On the back there’s an 8-megapixel camera with Full HD video recording, while a 1.3-megapixel camera is up front for video calls. The 4G connection can be shared out with up to eight WiFi-tethered devices, and there’s WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth along with GPS.

Motorola is also pushing the Lapdock 500, complete with its full-sized keyboard and 14-inch display, for those willing to spend another $299.97 turning their smartphone into a notebook. More details in our full hands-on.

Motorola DROID 4 hands-on:

Verizon is promising an Android Ice Cream Sandwich update for the DROID 4, though there’s no timescale for its release; until then, you’ll be using Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.

[via Android Community]

The design on display is fully functional, and Intel hopes that its OEM partners will utilize it to explore more options for making “laptops” smaller and lighter. Specifications weren’t available, but it looks like a 12 or 13 inch display, and the keyboard section accomodates a nearly full-sizek keyboard for comfortable typing. Useers can also hold it tablet-style and thumb type.

The whole concept device looks and feels a lot like the Asus Eee Pad Slider, which uses a similar mechanism. It isn’t significantly smaller or lighter than other ultrabooks on display, so the only real advantage is the tablet-style form factor, which may become more popular as Windows 8 and its touch-friendly features arrive. Look for more interesting designs beyond the standard clamshell to appear in the next 6-12 months.

Hardware

QWERTY candybars have long been RIM’s form-factor of choice, though as touchscreens have gained favor their size limitations have kept them as the niche option. Still, there’s something to be said for the immediacy of punching out a quick email, IM or text message without having to slide out a keyboard, deal with an on-screen ‘board or rely on voice dictation. The Motorola Pro+ is a reasonably compact 119.5 x 62 x 11.65 mm and 113g, with the rear panel a soft-touch plastic hatch that, though somewhat flimsy when removed, feels reasonably sturdy when clipped in place.

The top 60-percent of the fascia is taken up by the Pro+’s 3.1-inch display, running at 640 x 480 VGA resolution. The original Pro had a 3.1-inch panel running at 480 x 320 HVGA resolution, making it slightly narrower and longer. Underneath – with a row of touch-sensitive menu, home, back and search buttons sandwiched in-between – there’s a four row physical keyboard that’s as close as to a BlackBerry ‘board as we imagine Motorola’s lawyers would green-light. That’s a boon to the end-user, of course, with the keys easy to press, tactile and sensibly laid out. Dedicated “@”, period and voice search buttons are on the bottom row, along with a wide spacebar.

Motorola Pro+ Review:

A volume rocker is on the upper right edge, while a small and tricky to press power/lock button is on the top edge. The microUSB port for charging and syncing is on the lower left edge and inside there’s 4GB of integrated storage, with a microSD card slot for boosting that by up to 32GB. On the back is a 5-megapixel camera with a single-LED flash.

Connectivity includes dualband WCDMA (900/2100) with up to 14.4Mbps downloads and 5.76Mbps uploads supported, network depending, along with quadband GSM/EDGE. You also get WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, along with A-GPS, a digital compass, ambient light and proximity sensors, and a 3.5mm headphones jack. Keeping things running is a 1GHz single-core processor with 512MB of RAM.

Software

Living in the compact display is Android 2.3 Gingerbread with some Motorola UI tweaks. It’s not obviously the MOTOBLUR-inspired rehash we’re familiar with from recent consumer-centric handsets – Motorola obviously thinks enterprise users will be too busy juggling deals to bother with Facebook and Twitter, though the social networking features are present, just more discrete – more a new set of icons along with some useful keyboard shortcuts.

Menu + S, for instance, pulls up search, though you can also simply start typing from the homescreen and the Pro+ will automatically offer web searches along with local content and apps. There are also three optional homescreen layouts, easily flipped between, with different arrangements of icons and widgets to suit your business life and your personal life.

Motorola is pushing the various enterprise features in the Pro+, and if you’re a cautious IT admin then there’s certainly plenty to reassure you. As well as encryption for internal and SD card data, remote wipe (both selectively and completely), remote management of apps (installing, uninstalling and push upgrades) and device location tracking, with the right management system you can have Bluetooth and the camera permanently shut off or selectively deactivated based on the Pro+’s physical location. Not exactly functionality frequent texters drawn to the smartphone’s physical keyboard might appreciate, but ideal for Motorola’s true target audience.

The screen size is the biggest limiting factor, with full webpages looking reasonable if requiring plenty of scrolling and zooming. Messaging is far more successful: Android has plenty of IM options, available through the Android Market, and Google Talk is preloaded along with the usual Gmail and other official Google apps. Motorola throws in QuickOffice and GoToMeeting.

One odd limitation was the Pro+’s refusal to allow us to set it up without a SIM card loaded. Whereas most Android devices will let you use them over WiFi only, the Pro+ seemingly demands a SIM as a user-identification measure.

Camera

Motorola has stuck with 5-megapixels for the Pro+, and the camera is solid if not exactly inspiring. The non-standard UI is compact but common settings like flash control and brightness are easily reached without digging through menus. There’s no dedicated camera button, however.

Stills show accurate colors, though lacking the punch that we’ve seen in recent Samsung devices, for instance, while lower-light images suffer from the usual graininess. We had mixed results with the Pro+’s automatic exposure abilities, sometimes coming away impressed at the amount of detail preserved in pictures with both bright and dark content, while other times finding glare had crept in.

Video, meanwhile, is still limited to 720 x 480 resolution and 24fps, short of the 720p 30fps we’re used to seeing on similarly-specified Android handsets. The resulting clips, however, are surprisingly good: there’s a propensity to lens glare, as with stills, but changes in brightness are handled quickly and colors are accurate. One minor frustration is the location of the camera lens, in the extreme corner of the Pro+, which we found easily obscured with a finger as we held the phone during filming.

HDMI is still absent, and we still think that’s a mistake: we can see mobile pros taking advantage of it to hook the Pro+ up to a TV or projector and run presentations directly from the smartphone. Still, you get DLNA support assuming your display of choice supports it too.

Phone and Battery

In-call audio was better than average, and the Pro+ stuck to a signal well. Unlike the original DROID Pro this isn’t a CDMA device (the first Pro was a World Phone with EVDO Rev.A and UMTS for use when outside of Verizon’s network), and Motorola is yet to announce whether a US version will be offered.

The 1,550 mAh battery is rated for up to 480 minutes talktime or 325 hours standby. In practice, the compact display kept power use to a relative minimum, and while the Pro+ won’t last as long as a BlackBerry historically might, we still managed a couple of days before needing to recharge, even with push email turned on.

Wrap-Up

A niche device like the Motorola Pro+ might seem an odd direction for the company to take, but it’s worth remembering that enterprise is still a huge potential market. Business users will appreciate the Pro+’s excellent keyboard, solid construction and – when it’s not remotely disabled – decent camera, while their IT department will be able to sleep soundly with the various security extras baked in.

Everyday users wedded to their messaging could well have their heads turned by the physical QWERTY, though the comparatively small screen and lack of HD video recording undermine the Pro+ as a consumer device. Nonetheless, it polishes the rough edges of the original DROID Pro and makes for a credible option in a form-factor rarely offered by Android phones.

Thanks to Clove for the loan of the Pro+, available for order SIM-free and unlocked at £269+VAT

That’s certainly not cheap, and we’re left wondering whether T-Mobile actually expects to sell any of these particular Torches when they hit store shelves next week. Your money will get you a 1.2GHz processor, 3.2-inch VGA display and 5-megapixel camera supporting 720p HD video recording.

For the full run-down on the BlackBerry Torch 9810, check out the SlashGear review. We found the 9810 to answer most of our criticisms of the original Torch 9800, but still not quite bring the smartphone up to speed with its primary competition.

On the back, meanwhile, is a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and support for 720p HD video recording. A 1GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor keeps Android 2.3 moving, and LG has customized the software so that the two displays can be used either in tandem, showing different elements of the same app, or independently, allowing you to monitor two apps simultaneously.

