SE has been on the down-tick lately, thanks no doubt in no small part to the iPhone’s success. The Xperia is an exciting piece of portable technology but its release may be a little too late to combat high-end rivals. Let’s face it, a touch screen smartphone with a slideout QWERTY keyboard isn’t exactly the way the smartphone industry is headed, and slideout QWERTY’s are so last year. The T700 may be the handset to get SE back to the game. The familiar SE aesthetics is here but with this model, SE has reached the peak of stylishness. It’s slim, shiny and metallic and has all the right details like the raised metal buttons to make and end calls bordered in a nice way by dedicated buttons for mail and home. It’s a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA 3G and has an on board 3.2 MP camera. It looks like it includes a remade UI as well supporting landscape mode. No idea about the retail price but the “premium metal finish” is a winner to me and for those people who don’t look to well on the new plasticky iPhone.

[via gizmodo]

The Meizu M8 has had another appearance at the Meizu forum. This new photo submitted by Meizu CE Jack Wong looks like the other leaked photos we’ve seen in the past. Hardware-wise, it doesn’t look much different than this M8 miniOne displayed on Alibaba. The biggest news on this photo leak is the browser. We have what browser it is but it’s pretty neat.

[via engadget]

The Nuviphone from Garmin, a great device in every sense, is going to avoid the getting slaughtered by iPhone 3G’s wake. Nuviphone (or Nuvifone) was expected late this year but due to carrier requirements still unresolved, Garmin has postponed launch date to 2009.

The Garmin Nuviphone is a quadband GSM phone with HSDPA, WiFi and of course GPS with maps preloaded. It will retail for $500 without contract.

[via slashphone]

RIM decided to go calculator black with its touchscreen keyboard on the BlackBerry Thunder. Their first ever touchscreen phone, the Thunder looks to be a sure winner for RIM. It’s also the first touchscreen smartphone with a QWERTY much unlike the iPhone QWERTY. Even more interesting, the keyboard has two orientations. Yes, you can type on the SureType keyboard with the phone in upright or portrait mode. It’s amazing!

The BlackBerry Thunder’s keyboard also uses Haptics, which gives users tactile response when pressing the keys. From the photos alone, you could see where RIM wants to go with this. They want the virtual keyboard to give Crackberrys the same experience they’ve had on the real tactile keys on previous BlackBerry models. The touch screen is glass and the UI is multi-touch. Thunder is a true enterprise phone with Copy/Paste, Spell Check, Save Draft and Attach File commands on the menu. There’s nothing left to say, really except that RIM has done it and there is at least one handset manufacturer safe from the iPhone’s all-consuming popularity.

The portrait mode after the break.

[source via engadget] (more…)

The time of LG Chocolate has come and gone and it’s the turn of a more sophisticated fashion phone: iPhone! Verizon probably didn’t read the memo and bravely launched the third-generation LG Chocolate. To be fair, Chocolate 3 is specially earmarked for U.S. customers being a clamshell phone. Another good thing is the adaptation of a 3.5mm jack instead of 2.5mm, which has been irritating LG Chocolate fans when LG Chocolate was still the “It” phone. Oooh, so long ago, it seems. For the Chocolate 3, LG incorporates two important design innovations with success: the click wheel is just as smooth and fun to work wit and the shiny mirror-like finishof the outside face reminds us of the LG Shine.

Chocolate 3 is serviced by Rhapsody and paired by an FM transmitter, which is always a good feature to have on a music phone, especially when you are driving. It’s a phone that is also equipped with A-GPS and supported by Verizon’s VZ Navigator v.4.1. High-speed connectivity via EV-DO Rev. 0 is all you get as the phone does not have WiFi. All in all, it’s packed with features for a tiny and fashionable clamshell phone. Price is $129 after rebate.Available July 13th.

