Ready to get your NAM on, Nokia fans? Nokia’s first crack at an 8 megapixel beast is reportedly touching down stateside on August 22nd, which is just over 2 weeks away. But wait, there’s more good news in store for all you Symbian fans out there. It turns out the launch price of the N86 8MP may be lower than the current pre-order price — $59 lower, in fact. Yup, it’s looking like $499 will get you in the door when this little guy hits Flagship store shelves and NokiaUSA.com three Saturdays from now. No word on pricing from resellers yet but expect it to come in a bit lower than Nokia USA’s offering. And then there’s Amazon, which has been undercutting nearly everyone in the phone biz lately. In other words, waiting a few weeks on your purchase will likely serve you well.

Thanks, Mark!

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Symbian-loving photogs are officially on notice… Nokia has just announced that its first 8 megapixel offering is now on its way to the US. That’s right, the N86 8MP will be hitting store shelves within the next few weeks and if you have a hankering for S60 3rd Edition FP2 and more pixels than you can shake a stick at, this little guy might be just what the doctor ordered. Of course the camera isn’t the only focus here, though for many it will be hard to get past an 8 megapixel shooter with a shutter speed of up to 1/1000 of a second, an f-stop range of 2.4-4.8 and a wide-angle lens. Once you do however, you’ll find a 2.6-inch AMOLED QVGA display, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band UMTS, 8GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi and aGPS with Nokia Maps 3.0 pre-installed and plenty more. There is some bad news to report as well unfortunately — despite being announced at €375 abroad (about $530 at today’s exchange rate, $474 when announced), the NAM N86 8MP is going to run you $558. If photography is your game however, that’s hardly a tall order for an unlocked top-of-the-line camera phone. Anyone in?

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Ok so the N97 is finally close to hitting the streets but truth be told, it’s not for everyone. Sure it’s sleek, well equipped and relatively powerful but not every S60 fan is looking for a QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen — or a $700 price tag. So what about the rest of you? The N97 breaks ground in that it’s Nokia’s first Nseries to sport a touchscreen and S60 5th Edition but the N86 8MP is a unique handset as well. Nokia, long known for producing amazing camera phones, has finally issued its first 8 megapixel-equipped handset in the N86… Oh, and it touts a few other cool new features as well. Now that the support pages are live, the N86 8MP should begin shipping within a few weeks with an expected retail price around $530. Anyone plan on snagging one?

Thanks, Buster!

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Right on schedule, LG is apparently getting ready to start pushing out it’s newest touchscreen gem — the Viewty Smart. You hear that ‘other’ handset makers? It is possible to release a phone on schedule! As we’re sure you recall, this little dynamo sports a 3″ touchscreen display with WVGA resolution, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, aGPS, Wi-Fi and the 3D S-Class UI. Oh yeah, and it rocks an 8 megapixel camera capable of “DVD quality” video recording. Sweet. On a separate and even more intriguing note, LG reportedly told several UK blogs to expect a 12 megapixel handset to drop this year with “even more smart features”. Interest = piqued.

[Via Engadget]

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A little over a week ago the Sony Ericsson W995, affectionately known as the Hikaru, was revealed to have made it’s way through the FCC screening process. We knew the US-bound W995a couldn’t be far behind and sure enough, here she is. As is customary with Sony Ericsson handsets that actually find their way to North America, the “a” model is identical to the standard version but it brings WCDMA 850/1900 MHz to the table as well. Mmm, 3G. Specswise, we’re still looking at an 8.1 megapixel camera, 8GB of internal memory, 2.6-inch QVGA scratch-resistant screen, aGPS, Wi-Fi, stereo speakers, Walkman player 4.0 and dedicated media buttons. Will it get picked up? That remains to be seen but in the meantime, hit the jump for more FCC shots.

