There’s a new HTC smartphone joining the HTC Legend and HTC Desire as the latest and greatest handsets from the Taiwanese technology giant, due in April 2010. The HTC HD Mini is a smaller version of the current HTC HD2 Windows Mobile smartphone, and comes packed full of top class technology and features but in a smaller and more stylish form-factor.
Joining Nokia and Sony Ericsson in offering smaller versions of top selling handsets, HTC has arguably come out top with a fantastic device packed into a truly mobile, pocket sized case.
The HTC HD Mini will showcase a top notch 3.2 inch touchscreen, a superb 5 megapixel autofocus camera with widescreen technology, 384MB RAM and 512MB of ROM with microSD expandibility, a 600MHz processor and a bagful of other feautes including the usual GPS, Wireless and Bluetooth, music and multimedia and much more.
To view the full specification and more, visit the official HTC Mini page at HTC.com and keep an eye on the My Telecoms Shop in April.
The launch of the HTC Incredible is edging closer, with the new HTC smartphone expected to appear on Verizon Wireless network very soon. We show you a sneak peak of the HTC Incredible.
The leaked video shows that it has lost the ugly chin which its uncle the HTC Hero had, whilst maintaining approximately the same size. However, the HTC Incredible has one striking look which makes it look much more attractive than the Hero, and that’s the stylish black and red colour scheme which we much prefer over the plain grey or white ones that we’ve see on the likes of the Hero.
The handset is expected to boast a similar spec to the HTC Desire (also known as the HTC Bravo) but with one big let down; reduced onboard memory. It will have 256MB RAM rather than the 576MB which is used in HTCs other Android smartphone.
So features include Android 2.1 OS, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.7-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera with flash, and the slick HTC Sense user interface. Admittedly good features, but nothing we haven’t already seen on the HTC HD2, the Samsung Omnia II and others; although if you are a fan of Android OS, then this will be one of the best out there.
We still don’t know when the HTC Incredible will be hitting the UK, but will keep you posted just as soon as we find out.
Samsung – the global electronics giant responsible for $118 billion of sales including mobile phones, televisions, kitchen appliances, computer equipment and air conditioning units – has officially made it to the number one spot by being announced as the world’s largest technology company. The title was taken from Hewlett Packard, a huge computing organisation which has already acquired Compaq and expects to acquire networking giant 3Com in early 2010.
In 2009, Samsung outperformed sales at HP by $3 billion, a figure which is expected to double in 2010, with Samsung predicting $127 billion of sales for the year.
Having struggled in previous quarters due to the long global recession, Samsung has reported fourth quarter profits of $2.7 billion and a total of $8.3 billion for the year.
The main reason for this has been their diverse product portfolio, and the increasing success in the mobile phone and LCD/LED TV markets. Samsung had huge success with the Tocco, Tocco Lite, Jet, Omnia II and Genio mobile phone products in 2009, selling a total of 227 million handsets. The company also sold over 30 million televisions and held a 40 percent market share in global memory chip manufacturing and sales.
Samsung is now also officially ranked second to Nokia in the list of top global mobile phone manufactures, with mobile phone sales expecting to grow significantly in 2010. For a list of the best deals on the best Samsung mobiles, visit our shop now.
Samsung is also expected to ship 35 million LCD TVs this year, as well as 10 million LED TVs and 2 million 3D models.
Continental Mobiles, a partner of My Telecoms, has stunned us again with their latest example of fine luxury mobile phone tailoring… This time by drenching the Blackberry Bold in a selection of valuable gemstones including diamonds, rubies and emeralds. We have the pictures here and tell you how you can get your hands on one!
So we all know the Blackbeery Bold, right? One of the most popular choices for the mobile professional, this smartphone provides a whole host of advanced features including a telephone, electronic planner, GPS function and digital camera. With EDGE and HSDPA networks, a WiFi chip and a really easy to use QWERTY keyboard, this little handset lets you send and receive emails at any time. No wonder the stars and celebrities are all using it to keep in touch.
Well now, thanks to Continental Mobiles, you can own an even bolder Blackberry Bold which will make you stand out above everyone else around you. Now you can look like a star or celebrity with the ultimate mobile phone!
Here are the pictures of the tailored Blackberry Bold (click to view the full collection):
Blackberry Bold with Diamonds
Blackberry Bold with Rubies
Blackberry Bold with Emeralds
To view more luxury mobile phones in the Continental Mobiles Colletion or to buy the handset of your dreams, click here…
HTC has finally announced the introduction of a budget touchscreen handset, which is expected to be available in the UK soon on tariffs from as little as £15 per month.
