Today at Mobile World Congress, Motorola announced the CLIQ XT with MOTOBLUR. Having nearly identical specs to the original CLIQ, it features a 3.1″ HVGA capacitive display, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM tuner, e-compass, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and Android 1.5. Yeah, that probably sounds familiar. The big differences between them are that the CLIQ XT has an optical trackpad, lacks a QWERTY slider, supports Flash Lite and features “pinch and zoom” multitouch throughout the system. Besides that, than there’s really not much else to say other than we hope this isn’t all we’re going to see from Motorola because, well, talk about forgettable. The CLIQ XT with MOTOBLUR will be available from T-Mobile USA next month, while the Global version, QUENCH with MOTOBLUR, will be available in multiple regions by the end of this quarter.

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Hot on the heels of the Mini and GT350, LG announced the GS500 Cookie Plus. Carrying on in the tradition of the plain old Cookie which sold some 10mm units world-wide, in reality the Cookie Plus aims to please with a “cartoon-like UI” complete with 18 blinding themes, a 3 megapixel camera enhanced by the devices ability to edit pictures before firing them off as an MMS (this should thrill paranoid, sexting weary parents), FM tuner, all the social media support a tween could ever hope for and dozens of widgets. Pricing was absent from the press release, but the GS500 Cookie Plus will start to hit shelves in Italy and France next month with 45 more countries to follow. Oh, how could we forget — LG “plans to offer a full batch of new Cookie handsets in 2010″. Cute.

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News flash: Nokia managed to keep a pair of handsets a secret leading up to official announcements at Nokia World! Alongside the oft-talked about N97 Mini, two previously unknown music-centric devices, the X3 and X6, became official — but we’ll get to them in a moment. The N97 Mini, as we’re sure most of you know by now, can be summed up pretty quickly: Slightly smaller than the N97, tilting 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, Wi-Fi, aGPS, 8GB of internal memory with microSDHC and UMTS/HSPA connectivity. Not great, not bad, but we’re also not too sure exactly who would take it over the N97, which is already free on contract in many countries.

As we said before, the X6′s announcement came as a total surprise — one that is actually quite nice. It’s a full-touchscreen (capacitive) candy bar that can pump out tunes from its 32GB of internal memory for up to 35 hours. It runs S60 5th of course; shame it isn’t Maemo-powered. Beyond that you’re looking at a 5 megapixel camera with a Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash and as far as connectivity goes, the X6 has that lovable trifecta of HSPA, Wi-Fi and aGPS. The X3 is the alphanumeric slidin’ baby cousin of X6 that runs on S40 and has a 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 46MB of internal memory, FM tuner and quad-band EDGE. Both the X3 and X6 will ship in Q4 for 115€ ($163 USD) and 450€ ($640 USD). As for the N97 Mini, it will be released next month for 450€ ($640 USD). Hit the jump for videos of each of these three handsets and let us know what you think.

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Despite it being another sleepy Sunday, yesterday Samsung decided it was good timeto announce four new entry-level handsets that it hopes will prove popular with the average consumer. Starting off with the S6700 that Samsung has previously shown off at various trade shows, we find a dual-band HSDPA slider with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash, GPS and 120MB of internal memory plus microSDHC support. Next up we have the C5510 with its basic 2 megapixel shooter, smaller 2.2-inch QVGA display and microSDHC support. Taking a more music-centric approach is the M2510, which has dedicated music keys, a 3.5mm headphone jack, DNSe audio enhancement, FM radio tuner with RDS and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Finally we have the M2310, the only clam shell device in the bunch and easily the most underwhelming handset we’ve seen in quite some time. It has a VGA camera, 9MB of internal memory, 8GB microSD support and quad-band EDGE connectivity. Pricing and availability for the S6700, C5510, M2510 and M2310 have yet to be announced.

[Via GSM Arena]

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While Samsung might think that its two new Omnia Pro’s are the hottest new Windows Mobile devices on the planet, LG is confident that its done Samsung one better with the Aigen LG-GM730. Having layered its S-Class 3D UI on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 for a more visually appealing and user friendly user experience, the dual-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA Aigen also features a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, aGPS, FM radio tuner and a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus all in a body that is 11.9mm thick. As for color options, the Aigen is available with black, pink and lime chrome trim. LG says that the Aigen is available now in Korea, but bizarrely pricing has not been made public. Go figure.

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While talk of Samsung’s upcoming B7610 Louvre has been floating around in quiet corners of the internet for quite some time now, the first image of the upcoming Windows Mobile smartphone has emerged alongside a list of specs. We’re not sure exactly how this handset pays homage to the famous French museum but maybe Sammy is just running out of code names. While it’s clearly not meant to be a flagship device, the Louvre looks as if it will be able to hold its own against similar devices in its class:

• 112mm x 5.8mm x 16mm
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 7.2Mbps UMTS/HSDPA
• 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display
• 5 megapixel camera
• 1GB ROM
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and aGPS
• Accelerometer
• Bluetooth 2.0
• FM tuner with RDS
• microSD support
• miniUSB
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• 1500 mAh Li-ion battery

Having not yet been announced by Samsung, a release date, list of carriers and pricing are still unknown. The source of this leak however, believes that the Louvre will makes its debut this July with a price ranging from 250€ to 500€.

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Today Nokia announced three new devices that it hopes will makes serious inroads in emerging markets. While they certainly aren’t much to write home about from a phoneaholic’s perspective, they are definitely interesting in that they place particular emphasis on entertainment and social media. Nokia seemingly feels the time is right to thrust mobile internet and social networking upon the up and coming masses and we’re more than eager to see how it works out. Provided data costs are reasonable, Nokia’s effort could certainly provide a means of low-cost entertainment that is well placed in emerging markets. Hit the jump for more details on the 2720 fold, 2730 classic and 7020.

2720 fold – It’s shiny, it flips, has access to email in three-easy steps (Billy Mays style) via Ovi Mail and might even come pre-loaded with Nokia Life Tools if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the “selected territories” that have yet to be disclosed. Other than that, there’s an FM tuner, MP3 ringtones and Bluetooth. Look for it sometime in Q3 for 55€ ($74 USD).

2730 classic - Touted as the most affordable 3G phone in the Nokia catalog at 80€ ($108 USD), the candybar 2730 classic is equipped with a 2-inch QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, FM tuner and comes pre-loaded with Ovi Mail while select markets will also receive Nokia Life Tools. Expect to see the 2730 classic ship in Q3 for 80€ ($107 USD).

7020 – A phone that is sure to prove itself popular in emerging markets, the 7020 is a clam shell device that has a monochrome external display, 2.2-inch internal color display, 2 megapixel camera, FM tuner, support for microSD cards up to 16GB and MP3 playback. What makes the 7020 the most interesting of the three new handsets however, is its focus on social media — the device comes pre-loaded with Nokia Life Tools, Ovi Share, Ovi Store, Nokia Messaging, Opera Mini and Nokia Maps in addition to Facebook, MySpace and YouTube bookmarks. The 7020 will run for about 90€ ($121 USD) in Q4.

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