Mobile Phone News

Filed under: Handsets, Features, Motorola, Sprint, EV-DO, CDMA

We’re plan to confess a dirty little secret in this place: when we first started playing with the VE20, we didn’t realize it was being branded and marketed as a RAZR. As we used it, though, it quickly became evident — no one had to tell us this was a kindred spirit of the V3. For better or worse, the shape of the phone — everything from the tapered upper edge of the display to the “chin” beneath the keypad — looks and feels like an obvious evolution. You might call it a stepping stone in between the V3 and the V9, and considering that the V3 gets closer to its last breath on store shelves with each passing day (or so we hope), Moto and Sprint need something to slot in there beneath the mighty RAZR 2.

Call us insane, but for what the VE20 is, we liked it. It doesn’t pretend to be a do-all, end-all superphone, nor does it try to wow you with its premium materials; it’s just a decent midrange flip with what seems to be excellent build quality. The screen is exceptionally bright, clear, and rich, and the V9-aping secondary touchscreen is a nice touch (pun intended, of course). One area of concern: it froze up on us once, necessitating a restart, and the music app was completely broken in our tester. Our guess is that this’ll be resolved in retail units or via a quick firmware update shortly after launch — at least, it frigging better be.

The VE20 is available today for $99.99 on contract after rebates.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint, EV-DO, CDMA

Anyone looking to relive the original RAZR’s glory years without making the monumental leap up to the RAZR 2 might keep a close eye on Sprint over the next little while. The FCC has revealed the VE20 “Vegas,” a flip that smacks of the V3’s design cues while taking an ever-so-cautious approach to updating the styling and making sure that the package still stays firmly planted beneath the V9 in the food chain (or at least that’s what the abundance of plastic would lead us to believe, but with Motorola, who the hell knows). It’ll do EV-DO, a 2 megapixel camera, and touch-sensitive external controls on a fairly generous secondary display whenever it gets around to launching — just don’t expect the excitement, expense, or debauchery of an actual weekend in Sin City.

[Via phoneArena]

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, Symbian, GSM, HSDPA, UMTS

Yup, you read that right. We’re not talking about just any Webkit-based browser, Samsung’s long-rumored L870 slider features Apple’s Webkit-based, Mobile Safari browser. A first outside of the iPhone. The 13.5-mm thin phone pumps Symbian v9.3 and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 at its core with a 3 megapixel camera, 2.4-inch QVGA display, FM radio, Stereo Bluetooth, and microSD expansion. Unfortunately, this pup is tri-band GSM with single-band UMTS/HSDPA 3.6Mbps support so it’ll be heading to europ. around the August time frame.

Update: Full press release available after the break.

Continue reading Samsung L870 S60 slider features Apple’s Safari browser

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