Mobile Phone News

It’s cool LG — it’s not like we really need to know model names and BOMs for each of your new Windows phones. In fact, it’s completely kosher if you just tease us with launch dates and nothing more. It’s not like you’ve got any rivals out there already sharing a good deal more or anything. And hey, if it weren’t for that oh-so-informative blurb underneath the image in your press release, we wouldn’t even know that the already-launched GW550 would be amongst the first three WinMo 6.5-packin’ smartphones you’ve got on deck for an “imminent launch.” What precious little we do know is that in addition to that there GW550, the first volley of three will feature a full touchscreen device and a touch slider with full QWERTY — both form factors we’d fully expect represented in force for 6.5 — and they’ll be made available to “early adopters” in Europe, Asia, and the US before being introduced on a larger scale. But listen, we definitely appreciate you telling us that a grand total of 13 new Windows phones will be out and about by the end of 2010, and we’ll be patiently waiting for details on the whos, whats, whens and wheres. Toodeloo!

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Windows Mobile

LG’s latest Black Label device, tastefully titled the Chocolate Touch, caused Truly a few gasps and swoons around the Engadget mansion when it was first spotted, and subsequent photo shoots have not diminished our admiration. The gorgeous 4-inch, 21:9 display promises a whole new way to experience web browsing and video playback on a mobile phone, and we’ve been salivating for an opportunity to try it out. Finally, that day has come, so follow along as we get our fingerprints all over a final production sample, and bring you pictures, video and our thoughts on the functionality that lay behind that tempered glass screen.

Sure, HD2 owners probably spend the overwhelming majority of their time staring at that jaw-dropping 4.3-inch WVGA display, but you figure that they’re probably plan to make use of the 5 megapixel cam every once in a while, too — and therein lies the rub. It seems that a whole bunch of HD2s in the field are having issues with pink auras around the center of the image, which can clearly appear to the casual observer as weird white balance in a busy scene; there are intermittent reports that newer devices have squashed the problem, while older units may need to be swapped out to get it fixed. We’ll keep an eye on this to see if firmware can magically make this go away, but in the meantime, is anyone out there noticing this on their unit?