LG Cloud Text and Group Text handle communications, with support for cross-platform chat between the DoublePlay and LG’s tablets. Connectivity hasn’t been exactly confirmed, but judging by the 4G icon on the display above we’re assuming T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network is supported; WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth are obvious inclusions too.

No word on pricing or specific launch dates at this time. T-Mobile says the DoublePlay will be star of the show at the National Texting Championship, kicking off October 26.

Still, the Captivate Glide does offer a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, paired with 1GB ROM, 1GB of RAM and a preinstalled 8GB microSD card. The ATRIX 2 lacks the integrated ‘board but can be paired with Motorola’s Lapdock 100 notebooks-style docking station, and has 8GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM.

The Samsung DoubleTime, meanwhile, is an Android flipper, with a flip-out QWERTY keyboard, Android 2.2, a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen and a 600MHz processor. There’s 260MB of memory and triband UMTS. As for the Pantech Pocket, that offers an unusually-proportioned 4-inch SVGA (600 x 800) display, Android 2.3, 5-megapixel camera, around 600MB of internal storage and a memory card slot, along with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and triband UMTS.

Finally there’s the AT&T Avail, a prepaid budget device on the GoPhone network, offering a 3.5-inch touchscreen, Android 2.3 and a 5-megapixel camera, along with triband UMTS, WiFi, 512MB apiece of RAM and ROM and a 2GB preinstalled microSD card slot.

No word on pricing for any of the devices at this stage, nor specific availability. AT&T originally expected to release 12 Android devices in 2011, so it’s already ahead of its target. Still, the carrier says there are more to come before the year is through.

[via Android Community]

Otherwise it’s the same Kindle we’ve known for a while now, with a choice of WiFi-only or 3G enabled connectivity. Pricing is $99 for the Kindle Keyboard (WiFi) and $139 for the Kindle Keyboard 3G, assuming you’re willing to put up with Amazon’s “Special Offers” adverts on the homescreen.

If you don’t want the ads, the Kindle Keyboard will be $139 and the Kindle Keyboard 3G will be $189. The white version is only available if you go for the 3G model. More on the Kindle news from today here.

That keyboard has gone on a diet compared to previous LG models with similar form-factors, the company reckons. In fact, it has shed 2mm in the slide section along, bringing the Optimus Q2 down to 12.3mm thick and 147g. Specs include WiFi Direct support along with both front and rear cameras, the latter amounting to a somewhat average 5-megapixels.

LG hasn’t specified which version of Android is loaded – though we’d be very disappointed if it was anything less than Gingerbread – and there’s the company’s usual UI modifications to please/frustrate depending on your tastes. South Korea will get first dibs on the LG Optimus Q2, with the smartphone going on sale there next weekend; there’s no release date given for international markets.

[via Android Community]

AndroidGuys caught a quick glance at the clips before they were set to private and noted that the file names indicated that one phone was an all-touch device while the other included a QWERTY keyboard. It’s believed that the devices will be called the T-Mobile myTouch by LG and the T-Mobile myTouch Q by LG.

Currently, T-Mobile has the myTouch 4G Slide from HTC, which launched back in July. These two new myTouch devices may be the codenamed LG Maxx and Maxx Q devices referenced in the leaked T-Mobile roadmap, which indicates that they should be launching in early November.

According to Motorola’s somewhat nonsensical description, the EX225 is a “product for trendy generation who enjoy connecting to the world anytime, anywhere, and multimedia services on the go, all easy as via a fully personalized UI.” Overall, then, this probably won’t set the world alight – think more Vodafone 555 than HTC ChaCha.

Unwired View also caught glimpse of a different version, the EX226, which lacks the distinctive blue Facebook button but seemingly includes a second SIM slot. No word on when either handset might reach the market, nor indeed which markets it will grace, but we’re guessing this will carry a budget prepay price-tag when it does arrive.

[via Recombu]

Hardware

The XPERIA mini pro follows in the footsteps of the original X10 mini pro, but with some much-needed improvements. The first-gen model had a low-res screen, sluggish processor and outdated version of Android; the XPERIA mini pro boosts the 3-inch display to 320 x 480 and the CPU to a 1GHz single-core paired with Adreno 205 graphics and 512MB of RAM, running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread with Sony Ericsson’s various customizations on top.

It’s still small, then – 92 x 53 x 18 mm in fact, and 136g – but there’s less compromise to be made to achieve that. The physical design is, like other Sony Ericsson handsets we’ve seen lately, on the plasticky side, with plenty of gloss-finish and some faux-chrome edging. It’s not a thin phone, either, and the narrow width and short length emphasize that. Up front there’s an easily-thumbed home button, flanked by touch-sensitive “back” and “menu” keys, while a nudge pushes the display aside and reveals the four row QWERTY.

Sony Ericsson has managed to fit a decent width spacebar, dedicated arrow keys and even a browser shortcut into the small amount of space. The keys themselves are clicky and have good travel, and provide a surprisingly good typing experience. We occasionally struggled with the top row – which doubles as numbers and letters – when trying to use the pads of our thumbs, bumping against the edge of the screen section, but switching to using our fingernails bypassed that frustration.

Otherwise there’s the volume rocker and a dedicated camera shortcut on the right hand side, a power/lock button, covered microUSB port and 3.5mm headphones jack on the top edge, and a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, an LED flash and 720p HD video recording on the back. You get a front-facing VGA camera for video calls too. Under the soft-touch battery cover is a 1,200 mAh pack, a welcome step up from the 930 mAh pack in the X10 mini pro, and a microSD card slot to augment the underwhelming 320MB of internal storage. Connectivity includes HSDPA, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine makes an appearance again, powering the XPERIA mini pro’s LCD screen, and while we’ve seen inkier blacks and better colors on Super AMOLED, the 3-inch display is still surprisingly good. Bright, and with a responsive touchscreen, it works well with Sony Ericsson’s UI customizations – more on which in the next section – and helps offset any size anxiety.

Software and Performance

The original X10 mini pro launched with Android 1.6, another relic of Sony Ericsson’s “dark days” of smartphones. Happily the new mini pro comes running the latest software out of the box, and paired with the 1GHz processor it’s an altogether smoother, more satisfying experience. Apps no longer stutter into life or freeze when you’re trying to do mundane things like open menus.

Sony Ericsson has also rethought its customizations. As on the XPERIA Arc, the Timescape and Mediascape systems for social networking and multimedia have been diluted so as not to overwhelm either the overall experience or the system itself. You still get the four “launcher” corners on the homescreen, three of which hold up to four shortcuts each and the last opening the phone keypad, but the Facebook Inside XPERIA integration has been added too.

As we saw on the XPERIA Arc, this new focus on the popular social networking site adds “Like” buttons and sharing tools through many of the apps. It’s now possible to immediately share which song you’re listening to via the XPERIA mini pro’s music app, a link from the browser, or just general status updates, simply by tapping within each program. Meanwhile the phone pulls in Facebook calendar entries and sync’s your local and online contact lists. Some parts make more sense than others – we appreciated the calendar support but still think that, if we’ve taken the time to load music onto the phone, it’s pretty obvious that we “Like” it all – but it all works as promised. The music finder app, which pulls in tracks based on those your friends have recently commented on, can be useful to get up to speed on what’s currently popular.

It’s messaging that makes the most sense, however, and invariably we reached for the physical keyboard since the on-screen ‘board – which defaults to a T9-style layout, but can be changed to full-QWERTY – is tiny and frustrating. If you’re a frequent texter or make regular use of IM services like Facebook Chat, then the mini pro is a surprisingly solid option. On the flip-side, web browsing can be moderately painful since there’s a lot of zooming and panning involved to work around the compact display.