[laptop via engadget]

I’m guessing fans of the Samsung Instinct, currently exclusive to Sprint, are mostly non-geeks. Despite the crazy build-up the the iPhone 3G release, the touchscreen smartphone has been selling briskly especially from retailer Best Buy. They say that since June 19th, Instinct has been their best-selling phone, and it’s the best seller they’ve had for two years. Customers get the “Walk Out Working” treatment at Best Buy. This means that the buyer walks out with the Sprint Instinct already completely setup for use with GPS, e-mail and web access ready to go. Not bad at all for the handset that we dubbed an “iPhone Killer.”

Take the Instinct vs iPhone poll:

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[via crunchgear]

In case you’re wondering what happened to Nokia’s concept all-touch phone, it’s been recently spotted in China. It’s not quite the Aeon we’re familiar with and instead of having a full touchscreen up front with a sash separating the display and the virtual keys, the Chinese version a 2.2-inch non-touch TFT screen and a backlit numeric keypad that is almost visible when it’s not being operated, though that is due mainly to the shiny coating. This phone has a nifty WWW-belt-like 1.3 MP camera on back, Bluetooth and 3D speakers.

See the live pictures below. Update: we’ve also found a video on YouTube. Check it out.

[source via unwired] (more…)

Among our advertisers, Totobay is the most tireless supplier of interesting phones from China. One of their lates announcements is bound to amaze and amuse at the same time. The E9 “2-in-1 Folder Phone” (my own nickname for it) would definitely appeal to business users looking for a cheaper E90 Communicator originally made by Nokia. China Mobile’s E9 boasts an external 2.2-inch screen and an internal 2.8-inch screen. Both screens are touch-sensitive. The QWERTY keyboard is inside, but when you open up the phone it’s not the “rubberized” keyboard you notice notice but the internal screen which looks just like the iPhone.

This is what the GUI looks like:

The E9 is a dual-band GSM phone with GPRS and WAP. It’s a “fluent” MP3 and MP4 players, has built-in FM, an e-Book, stopwatch, supports SMS with SMS firewall for sensitive corporate text messaging. It goes for $175, but discounts may be available if you buy more than 1. Specifications and additional photo after the break.

[product] (more…)

According to Sprint, Instinct have sold out after only its first week in sales, confirming rumors that the phone was making sales history. Pali Research also discovered that Sprint stores have sold out while Instinct has been so scarce, 54% of stores have less than 15 Instincts left. Sprint does not have the numbers yet, but the consumer response is nothing short of phenomenal especially with iPhone 3G this close to being launched. We did say that Instinct is an iPhone Killer andwith the price, form factor and great features, it’s definitely taking a decent stab at the Apple Phone.

Also, check this out: Sprint encourages site visitors to participate in the greatest product placement movie ever by leveraging their own content to “Sell Out” using their home videos. The first 1,000 videos to be accepted and posted to YouTube get $20.  One video will win $10,000! To learn more, and for a place to direct your visitors, check out the contest here: http://www.instinctthephone.com/ 

Sprint may have found their messiah with the Instinct. No, it won’t kill iPhone 3G but it certainly will keep Sprint on a competitive direction. The troubled wireless provider have been rumored to be doing better these days after releasing the Sprint Instinct. TheStreet reports that AT&T and Verizon have less customers signing up from Sprint. This is one of the reasons while Dow Jones dropped to its lowest in 2008, Sprint has been enjoying significant growth in stock price. The Instinct has been selling quite well for Sprint and was even rumored to have broken previous Sprint records.

It’s too early to tell, says Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett: “Sprint hasn’t had a big EVDO phone to compare this to,” says Moffett. “They’ve sold out of the handset in lots of stores, which is clearly good news, but it’s far from being definitive. It remains to be seen if sales are sustainable with both AT&T and Verizon reloading with the iPhone and Blackberry Bold. Selling handsets, though, is only half the fight. Sprint will have to offer more than just a bestselling handset to keep customers. Verizon reports that though they are seeing a decline in customer switching from Sprint, it remains the biggest source of “port-ins.”

[via thestreet]