Hasta La Gadget!

The choice of Android Gingerbread handsets just grew by one, courtesy of the Sony Ericsson MT15i and Russia’s premier mobile reviewer, Eldar Murtazin, who has put it through his rigorous preview cycle. The typically curmudgeonly gent was pleasantly surprised by SE’s latest (and entirely unofficial) handset, claiming that the company “has developed and is about to launch truly cutting edge devices and … has almost nothing to fear in the hardware department as well.” He has praise for the above-average front-facing cam, the endurance offered by the 1500mAh battery, and the 854 x 480 res on the Reality Display — though he does warn that Sony’s Bravia Engine is only used when consuming multimedia and therefore has limited impact on improving output quality.

Internally, you’re looking at 512MB of RAM and a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7630 with Adreno 205 graphics, all of which resulted in perfectly smooth, lag-free operation. In spite of its many pluses, Eldar describes the MT15i as a phone targeting the mid-range, which invites all sorts of delicious pricing speculation, though we’re not entirely sure we agree with his postulation that this handset will be called the Vivaz 2. The Xperia branding up front and the replacement of Symbian with Android would collectively suggest it’ll bear an altogether new name when it’s unveiled — which we’ll go ahead and presume is going to happen at MWC next month.

Sony Ericsson MT15i / Vivaz 2 ensnared by Eldar Murtazin, given glowing preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If 3D and tablets are the two unstoppable forces of modern consumer electronics, doesn’t it make sense to meld them into one, fearsome, trendsetting device? LG’s T-Mobile-bound G-Slate might be doing exactly that, we’re hearing, as a pair of different sites are reporting it’ll come with a 3D-capable display. The guys at GPS And Co have apparently heard directly from LG’s French arm, who told them the G-Slate would have a glasses-free 3D display and 3D camera, though the validity of that information is diluted somewhat by TmoNews‘ source finding 3D glasses listed as future accessories for this rather mysterious tablet. Yes, it’s contradictory information, but then Pocket-lint has also heard directly from LG and received a promise of “an actual working 3D device,” which should be expected shortly. That could be the 4.3-inch autostereoscopic panel we scoped out at CES or it could be another hint that the G-Slate’s been camera-shy for a very particularly, three-dimensional reason.

LG G-Slate to have an 8.9-inch 3D display? Rumor mill says ‘maybe’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Far be it from Samsung to announce an extremely high-end US-only smartphone — the Infuse 4G for AT&T, pictured above — without a global equivalent, and it’s starting to look like we’ll get that equivalent in just a few weeks’ time. JK Shin, president of Samsung Mobile, has now gone on record saying that we’ll get a new Galaxy S device at Mobile World Congress in February that’ll feature Gingerbread, a dual-core processor (whether that’s Tegra 2, Orion, or something else entirely, we’re not sure), and the Super AMOLED Plus technology that debuted at CES last week. Shin’s also saying that we’ll get a peek at Sammy’s plans for the Galaxy Tab line for 2011, which we’re guessing will include that lovely 7-inch Super AMOLED display that’s been kicking around. Should be an exciting show, to say the least.

Samsung Mobile boss confirms Galaxy S successor, Galaxy Tab roadmap being announced next month originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Coming this February, at a Mobile World Congress near you, from the company that popularized the Service Pack: a second major update to Windows Phone 7. The observant among you will already be leaping out of their seats to point out that the first WP7 update hasn’t even been delivered yet, but it seems like Microsoft’s calendar stretches beyond the next month and the company’s already churning away on enhancing and improving its rebooted mobile OS. Such is the scuttlebutt coming out of WinRumors, and it’s kind of hard to argue with the postulation that Steve Ballmer wouldn’t be keynoting MWC in 2011 without something significant to announce. Word is that users will be getting added customization options for their phones, while developers will gain an extra few API hooks and controls that will ideally lead to more sophisticated apps in WP7’s future. Sounds good to us, now how about some landscape love, Microsoft?

[Thanks, Jay]

Microsoft said to be planning second Windows Phone 7 update for MWC in February originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 07:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the $200 smartbook reference design that we saw at CES this year? Well, it’s back, it’s holding on to that same price and 7-inch enclosure, but this time it’s also showing off an expanded OS compatibility. Adapting the open source Chromium OS and another Linux variant to the ARM architecture of the prototype device was apparently not much of a hurdle for Freescale, who has an Android option in the works as well and claims to be just optimizing and enhancing the user experience at this point. Presumably one of the enhancements will be the installation of a capacitive touchscreen as the present demonstration requires either a mouse and keyboard or a resistive torture test to operate, but we’ll accept the company’s explanation that this is just a proof of concept and not the final product. Slide past the break to see some HTML5 video running on this bargain bin tablet, and hope that your friendly neighborhood OEM picks these designs up for some retail action.

Continue reading Freescale’s 7-inch tablet runs Android, Chromium OS or Linux, costs $200 (video)

Freescale’s 7-inch tablet runs Android, Chromium OS or Linux, costs $200 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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