Camera

Recent Sony Ericsson phones have shown a tendency to over-saturate colors in the name of making them “punchy” and the XPERIA mini pro, while not carrying the EXMOR R branding, follows suit. On a sunny day it makes for a bright and vivid picture, almost akin to HDR, but we still wish we had more manual control over things. Still, you get touch-focus and various camera-led tech like face detection and red-eye reduction.

The end results can be fuzzy, too, and low-light performance – despite the LED flash – is on the murky side. Sufficient for the occasional snap, certainly, but not something to replace your point-and-shoot camera. Because of the small screen size, too, sometimes it’s tricky to catch blur when it happens before you transfer photos off the phone.

Video, meanwhile, is captured at up to 720p HD resolution. Again, colors can tend to the unnatural and there’s more blur around edges than we’d expect from HD. Lighting changes aren’t handled too well, with bright scenes tending to over-saturate and dark scenes quickly descending into muddiness.

Phone and Battery

The compact size of the XPERIA mini pro caused us a couple of headaches during calls: at times we needed to move the phone closer to our mouth in order to be heard, but then found we couldn’t hear the caller well because the earpiece was too low. Still, wireless performance was fair, and you can always use a Bluetooth headset if you’d prefer.

Battery life is quoted at up to 340 hours of standby or up to 5hrs 40 minutes of talktime, depending on whether you’re on 3G or GSM networks. In practice, with a couple of calls and average use – including a little video playback, some browsing, a fair bit of email and messaging and a mixture of WiFi and 3G data – we got through the day. Make more calls, however, and things were less impressive, the compact battery pack demanding a top-up in the late afternoon.

Wrap-Up

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA mini pro is definitely a niche phone. While the rest of the market is targeting bigger screens for multimedia and browsing addicts, manufacturers doing their level best to offer larger displays on their cheaper devices, the mini pro sticks resolutely to its pocketable premise. That demands a few compromises – battery life, camera and browsing experience being the most obvious – but has its advantages as well.

If messaging is your primary distraction, whether IM, SMS, MMS or email, the XPERIA mini pro is a surprisingly good option. Smaller than many feature-phones, yet offering the multitasking and app options of a smartphone OS, plus a very usable physical keyboard, it addresses most of the complaints of its predecessor yet still keeps what made that device initially appealing. Not for everyone, then, but if you’re on IM from AM to PM then this Sony Ericsson is worth considering.

Like the HTC ChaCha there’s a dedicated Facebook button, which can be preset to automatically share photos snapped with the 555′s 2-megapixel camera, though since this is a featurephone rather than a smartphone, don’t expect the full app experience. Vodafone does preload Opera Mini, however, for browsing, though again you’re stuck with EDGE data speeds since there’s neither 3G nor WiFi.

You do at least get an FM radio and expandable memory, handy if you want to make the 555 your media player too, and there’s Bluetooth and a speakerphone as well. The Vodafone 555 is available now.

You also get a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p HD videos, and an optical trackpad, in one of the slimmest candybar form-factors RIM has produced to-date. There’s 768MB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage, along with WiFi a/b/g/n and triband HSPA+ (if your network can support it).

RIM has also squeezed NFC inside the 9900, though so far Vodafone UK isn’t making use of that. There’s more on the Bold 9900 in our hands-on report from the smartphone’s launch back in May.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 hands-on:

On the back is a 2-megapixel camera with an LED flash, though there’s no front-facing camera for Skype video calls through Facebook. Connectivity includes a microUSB port for charging and a 3.5mm headphone jack, while a microSD slot can handle up to 16GB cards. Opera Mini 5 is loaded for web browsing duties.

While it promises to be cheaper than Facebook-toting rivals like the HTC ChaCha, the Vodafone 555 Blue does cut some corners to reach that sub-€100 sticker. There’s no 3G and no WiFi, which means you’ll be stuck on EDGE network speeds at most to share your photos and browse updates, and no GPS so checking into Facebook Places will be a chore.

The Vodafone 555 Blue will be available “soon” across Europe.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, a front-facing camera for VGA-resolution video calls, and 7.2Mbps-capable HSDPA. HTC also throws in WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS, together with a microSD card slot which AT&T preloads with 2GB. OS is Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a customized version of HTC Sense designed to suit the landscape-aspect display.

AT&T is asking $50 for the Status, though you’ll obviously need a new, two-year agreement and a mandatory data plan. Still, that puts it at the cheap end of Android devices, despite it being a solid handset with one of the better keyboards around.

What remains to be seen is whether, with Google+ now on the scene, Facebook continues to hold its appeal. We wouldn’t be surprised if HTC brought out an updated version of the ChaCha/Status with a more flexible social networking button, offering a choice of Facebook, Google+ or Twitter perhaps, rather than assuming that users will always want to share to Facebook.

[via Android Community]

No reason for the delay has been given, though it’s not the first time ASUS has been forced to postpone the tablet’s launch. Back in February it was initially expected to arrive in mid-April, alongside the surprisingly capable Eee Pad Transformer. April came and went, however, with no sign of the Eee Pad Slider, though reports did suggest that ASUS was experiencing issues with the sliding/tilting hinge mechanism for the QWERTY keyboard.

However, other rumors tipped a more fundamental redesign of the Slider, with the possibility of a switch from the NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset originally shown to Intel’s new Oak Trail Atom Z670. Meanwhile, a Tegra 3 based Transformer 2 has been pegged for October or November, close to what it seems will be the first-gen Eee Pad Slider’s launch window.

We played with ASUS’ prototype Eee Pad Slider shortly after its debut at CES 2011, and you can see more in the video below.

Inside is a dual-core 1GHz processor, OS is Android 2.3, and there’s mobile hotspot functionality to share the DROID 3′s EVDO Rev.A connection among WiFi-tethered clients. You get World Phone roaming support, too, with an integrated 3G WCDMA modem, though sadly no 4G LTE. The DROID 3 also ushers in Verizon’s new data plans, kicking off from $30 for 2GB of data.

There’s HDMI screen mirroring, together with Citrix GoToMeeting and Receiver for enterprise users wanting to log into online meetings or their work desktop while on the move. Motorola also preloads QuickOffice, and there’s various enterprise-friendly stuff like device and SD card encryption, complex password support and remote data wiping of both the DROID 3 and its SD card.

A front-facing camera, smart dock which allows the DROID 3 to open different apps depending on whether it’s at home, at the office or in the car, and Flash Player 10.3 support round out the key specs. The Verizon DROID 3 by Motorola is available online now and in-store from July 14, priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement.

The 4.9 x 2.5 x 0.5 inch DROID 3 has a dual-core 1GHz processor, 4-inch qHD 960 x 540 resolution display, and a slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard. There’s also an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p Full HD video capture, a front-facing camera for video calls, and a pre-installed 16GB microSD card.

What you don’t get, oddly, is 4G LTE connectivity. Instead, the DROID 3 is a World Phone with CDMA/EVDO Rev.A along with HSPA for use while abroad; you can also share the data connection with mobile hotspot functionality. OS is Android 2.3 with the usual Motorola tweaks.

Although the purchase link is still not active, it does at least tell us the price: the Verizon DROID 3 by Motorola will be $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement and mandatory data plan (one the new, tiered ones) when it finally goes up for sale. We’re guessing Verizon will make all this officially-official with a press release later on today.

[via Android Community]

Hardware

The E6′s hardware heritage is clear, though Nokia hasn’t missed the opportunity to tighten up the package along the way. Measuring in at 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm and 133g, it’s a solid, reassuringly weighty device finished in sturdy black plastic and lifted with a chrome bezel. The camera slice on the back protrudes somewhat, spoiling the clean lines, though you can drop it into a front trouser pocket without issue. A sheet of toughened Gorilla Glass protects the screen.

Up front, Nokia has used both a touchscreen display and a QWERTY keyboard, allowing it to ditch the soft-key buttons from the controls running in-between. Now, there’s send/end, home, calendar, mail and contacts buttons, as well as a D-pad. Unlike on the E72, that D-pad doesn’t function as an optical trackpad, though we didn’t miss the option.

