3gsm 2007, New Arrivals

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by Rich Brome & Eric Lin

February 14-16, 2007

HTC's most interesting new announcement at 3GSM this year is the phone formerly known as the Vox. The new, official HTC name is the S710, although that's only how it will be branded on the unlocked phone market, since each carrier that offers it will call it something completely different. Therefore the "Vox" code-name remains a handy, generic way to refer to this device.

The Vox is a bit of a Transformer with it's 2-in-1 design. It's designed to combine the best of a regular bar-style phone form factor with the best features of today's advanced smartphones.

memory card slot & key topography SIM slot Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. Looking at it as a phone, it's small and pocketable, and it has a regular numeric keypad with large keys for easy number dialing and one-handed T9 texting. Comparing it to a Hermes (Cingular 8525, etc.) the Hermes is much larger, and doesn't offer any way to enter text one-handed since it lacks a standard number pad when closed.

Hermes / Vox Hermes / Vox Hermes / Vox Vox / Hermes Vox / Hermes Vox / Hermes i760 / Vox i760 / Vox Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. Snap open the sliding keyboard, however, (and it does "snap" open quite nicely,) and you have a full QWERTY keyboard and landscape QVGA display, just like a Motorola Q or Samsung BlackJack. Like both of those phones, the Vox runs the Standard edition of Windows Mobile (what was known as "Smartphone" edition under version 5.)

The form factor is very similar to the LG F9200, and also has traits in common with LG's enV. What sets this apart from the LGs is the real smartphone OS on the Vox. In that category, the Vox will compete against phones like Nokia's E70.

The Vox feels fantastic. It's a great size and weight, and it feels solid all-around, including the spring-assisted slide action. The screen is wonderful: clear and very bright.

I did find two small gripes, though. First, the keys would really benefit from being more raised. It's not a bad keyboard, but it's not the best I've tried. Secondly, its 200 MHz OMAP processor doesn't make it the speediest phone out there; it felt pretty sluggish to me. However, the software I tried is still beta at this point, so the final version may be snappier.

As for other specs, most of them are about what you'd expect: Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, quad-band GSM, EDGE data, microSD memory card slot, and a 2 megapixel camera. One feature that stands out is Wi-Fi.

HTC has been pitching the Vox to US GSM carriers, but according to VP Todd Achilles, none have bitten yet. T-Mobile's Dash is a very similar device in terms of features, so it's understandable that T-Mobile would pass on the Vox. It's less clear why Cingular would pass up such a promising phone.

On the bright side, HTC has previously discussed a CDMA version called the Libra, which they confirmed was still on track for release with a major US carrier later this year.

Edited February 25, 2007 by hpnasik

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Motorola made a dizzying number of announcements here at 3GSM this year, although the only new phone clearly headed for US shores is the awkwardly-named "MOTOQ q9".

Since it is so awkwardly named, we're just going to call it the "Q9", Motorola brand police be damned. Since we are talking about the successor to the original Q, (the Q1, if you will,) Q2 would have probably been the most sensible name. Perhaps Motorola thought it would be too freaky to say "the Q2 is coming in Q2."

microSD card slot keyboard keyboard Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The Q9 is a noticeable improvement on the original Q in almost every way. The original Q had an odd size ratio that was unusually long, and it's size/weight ratio made it feel slightly cheap. The new Q9 suffers from neither issue, with a size, shape, and weight that feels perfectly balanced and solid.

The keyboard is the biggest single improvement. The new keys are simply fantastic. One nice thing about the original Q was how the extended bottom section gave you plenty to hold on to while typing with your thumbs. When you first see the Q9, you might think the buttons are too close to the bottom to type while keeping the phone comfortably balanced, but in fact the way the bottom edge is beveled out makes it surprisingly easy to hold and type.

The Q9 is the second in Motorola's "SCPL" series. (The first was the ultra-basic MOTOFONE.) Although Motorola has been hyping SCPL for over a year as the next big thing after RAZR, it turns out that SCPL is really just a "design language". The bright chrome raised d-pad seems to be part of it, as are the way the top and bottom are rounded and beveled.

Moving to the innards, the memory has also been boosted. In fact, the Q9 has industry-leading memory specs for a mainstream Windows Mobile device: 256 MB flash memory for storage (expandable via microSD) and a whopping 96 MB of RAM for running many applications at once (64 is standard).