[Via Engadget]

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Despite the recent wave of ho-hum handsets, Sony Ericsson’s W995 is one of a select few feature phones we’ve been secretly lusting after since it was announced back in February. Once known as the Hikaru, the W995 will be SE’s first Walkman phone to get in on the 8 megapixel action. The specs as you may recall, are pretty respectable — highlighted by the 8.1 megapixel shooter, 8GB of internal memory, 2.6-inch QVGA scratch-resistant screen, aGPS, Wi-Fi, stereo speakers and Walkman player 4.0 accompanied by dedicated media buttons. There is some bad news in all this however; this FCC approval makes no mention of the 850/1800/1900 MHz WCDMA bands we’re all looking forward to in the North American W995a. In fact, it doesn’t mention any WCDMA testing, though it does list the phone as HSPA-capable. As such, we’ll have to assume this is the Euro variant and we’ve got a bit more waiting to do before the North American version finally makes its way through the approval process. Hit the jump for a few more shots.

[Via Engadget]

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Last but not least in our coverage of Nokia handsets at CTIA is the handset that Nseries mobile photogs around the globe have been waiting for — the N86 8MP. This past February, the N86 8MP was the subject of one of Nokia’s most bizzare announcements to date. As MWC kicked off, Nokia was busy showing the N86 off in Singapore. Then as MWC was wrapping up, Nokia finally decided to re-unveil it at the show. Yes, odd. Nokia has a few N86s on hand at CTIA but despite the amount of time that has passed since its announcement, the handsets on display are still very obviously early hardware builds. Why do we say that? They’re actually labeled “N00″, as all early internal Nseries builds are, but the early placeholder has been covered up with black marker. We’re not kidding; just look at the image above. The firmware on the handsets is plenty stable however, more stable than the N97 firmware at least, and we spent a good amount of time with the device.

Our initial impression: it feels rushed. By that we mean it seems as though Nokia was so eager to push out an 8 megapixel handset that it opted to forgo the TLC that has been a main ingredient in the making of other, more refined Nokia devices. It feels cheap. Not N95-1 cheap, but still pretty cheap. Beyond that, the stunning 8 megapixel camera sits on the back of an otherwise uninteresting device that could easily be mistaken for one of several other Nseries models — because it’s basically the same old same old. Hit the jump for some more shots but our advice is not to get too excited about this one just yet. Let’s see what happens when Nokia starts slapping its upgraded 8 megapixel Zeiss shooter into some flagship handsets.

We first posted about the LG GD900 back in February and now that we’ve finally had a chance to play with it, we’re not ashamed to admit we’re a little enamored. Say whatever you want… This thing is awesome. In a nutshell, it’s the fashion phone to end all fashion phones with some killer functionality on top. The transparent touch-sensitive illuminated keypad (with gesture support!) is sexier than you can imagine, and in fact the entire slide mechanism that runs up the back is the same clear material. The handset is super thin and yet manages to pack an 8 megapixel camera into the rear of the case. LG’s new S-Class 3D UI fantastic — responsive, attractive and logical. Think of it as TouchWiz on crank. It supports gestures, multi-touch and features tons of 3D transitions and menus. Hit the jump for some more pics and, if you’re comfortable with your masculinity, drool over the GD900 along with us.

It’s no mystery that when LG puts its game face on, it means business. LG can churn out a sexy handset with the best of them and those currently exploring the 8 megapixel camera phone market might just want to hold off until the world gets a better look at LG’s upcoming Viewty II. Sure, it looks just like every other dime-a-dozen touchscreen-dominated handset out there but you know what they say about judging a phone by its case…

• 3-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) touchscreen display
• 8 megapixel Schneider-Kreuznach camera, Xenon flash
• Quad-band GSM, HSPA, Wi-Fi
• S-Class UI
• DivX playback
• aGPS

As you can see, the limited specs we have thus far paint a pretty nice picture — assuming the price is right of course. You can also expect 30 fps video capture along with a plenty more camera-centric bells and whistles, no doubt. Hit the jump for a shot of the back.

