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We’re noticing a trend — anyone think this thing looks like a healthy portion of the sliders Samsung has loosed in recent history? Sure, 13.8 millimeters is nice for a slider and all, but it’s by no means groundbreaking; same goes for the 2 megapixel primary and VGA front-facing cameras, microSD slot, and media support. That being said, we’re hard-pressed to dis any 3G phone that’s managed to make it all the way to the FCC’s hallowed halls, so we’re going to cut the criticism right here and cross our fingers for an expedient arrival on US shores.

This reminds us a little bit of voice-to-SMS — it’s a feature that’s been perverted in such a way that the original intent has been somehow lost in translation. Don’t get us wrong; with HSDPA, 2 megapixel cam, and A2DP, the EV-W100 from KTF is nice and all (it is, after all, a Korean handset), but the draw here seems to be special software that’ll replace the outgoing video on video calls with an animated avatar as a “security” measure. Now if we’re not mistaken, it takes two to tango when it comes to video calling, so why not just not hold a video call if you’re concerned about the peeps on the other end seeing what’s going on? No bother; we guess it’s pretty cool that a talking pig is one of the avatar choices.

[Via textually.org]

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We don’t generally associate the terms “HTC” and “slider” — at least in the traditional, numeric keypad sense — but it seems the Taiwanese patron saint of all things Windows Mobile would like us to have a change of heart in that regard. The rumored HTC “Nike” (these code names of theirs keep getting weirder and weirder, we swear) should bow as the P5500 when it becomes available this fall in HTC-branded trim, rolling deep with a 400MHz Samsung core, 128MB ROM / 64MB RAM with microSD expansion, integrated FM tuner, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3 megapixel cam, and a 2.6-inch QVGA touchscreen. Best of all, it’ll pack GPS and industrial-strength data via both 802.11b/g and HSDPA (no word on bands, though) — and yes, that is Windows Mobile 6 Professional you see there, hence the touchscreen.
[Via Navigadget]

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Yeah, we covered this one before when Softbank first announced it back in January, but its spec sheet is so frickin’ glorious that we felt the need to hit it up one more time now that the Japanese carrier has started populating store shelves with it. The first thing one notices when laying eyes on the 911T slider sourced from Toshiba is the screen — all 800 x 480 of it. Other features include a decent 3.2 megapixel cam, HSDPA, Bluetooth, and a full 1GB of internal storage in a case that measures in under 18 millimeters thick. If you have the good fortune of residing in Japan, pick yours up now from Softbank in your choice of red, gray, black, or white.

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Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year — if not longer, depending on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going — to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they’re taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96’s strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone’s socks off — especially for a sticker price that’ll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn’t bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a “shovel”-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone’s generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it’s released later this year — and hey, at least Nokia’s got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now — so we’re keeping our chins up that this’ll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.

[Via Tech Digest and NokNok]

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It turns out that AT&T won’t be the only network picking up the Americanized version of LG’s Prada — the blacked-out, touch-tastic Vu — come this May; Rogers wants in on the action up north of the border, too, and they’ll be keeping pace with their GSM brethren below the St. Lawrence by launching the phone in the very same time frame. We can only assume that Rogers will be launching the CU915 variant (or TU915, as it’ll probably come to be known to them) since the carrier doesn’t feature a MediaFLO network that would warrant the need for the CU920’s additional hardware and expense. As we already know, the phone will feature a 2 megapixel camera, HSDPA, microSD expansion, and it comes as no surprise that the phone will support access to the full host of Rogers’ media services. It looks like pricing will be announced closer to launch, but you might want to just start putting away the occasional dollar now, because this one ain’t exactly going out the door free on contract if you catch our drift.

[Via Mobile In Canada]

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Those eagerly anticipating the LG Vu now have a little more to go by — at least visually, anyway. The specs floating around jibe with everything we’ve heard, and apparently include a nice 3-inch 400 x 240 display. Head on over to Phone Arena for more.

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Those hankering for an exhaustive rundown of the just-announced 5320 XpressMusic’s specifications need not conduct their search any further. Forum Nokia, Espoo’s developer outreach branch, has gone ahead and done the dirty work of dredging up the details and plopping ‘em all in one place, revealing roughly 85MB of usable memory on startup (a key stat, as any heavy Symbian user can attest) atop S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. The lack of HSDPA 850 / 1900 (or a separate version of the phone rocking those bands) still stings to read — like, physically causes our eyes to burn — but hey, what can you do? Wait for the N78, that’s what.

[Via All About Symbian]

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A fistful of RIM documentation on Waterloo’s upcoming BlackBerry 9000 has found its way onto the interwebs courtesy of the good folks at Boy Genius Report, and while there’s nothing groundbreaking here, BlackBerry fanatics are sure to be drooling by the time they get to the last slide in this page-turner. The spec sheet promises a tweaked web browsing experience — and we’ll take anything we can get there, considering the device’s support for HSDPA. We also see mentions of an improved picture library, automatic music playlists, and inline video streaming in the browser (!!!), all accompanied by a handful of screen shots of the device’s delicious new theme. Seeing how we’ll probably be waiting a few months yet for this thing to get into our hands, go ahead and satisfy your impatience (for a few minutes, anyhow) by clicking through to the full novella.

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