The display itself is something special, only 2.46-inches in size but running at 640 x 480 VGA resolution which makes for a deliciously dense 326 pixels per inch. That, you may recall, is the same as Apple’s iPhone 4 “Retina Display” though, of course, on a far smaller panel. A TFT LCD 16.7m color panel, it may not be a Clear Black screen as on the X7 but it’s impressive nonetheless, icons and images being smooth and colors bright and clear. The capacitive touch is responsive and lag-free, and works well with the tiny haptic feedback vibration Nokia enables by default.

As for the QWERTY ‘board, it spreads its layout across four rows – meaning numbers are clustered as a secondary function in the middle – and has dedicated shift, function, symbol, comma, period, @ and question mark keys. The buttons themselves are slightly domed and have a matte finish rather than the slippery gloss of the black plastic below. They’re also progressively backlit, the LED illumination – like that of the touchscreen – being managed via the ambient light sensor above the display.

A messaging candybar lives and dies by the usability of its keyboard, and the E6 is a solid performer on that front. We’d prefer a little more space in-between each key – the HTC ChaCha spreads its buttons more, making for less finger overlap, though obviously ends up being a broader device altogether as a result – though the software auto-correct did a pretty good job of ironing out mistakes from our chubby thumbs. We also missed the double-space shortcut to insert a period at the end of a sentence, as has become popular on the iPhone, BlackBerry and other handsets.

Other controls include the power button on the top edge, alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack and, under a tiny flap, the microSD card slot; there’s also volume keys on the right edge, flanking a shortcut button that, by default, triggers the voice command system. Underneath that there’s a physical lock slider, easily swiped with a thumb or finger when you’re holding the E6 one-handed. The microUSB port – again, with a covering flap – is on the left edge, while a Nokia charging port is on the bottom.

On the back, there’s an 8-megapixel EDoF camera with a dual-LED flash – a VGA-resolution camera is on the front above the display – along with the metal battery cover door and, once you’ve popped out the standard 1,500 mAh BP-4L battery, the SIM card slot. In the box Nokia includes a wired headset and a charger, though no microSD card since the E6 has 8GB of internal storage of its own.

We’ve praised recent Nokia handsets for their superlative connectivity options, and the E6 is no different. Like the E7 and N8 before it – as well as others – there’s quadband GSM/EDGE and pentaband WCDMA (850/900/1700/1900/2100): you can merrily switch between an AT&T and T-Mobile USA SIM and get 3G data no matter which. It’s a significant feature we’re hoping Nokia preserves for its Windows Phone range.

Along with cellular data there’s WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, an FM radio, GPS and A-GPS, an accelerometer, digital compass and proximity sensor, USB On-the-Go support, and TV output via the 3.5mm jack, the latter two requiring optional adapter cables. Nokia isn’t on the processor speed bandwagon – yet, anyhow – but inside the E6 there’s a 680MHz ARM11 processor paired with a GPU and 256MB of RAM.

Software and Performance

Poor Symbian. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop did the platform no favors when he announced that it would be phased out of the next few years, with Windows Phone taking its place as the company’s smartphone OS of choice. All eyes are on Q4, the launch window for the first Nokia devices running the Microsoft software, leaving the remaining Symbian phones on the roadmap to arrive already feeling outdated.

That’s despite Symbian^3 on the E6 being the newest Anna version, bringing with it a refined UI, boosted browser, streamlined Nokia Maps (nee Ovi Maps) and a variety of enterprise-focused tweaks. One of the most demanded changes delivered in Anna, a portrait-aspect QWERTY keyboard, obviously isn’t applicable to the E6.

There’s no denying that the new “squircle” iconography is an improvement over the graphics in previous Symbian versions, leaving the whole UI with a far more harmonious, consistent feel. Still, there’s much that’s the same once you get past the resin. The homescreen, for instance, has four panes by default (five maximum) but still the same fixed widget positioning; thanks to the size and resolution of the E6′s touchscreen, though, you can only have three widgets per pane, rather than the six of the X7 for instance. The remaining space down the left hand side of the display is occupied by three persistent blocks for time/date, profile and notifications, such as missed calls, new messages and calendar alerts.

Happily it’s all very usable one-handed, with the length of the E6 being scaled to suit stretching a thumb up to tap at the display as well as down to the keyboard. It’s unlikely to win over those who bemoaned Symbian’s aesthetic appeal – or lack of – in comparison to iOS or Android, however, though the high pixel density makes what talents the E6 does have shine. The usability of the minimum font size, for instance, is limited more by our eyesight than it is the smoothness of the display.

Browser and Messaging

The main change we’ve been looking forward to with Anna is the update to the browser, hopefully bringing Symbian more in line with what iOS and Android offer. Now up to v7.2 and still supporting Flash Lite 4.0, the biggest change is performance: page rendering is swifter than on previous Symbian phones, despite the identical CPU, while panning around a heavy webpage is – once the page is loaded – smoother too. Pinch-zooming is supported, as is double-tapping to zoom.

It’s all an improvement on what came before, but it still lags behind rival devices. On the ChaCha, for instance, we were able to scroll around the page while still loading without things juddering to a halt, while pinch-zooming was also more responsive. Pages themselves were quicker to render, despite using the same WiFi connection. Where the E6 edges ahead is, again, in its display resolution, with text clean and – if your eyes are up to it – readable from lower levels of zoom than on the ChaCha’s 480 x 320 panel.

In the time between our E72 review and the E6 hitting our test bench, SlashGear – like many other people and organizations – has migrated from Exchange to Google for email, calendar, contacts and other services. The E6 has preconfigured setup wizards for Gmail, Exchange, Windows Live and Yahoo! accounts, along with generic POP/IMAP support, though barring Exchange there’s no true push-email, only the somewhat vague “soonest” setting. Beyond that, though, it’s a solid implementation, with multiple email accounts supported simultaneously – though no universal inbox – and sensible keyboard shortcuts for things like replying or starting new messages. Unfortunately, the homescreen email widget only shows the two most recent mails, and there’s no way to expand that.

Unlike on other platforms, punching in your Google account details doesn’t sync your calendar entries, and nor does it automatically pull down your contacts into the E6′s address book. You can search the server for contacts, though. Social networking, meanwhile, is handled by the Nokia Social app, which offers Facebook and Twitter support along with a basic homescreen widget. It’s not as fully integrated as we’ve seen on Android. Carried over from previous Symbian versions is the native SIP VoIP support, which works well.

Nokia Maps and Apps

Nokia Maps is the company’s alternative to Google Maps and other navigation apps, and while there’s a learning curve if you’re familiar with Android, after a while it’s hard not to be impressed. Like Google, Nokia offers free turn-by-turn navigations with voice prompts; there’s also support for pedestrian routes and public transportation where available. Unlike Google Maps, which only caches certain recently-accessed geographies, Nokia Maps can download entire country databases for true offline use. Going abroad and loath to stump up for sky-high roaming fees but still want to find your way around? Download the maps in advance and you can shut your phone’s data connection off but still get directions. There’s also point-of-interest and review information through Nokia’s partners like Lonely Planet and Qype. GPS locks are fast and Nokia Maps is generally responsive.

Of course, that prowess won’t be limited to Symbian for long: as part of the Windows Phone deal, Microsoft – and the other OEMs using the platform – will gain access to the NAVTEQ mapping data and other functionality Nokia has developed, though that’s not expected to happen for a while yet.

Nokia’s Ovi Store is the company’s equivalent of the App Store on iOS or Android Market, and there’s a fair amount of choice there. What limits that somewhat is the VGA resolution of the E6′s screen, which is unusual among Nokia devices. Until developers get up to speed with it – which could simply be a case of flagging that their app is VGA-compatible – there’ll be some omissions, though we still found popular titles like Skype, Opera Mobile and Gravity.