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We’re sort of a little speechless right now, as we have official confirmation that Nokia is the most peculiar handset manufacturer in the world, ever. You’re Nokia. You’ve got a very good idea that Samsung will be announcing the sexiest Symbian handset of all time (OmniaHD) at MWC this year. It’s got the goods in nearly every area imaginable (though a keypad might be nice). Your upcoming flagship Nseries, the N97 is old news so you can’t rely on it as your big announcement at MWC. You’ve got a handful of ho-hum handsets spread out on your table alongside your first 8 megapixel offering with an AMOLED display, aGPS, a digital compass, an FM transmitter, a battery yielding up to 25 hours of audio playback and what looks to be configurable color-changing keypad lighting. What do you do? Well apparently you take the most interesting unannounced handset you’ve got, the 8 megapixel N86, and show it off in Singapore at something called Showcase Nokia 2009. For real? Even if Nokia does make the handset official tomorrow or Wednesday at MWC, it doesn’t make this peculiar move any more reasonable. On a related note, sources are telling us that Nokia may be announcing its first 12 megapixel handset, the Nwtf, at the Shady Acres senior center next month. Prune juice will be served. Hit the jump for more shots, and hit yourself in the head repeatedly if you were involved with the decision making process at Nokia that lead to this debacle.

Thanks, Canis_Major!

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Sheesh – handset manufacturers really can’t get away with anything these days. The image above was originally posted on Nokia’s Nseries site as an example of a “pretty picture [taken] with a Nokia device.” The actual quality of the image is open to debate thanks to some pretty clear blurring around edges when viewed at fill size, but that’s hardly the story here. An inquisitive Nokia fan examined the EXIF data attached to the picture and has made some pretty interesting discoveries. First and foremost, the dimensions come in at 3264 × 2448 pixels — 8 megapixels. What’s more, the model field reads Undisclosed (Carl Zeiss). With MWC just around the corner, this could be a pretty good indication Nokia finally plans to debut its first 8 megapixel camera phone in an effort to catch up with the like of Samsung and others. Nokia has been the long-standing king when it comes to high end camera phone image quality, so to say our expectations are high is an understatement. Wow us, Nokia! Hit the jump for a screen shot of the EXIF data attached to the skater image and stay glued to your computer next week as MWC kicks off with what should be some pretty exciting announcements.

[Via The Nokia Blog]

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Samsung: Hear and hear us clearly. Bring this phone… To the US… With WCDMA 850/1900… Now! We first told you about Wile E.’s wonder phone this past Thursday as blurrycam shots were leaked along with preliminary specs. Yes, it was sexy then. Now that we have some higher-quality shots and S60 5th Edition has become a fact rather than just an unsubstantiated theory, this thing can’t come around soon enough. This isn’t the first time Samsung has taken Nokia’s S60 operating system and stuffed it into a handset way more drool-worthy than any Finnish phone on the market, but this could very well be the widest margin by which Samsung has out-Nokiaed Nokia yet. Let’s take a look at the specs we knew about already along with the few (but pretty huge) new details that have come along with these high-quality shots (bold):

• 8 GB and 16 GB versions
• Symbian S60 5th Edition OS
• Glass AMOLED touchscreen display
• 8 megapixel camera with 9x digital zoom
• Secondary front-facing camera
• HD video recording
• DLNA and DivX support
• HDMI output
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Wi-Fi
• GPS

So far Nokia has officially announced two S60 5th Edition handsets, the 5800 XpressMusic and the N97. Only one has reached market thus far of course but we won’t even bother comparing it to the i8910. That leaves the N97 and it’s a very good thing it packs a physical keypad because we can’t see any other reason someone might opt for the N97 over this beast of a handset. Now more than ever, MWC can’t come soon enough. Hit the jump for more pics including a side-by-side with a BlackBerry Storm for size comparison.

