P3600i weighs more at 150g, has almost the same footprint and is thicker at 18.4mm.

Under the display are your regular Call and Hang up keys as well as two extra shortcut buttons. The directional pad is like a regular one that you can press it to move up, down, left and right and select using the center button. The difference is it's shaped like a wheel and rotates, too. Rotating clockwise is similar to pressing either right or down, and anti-clockwise to left or up. We found using it like a regular D-pad more effective most of the time, but the wheel also came in handy when browsing long Web pages and for zooming in and out of images and maps. When in use, a ring lights up around the selector button inside the wheel.

One more shortcut button and a volume control rocker are found on the left side of the device. On the right are a camera shutter button and the microSD card slot. The single speaker for the Cruise is found on the back. As usual, we would have preferred this to be front facing for better speakerphone/video call quality, but that looks like a design issue not many manufacturers are willing to take up.

Like most of HTC's current crop of devices, the Cruise has only a single mini-USB connector for charging, syncing and connecting a wired headset. While this isn't ideal for situations where you need to charge and use a headset at the same time (a likely scenario in a car using a cigarette lighter charger), it looks like HTC will be sticking with this formula.

Features

As mentioned earlier, the biggest draw of the Touch Cruise is possibly its range of connectivity features. It comes with triband UMTS and quadband GSM, making it good for roaming almost anywhere. Along with that are the usual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless options, common for most mid- to high-end PDA-phones. HSDPA is also enabled in the Cruise, with a maximum theoretical speed of 3.6Mbps.

GPS is also a standard feature on the Cruise. This further supports our notion that it's a successor to the Dopod P800W or HTC P3300. We tried out the GPS feature using Google Maps and MapKing. Though it doesn't use the SiRFstar III GPS chipset (one of the most popular chips well-known for its capabilities), the Cruise did well to locate our position and track changes. It also helped that HTC provided an application, QuickGPS, which downloads latest satellite data using an active Internet connection to help the GPS get an initial lock faster. Aside from using the internal antenna, there is also a connector behind the Cruise which allows you to plug in an external GPS antenna.

Another wireless feature HTC has included in the Cruise is an FM tuner. As with FM tuners on mobile phones, you need to plug in a wired headset which acts as an antenna. That means you can't use a regular set of headphones as the only connector on the Cruise is a mini-USB one. We tried out the radio with the provided wired headset and found the FM reception to be acceptable but not crystal-clear.

As with the Touch Dual, the Cruise comes with HTC's latest revision of the TouchFLO application. This includes the modified Home screen suited for finger tapping, a quick scroll feature for long lists and large buttons for the Start menu. The virtual cube feature has also been implemented, a graphical interface which makes it possible to get to some commonly used items from any screen you happen to be at. In line with all the finger swiping you have to do across and along the screen, the Touch Cruise does not have a raised bezel like most PDA-phones. It is instead flat across the entire front surface.

Other applications included with the Cruise are WorldCard Mobile for scanning namecards, CE-Star for Chinese text input and a custom Task Manager software for quick access to programs running in the background. We do have to say that the inclusion of too many text input methods including two custom HTC ones, Touch Keyboard and Touch Keypad makes the pop-up menu to select the input method you want a little sluggish.

A 3-megapixel camera graces the rear of the Cruise. This comes with autofocus and a preview mirror for self-portraits, but no LED light for night shots. A smaller VGA camera is located above the LCD for video calls.

Samsung SGH-i780

Samsung is by no means prolific when it comes to Windows Mobile devices. That's fine, as long as the ones it has are good. The SGH-i780 is the Korean company's first touchscreen Windows Mobile device in a long while, and we got the chance to play with a pre-production unit. Here's our take.

Design

Samsung boasts of having some of the slimmest mobile phones in the world. The company has obviously applied its know-how to this i780 as it is a mere 12.9mm thick. That's even thinner than the incredibly compact HTC Touch which measures in at 13.9mm. That said, we were not as impressed with the design of the i780 as we were with the HTC Touch. Somehow, it just didn't have the "wow" factor--likely because it looks so much like the Samsung i600 smart phone which we have gotten very used to seeing.

The i780 (left) put beside the i600 smart phone.

The i780 has a large 320 x 320 display. This has 33 percent more pixels than the more common 320 x 240 QVGA screens found on Windows Mobile devices. The LCD takes up most of the front of the handheld, but still there is ample space for the QWERTY keypad. The keypad buttons are longish in shape and well-spaced out with good tactile feedback. It made for very good thumb typing, as good as what you'd find on Treo and BlackBerry devices.