The HTC Smart becomes the latest addition to the 2010 line-up, which we already know includes the HTC Legend, HTC Salsa, HTC Buzz, HTC Tide and HTC Bravo as well as the three Windows Mobile handsets; the HTC Photon, Trophy and Tera.
The HTC Smart however does not fit neatly into any of the categories with its 2010 peers. As a budget phone, it would make more sense to drop the HTC Smart into the same category as the 2009 HTC Tattoo and the HTC Touch 2 (although one is an Android phone and the other Windows Mobile). In actual fact, the phone almost needs a category of its own because not only because it is cheap, but it runs Qualcomm’s own Brew OS which has not been seen before in the HTC line-up. Brew offers the flexibility to deliver smartphone features across multiple tiers and at affordable prices.
“HTC Smart breaks new ground in delivering the powerful, in-demand smartphone features that consumers want on a more accessible device for global markets,” said Paul Jacobs, chief executive officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. “We are pleased to be supporting HTC as they utilize the capabilities of Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform open operating system to offer high-end capabilities and a compelling mobile user experience at mass-market price points.”
Needless to say therefore that the phone is based on a Qualcomm chipset; a 300MHz ARM based processor to be precise. The phone will also come with 256MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a microSD expansion slot and Bluetooth. Most interestingly, for a budget handset, is the inclusion of a 2.8-inch touchscreen display and a 3-megapixel camera (although the camera does not have a flash). The handset is also highly portable at only 108g, and has a 3.5mm audio jack so that you can easily take your music on the move.
The device is made “smart” by integrating HTC Sense – a user friendly and intuitive interface seen previously on other Windows Mobile and Android handsets.
HTC said in a statement that “Adding a touch interface doesn’t mean a phone is a smart phone; the integration of HTC Sense brings an unparallelled smartphone experience for people looking to do more on their phone”.
Some of the more lavish features such as Wi-Fi and GPS are expected to be trimmed back though, but what do you expect for a budget handset?
Vodafone has announced that it will start selling the iPhone in the UK on January 14th, 2010. The announcement makes Vodafone the latest UK phone network to offer the iPhone, following the lengthy exclusive deal between Apple and O2, and more recently the release of the iPhone 3GS on Orange.
The cheapest tariff will be £30 a month on a 24 month contract, with handset charges ranging from £59 (for the iPhone 3G 8GB) to £239 (for the iPhone 3GS 32GB). O2 and Orange offer fairly similar entry level tariffs – £34.26 and £29.36 respectively – but each comes with a free iPhone. Vodafone has responded with a £35 a month contract over two years, which includes a free iPhone 3GS 8GB handset. You can start to see that they are all ‘much of a muchness’ but the competition over time should hopefully drive the deals down further.
There is to be a 1GB monthly data limit on mobile Web usage with Vodafone, compared with Orange’s fair use policy which is in the region of 750MB per month, and O2’s unlimited data offering. Vodafone has also introduced a charge for customers wishing to use the iPhone as a broadband modem (with prices starting from £5 for 500 MB).
Vodafone will join O2 in offering unlimited Wi-Fi access, whereas Orange include BT Open-Zone Wi-Fi access within their monthly fair usage policy.
In the wake of the US recently suffering from ‘iPhone saturation’, there have been global concerns that mobile networks are struggling to cope with demand as more consumers choose Internet-enabled smartphones such as the iPhone 3GS.
The Chief Executive of Vodafone UK, Guy Laurence, has responded by saying that Vodafone has been preparing its network for more than 12 months for it to be able to accommodate the release of the iPhone.
2009 was the year of the touchscreen revolution, and so we take a look at the best touch phones from the year gone by in our Top 10 Touchscreen Phones of 2009.
Touchscreen technology is now a must-have feature on mobile phones. Apple were not the first, but they took such a big step that since the 2007 release of the iPhone, we have seen touch phone after touch phone flooding the market.
So how do you know which touchscreen phone is the right one for you? Hopefully that’s where we can help. Our Top 10 Touchscreen Phones of 2009 list is based on three key factors; design, features and value for money. We give you the low-down on each handset, as well as a star rating to help you compare.