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Ever since December when Captain Blurrycam struck the 8 megapixel beast that is the Samsung Memoir and provided the first solid evidence that it was US-bound, T-Mobile customers have been eagerly anticipating its arrival. And why wouldn’t they? A full touchscreen, an 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, 16x digital zoom, dual LED flash and 30 fps video recording, alongside a bevy of other camera-centric specs make this one hell of a feature phone for T-Mobile. Word now is that the release date may have been pushed back a bit from the date we scooped back in December, but the good news is that we now have a possible price point – $299.99 with a 2-year contract, pretty steep. We’ve already seen changes made to the release schedule and it’s likely that since the Curve 8900 was pushed up, other handsets would be pushed back. We admit we’re a tad sketched out by the fact that the poster seems very skeptical as to the document’s authenticity, but maybe it’s the mention of a target audience in the 30 – 45 year-old range that has him uneasy. While that does seems a bit silly, don’t put it past a carrier to issue internal documents with expectations like that. As always, only time will tell. Who’s excited?

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Well it’s no Innov8 but we’re still pretty amazed that Samsung is actually going to be bringing its 8 megapixel to the US with some 3G love. No, seriously! The FCC just did its thing, and by that we mean it let us all know about a handset way ahead of schedule – the Samsung M8800L. The L variant is basically identical to its European counterpart but it sports the coveted 850 and 1900 MHz WCDMA bands that we hope for with each new high-end handset announcement and typically don’t see. In other words, it looks like AT&T will soon be getting it’s 8 megapixels on and we can all look forward to some tempting subsidized pricing. Initial rumors pointed to T-Mobile as being a potential carrier for this beast of a camera phone but unless a third version is in the works, it’s unfortunately not looking overly likely.

[Via CellPhone Signal]

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Everyone and their grandmother rocks a camera phone these days. We’ve finally reached a point where even the cheapest of cheap entry-level handsets is at least packing a 1.3 megapixel shooter, allowing user to capture those dark, fuzzy, pixelated memories while on the go. Samsung’s freshly-announced handset however, the Pixon M8800, should most certainly not be lumped into the same category as these shoddy camera phones. In fact, it’s more of a “phone camera” than a camera phone. Sure it can make calls, send and receive messages, browse the web and handle a few games, but none of those features will even be a consideration for would-be owners. No, it’s the 8 megapixel camera and the wide array of top-notch photo and video features that take center stage here. In fact we’re going to list them separately in the specs since the rest is really just gravy:

• 8 megapixel camera with autofocus
• 16x digital zoom and Fast Shutter
• Dual Power LED flash
• ASR (Advanced Shake Reduction)
• WDR (Wide Dynamic Range)
• Face Detection, Smile Shot, Face Link (face tagging) and Photo memo
• Auto Panorama Shot
• Geotagging support (integrated GPS)
• Photo Browser (Accelerometer Sensor, Tilt and flip, Sorting by Face/Time/Color/Folder)
• 30 fps D1 (720 x 480) video capture
• 120 fps (QGVA) slow motion video capture
• MPEG4, WMV, DivX, XviD playback support
• TV-out

That’s right people, we weren’t joking. The Pixon M8800 is strictly business when it comes to photos and video. The rest of the story; Meh.

• Quad Band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) / GPRS / EDGE
• WCDMA 2100 / HSDPA 7.2 Mbps connectivity (2100 only?! Fail)
• 3.2″ 240 × 400 262K color WQVGA TFT display (262K colors?! Fail)
• FM Radio with RDS
• Music Player (MP3, AAC, e-AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA)
• SRS (Surround Sound System) Virtual 5.1CH
• DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine)
• Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0

So there you have it people – Samsung’s new Pixon M8800 phone camera. As far as a launch schedule goes, it will be available in France sometime near the middle of October and will then be released throughout Europe and Asia. As for US availability… Please, this is Samsung we’re talking about here.

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