Instead of a regular directional pad, the i780 has what Samsung calls an optical joystick. We have ever seen this in other devices, an example being the Raon Digital Everun UMPC. It's essentially an optical trackpad which controls movement in place of a four-way button. In mouse mode, a pointer appears onscreen and can be navigated by moving your finger around the joystick. It can also be set to work like a four-way navigator. In that mode, swiping in a direction is like pressing a direction button on a regular D-pad. You do have to make multiple swipes to keep it moving though, which makes it less effective than a physical D-pad. Pressing down on this optical joystick selects highlighted items in either mode. All in all, it's a novel feature, but we don't see how it works better than a normal D-pad.

Many of the buttons on the i780 perform two functions. For example, long-pressing the spacebar toggles the silent mode while the hang-up button keylocks the device. While common in mobile phones, other PDA-phone manufacturers should take a page out of Samsung's book to include more such features. This can only make their devices more user-friendly.

One shortcut button is found on the right side of the device. In camera mode, this acts as a shutter button. But if you just press it quickly, an onscreen console slides up from the bottom of the display, showing what music is playing in the background. This is great for those who use their PDA-phones as MP3 players as well.

Also on the right side are a microSD card slot and a single connector for syncing, charging and plugging in a wired headset. Like many of the current HTC products, there is no dedicated audio connector. It's worse for the i780 because the single connector fits only a proprietary Samsung jack--at least HTC uses the standard mini-USB one. This means you'll need an adapter if you'd prefer to use your own headphones. Having a second charge/sync cable will also cost more compared to the ubiquitous mini-USB ones.

Features

When it comes to connectivity, the i780 is a powerhouse. It comes with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and also GPS for navigation. According to its press release, it will come with bundled navigation software. We'll be testing that feature out when we get an actual production unit.

As with the i600, the Home screen of the i780 has been modified for user-friendliness. Tabs with large buttons make it easy for you to get to commonly used applications and settings without having to remove the stylus.

As we've come to expect from Samsung, the i780 has a whole bunch of ringtones. Some of them are nice, some annoying. But they are good to have as it's a change from the boring standard Windows Mobile ones.

Outlook

We were not able to test out many of the i780's features because what we have is a preproduction unit. But from what we've seen, it's certainly shaping up to be a strong contender to some of the best WM6 devices out there. We'll be updating this article with a full review once we get our hands on a commercial set.

The SGH-i780 will be available from end February in Singapore. Samsung has yet to confirm its wider Asian availability and pricing.

Nokia N82

Features

In terms of features, there's really nothing much to talk about since we've already covered most of it in our reviews of the N95 and the N95 (8GB), so we'll just keep it short and sweet. The most distinct feature in the N82 is the addition of a Xenon flash, like the ones we've seen on the Sony Ericsson K810i and K850i Cyber-shots. Compared with LED lights, Xenon flashes are much stronger and able to illuminate subjects better in the dark.

The N82 on the left and the K850i on the right. Notice the difference in sizes?

Next is a smaller 2.4-inch QVGA display compared with 2.6 inches on the N95 and 2.8 inches on the 8GB version. The size of the screen is likely a result of having to share the limited front estate with the alphanumeric keypad since it doesn't have the privilege of being able to stow away the keypad under the slider like the two N95s. Well, something has to give. It's not a setback, though, because the LCD held up well under the harsh afternoon sunlight. We were able to read text clearly even though colors appeared washed-out. Compared with the K850i, the Sony Ericsson gave us better screen legibility under the same lighting condition.

We mentioned about the microUSB port earlier and even we are getting confused as to which size Nokia favors. Besides rendering all our existing miniUSB cables useless, we are also unable to charge the N82 via the PC, unlike the N95 (8GB). Although that's not a big issue, it's probably good to know that you should try not to lose the cable which comes with your set. If you care to know, Nokia has also dropped the infrared option on the N82.

The N82 runs on the third-edition Symbian S60 platform with Feature Pack 1, so it should be familiar to most Nokia users. Porting over their data from their existing S60 phones can be done via the onboard Switch application. We've mentioned before that the Quickoffice app is a read-only version on the earlier N95s. The same goes for the N82 we are reviewing. So for users who have an absolute need to create Word, Excel or presentation documents, they'll have to look elsewhere, unless they are willing to pay for the upgrade.