LG has confirmed with Pocket-Lint that the Optimus Black — announced during CES as “the world’s thinnest smartphone”– will make its debut in the UK next week. Carrier partners are currently unknown, but this is definitely a device worth getting excited about. It packs LG’s colorful and crisp 4-inch  NOVA display with 700 nits of brightness, a 5-megapixel camera, and a secondary front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chat. The Optimus Black is powered by a 1GHz processor, which is a bit slower than the dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 chip in the LG G2x, but its thin design should be a fair tradeoff. The Optimus Black will run Android 2.2 when it launches, but LG has confirmed that the phone will be upgraded to Gingerbread in the future.

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Today, Rogers Wireless officially launched the LG Neon 2 feature phone. The device is a pale, full-QWERTY, messaging phone with a 2 megapixel camera with 2x zoom, 3-inch 240 x 400 QQVGA TFT touch-screen display, micro-SD card slot, and Bluetooth. The device does not have an HSPA radio, which is sort of a bummer, but does come with quad-band GSM. The device will set you back a whopping $19.99 CAN with a three-year contract or $174.99 contract free. And now you know…

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It’s no secret that carriers like AT&T, Sprint and Verizon have no little faith they’ll be able to snap up a slew of new subs with webOS handsets, but that isn’t stopping them from releasing them. Over the weekend the Palm Pixi Plus went on sale with AT&T. At $50 on contract, the Pixi Plus is a third of the price of its sibling the Pre Plus, but that’s a small amount to pay for the joy sticking out in a sea of Android, Apple and BlackBerry smartphones.

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With all of the oil spilling into the gulf (thanks, BP!), the announcement that Sprint will be releasing the eco-friendly Samsung Restore on June 6th for $50 on contract couldn’t come at a better time. Made largely out of recycled materials, the Restore contains low levels of hazardous materials and will be 84% recyclable when it comes time to power it up for the last time. Of course what the Restore has in green it lacks in specs with nothing to show for itself but a 2 megapixel camera and QWERTY keypad, but specs knockout specs aren’t what this phone is about.

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Just in time for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Sprint has announced the eco-friendly Samsung Restore. Following up on last years über-green Reclaim, the Restore picks up where its predecessor left off and throws in more text-friendly horizontal sliding QWERTY keypad, 2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, Stereo Bluetooth and support for microSD cards up to 32GB (a 2GB card is included in the box). As for its actual green qualities, the phone is made of 27% post-consumer materials and its components are 84% recyclable, while containing extremely low levels harmful chemicals like PVC, BFRs, Phthalates and Beryllium. The packaging is completely recyclable as well, and all instruction manuals will be available online to cut down on paper waste. When it comes out later this summer, the Samsung Restore will be go for $49.99 on contract after mail-in rebates — definitely not a pocket breaker. Are you within an inch of being sold but need an extra little push? What if we told you it comes pre-loaded with a “Mother Earth”? Yeah, we knew that’d get you.

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In the days leading up to Nokia World 2009, the world’s largest phone maker announced the 5230, an affordable touchscreen Symbian S60 smartphone. At the time there was no official word whether or not it would ever make its way on to American soil, but thanks to the work of a few sneaky devils we now know that T-Mobile is gearing up to release it as the Nuron on March 17th. Pricing has yet to be passed down the corporate ladder, but we can’t imagine it would command a high price on or off contract considering it has nothing going for it in the eyes of the public other than its touchscreen and 3G connectivity. Perhaps this is one best left for the kiddies? T-Mobile’s slide doesn’t think so, however.

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It might seem more like a candy dispensing cell phone toy available at dollar stores everywhere, but the newly announced Nokia 5235 Comes With Music might just be the perfect handset for a music loving touchscreen wannabe on a budget. Essentially the same handset as the 5230, the 5235 Comes With Music lets users download an unlimited amount of music free of charge for the first 12 to 18 months of ownership after which they are given the option of purchasing a subscription to the service or letting the tracks go. The Nokia 5235 Comes With Music will be available in Q1 2010 for 145€ ($214 USD) before any applicable carrier subsidies. Also, GPS is removed.

