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.
Look familiar? You’ve actually seen it twice before, once as a QWERTY slider and once as an unidentified LTE smartphone. Well, it just so happens that a new batch of eighteen pictures have surfaced, and the two phones are actually one — this is the Samsung Forte for MetroPCS, which is presently running a recent build of Android 2.2.1. While we still don’t know if it’s got the 1GHz processor and 5 megapixel camera that lovingly accompanied the original rumor, it appears to have Samsung’s custom TouchWiz UI on board, lending extra credence to the possibility that the handset might receive Galaxy S branding when it materializes in stores. We’ve got just one last note here, and that’s this whole reveal feels rather… planted to us. Watch the video after the break to see what we mean, and find plenty more pictures at the link below.
Oh, there’s no need to act like you’re surprised, fellow Brits. As promised, HTC’s going to dish out its latest budget Froyo Android and flagship WP7 slider to the UK next month. Just a quick recap: the “pearl white” Gratia — which is the international version of the Aria — sports a humble 600MHz processor, along with a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 LCD and a 5 megapixel camera with VGA camcorder. As for the 7 Pro, it packs the bog standard WP7 specs (1GHz Snapdragon, 8GB storage, and 5 megapixel camera with 720p recording), as well as a slide-and-tilt 3.6-inch 800 x 480 display that reveals a landscape QWERTY keyboard underneath — the tilting part still a first for WP7. Sadly, it doesn’t look like any carriers have picked up either handset yet, nor has HTC shed light on their standalone costs, but hey, patience is priceless.
One of the most delicious phones the consumer world hasn’t had a chance to taste yet is firming up plans to finally make its way out to retail. Nokia’s Finnish store has put the E7 up for a €599 pre-order, which is expected to get the all-business device to your door some time in February. That matches the last word from Nokia on the subject of the E7′s release and should reassure anyone who’s made use of Amazon’s early pre-orders for this handset that the wait won’t last much longer.
Want one of the best Android handsets around, equipped with a dandy keyboard and some pseudo-4G internet connectivity? Taking the leap into Google’s mobile world just became that little bit easier as T-Mobile has decided to strip off the last remaining $50 on its G2 contract price and set it loose for free on two-year deals. This will be a quite familiar sight to our European readers, but premier Android handsets rarely, if ever, occupy such sweet price points in the US. Let’s hope it’s a harbinger of happy things to come.
[Thanks, Dani S]
Update: This pricing is only valid between now and January 20th, so if you want in, better do it soon.
Motorola’s i886 for Sprint’s IDEN network featuring both landscape QWERTY and standard numeric keypads bowed during CES a few days back for $79.99 after $50 rebate on a two-year contract — and as we’d observed a while back when we first saw the user’s manual, it runs a pretty convincing Android clone UI. Turns out, though, it’s less of a clone than you might think: Phone Scoop has discovered that the i886 — which doesn’t have a touchscreen — is actually running real Android (albeit without the Android Market) accompanied by generic J2ME like you’d find on your average dumbphone. If we had to guess, Motorola took advantage of Android’s status as a free, open-source platform here, tailoring it for the i886′s needs without worrying about the normal Google certification process that would’ve earned them Market access — and given the lack of a touchscreen, we’re sure they wouldn’t have been able to earn it anyway. From Moto’s perspective, it seems like a good way to get a proven, familiar platform without a lot of engineering effort — they can toss their proprietary platforms and save a little bit of cash in the process. Follow the break for Phone Scoop‘s video of the i886 in action.
We know it’s tough for the little guys to get great handsets without a top-tier carrier’s exclusivity agreement getting in the way, but goodness — launching an Android 2.1 device in early 2011 for nearly $100 on contract seems odd, doesn’t it? That said, the few wireless markets that remain under the Alltel brand (they’re down to around 800,000 customers in six states now) are nabbing a device called the Axis this week, featuring a 3.2 megapixel camera along with a 3.2-inch WVGA display — specs that put it roughly in line with the Ally found on Verizon. Want it? It should be available to you now for $89.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on a two-year contract; follow the break for the full press release.
Whether you love or hate the design of the Torch, that was never where the main beef lay — instead, that honor would have to go to the lackluster internals, capped off with an awful, washed-out 480 x 360 display that had no business sitting in a device that’s supposed to be the crown jewel of RIM’s phone lineup. Well, capping off a wild day of BlackBerry leaks and rumors over at BGR comes news of a Torch 2 in the works that might just make good on those shortcomings (and a whole lot more) thanks to a 1.2GHz processor, 14.4Mbps triband HSPA, a VGA display at the original Torch’s same 3.2-inch size, BlackBerry OS 6.1, and — like some of the other leaks we’ve seen — integrated NFC, which suggests the Nexus S may have started something good here. Specs aside, yeah… the phone itself is nearly a dead ringer for the model it replaces, adding some chrome accents and calling it good. If BGR‘s sources are on, you can look for this in the third quarter on AT&T.
As with the N8, so with the N9. Nokia’s first MeeGo device is widely expected to be dubbed the N9 and sport a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but its elongated time to market has given Chinese KIRF artists the chance to beat Finland with their own device. Parsing together leaked pictures and perhaps some insider info we’re not privy to, some crafty folks have put together the above 14mm-thin slider, outfitting it with a 3-inch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio, microSD card slot, dual SIM capabilities, and an almost entirely metallic construction. The OS is some sort of Symbian lookalike, while the price is an eminently affordable 700 yuan ($106). You’ll just need to find the right market stall in Shenzhen to get yours.
Things look to finally start to get interesting with hardware selection on MetroPCS’ LTE network — a network that still offers nothing more than the Samsung Craft dumbphone to tame those wild 4G speeds several months after the commercial launch. The latest leak here is for a device allegedly called the Forte — also from Samsung, naturally — that features a sliding landscape keyboard along with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.2 at launch, all specs that would suggest this might be a Galaxy S-branded device. What we don’t know is whether the Forte is the same as the SCH-R910 that was leaked for MetroPCS a few days ago; Samsung Hub‘s tipster claims there are two LTE devices in the pipeline here, so they could be different (perhaps one with a keyboard, one without) even though the tops are identical at a glance.
Update:Another couple shots of the alleged Forte have shown up on Samsung Hub, prominently showing off a “4G” logo planted back and center; rumor now has it we’re looking at a February 11th launch, though it’s still not clear whether this is the same device as the SCH-R910.