Treo 750 / Q9 / Dash

Q9 / Q Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The Q9 will compete against an increasingly crowded market of Windows Mobile smartphones with QWERTY keyboards. In size, the Q9 is competitive with the rest of the pack, although it doesn't lead the pack the way the original Q did when it was announced. The Samsung BlackJack may be the Q9's closest rival. Although the BlackJack is smaller, the far roomier keyboard and display of the Q9 may make up for the size difference for most people.

There will be three versions of the Q9 coming out over the next several months. All have quad-band GSM and EDGE. The difference is in the 3G (WCDMA + HSDPA) bands they support. Naturally, one version will do 2100 for Europe. For North America, there will be a 850/1900 version - presumably for Cingular - and a 1700 version, presumably for T-Mobile USA. That last version is the most interesting, because it's the first device to be announced that supports the new 1700 / AWS spectrum that T-Mobile just won in an FCC auction. Motorola hopes to have the European version and at least one of the US versions launched by mid-year.

The rest of spec sheet is mostly what you'd expect these days: stereo Bluetooth, microSD memory card slot, and a 2 megapixel cameras with 30 FPS video capture. One welcome spec is the inclusion of the speedy HSDPA 3.6 standard (as opposed to 1.8.)

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Sony Ericsson's new batch of phones this month were aimed mostly at Europe and Asia. The group did include a couple of quad-band models that could work well in the US, though. We asked about US availability, and were basically told not to hold our breath for a major carrier release. However Sony Ericssons should continue to be popular with regional GSM carriers as Cellular One and SunCom.

The two quad-band models aren't really two different models at all. The W610 and K550 are pretty much the same phone; the former is simply Walkman-branded, while the latter carries Sony's Cyber-Shot mark.

The model numbering is confusing, because Sony Ericsson already offers a K610 that is quite different, and W550 that is wildly different. We're starting to have a hard time keeping track of Sony Ericsson's model numbers, and this is what we do for a living. We have to wonder what chance the average consumer has at keeping them all straight.

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The Walkman series of phones is almost solely responsible for Sony Ericsson's recent success in the global market. It's no surprise, since music what's hot now, Walkman is a brand synonymous with portable music, and, of course, they are generally quite good phones.

As a Walkman phone, the W610 has the special Walkman music interface. It also has Sony Ericsson's nifty new TrackID service like the W710. TrackID can identify any song that you can hear, just by recording a snippet using the microphone.

lens cover camera Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The K550 is very similar to the W610, simply trading Walkman branding for Cyber-Shot. The K550 still has a music player, of course, it just doesn't have the snazzy Walkman interface. Both also share the same 2 megapixel auto-focus camera with a high-power LED flash. The K550 does add a lens cover, but that's about it.

In fact, looking at the camera, specs, and everything else, it's hard not to be reminded of the popular K790, W800, and W810 models. The specs are almost identical, including the 176x220-pixel display. They have re-arranged the components inside to make it noticeably thinner, but other than a few mm thickness, all that's really changed is that a phone with these specs is now considered mid-range instead of high-end.

Last but not least (unless we're talking thickness) is Sony Ericsson's late entry into the thin-phone race, the W880.

M2 card slot Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The W880 is indeed quite thin, and quite sexy. It feels incredibly light, yet solid.

It's not without compromise, however. Although the display is super-sharp thanks to QVGA resolution, it's also relatively small in physical size, with a huge border of unused space surrounding it. It's a shame Sony Ericsson didn't follow Motorola's lead on using the thin/wide form factor to offer a larger display like they did with the RAZR.

The W880 also has one of the worst keypads I've tried in a long time. Pressing keys reliably isn't awfully difficult, it's just very uncomfortable. It feels like tapping out a few decent-length messages in a row would leave your fingertips sore. The number keys are worse than the d-pad and soft keys. While soft keys are uncomfortable, they are extremely easy to press reliably. It's the number keys that require using your fingernails at a funny angle to get any accuracy.

It's just as well that the W880 is tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900, and therefore not optimized for US networks.

Unfortunately, the W610 and K550 share this same unfortunate key design. We hope this is only a temporary design experiment for the company and doesn't become their standard key style.

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Although pictures of Nokia's new Eseries phones had all leaked before the company announced their new line on Monday, they still held a few surprises up their sleeve - primarily the power that each packed into a smaller than expected form. These phones all pack quad-band GSM/EDGE, HSDPA and Wi-Fi and more into smaller bodies than you might expect. In fact, it seems slimming down and "sexing up" the previous E series line was Nokia's main goal. No longer is this series going to be known for boxy grey phones. The E65 is positively curvy, the E61i is sleek, and all 3 will come in 2 colors - a deep red and a nearly black brown "mocha."