While Nokia is bullish about the Ovi Store’s future, despite the company’s focus shifting elsewhere from Symbian, we struggle to be quite so confident. Developers are already wary of spreading themselves too thinly across two platforms, such as Android and iOS, and we can see a time where Symbian falls short of the latest software technology simply because all the attention and investment is elsewhere. Perhaps that’s not such a great concern for a business-centric handset like the E6, but this won’t be the last Symbian Anna device to face the same precarious future.

Camera

Nokia has built a reputation on great cellphone cameras in recent years, though it has also insisted on pushing ahead with its EDoF “full focus” optics on certain models. It was a frustration on the E7 and it’s carried over to the E6, which also has an 8-megapixel shooter with dual-LED flash. As well as stills, the smartphone can shoot 720p 25fps HD video in H.264 format, though there’s no HDMI output support.

As always, the primary limitation of EDoF cameras is in macro shots, with the E6 being simply unable to get as close to subjects as autofocus cameras can. Still, with a little distance the results are far more impressive, with colors accurate but vivid and only slight over-exposure at times marring stills. The flip-side of EDoF systems is that frames themselves are captured quickly, with little lag between hitting the button and the image being taken.

Video, meanwhile, can get blurry or tear during fast pans, but otherwise shares the solid image quality of its still cousins. The E6′s microphone is also sensitive, perhaps a little too much: you can hear the wind noise during our sample clip below.

Phone and Battery

Call quality is excellent, with the E6 failing to drop a single call in our testing. The earpiece is crisp and loud, while callers had no issues hearing us. The speakerphone is solid – not the loudest we’ve heard, but less prone to crackling at higher volumes.

Nokia estimate up to 14 hours 48 minutes GSM talktime from the 1,500 mAh battery, or up to 681 hours GSM standby. Alternatively, the company reckons the E6 will last for nine hours of H.264 720p 30fps video playback or record 4.7 hours of 720p 25fps video, or play a solid 75 hours of audio with the radio set to offline.

In practice, with Gmail refreshing as often as we could set it, some browsing, calls, messaging and use of Nokia Maps, the E6 comfortably sailed through two days of use. Fiddle with the sync settings – taking advantage of the peak/off-peak times, for instance – and you could easily extend that further.

Wrap-Up

Viewed from the perspective of the Nokia QWERTY candybar handsets that have gone before it, the E6 is a fitting evolution. The high-resolution touchscreen makes far more sense than a pair of soft-key buttons, especially when it comes to navigating full webpages, and the keyboard shouldn’t give E71/E72 upgraders much room for complaint. The handset as a whole is well-built, offers great battery life and has – macro shots aside – a decent camera, especially when you consider the overall business focus.

Sadly, in comparison to the rest of the smartphone market – and even with Symbian Anna on board – the E6 experience falls short. If you’re a Microsoft Exchange user then the sync will work for you, but many individuals and businesses using Google instead, and that isn’t delivered as well. The browser is a big improvement over previous Nokia handsets, but nonetheless lags behind other phones. We’re not talking unbalanced comparisons with, say, dual-core superphones, either: pages on the E6 loaded slower than on the HTC ChaCha, another mid-range QWERTY phone.

The Symbian experience continues to get refined – Nokia tells us the upcoming “Belle” update will be even more impressive – but it’s no great surprise that, from the perspective of the mainstream market, the platform has had its day. With Nokia itself admitting as much, focusing its efforts on Windows Phone, it’s hard not to see the E6 as part of a “final hurrah” to help bridge the company’s ailing fortunes until the Microsoft-powered cavalry arrives later in the year. That the E6 would be, for many, a capable business phone is undoubtedly true; even so, were it us facing a new two-year agreement, we’d wait until something running Windows Phone (or perhaps even MeeGo) arrives before we embraced the Nokia logo.

Just like its sibling the Samsung Exhibit 4G I opened up yesterday the Gravity Smart also comes with some decent apps pre-loaded, things you wont just want to delete like Bejeweled 2 and UNO. Yup remember UNO? Well now you can play it on your Gravity Smart because it comes pre-installed for your convenience. It does come with the Swype Keyboard as well but that seems odd since I’m assuming most will use the hardware keyboard but more options are always a good thing.

Like I said above the overall build quality is quite nice but the case that covers the back has almost a cheap plastic type feel to it that makes it seem a little lower quality than it probably is. Sadly the specs aren’t the best but for a mid-range device aimed more at texting than gaming or entertainment it should do fine. It sports a 3.2″ display and comes in running on Android 2.2 FroYo, it has a 3 MP camera on the rear with LED Flash, pre-installed 2GB MicroSD card and more all powered by a decent little 600 Mhz CPU to keep things chugging along.

Samsung Gravity Smart hands-on and unboxing video:

For now I’m going to be playing with this little slider text messaging machine for the next few days and see what I think, first off I can already say I wish the spacebar was a full key and didn’t have the little swirl to it as I sometimes miss the key. I’ll be sure to get a few rounds of UNO played just for old times sake and I’ll let you all know how it goes. Feel free to ask any questions down below in the comment section and I’ll check it out. Don’t forget to view the photos in the gallery below.

The camera also supports SweepShot, for taking panoramic photos simply by waving the myTouch 4G Slide in front of the scene, and BurstShot, which as the name suggests fires off a handful of frames and then allows you to choose the best one later on. There’s a dual-LED flash on the back, and a front-facing camera with Qik preloaded for video calls.

Of course, you’re also getting Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread along with HTC Sense 3.0 – so the active lockscreen from the Sensation – and inside is the 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that we’ve seen in other recent HTC devices, like the EVO 3D. An updated version of the carrier’s “Genius Button” supports new voice commands – allowing you to call or text people, or search online – as well as text-to-voice.

The T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide will be available in July 2011, in either black or khaki, priced from $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement.

Unlike the N9 there’s an aluminum chassis rather than polycarbonate, and NFC is missing. There’s also a 1320 mAh battery, smaller than the N9′s 1,450 mAh. The camera also comes in at 8-megapixels, but is apparently a different unit to the consumer-focused device (though of “very similar image quality”). The N950 gets Bluetooth 2.1 whereas the N9 supports Bluetooth 4.0, and has a “slightly more sensitive” digital compass and ALS.

Although the temptation of QWERTY will be hard for many to avoid, Nokia is pretty resolute that the N950 is a developer device and not intended to be an everyday phone. Construction will be of “beta quality” according to the specs, and there will be no warranty or support to fall back on. This is definitely one for the developers to cook up MeeGo apps on, rather than for you to carry in your pocket.

No word on pricing or availability at this stage.

Update: Photo of the final developer edition handset above courtesy of Brendan Arndt.

[via My Nokia Blog - thanks Andy!]

The original PsiXpda UMPC – which we reviewed in January 2010 – was a rebadged DigiCube MIDPhone-50, running Windows XP on a sliding, tilting 4.8-inch 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen display, with a full QWERTY keyboard, Atom Z510 1.1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. At the time we criticized its underwhelming battery life and disappointingly small display (which struggled even to accommodate Windows XP’s default messages) and suggested that it was not the model to break UMPCs out into the mainstream.

Pinnock apparently agrees, admitting that the original PsiXpda was “not fast enough and not good enough.” Instead, he’s looking to the much-loved Psion Series 5mx (shown above) design for a follow-up. The 5mx managed – by virtue of a clever sliding-folding hinge mechanism – to fit a large physical QWERTY keyboard with decent travel into a 170 x 90 x 23 mm form-factor, big enough for many to actually touch-type on. A useful byproduct of the design meant that tapping the 5.6-inch touchscreen wouldn’t topple the 5mx backward.

Rather than attempt to squeeze a desktop OS onto the new PsiXpda, Pinnock intends to use Android, which should add up to longer battery life and more consumer appeal. Although we’ve seen Android MIDs with physical ‘boards before, they’ve always been intended for thumb-typing rather than anything more ambitious. No word on when PsiXpda intends to release the new model, but we’re tentatively curious to see if its second attempt can do a better job of living up to the Psion inspiration.

