If you were to prepare a list of most under-served smartphone form factors, portrait QWERTY ranks high on the list; few manufacturers have dared to dabble in it so far, despite the fact that there would seem to be a treasure trove of potential users in the BlackBerry realm who live and die by the Bold / Curve layout. Motorola has given it the most high-publicity shot so far with entries like the Droid Pro, Charm, and Flipout, and it looks like Samsung might be prepping a head-on Droid Pro competitor for Sprint thanks to some shots that have emerged on PocketNow today. We have precisely zero details on the hardware specs, the possible launch time frame, or really anything else at this point, but we’ll keep an eye out.
You could argue that Motorola still has some work to do to emerge the hole it dug itself while pushing back major version updates for its early Android devices time and time again, but it’s definitely improving — and it looks like a Blur-ified build of Gingerbread for the Droid X is already starting to leak. As you might recall, Moto’s 4.3-inch beast launched on Eclair before getting Froyo a few months later, so the fact that the company is seemingly preparing its second big update already is notable to say the least; it looks to be basically the same thing they’ve already shown on the Atrix, which is definitely a marked improvement from the Blur of old. No word on how the source got these shots, but we can only hope it means the over-the-air update isn’t too far off.
If these first in-the-wild shots of T-Mobile’s upcoming Android-powered Sidekick 4G turn out to be legit — and we’ve no reason to doubt them, especially considering TmoNews‘ track record — then we’d say the carrier has done a reasonably good job porting the classic Sidekick design and pulling it into the modern age off the strength of a big display… and, of course, a modern operating system. Interestingly, word on the street is that the new model is made by Samsung, not Sharp; historically, Sharp has made all of the Sidekicks with the exception of the forgettable Slide, which was a Motorola one-off. Looks like the swivel display has been replaced by a tilt-slide, but most importantly, the device looks the same when open and closed, which should put a warm, fuzzy feeling in the hearts of old-school Sidekick users. Who’s excited?
Why bother waiting for its official Mobile World Congress reveal in February when you can view the newest HTC flagship today? The touchscreen slate prototype (notice the serial number stamped along the bottom of the handset’s face) you’re looking at above matches the leaked Pocketnow render exactly including the arcing earpiece and isolated front-facing camera with chrome ring. It was just spotted by an eagle-eyed tipster while waiting for a Taipei metro system. Sorry Windows Phone 7 fans, this baby is Android through and through. And seeing it in the wild lends credence to all of the HTC devices pictured in that leak. A couple more snaps after the break.
LG’s been pulling a good old-fashioned Galaxy S with its midrange Optimus line in the States, having launched on Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and MetroPCS over the past several months — and the latest to take delivery will be Virgin Mobile, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise seeing how Virgin’s a Sprint brand. We know this because the so-called Optimus V actually already starting to go on sale in some places, which has led eager buyers to post a few shots and videos of the phone doing its thing in the wild; as you might expect, it’s essentially an Optimus S with Virgin software swapped in place of the Sprint stuff. Pricing looks to be $150 off-contract, which is pretty aggressive — especially when you put it up against the $250 Samsung Intercept. Follow the break for a quick video of this thing out in the concrete jungle.
Staying true to its Galaxy S forefather, the Nexus S has shown up with a new white shell, which, just as with the Galaxy S, only extends to its rear portions, leaving the front end a familiar shade of noir. Just what’s keeping manufacturers from blanching their phones’ visage, we don’t know, but at least it’s looking like there’ll be some variation in the Nexus S’ palette. We did notice a “Silver Black” Nexus S sprouting up in European retailers’ listings a couple of weeks ago, which this could well be — it all depends on how loosely these companies define the word “silver.” There’s no knowledge on when or where this chromatically altered S will be on sale, but you’ll know more as soon as we do.
Update: First picture from the wilderness of the white back is now embedded after the break. The Next Websuggests Vodafone may be the European carrier for this particular version of the handset.
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.
Perhaps Samsung’s Vibrant 4G won’t be tied to Froyo, after all. Although the initial leak suggested Android 2.2, Boy Genius Report’s managed to obtain what it suggests is an in-the-wild shot with a lock screen that looks remarkably reminiscent of the aesthetic touches from Android 2.3 Gingerbread. No TouchWiz UI here, but word on the street (i.e. from its source) is Sammy’s hard at work to remedy that disconnect and make the skin jibe with the new version. And if that’s not enough, TmoNews is claiming a leaked document that indicates Vibrant 4G will launch February 23rd. Back to the picture, though: if that timestamp is at all accurate, and this is really just hours fresh, perhaps that lucky right-handed gent can snap a few more convincing shots while it charges.
Update: As a number of readers have pointed out, there’s some odd discrepancies between this image and the Gingerbread lock screen we all know, chief among them the inclusion of AM / PM in the top bar (that option doesn’t exist in actual 2.3. we just checked to be sure). Brief Mobile’s got a more nuanced breakdown, but the point is, this looks to be either a half-baked ROM or the work of a certain Robin Goodfellow.
All signs are pointing to Samsung coming out big in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress next month; we already know that they’ve got a bona fide Galaxy S successor on tap — probably related to the Infuse 4G, if we had to guess — and now we’re seeing a few shots of a model number S5830 that might be called the Galaxy Ace. Little is known about this sucker, but it seems to be a downscaled Galaxy S of some sort (in fact, some rumors have it pegged as the “Galaxy S Mini”) with a 5 megapixel cam, 800MHz processor, and a 3.5-inch LCD. Putting an LCD in this thing instead of a Super AMOLED would certainly suggest that it’s intended to favor the lower end of the market — and after a year of pushing the relatively high-end Galaxy S line, that might be a market Sammy needs to refresh. All will be revealed next month, we suspect.
Well, the leaks have been flying fast and furious: the presumed PlayStation Phone has been in the hands of folks for a hot minute, and now a video has popped up showing one lucky hombre playing Resident Evil 2 and Rage Racer on the device. The hardware is apparently on the up and up, although the fact that the titles had to be loaded through ROM Buddy suggests that the software is still being tinkered with. That said, it looks like this thing is pretty much a done deal. See for yourself after the break.