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With today being Thanksgiving and most blogs closing shop for the day, we thought it would be a perfect time for us to break out our review of the latest smartphone in Verizon’s line-up, the BlackBerry Curve 8530. More or less the same device as T-Mobile’s (and soon to be AT&T’s) Curve 8520, the 8530 differs a bit: it adds GPS into the fold and runs on EV-DO Rev. 0 networks. We’ve been putting it through our patent-pending stress test this week, so hit the break to check out our thoughts.

Hardware

Believe it or not, this phone is built surprisingly well, and despite weighing only 105g, the 8530 feels solid enough to make us feel confident that dropping it won’t result in tears. The rubberized sides coupled with textured faux carbon fiber plastic battery cover provide for a nice grip, and there are no creaks and moans. The keypad is more or less the same keypad as seen on the 8300 Series and 8900 and is really easy to adjust to. Some people might be put off by the clickity-clack noises it makes while one types away, but we found this particular model to be much more quiet than the aforementioned devices. We don’t think we need to say anything about the camera other than its a fixed-focus 2 megapixel affair. Okay, we lied, we do have something to say. Having a poor camera is bad, but having a poor camera with no flash seriously sucks. We mean, come on — even the bloody Pearl Flip had a flash.

The one minor hardware issue we did have with our review unit is that the trackpad wobbled. This didn’t negatively impact navigation, although feeling it move and hearing it click with every movement of our thumbs started to really get on our nerves.

A/V

Calls made on the 8530 sound pretty good, but we did notice the earpiece gives off more of a hiss than most handsets. The speaker, while a bit muffled and somewhat limited in range is quite nice considering the price of the phone and we were able to crank it up high without any complaints.

Apart from the occasional YouTube video linked to in an email, watching videos isn’t something we’re really into with this device. We’re not only saying this because we’re afraid that Sergio Leone would rise from the dead and kick our butts for watching something like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on a 2.5″ display, but because at that size QVGA just isn’t enough.

Listening to music on the 8530 isn’t a bad experience (unless you use the included headset). The multimedia keys on the top of the device are a nice touch and we like the fact that syncing music with iTunes and Windows Media Player is simple with BlackBerry Media Sync. We just have one question: why does the music stop when you activate the camera?

Software and Performance

What’s there left to say about the BlackBerry OS… It’s as polarizing as abortion. So instead of getting up on a soap box and turning this review into an essay, we’re going to keep this short. The Curve 8530 we received was running OS 5.0.0.337 and straight out of the box it had 114.18MB of 256MB free. All of the typical Verizon apps like City ID, V CAST Music/Videos/Song ID, VZ Navigator and Visual Voicemail come pre-loaded. Overall the 8530 runs smoothy thanks in part to its 528MHz processor, but it did seem to enjoy freezing up on three occasions. By freezing we don’t mean the device crashed and rebooted; it just sort of sat there and did absolutely nothing for a good 10-25 seconds. We’re not sure if we were pushing the device too hard or if the OS has some flaws that need fixing, so we’ll just have to wait until the first maintenance release is doled out by Verizon to see if that fixes the problem.

How’s the browser, you say? It’s still pretty sucky, and what suckiness remains isn’t exactly helped out by the QVGA display. Thankfully RIM is hard at work on its WebKit-based browser as you’re reading this, but until then all isn’t lost because there are quite a few decent third-party browsers such as Opera Mini and Bolt! that are ready and waiting to be downloaded.

Final Thoughts

We’re really torn about the Curve 8530. On one hand we think it’s a great little smartphone that will please a large number of people at the somewhat decent price of $99.99 on a 2-year. The only problem is that you can get something like the BlackBerry Tour 9630 with a better keypad, display, camera and international support for a few dollars more, if even that (we found a bunch of online retailers offering both the 8530 and 9630 for free on contract this morning). Of course the “upgrade” to the 9630 would come at the price of Wi-Fi and that oh-so-sweet optical trackpad. So what’s our final word? Go the your local dealer and take the Curve 8530 for a spin. If you like it, great. Go nuts and buy it. But if you don’t, by all means get something else. Just don’t say it’s not a capable smartphone.

