Hasta La Gadget!

Is it cooler than Sprint’s Snap? That’s for you to judge, but whatever the case, Verizon has now announced its own version of HTC’s latest WinMo Standard handset. The so-called Ozone features WiFi, global roaming capability, VZ Navigator and visual voicemail support, a QWERTY keyboard (which feels great if it’s anything like its cousin’s), and a beefy 1500mAh battery that we’re betting will keep this thing going all day and then some. The best part, though, might be the price: it’ll be just $49.99 on contract after rebate when it launches online on June 29 and in stores on July 13.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

HTC Ozone comes to Verizon June 29 for under $50 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Remember that mysterious Huawei Android number from MWC? It’s all grown up and officially launched as the U8230 now. Specs are still maddeningly ambiguous, however — the only hard info we’ve got is a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 1500mAH battery, which is said to be the largest battery “among Android-powered handsets currently available.” Considering the only set that’s really out there is the notoriously battery-poor G1, that’s not such a radical claim, but we’d sure love to test this one out in person when this launches (perhaps on T-Mobile?) alongside the 2.8-inch Windows Mobile-powered C8000 later this year.

Filed under: Cellphones

Huawei U8230 Android phone officially launched at CommunicAsia originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Samsung just pulled a bit of a “Samsung” and completely blew out its Omnia lineup. We just got some face time with the new Omnia II, Omnia Pro, Omnia Lite and the Omnia-inspired Jet, along with the Pixon 12 — which runs the same in-house Samsung OS as the Jet, but packs a 12 megapixel camera. It’s hard not to notice the stunning AMOLED screens on these phones, especially up against the dull-by-comparison Omnia Lite with its petty LCD. Unfortunately, while the build quality is good and the specs are certainly all there, all the phones were fairly slow in regular operation. The Jet and Pixon were passable (and the Jet certainly ought to be, with an 800MHz “application processor”), but we can’t imagine anybody finding any pleasure in the molasses Windows Mobile 6.1 experiences on the Omnia trio. The Jet has a fun little 3D UI “cube” gimmick, which involves the pointless spinning of a cube to access different media apps, but most of what we saw was pretty standard TouchWiz. We did like the speed of Pixon’s camera, which does a Pre-style trick of sending photo processing duties to the background so you can snap another photo with little delay in between — it’s also pretty good at auto focus and color accuracy for a phone, but we won’t be trading in our regular point and shoot in the near term. None of the phones we looked at had network access, so we weren’t able to test out the WebKit browsers, but it sounds like a major win for the Jet and Pixon. Let’s just work on that Omnia responsiveness a bit, yeah Samsung? Perhaps Windows Mobile 6.5 (the Omnia II and Omnia Pro are 6.5-ready) will help.

Update: we added a video of the Omnia II and Omnia Pro after the break!

Continue reading Samsung’s Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Samsung’s Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’re actually surprised we didn’t make the connection earlier, but word on the street today is the the rumored Samsung Omnia Pro will actually be a renamed Louvre B7610, a set that’s been popping up a lot lately. Makes sense — the Louvre’s 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED screen, 800MHz processor, and 5.1 megapixel camera match up nicely with the Omnia line. It’s running Windows Mobile 6.1 right now, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if the rumored August release date is held back to September or October to coincide with WinMo 6.5. One more pic after the break, couple more at the read links.

[Via Unwired View]

Read – Connect-UTB post
Read – Beyond3D forum post

Continue reading Samsung Omnia Pro to be the Louvre B7610?

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Omnia Pro to be the Louvre B7610? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

If you’ve a proven track record of delivering solid products to consumers (much like Garmin has), we’ll cut you some slack for awhile if you happen to hit a snag or two along the way while bringing a completely new device to market. But after more delays than we care to count and a 1.5 year gap between announcement and right now, the benefit of the doubt vanishes. To that end, we couldn’t be happier to report that Garmin’s president and COO Cliff Pemble feels that it’s “getting very close” to a carrier launch (AT&T, perhaps?) in the US. Said statement was given at a shareholders meeting today, and he also mentioned that the Asian market would see the Nuvifone “this month or in early July.” We appreciate the update, but at this point, the burden of proof is squarely on you, Garmin.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Cellphones

Garmin “getting very close” to a US Nuvifone launch… or so it says originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments