Hasta La Gadget!

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but you fine folks living in the good ol’ U-S-of-A are finally getting blessed with Galaxy S IIs to call your own. Conspicuously missing from the party is Verizon, but Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T are all getting in on the Super AMOLED Plus action under the guise of the Epic 4G Touch on Sprint and just plain old Galaxy S II on AT&T and T-Mo. As we had heard earlier the Epic 4G Touch is sporting a slightly larger 4.52-inch screen as will the T-Mobile variant, while AT&T is sticking with the 4.3-inch panel found on the international model. Sprint customers will be first to get their shot at owning one on September 16th for $200, with AT&T and T-Mobile a little further down the road. Otherwise there are very few surprises here, with a 1.2GHz Exynos pushing Gingerbread and TouchWiz to each gorgeous screen. All are packing 16GB of internal storage and being pitched as 4G handsets — with WiMax on board the Sprint model and HSPA+ for T-Mo and AT&T. Ma Bell’s is specifically championing its variant as the “thinnest 4G smartphone,” which might have something to do with the smaller 1650 mAh battery inside (the Epic 4G Touch is sporting an 1800 mAh pack). Check back soon for some hands-on.

Continue reading Galaxy S II finally lands on American shores for Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T

Galaxy S II finally lands on American shores for Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s peculiar how a simple number and letter can cause the price to skyrocket when added to the end of a phone’s name. But that’s exactly what the term “4G” does — ultimately, making a phone or tablet compatible with a carrier’s next-generation network seems to add value (and cost) in unthinkable ways. There’s a growing concern in the mobile industry; Sprint’s WiMAX 4G coverage, once a novelty in the United States, is now just one of the boys. It faces direct competition against its two (much larger) LTE brethren in Verizon and AT&T, and the Now Network is searching for other methods of utilizing its high-speed offerings. In doing so, the carrier wants to keep the value high without escalating the expense.

Enter the Samsung Conquer 4G, the latest addition to Sprint’s blazing-fast lineup. Rather than going head-to-head with giants like the Photon 4G and EVO 3D, the company’s strategy is to offer a WiMAX-enabled handset that’s light on the wallet. It’s not the least expensive of the bunch these days — the Samsung Nexus S 4G takes the cake there — but it’s another option to toss into the network’s growing lineup. So does this mid-range handset have a shot at living up to its namesake? Keep on reading to find out.

Continue reading Samsung Conquer 4G review

Samsung Conquer 4G review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG VS920 pushes through FCC with Verizon LTE, could be the LG Revolution 2? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011:

Phone Releases

• Fido launched the Samsung Galaxy Q, also known as the Gravity Smart in the US, on Thursday. [via MobileSyrup]
• The BlackBerry Curve 9360 can already be purchased on Telus for $50 with a three-year contract, and the Torch 9860 will be available on August 30th. [via IntoMobile and CrackBerry]
• SouthernLINC Wireless announced the immediate availability of the Motorola Titanium, offered for $150 with a two-year commitment.
• T-Mobile released the Samsung Gravity TXT, a basic messaging phone that’s on sale for $10. [via UnwiredView]
• Cricket has begun offering a new messaging phone called the Samsung Comment, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, stereo bluetooth, a microSD slot and 1.3MP camera. It can be had for $90 with no commitment required. [via PhoneScoop]

Other news

• The government of South Korea, in reaction to Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola, now intends to form a consortium of local companies that will work together in building a brand new mobile operating system. [via IntoMobile]
• Randall Milch, Chief Counsel for Verizon, is so frustrated with the patent wars going on that this week he filed an appeal to President Obama, asking for him to provide assistance in the matter. [via PhoneScoop]
• The Motorola PRO is expected to debut in the UK in mid-September, though pre-orders are already taking place at select authorized resellers. [via UnwiredView]
• Leaked posters indicate the BlackBerry Torch 9850 will be offered by Verizon and screenshots show the same phone going to US Cellular, though we’re still unsure of the release date or pricing. [via CrackBerry(1) and (2)]
• Last week we reported on the rumored Sony Ericsson Nozumi, a smartphone that will likely feature a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm S2 CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, and 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution. At the time, it was assumed to be only selling in Japan; however, there’s a good possibility the Nozumi will end up available globally instead. [via XperiaBlog]
• Pantech’s LTE phone on Verizon may actually end up being called the Breakout (rather than the “Apache”), according to a leaked screenshot. When released, it’ll feature a 1GHz CPU with 512MB of RAM, dual cameras, and will be preloaded with Gingerbread. Not much to write home about at this stage in the game, considering these are incredibly similar to the specs of the LG Revolution. However, it would be the first 4G phone on Big Red that has a 4-inch display. [via AndroidCentral]
• T-Mobile may be planning to throw a data pay-per-use feature onto any smartphone that currently has its internet access blocked. If this happens, it will affect current customers as well as new ones. [via TmoNews]
• Dish has petitioned the FCC for permission to use 40MHz of allocated spectrum to begin building out an LTE-Advanced network. [via PhoneScoop]

Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve got more info for you on the pair of Android tablets Sony plans to launch next year month, as our source indicates the dual 5.5-inch screened clamshell, thus far codenamed the S2, will launch as the Sony Tablet P. Hardware specs include a weight of 370 grams — less than the iPad 2’s 601 grams, but more than say, a Kyocera Echo at 193g — 512Mb of RAM, 4GB of storage and a 2GB SD card, with connectivity over 4G or WiFi. Both the Tablet P and the Tablet S will share NVIDIA Tegra 2 processors and 0.3MP (not 3.0MP as we’d previously reported) front cameras, but the more conventional, WiFi-only Tablet S weighs in at 600g, has 1GB of RAM and will be available in 16GB or 32GB versions. There’s still no word on price or exact shipping dates but retailers have reportedly been told to expect more information soon, so stay tuned for further updates.

Update: This post previously stated the tablets would launch next year, that was a mistype. We’re still expecting to see them launch in September.

Sony Android tablet details and specs continue to leak, ‘S2’ is the Sony Tablet P originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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