Hasta La Gadget!

Yep, it’s a Samsung Galaxy Note II. With T-Mobile branding. At MobileCon 2012. Indeed, there’s not much that will surprise you when gazing upon the latest version of the quad-core Exynos-clad phone / tablet — it’s almost completely the same as the unit we reviewed earlier this week, not to mention the Sprint and AT&T models we’ve played with so far. Cosmetically, the only difference you’ll notice is the Magenta branding on the back of the device. As you’d expect, this particular Note — the T889 — won’t be getting T-Mobile LTE yet, but it does at least have LTE bands 4 and 17 (700MHz and AWS) under the hood, and it offers support for 42Mbps HSPA+ on bands friendly to T-Mobile’s network. Otherwise, the only thing that may catch your eye is the usual smattering of bloatware dedicated to Magenta’s cause. We were a little disappointed to see that the Multi Window feature hasn’t been added to the unit we played with tonight; we won’t rule out the possibility of seeing it added into the final production firmware or shortly after in an OTA update. We still haven’t been given pricing or availability (aside from being told it will be released in the coming weeks), though owners of the original T-Mobile Note will still be annoyed at how fast its sequel came out. Take a look at our images of the marble white and titanium gray version of the T-Mo Galaxy Note II below!

Myriam Joire contributed to this post.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, T-Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note II for T-Mobile hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile recently announced it would be offering the Nokia Lumia 810 Windows Phone 8 device sometime in the coming weeks, and it had the handset at the Pepcom’s MobileFocus event at MobileCon today. But the hardware wasn’t really the hardware as such – it was a dummy unit with nothing on the inside. But it still showed off some of what the phone will offer users.

The Lumia 810 from T-Mobile comes in both black and cyan variants, and will have a 4.3-inch OLEG WVGA screen that could be very good-looking in practice, one might imagine. There’s also Windows Phone 8, an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 megapixel front shooter for Skype and other communication apps, which could take very nice pictures, it’s reasonable to assume.

What we do know about the 810 is that it feels quite substantial compared to most contemporary smartphones, like in a way that actually isn’t altogether a good thing. The Lumia 810 could easily use a diet, in fact, and there’s a lot of space taken up around the not-yet-active screen devoted to bezel. It’s a bold, aggressive design choice, and one that could result in a chunky chic appeal, but it could also backfire. In a world where thin and light are the name of the game, this is a phone that stands apart, as you can see by the side-by-side shots with it and the iPhone 5.

Microsoft clearly doesn’t want anyone touching the Windows 8 software before it unveils it later this month. We’ll see what the 810 and its bigger brother the 920 deliver when Windows 8 finally ships.

Update: This device apparently has internals that could theoretically work, according to T-Mo, but in the end it might as well not, since no one who touched it could actually interact with its software or view it running.

Now that the Galaxy Note II has already been given a formal debut for AT&T and Sprint, it’s T-Mobile’s turn at bat. The magenta network isn’t deviating significantly from the hardware seen at other American carriers, aside from the absence of (currently active) LTE, but it does brag about bonus software. Gamers taken with the MOGA mobile gaming system (read: Bluetooth controller) will get a preloaded, special version of an “exciting new racing game” that’s tailored for the physical controller. Unfortunately, T-Mobile is shy about committing to prices and ship dates for the gray and white Note II editions it will be offering in the weeks ahead — although there’s more than one hint that we should keep an eye out around October 24th, or at least no later than mid-November.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note II for T-Mobile made (more) official, comes with gamepad-tuned racing this fall

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, T-Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note II for T-Mobile made (more) official, comes with gamepad-tuned racing this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung and T-Mobile today announced that the Samsung Galaxy Note II will be arriving on T-Mobile’s network this fall, though specific dates and pricing weren’t yet revealed. An earlier leaked report says that it’ll hit on October 24, however. T-Mobile is calling Samsung’s latest phablet its “most powerful device,” which seems to indicate this will be a key flagship offering for the U.S. provider.

The 5.5-inch, quad-core 1.6-GHz Exynos-powered smartphone ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and offers improved S Pen capabilities, and HSPA+ “4G” connectivity, though not LTE. Color options available through T-Mobile include Titanium Gray and Marble White, and T-Mobile says it’ll come to retail stores, online and through authorized T-Mobile dealers sometime “in the coming weeks.”

T-Mobile clearly needs a big splashy phone launch in the wake of not offering the iPhone 5. The company could significantly improve its LTE standings and capabilities if the merger with MetroPCS goes through. But for now, shopping the Galaxy Note II without LTE could be a hard sell against other U.S. carriers like AT&T who are offering true next-gen connectivity.

It is not very often that a perceived smaller company or entity buys over a bigger one, but that is somewhat the case with MetroPCS and T-Mobile whose merger was approved last week. Sure, both of them are mobile carriers in their own right in the US, so what does this merger mean for you, the end consumer? Folks who are on MetroPCS will seem to have the proverbial upper hand here so to speak, where T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer, Neville Ray claims that both T-Mobile and MetroPCS have moved toward a similar next-generation LTE network on the AWS 1700 band, meaning T-Mobile has every intention to expedite plans so that MetroPCS subscribers will be able to be “transferred” over to T-Mobile’s smartphones in due time.

Ray said, “This isn’t about integrating these two networks. It’s about moving MetroPCS over to a bigger and stronger converged network.” In a nutshell, T-Mobile will soon sell phones with MetroPCS branding, although these will still run on T-Mobile’s network. They have targeted two years for a full user migration, with plans to decommission the CDMA network in order to free up additional spectrum for LTE.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sprint reportedly looking to outbid T-Mobile on MetroPCS deal, T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger reportedly approved by the executive boards of both companies [Updated],