In addition to the colors and features, these phones have a new look and feel to their navigation keys in common. The joysticks and D-pads of past models have been replaced by a new, well, "D-ring." The center is a large square select button, and around it that is a raised, beveled square ring that controls the direction. When trying these out on all the demo models, they worked well once they got broken in. When we tried a fresh E61i, the D-ring was a bit hard to press, but after a few hours of use, all the phones were equally easy to navigate around. Your thumb sits nicely in the well of the ring and you can roll it around with very little effort.

keys E65 / 6110 Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The E65 blurs the line between a business and a fashion phone. Some people need a little power than the average user - maybe for push email, VOIP calls, or some other application but don't want a big, blocky corporate phone. The E65 suits them with a small, slim slider. The rounded sides and an angled top let the phone rest gently in your hand; and the soft-touch finish of the mocha or red portions makes the small phone even more comfortable.

It also has one of the smoothest spring-assist slides we have felt. You can either open it from the bottom or just by pushing up on the side, and after some slight resistance meant to keep the phone closed, the E65 glides right up. I'm sure opening and closing the E65 will be as tactility addictive as the Helio Sidekick.

The E65 has a couple of call-specific hard keys, one for muting the call (in S60 the right soft-key is always speakerphone now) and another for setting up a conference call. This new conference call interface works like addressing an SMS, which is much easier that the typical conference setup. You simply tick off a few people on your contacts list and the phone takes care of conferencing them all in.

While all the phones feel physically solid, the E65 matches it with solid software that's fast and clearly ready for prime time. This makes sense considering it's expected out in just a few weeks. The E61i was a close second, but could still use a few tweaks like a speedier camera start-up.

E61i / E61 E61i / E61 E61i / E61 Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The sleek colored sides and brushed metal front and back accentuate the E61i's new thinner form factor. Though the top is slightly thicker than the bottom, the difference is not nearly as great as on the E61. Even though the shape has changed only slightly, the new model feels very different - not just how it feels in the hand, but also how the keys feel.

The QWERTY keypad of the E61i quickly became a favorite among many at the show. The E61 had a good keypad layout, but many disliked the feel of the keys. The new version has the same layout but has a completely different feel. When you press a key, it offers a slight bit of resistance, after which it goes in and pops right back up. It is springy and responsive, but not hard to press or spongy.

Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The keyboard of the E90, at least the QWERTY keyboard, was more hotly debated. Eric thought it felt like typing on piece of granite, though he had no problem with it once he realized how little response to expect from it. Rich had no complaints. He found it easy to type on straight away and did not think it felt odd at all. Other bloggers we spoke to were split as well, though a slight majority agreed with Eric. Everyone agreed the external keypad was large and easy to use.

Holding the E90 in your hand, it's hard to believe that it's smaller than the Sidekick 3 in every dimension. It still has that brick feel that past communicators had, though it's more like a small brick than a cinder block. With the large, flat front the E90 is not going to be comfortable to hold up to your ear and talk into for a long time. But that's clearly not what it's meant for, even if it does have a full S60 interface on the outside.

contacts home screen schedule calendar email email

video playback

web browser find-on-page

Opening the E90 to use the keyboard and large screen is easy, but interesting none the less. There is a two stage hinge, one stage that opens fully to put the screen at 90 degrees to the keyboard and a second stage that is adjustable from 90 to 180 degrees. The inside screen is so large, you can view most websites in their normal desktop layout without having to scroll left and right.

Although the E90's software was less stable than the other two new Eseries phones, it was still workable and we were able to try everything from the auto-focus camera to email to the media player.

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lens cover camera Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The 6110 is a slightly thicker and blockier slider than the E65, which is to be expected considering it's a not a high-end phone like the Eseries and it has GPS. It is not unwieldy, it's just not sleek - maybe it just doesn't have the E65's curves. But it packs a solid feel and a great GPS experience.

Instead of Nokia Maps, the 6110 features Nokia Navigator, which includes many of the features that must be purchased as add ons to Maps like turn by turn directions and city guides. But Navigator still has additional services you can subscribe to like live traffic and weather updates. Navigator also features friend finder-like functionality. You can send your location from the application to any other Nokia Maps or Navigator user as an SMS. The receiver can then open that on their phone and get directions there from their current location.

firing up GPS search search results starting trip going straight turn ahead making turn night mode history sending location to friend location SMS optional extras Lonely Planet Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. Nokia said that they will release a number of phones with GPS and similar software this year, and it seems possible - maybe even likely - that at least one will be for the US.