Motorola has announced that its brand new handset, the Crush, is available as of this week from U.S. Cellular. Going for $79.95 after a $50 mail-in rebate on a 2-year contract, Motorola is positioning the Crush as an affordable phone with a high-end design. Having said that, we can’t help but think only Motorola would think placing the lock and power buttons on either side of the earpiece is “high-end”. Having said that, the Crush has the following features: 2.8″ 240×400 WQVGA touchscreen display, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD support for cards up to 16GB and EV-DO Rev. 0 connectivity. Is anyone going to check this bad boy out, or does your heart yearn for something else?

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It might not be fancy or scream “look at me”, but Verizon’s now-available BlackBerry Curve 8530 is a smartphone that gets the job done. Kitted out with a 2.5″ display, 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and 256MB of flash memory, the Curve 8530 is also the first full-QWERTY BlackBerry from Verizon to feature RIM’s new optical trackpad and OS 5.0. Other than that, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Stereo Bluetooth, support for microSD cards and dedicated multimedia keys round out the rest of the phone’s features. Of course at $99.99 on contract there are a lot of better smartphones that are similarly priced, but for BlackBerry lovers fond of Verizon and always looking to save a bit of coin, you can’t really go wrong. Plus it comes in two colors: Black and Smoky Violet (imagine the color of your grandmother’s ugliest pant suit). Yay?

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If you’re desperately jonesing for a webOS device but hate those pesky sliders, today is your day, folks. It is the Palm Pixi’s first day of availability on Sprint. Going for $99.99 on a 2-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate, we have to be completely honest and admit that we would personally snatch the Pre over the Pixi, but you own a computer and have navigated to BGR all on your own, so we’re sure you can make a decision over what handset to buy. Let us know if you pick one up today okay?

Also, for those that don’t mind waiting, Wirefly is practically giving the Pixi away at $24.99.

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We’re sure that most of you are sick and tired of all of this Verizon news (how do you think we feel having to write about it?), but they’re on a tear. Today Verizon announced that it will be carrying the BlackBerry Curve 8530 starting November 20th. To go for $99.99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate, the new Curve offers the following: full-QWERTY keypad, optical trackpad, 2 megapixel camera, GPS, dedicated multimedia keys, 3.5mm headphone jack, 256MB of app memory, 528MHz processor, EV-DO connectivity and last but not least, Wi-Fi! Yes, indeedy, Verizon is definitely looking like the front runner in the smartphone arms race of the 2009 Holiday Season.Read

We’ve known for the longest time that Rogers will soon be releasing the wallet friendly BlackBerry Curve 8520, but up until now we’ve (or anyone, for that matter) been unable to figure out the exact release date and pricing of one of the worst kept phone secrets in recent memory. The release date, as tipped off by Best Buy, is apparently October 9th, while the same source also indicates that the 8520 will be unreasonably expensive. We’ve no major qualms with the $499.99 non-contract price (other than it’s a rip-off and $200 more expensive than the $299 USD T-Mobile customers pay) but $99.99 on contract when the Pearl Flip 8220 is $9.99? That’s just not right, now is it. Anyway, hit the jump for some screenies.

Thanks, ILLIONAIRE!

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In case anyone had doubts that Rogers is on the cusp of releasing the BlackBerry Curve 8520, Rogers dealerships across the country have just begun receiving literature for RIM’s latest low-cost QWERTY smartphone. No surprises were included with the official documentation, but the appearance of the literature so early indicates that Rogers might be planning to push out the 8520 ahead of schedule. If this is the case, it’s likely because Rogers doesn’t want to draw attention away from the Bold 9700, which still seems to be on track for a release before November.

It’s not quite as intriguing as any of the devices featured at Nokia World this morning, but Nokia and AT&T have just announced a new entry level S40 flip phone dubbed the Nokia Mural. Bearing a striking resemblance to Motorola W series phones of old, the Mural is a clam shell feature phone that would make 2002 proud. Spec highlights include 3G with HSDPA connectivity, integrated IM and email, dedicated external music buttons, a 2.2-inch QVGA internal display, a 2 megapixel camera and microSDHC support. It also sports a variety of customizable lighting features sure to prevent it from finding its way into the hands of anyone over 14 years of age. AT&T’s Nokia Mural will hit store shelves this coming Sunday, September 6th, and it will cost $49.99 after mail-in rebate on a 2-year contract.

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