Yes, that’s right, one lucky Engadget Mobile reader is going to walk away with a gorgeous, ultra-limited LG Shine worth more than the combined value of, like, every phone we’ve ever had. How exactly does one get in on this action? Head on over to Mobile for the scoop!
No surprises here — particularly since LG’s Vu has been on sale through a number of AT&T retail outlets since late last month (whoops!). Today, however, the carrier is officially listing LG’s latest for sale, and the Mobile TV-supporting handset is going for a stiff $549.99 sans contract, or $299.99 after giving away your cellular soul for two years and waiting anxiously for a $100 mail-in rebate to arrive. Check out our hands-on gallery to see if you’re really ready to make this kind of commitment.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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]
Remember the KU990 Viewty? Of course you do, well, meet its twin — but decidedly duller — sibling, the KE990 — notice that E? That means EDGE. This handset apparently brings most or all of the same goods to the table as the KU990 did but lacks HSDPA and dumps tri-band for dual. So yeah, rather than stuffing this thing with another HSDPA band — ah-frickin’-hem — LG has chosen to head in another, less interesting direction by stripping it of some of what made it glorious in the first place. Of course, if rumors of it going to China prove true, we get that removing the 3G radio will improve battery life and shrink the price a bit for that market — as not all markets want that 3G speed — but this still hurts as we’re way cooler with more, better, faster around here. Hopefully we’ll hear a little something announced at CTIA but until then, we’ll simply pretend none of this ever happened.
Well, here are three that we didn’t see coming or anything — Verizon has officially announced the Motorola Q9c, LG enV(2), and HTC-sourced XV6900 today, all for April availability. The Moto Q9c is a more business-savvy version of the consumer-focused Q9m that was launched on Verizon late last year, with the carrier playing up the new model’s VZ Navigator support, Windows Mobile 6 Standard load (yippee?), and — unfortunately for those whose companies distrust photography — a 1.3 megapixel camera. This one will launch for $249.99 after rebate on a two-year plan.
Next up we have the enV(2) — a phone we mistakenly identified previously as the enV2 because we just never could’ve seen those bonus parenthesis coming — which succeeds the wildly popular enV and injects a fresh dose of industrial design. Features include a 2 megapixel cam, 2.4 inch internal display accompanied by a smaller screen up front that’s just big enough for doing calling duty, microSD slot, and the flip-up QWERTY keyboard the enV series is famous for. It’ll run $129.99 after rebate on contract when it launches next month.
Finally, the XV6900 brings Verizon in line with Sprint’s Touch, though in a far paler shade. It features the full host of Windows Mobile 6 Professional goodies alongside a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, Bluetooth, and HTC’s TouchFLO interface. Like the others, it’s slated for April availability and will run $349.99 on contract after $50 rebate.
phoneArena appears to have scored information on exactly when Verizon will be (or would like to be, anyway) releasing three new models from LG, all of which should be attracting some serious attention in their own right. Headlining the group is the VX9700 “Dare” — Verizon’s Prada-alike, if you recall — which is allegedly now being targeted for a July 4 online release and an in-store launch shortly thereafter (we’d say those dates put it at risk of cannibalization from the Glyde, but the Dare’ll win the photography battle with a 3.2 megapixel sensor versus the Glyde’s measly 2). Next up, the trick VX8610 with the internal Bluetooth headset has apparently been christened “Decoy” and is tracking for May 30 online and June 9 in store. Finally, the VX8650 Chocolate Flip gets ready to mercilessly slaughter its VX8600 predecessor come June 24 on your trusty web browser with brick-and-mortar locations getting theirs in July. Naturally, launch dates tend to have the solidity of Jello, so don’t be dropping your life savings on any wagers here with your shady friends. Not yet, anyway.
It looks like those that have been holding out for a new and improved Prada phone from LG could soon be getting their fix, at least if a purported leaked press release is to be believed. According to Taiwan’s ePrice, the Prada II is supposedly on track for a release in the fourth quarter of 2008, with it bringing with it a whole host of upgrades that some may say sound suspiciously like a wish list. That includes quad-band GSM, WCDMA 900/2100, and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, along with a 5-megapixel camera (with support for video calls), a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, TV-out, and a microSD card slot. Oh, and a slide-out QWERTY keypad. Needless to say, while we certainly wouldn’t bet against a Prada II of some sort coming out this year, it’s probably best not to get your hopes up too much about each and every one of those specs just yet.
[Via Unwired View]
Oh yeah, we’re mildly excited that LG Display should be able to start cranking out product from its 8G LCD plant earlier than expected, but the real kicker here is the outfit’s outlook on OLED. Merely two days after hearing that Samsung was hoping to dish out affordable medium-to-large OLED displays in 2009 / 2010, we’re now getting word that LG Display is looking to offer up a 32-incher the year after. And we’re talking “volume production,” no less. Makes holding off on that XEL-1 that much easier, doesn’t it? Nah, we didn’t really think so.
[Via OLED-Info]
LG’s KF750 was just announced official-like by the non-rioting folks at Lucky Goldstar. With it, we get the official specs courtesy of, uh, Photography Blog. Why is a site for digital photogs carrying a cellphone press release, you ask? Easy, this one’s got a 5 megapixel camera with face recognition and the ability to shoot DivX video at 120fps. A member of LG’s Black Label series, the 11.8-mm slider is the thinnest 5 megapixel cameraphone on the market. Unfortunately the press release is heavy on fluff and light on specs so we can only tell you that it’ll also be sporting a touch-screen, suite of mobile Google apps, and Bluetooth when it makes its European debut sometime this year, presumably, for an unknown price.
Update: A few more details are rolling in: 2.4-inch display, haptic feedback, and available in May
[Via Stuff.tv and Digital-Lifestyles]
Read — Secret micro site (so secret it’s currently down)
Read — Press release
Germany’s been one of the European countries protesting the hardest against the EU’s selection of DVB-H as the union’s mobile TV standard of choice — and for good reason, seeing how it already had a nice little chunk of cash sunk into T-DMB. We’re not sure if this is Germany’s version of passive-aggressive civil disobedience or if this is just how they plan on rolling for the time being, but Vodafone Germany is actually looking at rolling out a pair of phones next month that simply pull down plain ol’ DVB-T signals — the kind generally destined for home televisions, not pockets. This obviously gives the service a far larger footprint and content profile right off the bat, but the tradeoff is that DVB-T was never designed for the small screen and suffers from a greater power draw than either DVB-H or T-DMB. Anyhoo, the phones in question are the Windows Mobile-powered g-Smart t600 from Gigabyte alongside LG’s HB620T clamshell. Both are expected to go out the door for about €100 ($159) on contract, apparently, which is just as well seeing how the t600 lacked 3G data last time we checked in on it. Who’d really trade fast data for television that’s going to drain your battery faster than you can say “David Hasselhoff,” anyway?
[Via the::unwired]