If you like one of our top 10 touchscreen phones and want to see more specs or you wish to proceed and buy, simply click on the image or one of the links in the article and you will be taken directly to our store, which is part of Carphone Warehouse, where you can buy securely and in confidence.
So here it is, our list of the Top 10 Touchscreen Phones of 2009…
1. Apple iPhone 3GS
Display
320 x 480 pixels – 3.5 inches
Operating
System
iPhone OS (based on Mac OS)
Processor
ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics
Memory
Up to 32GB storage and 256MB RAM
Camera
3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus
Video
VGA@30fps, video geo-tagging
Sound
Audio Player with 3.5mm jack out
Dimensions
115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm
Weight
135 g
Battery
Life
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 300h
Talk time: Up to 12h (2G) / 5h (3G)
Music: Up to 30h
A must have accessory for the stylish social networker of today, the Apple iPhone 3GS oozes style, exquisite design, a breathtaking and intuitive user interface, and some really useful features.
Where it lacks in areas such as a top notch camera and battery life, it more than makes up for in stlye, usability, functionality, stability and expandibility. The App Store and iTunes services can be used directly from the phone allowing the user access to millions of music tracks, videos and software applications; plus with Wi-Fi and 3G access to the Internet, this really becomes the ultimate mobile multimedia centre.
2. Nokia N900
Display
800 x 480 pixels – 3.5 inches
Operating
System
Maemo 5
Processor
ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics
Memory
32GB storage and 256MB RAM
Camera
5 MP Carl Zeiss optics, 2592×1944 pixels, dual LED flash, autofocus
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 100h
Talk time: Up to 9h (2G) / 5h (3G)
The Nokia N900 offers a powerful mobile Web platform, a huge amount of internal storage, a great 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and an ultrasharp display. It’s also fast, multitasks well, and has excellent call quality.
However, where it doesn’t beat the iPhone is on it’s user interace. It is slick and eye catching but not as intuitive as Apple’s device. It’s also a little bulky and has access to fewer applications than the iPhone simply because the Ovi Store is not as advanced yet as the App Store.
A superb handset however, worthy of five stars, and due to hit out website on Boxing Day.
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 490h
Talk time: Up to 6h 20m (2G) / 5h 40m (3G)
Music: Up to 12h
A must have look good accessory. the HTC Touch HD2 not only boasts style but awesome power through the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor - it wasn’t all that long ago that laptops were boasting 1GHz processors! A truly magnificent 4.3-inch touchscreen with some great added features to improve the user experience, plus a good camera, a microSD expansion and the ability to be used as a Wi-Fi router making this a superb top-end device.
If I had to, I would choose a handset as stylish and as powerful as this, but without Microsoft Windows Mobile. Whilst this handset has the latest Windows OS in 6.5 Professional, I am not convinced that Microsoft has mastered the mobile operating system, which has always historically been buggy and sluggish. However, on the Touch HD2, it’s far from sluggish due to the power under the bonnet but only time will tell on stability. What I do like about Windows Mobile however is software availability and expandability.
The only area we can actually knock the HD2 down below the iPhone and the N900 is battery life. Watching a movie or two or listening to 12 hours of music will result in you having to connect to the mains, although standby and talktime aren’t too bad. However, we could not score this anything less than a five star. Once you hold one, you’ll understand why.
4. Nokia N97
Display
360 x 640 pixels – 3.5 inches
Operating
System
Symbian OS v9.4 Series 60 Release 5
Processor
ARM II 434MHz Processor
Memory
32GB internal storage plus microSD slot and 128MB RAM
Camera
5 MP Carl Zeiss optics, 2592×1944 pixels, dual LED flash, autofocus
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 432h
Talk time: Up to 9h 30m (2G) / 6h (3G)
Music: Up to 40h
Very nearly the last of our five-star handsets, the Nokia N97 was downgraded to a four and a half star when we looked at it against the HTC Touch HD2. It has a good looking touch screen, a great camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a huge amount of internal storage plus a microSD slot for further expandability, and terrific battery life when compared to its competitors.
However, like the N900 it doesn’t beat the iPhone on it’s user interface. This time, it’s the touch screen integration which just isn’t a slick and simple as the iPhone. Once again, there is access to fewer applications than the iPhone from the Ovi Store, plus the N97 still carries a fairly hefty price tag.
Probably superceded since it’s release as a top smartphone by some of its close competitors, but at the time of release this was one of the top handsets around. If I was a Nokia fan looking for a new handset though, I’d probably go with the N900.
