Hasta La Gadget!

We told you, didn’t we? Whether you want to call this the N98, the N900’s successor, or the N8 plus QWERTY, what you’re looking at above is potentially the visage of Nokia’s next smartphone. It’s being dubbed the N9 by the folks at Negri Electronics, who also inform us it has an 8 megapixel imager on the back, 850 / 1900 3G bands (good for AT&T, Rogers, Telus, and Bell), and “ridiculous screen clarity.” This sort of throws us for a loop, since we’re looking at some straight Symbian action up there, whereas Nokia has told us directly that there’ll be no more Symbian on the N Series after the N8. A clue to what might be going on is provided by the “C0” label at the upper left corner of this device, suggesting that it could be a future C Series member. All we know is that the thing seems pretty real and it’s headed to a full video review in the next few days. Yay!

[Thanks, Jason]

Nokia N9 (or something) in the wild: 8 megapixel camera, American 3G? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nothing new here, but at this point, Motorola’s delicious duo of fresh Android phones for Verizon is leaking like… well, like a leaky faucet, we suppose. We’ve already got the full scoop on the keyboardless 4.3-inch Droid X — a beast ready to take on sworn enemies from HTC like the EVO 4G and the Droid Incredible — and we’ve seen plenty of details on the so-called Droid 2, too. The latter appears destined to replace the original Droid with a better keyboard layout and ever-so-gently refined ergonomics, but the latest leak from a Gizmodo tipster confirms that the cam’s still 5 megapixels and it’s currently running Android 2.1 atop Moto’s new-look Blur (interestingly, the “Droid 2” name couldn’t be confirmed). Apparently it’s set for release in the “next few weeks,” which would line up with rumors we’ve heard in the past of a launch windows somewhere between July and August — so here’s the real question: X or 2?

Droid 2 (or whatever it’s called) for Verizon breaks cover once again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some two years after its release, there are still plenty of people who’ll swear up and down that the E71 is the finest phone Nokia has ever produced — and for good reason. As a platform, S60 was the product of a simpler time when the smartphone market was dominated not by touchscreens, but by numeric keypads, and the E71 was arguably the last of a string of bona fide successes that Nokia enjoyed in the platform’s heyday alongside pioneering handsets like the N82 and N95. Thing is, the E71 was different than those other models in a very important way: it was elegant. Historically, Nokias have typically favored function over form and saved the highest-quality materials for the Vertu line, but the E71 bucked that trend — it was slim, sexy, chock-full of metal, and curved in all the right places. In fact, to this day, it remains one of the best-looking, best-feeling smartphones ever made.

Customers (and reviewers) made their love for the E71 clear, and Nokia sought to recapture the glory with the introduction of the refined, upgraded E72. For Americans, of course, the biggest problem with the E72 was that you couldn’t buy it from a carrier — and unlike the E71, it never got much traction as an unlocked purchase. That’s where the E73 Mode comes into play, a mildly reworked version of the E72 with T-Mobile branding and, of course, support for 3G on T-Mobile’s AWS bands. Put bluntly, though, this is still just a warmed-over E71 — and in 2010, is there a market for that? Let’s have a look.

Continue reading Nokia E73 Mode review

Nokia E73 Mode review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, hey, Nokia just officially launched the X5 in Singapore, apparently as a followup to the Twist and the latest chubby square slider to hit in the past few months after the the Motorola Flipout and Kin One. No, we’re not sure why this form factor is suddenly a Thing either. This guy is actually Nokia’s second X5 –a China-only X5 with a totally different design was announced in April, so that’s nice and confusing. We don’t have an official spec sheet on this new X5 yet, but we’re told it runs Symbian S60, and has a five megapixel camera, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube integration, as well as some sort of shake-based notification feature we don’t really understand. It comes in black, hot pink, bright blue, and, um, unattractive yellow, and it’s pretty thick, if the hands-on photos are to be believed. That’s all we know for now — hit the source links for a bunch more photos, and we’ll let you know if we hear anything else.

[Thanks, Gabriel]

Continue reading Nokia X5 square slider gets official in Singapore (update: video!)

Nokia X5 square slider gets official in Singapore (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’ve got no way to confirm at the moment, here’s some proverbial food for thought. A friendly reader last night published in our comment thread for the two rumored Verizon-bound Motorola devices with the above picture (subtitles added by us), claiming the bottom image is the Droid 2’s upgraded QWERTY keyboard. The story goes that his friend had one but no other information is currently available — the font on the keys is identical, and the mic icon on the bottom left is distinctively Android. If it’s legit, we gotta say we’re hopeful; the keys look to have a more protruding center à la the CLIQ, which should make typing on the little guy much easier than before. And if it’s not the Droid successor, well, it’s still something we haven’t seen. Could this be the updated QWERTY-fied Android solution we’ve been waiting for? Time will tell.

Update: Droid Life has what it claims to be a screencap from the Verizon inventory system showing the M1955, a.k.a. Droid 2, hanging out in Ontario, California. Easily fakeable? You betcha, but it’s not like the Droid name is going to any other carrier. Interesting food for thought.

Update 2: The original source of the image just got back to us with some purported specs — and yet again, let’s remind you that we can’t confirm any of this yet. What we’ve heard: it’s out in the field for testing purposes, it has a 3.7-inch screen, is nearly identical to the original Droid in size and shape, and is chrome instead of black (though that might just be the prototype). And in case you weren’t convinced yet, this is definitely not the same as the Shadow.

[Thanks, mabbikeel and Tuan Tran]

Motorola Droid 2 found in Verizon system, keyboard makes an online cameo? (update: specs) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 20:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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