The specs were officially announced back in April, showing that the Nokia E6 will feature a 2.46-inch VGA touchscreen display that offers four times the pixels (326ppi) than earlier E series handsets. It will also come with an 8-megapixel camera with HD support. Battery life is rated for 14.8 hours with a standby time of 31 days.

On Amazon, the E6 is listed for pre-orders at $446 and will come unlocked. However, shipments for the device won’t start until another one to two months. You can check out the page here for yourself. And make sure to check out our hands-on with the device.

[via Engadget]

Hardware

The ChaCha – which will also be known as the HTC ChaChaCha in some territories, where “chacha” has less salubrious meanings – is one of HTC’s more distinctive handsets when it comes to design. QWERTY Android phones are still in the minority, despite the popularity of messaging-centric devices like BlackBerry; those we do see tend to include a slide-out keyboard, rather than use a candybar form-factor.

So, the ChaCha gives you a 2.6-inch 480 x 320 resolution touchscreen above a full QWERTY thumbboard, with a row of the usual touch-sensitive Android function buttons – home, menu, back and search – and dedicated call/end keys sandwiched in-between. On the left hand edge there’s a volume rocker and a microUSB port, though unlike the Salsa there’s no dedicated camera shortcut on the right. The power/lock button and headphone jack are on the top edge.

HTC made something of a reputation for itself with its “chin” design, and the ChaCha is more jutting than most. The company claims the bent profile positions the screen at the right angle when you hold the phone for typing, as well as keeping keyboard and display off the surface of the table – and thus scratch-free – when placed face-down. In practice, it divided opinion, some liking the distinctive shape and others wishing it was flat. Measurements are 4.5 x 2.54 x 0.42 inches, though given the thickness takes into account the bend, the ChaCha feels thinner in the hand than the specs would suggest.

HTC ChaCha overview:

The 2.6-inch display may be small, but it still runs at the same resolution as the larger, 3.4-inch Salsa. It’s bright and clear, and the resolution is a nice balance of keeping on-screen icons crisp but not so small as to force you to squint. We wish HTC had fitted either a trackball or an optical joystick, however; the keyboard has a D-pad but it’s right down in the bottom right corner, and there were times we’d have liked to have controlled the phone one-handed without stretching a thumb up to tap the display.

Still, it’s hard not to fall for the ChaCha’s QWERTY ‘board. Four rows of TicTac-sized hard plastic keys, with a double-width spacebar and D-pad cluster, they’re pleasingly clicky and have just the right amount of travel. The metal fascia means there’s no flex as you type. Numbers are clustered together as secondary functions, triggered with a FN key, and there’s a dedicated Tab, symbol key, comma, period and question mark buttons. Hold down FN + period and the camera loads; the same is meant to happen with the spacebar, opening up the settings page, but our review unit showed no inclination of doing so.

Still, it’s a minor flaw (and one we’re guessing will be tweaked with firmware) in what’s otherwise a brilliant keyboard for punching out texts, tweets, emails and – not least – Facebook status updates and comments. Of course, underneath the main ‘board is the dedicated Facebook button, the functionality of which we’ll cover later on.

Outwardly the ChaCha and the Salsa look completely different; inside, however, they’re far more similar. Both use an 800MHz single-core Snapdragon processor (boosted from the 600MHz chip originally specified) along with 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. There’s a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash on the back and a front facing VGA webcam up front, along with a microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port and GPS. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0, along with – on this European model – dualband 900/2100MHz HSPA/WCDMA and quadband GSM/EDGE.

Overall, build quality belies HTC’s low-end positioning for the ChaCha: it’s creak- and flex-free, nicely weighted and the white and silver color-scheme – while perhaps not to everybody’s taste – does at least use the same solid feeling plastic and brushed metal as the Flyer tablet.

Software

Like with Salsa, HTC has used Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on the ChaCha, complete with its Sense UI and app/widget suite. Appearance-wise, though, it’s a very different story: this is the third Sense build we’ve seen in the past month: “2.1 for Messenger” as opposed to 2.1 on the Salsa and 3.0 on the HTC Sensation. The changes are predominantly to suit the landscape orientation of the display – indeed most of the standard apps and menus won’t rotate into portrait orientation – but the light grey color-scheme also makes the UI feel brighter and less dense.

Rather than the center-biased seven pane homescreen layout on all-touch HTC Android phones, the ChaCha defaults to its left-most pane. You can have up to seven of them, filled with the usual icons and widgets, though the first has the app menu and customize keys in its bottom corners by default. There’s no recent-apps scrollbar in the notifications menu, nor access to quick settings. Mildly frustrating, you can’t get back to the homescreen by pressing the end-call button, as you might expect – in fact it only ever ends calls. The lockscreen has the same four icon launcher as on the Salsa and Sensation, though not the latter phone’s weather effects.

HTC has obviously changed much of its UI to cater to the unusual screen aspect, but it’s a mixed bag for usability. The app menu works well, with the All Apps/Frequent/Downloaded filter shifted from the bottom to the side, and that same layout has been carried over into Friend Stream and the Gallery app, among others. It’s straightforward to flick the filter slider and then the list, both with your right thumb.

The same suite of apps as on the Salsa is loaded onto the ChaCha, so you get HTC regulars like Books, Friend Stream, HTC Hub, HTC Likes, Mirror, Peep and the WiFi Hotspot app. Unfortunately, HTC hasn’t gone quite far enough in tweaking the interface for our liking, and this shows up in Friend Stream – the hub of Facebook activity, no less – most of all. Read on for details.

Facebook

As on the Salsa, the Facebook button allows you to punch in a new status message after a single press, shares the track or webpage you’re enjoying, or – after a long-press – your location using Facebook Places. Our existing criticisms about support for sharing recommendations from third-party apps, being unable to edit metadata for things like Amazon music downloads, and an inability to handle Facebook Group or Page accounts still stand. We’d recommend reading our Salsa review for all the details.

HTC ChaCha Facebook integration demo:

The most frustrating thing, though, is the amount of screen space you actually get to read all that Facebook content. In Friend Stream, once the notification bar, title bar – with Share button, duplicated with the dedicated Facebook key – and right-hand side filter slider are accommodated, you’re left with a tiny window in which to actually read Facebook and Twitter updates. The ideal solution would be to borrow the UI from the browser, where the menu bars disappear automatically to maximize the usable space, but are easily summoned with the menu key.

In short, while the combination of a great keyboard and a handy shortcut makes posting to Facebook incredibly straightforward, actually consuming other people’s updates on the move is more difficult than it should be. Great if you’re an egotist dedicated to promoting Brand Me; not so much if you actually care about what your friends are saying.

Camera

We were underwhelmed with the 5-megapixel camera on the HTC Salsa, finding its color settings made an unusually ominous purple mess of the sky. Happily the ChaCha’s identical-resolution snapper does a better job. As we’ve often lamented about HTC handsets, the output in general is less impressive – megapixel for megapixel – than some rivals can manage, but the shots are good enough for Facebook sharing certainly. Curiously, they look far better off-device than viewed on the ChaCha’s screen: sometimes we thought photos would be hopelessly blurred based on the short preview, only to find the end result was fine.

There’s still some blotchiness and exposure inaccuracy, but it’s reasonable for an entry- to mid-tier handset. Colors are clear and the touch-focus system – which also works during video recording – is swift. Video clips, meanwhile, are limited to 720 x 480 resolution but are crisp and audio pickup is good.

Phone and Battery

The ChaCha is blessed with both a clear earpiece and a loud speaker for hands-free use, though the latter does acquire some crunchy static at the top end of its volume. Perhaps it’s the curve of the phone, but callers said we were coming through loud and clear; of course there’s also Bluetooth for hands-free use.