5. Sony Ericsson Satio
Display
360 x 640 pixels – 3.5 inches
Operating
System
Symbian Series 60 Release 5
Processor
ARM Cortex A8 600Mhz Processor with 3D Graphics
Memory
128MB internal storage plus microSD slot
Camera
12 MP, 4000×3000 pixels, vid LED flash, xenon flash, autofocus, smile detection
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 340h
Talk time: Up to 4h 30m
The Satio boasts a sharp, responsive touchscreen and is certainly the year’s best camera phone. It’s simple to use, and packed with features plus it looks stylish and is easy to carry around.
Unfortunately though, the Satio falls down on battery life. Talk time and standby time are poor, and using it as a media player is not made simple by both the battery life and the missing 3.5mm headphone jack.
6. Samsung Omnia II
Display
400 x 800 pixels – 3.7 inches
OS
Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor
ARM 1176 800Mhz Processor
Memory
Up to 16GB internal storage plus microSD slot
Camera
5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, dual power LED flash, autofocus
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 430h
Talk time: Up to 10h
Whilst it’s not the most powerful smartphone on the market, the Samsung Omnia II features an improved user interface and a richer multimedia experience to make it a worthy upgrade over its predecessor. Not quite the same experience as the HTC Touch HD2, but probably still one of the best Windows Mobile devices on the market.
7. Nokia 5530 Xpressmusic
Display
360 x 640 pixels - 2.9 inches
Operating
System
Symbian OS Series 60 Release 5
Processor
ARM II 434MHz Processor
Memory
70 MB internal storage, 128MB RAM plus microSD slot
Camera
3.15 MP Carl Zeiss optics, 2048×1536 pixels, LED flash, autofocus
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 336h
Talk time: Up to 5h
Music: Up to 27h
The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is significantly cheaper than most other touchscreen handsets on the market. Whilst it’s nowhere near as slick as the iPhone or HTC HD2, we still think it offers a good user experience and grea multimedia features for the price.
8. Blackberry Storm 2
Display
480 x 360 pixels - 3.25 inches
Operating
System
Blackberry OS
Processor
Qualcomm 528MHz Processor
Memory
2GB internal storage, 256MB RAM
Camera
3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, LED flash, autofocus
Video
QVGA
Sound
Audio Player with 3.5mm jack
Dimensions
112.5 x 62.2 x 14 mm
Weight
160 g
Battery
Life
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 305h
Talk time: Up to 6h
The BlackBerry Storm 2 (9520) from Reseach in Motion adds Wi-Fi, more memory, and an updated operating system that brings a number of feature and user interface enhancements. The revamped SurePress touchscreen allows for more precision, key rollover, and limited multitouch capabilities.
However, BlackBerry browser isn’t on par with the competition. and Whilst improved, the touchscreen still takes some acclimation. Plus, battery life doesn’t stand up to the multimedia test. The main struggle for the Blackberry Storm 2 is going to be the competition.
9. HTC Touch Pro2
Display
480 x 800 pixels – 3.6 inches
Operating
System
Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor
Qualcomm 528MHz Processor
Memory
512MB internal storage, 256MB RAM plus microSD card slot
Camera
3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus
Video
VGA
Sound
Audio Player with 3.5mm jack
Dimensions
116 x 59.2 x 17.3 mm
Weight
178.5 g
Battery
Life
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 750h
Talk time: Up to 8h 30m
Stlyed like a cross between the Nokia N97 with slide out QWERTY keyboard and the HTC Touch HD2 but without the breathtaking touchscreen, the HTC Touch Pro2 is a practical and attractive handset.
It’s a complete winner on battery life, and has plenty of multimedia features making it the perfect handset to take on the move. However, with the slower processor and the distinct lack of any blow-away features, the Touch Pro2 fails to stand up against the competition and only just creeps into our top ten.
10. HTC Hero
Display
320 x 480 pixels – 3.2 inches
Operating
System
Android OS v1.5
Processor
Qualcomm 528MHz Processor
Memory
512MB internal storage, 288MB RAM plus microSD card slot
Camera
5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, autofocus
Video
VGA
Sound
Audio Player with 3.5mm jack
Dimensions
112 x 56.2 x 14.4 mm
Weight
135 g
Battery
Life
Standard battery – Li-Ion
Standby: Up to 750h
Talk time: Up to 8h
The HTC Hero offers a highly customizable user interface thanks to HTC Sense. It also improves on past Android devices with Outlook e-mail, calendar, and contacts synchronization, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 5-megapixel camera. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G support are all onboard plus battery life is excellent.