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Samsung didn't just make this year's Ultra editions thinner, they tried to make them smarter. Each of the new series of phones don't just have a different thickness or form factor, they each have some unique features. Even though these were announced for Europe and are likely to show up across the pond as early as next month, all of the first round of Ultra Series phones have (or are) coming to the states, so it's likely these will make it to our shores later as well. main menu

3G multi-tasking menu

camera mode camera options white menu theme Yahoo! menu Yahoo! mail Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. All of the phones feature a more refined version of the interface found on recent Samsung GSM models like the SYNC. The text size has been reduced ever so slightly and navigation has been cleaned up a bit. There are also now 12 icons in the main menu instead of 9. They also have a link in the main menu to Yahoo! mobile services, however that may disappear by the time US carriers customize the software.

music menu playback menu playback menu playback w/ album art playback w/o album art Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. Each of the new Ultra phones also has a new music interface with support for album art, song ratings, and other features clearly meant to bring it more in line with Sony Ericsson's Walkman interface or standalone music players like the iPod and Zune.

keypad

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<script language="JavaScript"> Shortly after Apple announced the iPhone, Samsung announced that it had a similar phone in development: the "Ultra Smart F700". Nearly every part of it seems like a direct answer to the iPhone, from the finger-touch interface to the shape of it, right down to the streamlined front design with a single "home" button below the screen.

However Samsung seems to have developed a whole new finger-touch user interface (UI) that surely took more than a month to develop. It wasn't quite clear how Samsung reacted to the iPhone with a complete product so quickly.

Things became a bit clearer at 3GSM this week, when the Ultra Smart F520 was announced, and we had a chance to try Samsung's new finger-touch UI ourselves.

First, the new UI is a long way from being finished. While it's clearly beyond the concept / demo stage - it does really work interactively, and do many things just fine such as play music and make phone calls - there are still quite a few "dead ends" where icons and menu items simply don't do anything yet. That's not surprising, though; journalists who have tried the iPhone say the that UI is at about the same stage.

Second, of the two Ultra Smart phones, the F520 is clearly further along in development. In fact, it's the only of the two that would even power on. We suspect that the F520 is the original "Ultra Smart" phone the new UI was intended for, and the F700 is simply a new spin-off hardware model created quickly to provide a more direct answer to the iPhone.

It's tempting to compare Samsung's new finger-touch UI to that of the iPhone, but it's not really a fair comparison. While Apple is clearly trying to create a whole new UI paradigm, Samsung's goals don't appear quite as ambitious. Samsung's UI is more about trying to make a good finger-touch UI for a typical high-end phone, while Apple is aiming for a whole new platform. A phone using Samsung's finger-touch UI fits somewhere in-between a regular phone and the iPhone. home screen missed call alert volume dialer main menu apps menu home screen main menu shortcut menu music UI Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The home screen, menus, and options within Samsung's new UI aren't that different from a regular phone. What's new are a few standard UI elements that replace certain hardware keys. On most screens, there's a row of four small icons across the bottom. They are, in order: options, home, back, and exit. The "home" function actually brings up a simple 4-way shortcut menu to the most commonly used functions.

Throughout the interface, there's a wide blue crosshair-like element. In the main menu, you can "drag" it around and wherever you lift your finger is the option that's chosen. It's not any more efficient than simply tapping an icon, but it's fun to play with. The one place where the "crosshairs" are useful is the music player. The whole screen becomes a control for the song playing. Dragging the crosshairs up or down adjusts volume, while left/right skips right to the part of the song you want to hear.

iPhone clone or not, the F700 is one damn sexy phone.

keys Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The F700 has a decent-feeling slide-out keyboard. The specs are pretty impressive, including HSDPA and a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera. It does have a memory card slot, but it's below the battery cover. That keeps the outside nice and slick-looking, but hinders convenience a bit.

Without being able to turn it on, there's not much else we can say about the F700 specifically.

The F520 has Samsung's dual-slide design where some keys do double-duty as either number keys or letter keys, depending on which way you slide the screen. The idea is interesting, but it creates an awkward, somewhat arbitrary blank space in the middle of the QWERTY keyboard. The large numbers also make it difficult to read the letters on the right half of the keyboard.

memory card slot Click a thumbnail above for a larger view. The dual-slide mechanism wasn't very solid; it felt loose and easy to slide diagonally. That could be a prototype issue, however, or due to the demo unit being abused, so it's simply an issue to look for in reviews of the final shipping unit.