Battery life is rated at up to 420 minutes of WCDMA talktime (up to 450 minutes GSM) or up to 660 hours of WCDMA standby (up to 430 hours GSM) from the 1,250 mAh battery. That’s almost 300 mAh less than the Salsa offers, though of course there’s a smaller display to power too. Overall, we managed to get through a day and a half or so of use, with Facebook and Twitter set to their default updates, push Gmail active, and some use of the browser, camera, Google Maps and other apps.

Wrap-Up

HTC may have given the ChaCha an odd name, but get past that and this QWERTY handset is one of the more usable – and certainly one of the most memorable – Android phones around today. There’s a compromise to be made on screen size, but in return you get a frankly brilliant QWERTY keyboard with little in the way of a learning curve. If your smartphone is also your multimedia powerhouse then the ChaCha is unlikely to appeal, but if you spend more time messaging then the thumb ‘board pays dividends.

The software isn’t perfect, but make no mistake: it would take very little for HTC to finesse the UI to better take advantage of the screen. In fact, just as with the Salsa, the ChaCha’s main issue may well be persuading would-be buyers that there’s more to it than the Facebook branding. The dedicated Facebook button is a gimmick, but taken as a whole the HTC ChaCha is far more compelling than the silly name might suggest.

Thanks to Three for the loan handset.

There’s also a front-facing camera, SD card slot, HDMI port, USB and full 1080p support. The whole thing weighs 700g, and will be offered with an optional dock with HDMI, USB Host, ethernet and other business-friendly functionality.

“This is not an either-or for us. This is a choice about where is the best place to take our story and avoids a bunch of the inhibitors and barriers to success that we’ve seen in the U.S. market … Things like confusion over what exactly Android is bringing to the table [and] an immature platform and roll out of devices that weren’t quite ready yet. Even simple things like distribution channels that are controlled by the carriers with pricing models that are completely upside down to adoption.” John Thode, vice president and manager of mobility, Dell

According to Thode, the Streak 10 Pro will hit the US market, but the date hasn’t been confirmed beyond being sometime in 2012. The exec described the US as “trying to swim upstream” and that in China “the growth rates are much more interesting” and could well overtake the US in the next couple of years.

As for the QWERTY prototype, according to Tweakers the 7-inch prototype has been tossed about by Dell’s labs for a couple of years now, and is likely to use Windows 8. The slate has a slide-out split QWERTY keyboard – with the space in-between potentially being used for a trackpad – and a place for a rear-facing camera. A commercial launch is still a possibility.

The txt pro comes in at 93 x 52 x 18mm and 100g, while the Mix Walkman is 95.8 x 52.8 x 14.3mm and 88g. Both have Bluetooth and TrackID music recognition, 100MB of internal memory, a 3.5mm headphone socket, WiFi, and microUSB connectivity.

The UI is the same four-corner system as on the compact XPERIA mini and mini pro, offering shortcuts in the corners of the display. We can’t imagine why you’d opt for one of these two devices rather than an Android-based device from Sony Ericsson’s range, frankly, with the company yet to confirm pricing for the Q3 launch.

Presss Release:

Sony Ericsson reveals two new phones to fans through Facebook

· Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman™ phone delivers best of music entertainment, including Zappin™- a new fun way to search your songs

· Sony Ericsson txt pro is designed for messaging and social networking, supported by friends application

· Final four consumers selected in worldwide competition to find the ultimate video reviewer following thousands of entries

June 9th, 2011, London, UK – Sony Ericsson today fully revealed two new phones following a worldwide competition open to over 4.8 million fans that follow Sony Ericsson on http://www.facebook.com/sonyericsson . The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman™ phone offers an entertaining music experience, while the Sony Ericsson txt pro has a full slide-out qwerty keyboard combined with a friends application for social networking. Both phones integrate full touch functionality with a corner user interface similar to that available in the Xperia™ mini range. Both phones are packed full of features including cameras with video recording and Wi-Fi™ for chatting and browsing.

Quentin Cordier, Global Product Marketing Manager, Sony Ericsson said: “We wanted to take advantage of our extensive Facebook fan base when announcing these phones, bringing the fans closer to both our products and brand. We are really pleased that consumers liked them for their music and social media functionality and expect them to become great additions to our overall portfolio of entertaining phones.”

The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman™ provides a new and fun way to listen to music. It comes with a Zappin™ key to make it even easier and more fun to search for your favourite song. Simply press the Zappin™ key to preview the chorus of the next track and decide whether it is a favourite you want to listen to. A karaoke function also enables the vocal track from any song to be lowered instantly so you can sing along with your favourite tune.

The look and feel of the phone can be personalised with different exchangeable colour bands that come with the phone.
The Sony Ericsson txt pro combines a 3” touch screen with a 3.2 megapixel camera and full slide-out qwerty keyboard. Its integrated friends application enables users to add their five best friends to see at a glance updates from their Facebook™ and Twitter™ feeds.

The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman™ and the Sony Ericsson txt pro will be available globally in selected markets from Q3.

Still, we’d expect that chip to be in place to drive that 1080p video recording. Other expected specifications include a 4-inch, qHD 960 x 540 resolution display, the same Android Gingerbread build – with MOTOBLUR – as recently pushed to the DROID X, and a reskinned launcher.

There’s also an HDMI port by the USB port, which does open to door to potential Webtop use as on the ATRIX; still, with the physical keyboard on the phone itself, perhaps that’s not such a pressing need. Still, being able to dock the DROID 3 into a multimedia docking station would be a neat touch. Still no word on launch date.

[via Android Community]

The E6 is a combination touchscreen/QWERTY candybar, with a crisp 326ppi display and a very usable thumbboard for punching out emails and SMS messages. Meanwhile, the X7 is Nokia’s gaming phone, with a 4-inch display and narrow, angular metal casing.

The X7 will be available in Europe, Eurasia, China, India and other Asia/Pacific countries, with an RRP of €380 SIM-free. Meanwhile, the E6 will be available in Europe, Eurasia, Asia/Pacific, as well as the Middle East and Africa, with an RRP of €340 SIM-free.

The ST18i has twin cameras, with the rear getting an LED flash, together with an unspecified ARM Cortex A8 processor. We’re guessing that means a similar 1GHz chip to what’s inside the XPERIA mini. Its CK18i sibling pairs a touchscreen with a slide-out keyboard, like a larger version of the mini pro.

Both will probably get Sony Ericsson’s “Facebook Inside XPERIA” system, which you can see demonstrated here. No official release dates, of course, but the ST18i could make its official debut as early as this month.

[via SEMCblog 1 and 2; via Android Community]

There’s also 8GB of onboard storage, WiFi, AGPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a 910mAh battery good, AT&T reckons, for up to 5hrs of talktime or 300hrs of standby. It’ll be the first HP phone to run webOS 2.1, too; AT&T will sell the Touchstone wireless charger separately.

Mobile Hotspot functionality is preloaded, along with AT&T Navigator, and there’s carrier billing for apps in the webOS App Catalog. The AT&T HP Veer 4G will be priced at $99.99 with a new, two-year agreement, exclusively in black and white.

More on the HP Veer in our hands-on.

Press Release:

AT&T Goes Small With HP Veer 4G

Exclusive Smartphone for AT&T Customers Available May 15, Packs a Big Experience into a Powerfully Small Design

Key Facts

The new HP Veer 4G*, the size of a credit card and no thicker than a deck of cards, will be the smallest full-featured HP webOS smartphone to date and AT&T’s** first to run the latest version of webOS software.
Perfect for feature phone or quick messaging phone users looking for all of the features and capabilities of a smartphone without compromising on size and style.
Exclusive in the U.S. for AT&T customers, HP Veer 4G is available in black and white.
HP Veer 4G will be available from AT&T at company-owned stores and online at http://www.att.com/ on May 15 and will cost $99.99 with a two-year contract.
4G Portfolio

AT&T is a pioneer in smartphones and devices, and expects to widen its portfolio in 2011. In January, AT&T committed to introducing 20 4G devices by the end of the year. Available exclusively to AT&T customers, HP Veer 4G will be one of several 4G devices offered in the first half of 2011.