However, the smartphone which we feel lacks any style can occasionally be sluggish, and we found that flash content didn’t always work from the Web browser. Application and file management could be better too. There will be more Android phones in 2010, particularly from HTC, and we’d advise that you wait for them instead.
Forget the boxing day sales this year… There’s something far more exciting hitting the shops on boxing day. It’s Nokia’s latest NSeries Smartphone, the Nokia N900.
This powerful device features Linux-based Maemo software that delivers a a PC-like experience all within the size of a handset.
The Maemo 5 software will enable users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the phone features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard. Other features include a 5.0 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash, WiFi and HSDPA, built-in GPS and 32GB of internal memory expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card.
This latest news sees the Carphone Warehouse beat Vodafone UK to the post as Vodafone UK will have the Nokia N900 on the 7th of January; although both are already taking pre-orders.
Apple has today filed a law suit against the Swedish mobile phone giant Nokia, for infringement of technology patents and copyright.
Apple entered the mobile phone arena in 2007 off the back of its success with the iPod brand, with the launch of the first generation iPhone. Although at that time Nokia had an enourmous market share and history in the market, Apple took the world by storm with the iPhone and really put a dent in the sales figures of other phone manufacturers.
Since 2007, a battled has raged between Nokia and Apple to satisfy the social networkers and entertainment freaks of today by introducing new social networking features, music download capabilities and multimedia playback facilities.
For example, Nokia has launched the ‘Comes with Music’ and ‘XpressMusic’ products and services with phones such as the 5235 and 5800 respectively. Nokia, along with Microsoft, has also launched an online market place that competes with both iTunes and the App Store, allowing music and video downloads and encouraging application development.
Apple has fought back with two further iPhone releases since 2007, with the latest being the much accredited iPhone 3GS. They have also worked to improve the iTunes and App Store services too.
However, in October this year, Nokia sued Apple on the basis that the iPhone creator had infringed 10 of its patents on wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption, claiming royalties on the near 34 million iPhones sold since 2007.
Apple is now fighting back once again.
In a law suit filed today, Apple has claimed that Nokia is wrongfully using 13 of its patents. The claim aims to prevent Nokia from from further infringement and seeks unspecified damages for technology which is already in the market place.
It is alleged that the Nokia E71, Nokia 5310 and the Nokia N900 all infringe Apple’s patents. Apple has also denied infringing the 10 patents from Nokia’s October claim, stating that that they are invalid patents which should not be enforced.
Apple’s general counsel released a statement claiming that, “…other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours”.
Nokia however has responded by saying, “We will need time to study it before we make any direct comment” continuing that the latest law suit, “changes nothing in the fundamentals of the original filing made by Nokia”.
We will see what comes out of it in good time, but between now and then sales of the iPhone, Nokia E71, Nokia 5235 and Nokia N97 continue during the build up to Christmas.
For anyone wishing to follow the legal case, it was filed under “Nokia Corp. v. Apple Inc., 09cv791, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington)”.
Samsung Mobile has unveiled its latest new smartphone platform, which is being dubbed “bada”.
Bada (a Korean word meaning ocean) will be used to market the platform, which is widely tipped and promised to have richer capabilities and features than ever before, according to Samsung Mobile. TouchWiz, an already popular interface from Samsung, is used to enhance usability and enable the creation and use of sensor-based and context-aware applications.
“In creating Samsung bada, I believe that Samsung will become a true leader in the mobile industry; offering a wider range of smartphone choices for consumers,” said Dr Hosoo Lee, head of the Media Solution Centre at Samsung Mobile, in a statement.
“At the same time, Samsung bada presents a powerful opportunity for developers to get their applications onto an unprecedented number of Samsung devices across the world.”
In a kind of Apple style, Samung has also launched a developers challenge, requesting top quality bada applications in exchange for a slice of $2,700,000. So needless to say, there is a SDK release coming with it.
I hope that Samsung have taken the name bada from “bad ass” because it’s about time that their lucious handsets came loaded with intuitive and powerful software.
Samsung expects to release the first bada based handset in the first half of 2010.
Let us know what you think. Have you heard any more?
In 2009, Samsung outperformed sales at HP by $3 billion, a figure which is expected to double in 2010, with Samsung predicting $127 billion of sales for the year.