Here's a quick side-by-side size comparison of the Ultra Smart F520 and F700 against the SGH-i600 (just like the i607 BlackJack):

F520 / F700 / i600

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Dual-Sliding Messenger Phone for Helio Spotted on FCC Site

Thursday, 1:00 AM source: FCC

A new dual-slider with Helio branding on it was seen on the FCC web site today. Internally called the Pantech PN-810, the phone features a three-layer design. The top layer holds the main screen and function buttons. If the top is slid up, the middle layer reveals a standard number pad, and if the phone is slid sideways, it reveals the bottom layer's full qwerty keyboard for messaging. The keyboard includes a dedicated emoticon key, but no direct access to numbers. It is equipped with an EV-DO radio, Bluetooth, 2.1 megapixel camera with flash, and a 260k TFT LCD. Another model that appears to be bound for Helio, the Samsung A303, is also waiting in the FCC's wings. It looks to be a variant on the U510 for Brazil - a slim slider with touch sensitive keys on the front, Bluetooth and 2 MP camera.

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<h2 class="newstitle"></h2><h2 class="newstitle">i-mate Ultimate Form Factors Spotted

</h2>Feb 13, 2007, 9:12 AM source: i-mate

i-mate made pictures of all five Ultimate form factors available for the first time today. Pictured top to bottom are the:

Ultimate 5150 Slider: With 2.8-inch screen at 19.5 mm thick <li>Ultimate 6150 Super Screen: Also with 2.8-inch screen at 15.7 mm thick <li>Ultimate 7150 PC Tablet: With 3.8-inch internal display (2.2-inch OLED external) at 18 mm thick <li>Ultimate 8150 Super Thin: With 2.6-inch screen at 11 mm thick, and <li>Ultimate 9150 Flip: With 2.6-inch primary screen (1.2-inch OLED external). The Ultimates all come with Windows Mobile 6, quad-band GSM/EDGE and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radios, 262k VGA LCD touchscreens, Wi-Fi, FM and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.

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<h2 class="newstitle">Samsung Slides Out Expanded Lineup </h2>Feb 12, 2007, 1:56 PM source: Samsung

Samsung unveiled a big batch of phones today at 3GSM, including some innovative new designs, new Ultra editions and an updated BlackJack. The Ultra Edition II handsets all feature improved user interfaces, enhanced music players and software to help maximize battery life and talk time.

• F520: The Samsung F520 features a large 3-inch touchscreen that is also a dual slider. It slides horizontally to reveal a qwerty keypad for messaging and slides up to reveal the traditional number keys for quick call dialing. Similar to the F700 (announced last week), the F520 uses a Flash-based, touchpad user interface to navigate menus and features. It has EDGE 900/1800/1900MHz plus HSDPA 2100 for high-speed data and a 3.0 megapixel camera with flash. Hot buttons will also launch features like the camera and music player.
  
• Ultra Edition 12.1 (U700): This new slider features EDGE 900/1800/1900MHz, but adds 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. It comes with a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and a key wheel for easier navigation around the 2.2-inch screen. The U700 also supports Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0. It comes in four different colors and is 12.1 mm thick.
  
• Ultra Edition 10.9 (U600): Similar to the U700 in most respects, the U600 has a 2.2-inch screen, but the camera is 3.2 megapixels with autofocus (corrected), and the radio is downgraded to EDGE but is quad-band. It does come a tad thinner than the U700 at 10.9 mm.
  
• Ultra Edition 5.9 (U100): The U100 sports many of the same functions as the U600 and U700, but is a candybar form factor and is only 5.9 mm thick. It has an EDGE 900/1800/1900 radio and includes a 3.0 megapixel camera and Bluetooth.
  
• Ultra Edition 9.6 (U300): Finishing up the Ultra Edition II lineup is the U300. This is a clamshell phone with an internal color display, but a monochrome exterior display. Same as several of the others, it is EDGE 900/1800/1900, has a 3.0 megapixel camera with flash, and supports Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0. It is 9.6 mm thick.
  
• i600: The i600 is an updated BlackJack (i630) for Europe. The biggest changes are that it adds Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and a front-facing camera to enables videoconferencing. It has the same basic stats at the Blackjack, with stereo Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera and VGA screen. This phone will not appear in the U.S.
  

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