Customer Benefits

With the HP Veer 4G, AT&T customers can have it all – access to the web, apps, social networks and more, all in one powerfully small design. For those who value size, pocketability and style, Veer offers a refreshing alternative to the larger smartphone devices that are currently in the market, without compromising on functionality.

Powered by HP webOS, Veer offers an advanced browser and an incredibly fast processor for a fantastic web experience including Adobe Flash support, plus 8GB of internal user storage and a full keyboard that slides out for fast texting and email. Notifications instantly display messages, reminders, and Facebook® updates on a vivid 2.6-inch touchscreen, with instant messages, texts and pictures from the same person available all in one view.

HP Veer 4G comes preloaded with several popular apps including mobile hotspot and AT&T Navigator. The mobile hotspot functionality*** allows users to share wireless internet connectivity with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices while AT&T Navigator**** a GPS-enabled navigation service, is designed to provide you with clear and precise audible and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, including full-color moving maps, using GPS directly from your wireless phone.

In addition, thousands of apps are available at your fingertips in the redesigned webOS App Catalog – social networking, health and fitness, productivity, finance, games—you name it. With Veer, customers are able to keep multiple apps open at once and easily switch back and forth between them. Purchasing apps is now even easier with the addition of carrier billing. Customers can now buy apps on their phone and have it added to their monthly bill with just a tap.

If you need a little help finding your way or locating cool things to do around you, Veer also boasts built-in GPS.

Key Specifications

HP webOS 2.1
3.63 ounces
Tri-band UMTS: 850/1900/2100; HSDPA Cat 10/HSUPA Cat 6
Quad-band GSM/EDGE
800Mhz processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230)
2.6-inch multitouch display screen with a vibrant 18-bit color, 320×400 resolution
Slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard
Email and integrated IM, SMS and MMS
Facebook integration, YouTube
Wi-Fi/aGPS capable
5-megapixel camera with extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture
Stereo Bluetooth (2.1)
8GB internal storage(~6.1GB available)
910 mAh battery; up to 5.0 hours of talk time or up to 300 hours of standby time.
webOS WebKit browser with Flash support
HP Touchstone compatible (sold separately)
To learn more about the HP Veer 4G, visit www.att.com/mobilephones-news.

Quotes

“A large majority of our customers are choosing smartphones but they don’t all want the same thing,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Device Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “HP Veer 4G gives us a highly unique and feature-rich smartphone for customers who want something a ‘little’ different.”

“Veer is introducing the smartphone experience to a new generation of users,” said Stephane Maes, vice president of smartphone product management, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. “Its unique combination of high-end webOS smartphone features in a surprisingly compact package is just right for customers who want to do more with less.”

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Other specs for the slate include a 1280 x 800 WXGA display with capacitive multitouch, an optional active digitizer with a stylus – like the HTC Flyer – and a choice of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage. There’s also a battery good for 8hrs, USB and microUSB ports, a 3-in-1 memory card reader and mini HDMI, along with WiFi and 3G.

No word on whether the keyboard dock – into which the ThinkPad Tablet slots – will have a battery of its own at this stage; from the images it does seem to have a trackpad though no TrackPoint stick that we can spot. Perhaps Lenovo’s artists simply didn’t dot a red blob in the middle.

The ThinkPad Tablet is expected to be 1.6lb and 0.55-inches thick. Pricing is unlikely to be finalized, though Lenovo is said to be looking at a roughly $499 point – presumably without either keyboard dock or active digitizer – so as to keep it competitive with the iPad 2.

[via Android Community]

The keys have that balance of clickiness and travel we’ve liked on earlier smartphones, and Nokia is clear in how it’s targeting not only existing Symbian QWERTY-phone users (including those looking to step away from their N97) but BlackBerry and Windows Mobile device users. They – like the side keys – are backlit, and there are the dedicated call/end keys that business users look for; there are also neat touches like the mute button only illuminating when mute is active.

It’s too early to say how well Symbian Anna polishes the experience from earlier versions, but the icon changes are welcome and give the menus a more modern feel. The browser rendered the SlashGear homepage well, complete with animations, and supports pinch-zooming (though we found we needed to wait until it was fully-loaded before we could zoom).

Generally, it feels solid and well-constructed. More hands-on shots in the gallery below.

There’s also an 8-megapixel full-focus camera with HD video support. Obviously the big draw is the QWERTY thumb-board, like the E71 and E72, which should work well with the native Exchange support, Microsoft Communicator Mobile, and browser access to Microsoft SharePoint. Pre-loaded Quick Office means easy Word, PowerPoint and Excel editing.

Talktime is up to 14.8hrs, while standby is a whopping 31 days. The Nokia E6 will go on sale in Q2 2011, priced at  €340 ($489) contract-free.

Other connectivity includes WiFi, 3G, VGA and USB, and there’s a GPS receiver squeezed in there too. Inside is an unspecified Intel Atom Z-Series processor – squinting at the spec sheet in the gallery below suggests 1-2GB of RAM and 16-32/64GB of SSD storage – and EraThink is also showing off a dock with ethernet and other connectivity for when you’re back at your desk.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen PC hardware in a smartphone form-factor, and as ever the big concern is battery life. Running even a relatively low-power Atom CPU still sucks down juice in comparison to ARM chips as found in true phones, and while EraThink don’t make any estimates for the EraPalm5, we’re guessing it’ll manage 3-4hrs at most. No word on pricing or availability.

[via Cloned in China]

No other new specs, so we’re assuming what was suggested back in January holds true today. That means 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 5-megapixel camera on the back, along with GPS. The display is 3.2-inches.

As with the Monaco and Bold Touch we saw earlier, the Torch 2 should get its official reveal at BlackBerry World 2011 next month. It’ll apparently arrive on AT&T come July; no word on pricing at this stage.

There’s also a new, large battery – though no word on exactly how large – which should hopefully keep the Bold Touch running for a decent length of time despite the extra input option. No other specs, so we’re going from the the original RIM roadmap leak: a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, quadband GSM/dualband UMTS, 5-megapixel camera on the back, and WiFi b/g/n with 2.4GHz/5GHz support and mobile hotspot functionality.

It’s also tipped to be the slimmest BlackBerry ever, though as you can see in the gallery below it’s still not quite at the level of the iPhone 4. As with the Monaco, the Bold Touch 9900 is expected to make its official debut at BlackBerry World in early May, with a retail launch in June or July 2011.

Videos after the cut

There’s also a new version of Symbian^3, tweaked to suit the landscape-orientation display, and a microUSB port, along with a 3.5mm headphone socket. No HDMI that we can spot, unlike the N8, and the E6-00 appears to follow the E7 in dropping the traditional 2mm charging socket.

A new Symbian device is perhaps not what we’re really waiting for from Nokia, but the company has built a loyal following of portrait-QWERTY lovers and the E6-00 will likely find a niche among those. Short’n'blurry video demo below.

[via My Nokia Blog]

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording and an 800MHz processor, with HTC Sense running on top of Froyo. GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi round out the key specs.

The Alltel Merge will be priced at $124.99 with a new, two-year agreement and following an unspecified mail-in rebate. Alltel is yet to confirm exact launch dates, so there’s no telling quite how long the pre-order phase will last.

[via Android Community]

Video demo after the cut

That includes details on the new Sidekick overlay, which tweaks the regular Android UI into something more usable for long-term Sidekick owners. There’s Qik for video chat, Media Hub, Visual Voicemail, WiFi calling, group text and Cloud Texting, among other things, which also get demonstrated in the video below.

T-Mobile is yet to confirm specific launch dates, but the Sidekick 4G will go on sale at $99.99 with a new, two-year agreement on one of the carrier’s unlimited data plans, or at $149.99 on a regular data plan. Whether an interface tweak and emoticon buttons are enough to convince the Sidekick-faithful remains to be seen.

T-Mobile Sidekick 4G: