Nokia’s facing a pretty bleak future when it comes to the world of smartphones, so the launch of the E73 Mode with T-Mobile couldn’t have come at a better time. Designed with business professionals in mind, but has enough features to make the average user happy including a 5 megapixel camera, free turn-by-turn navigation via Ovi Maps, and 10.2Mbps HSDPA which should make the device quite the speed king thanks to T-Mobile’s rapidly expanding 21Mbps HSPA+ network. The Mode is attractively priced at $69.99 on contract, but unless you’ve got some serious ants in your pants, you might want to wait until this Saturday when you’ll be able to get the Mode, along with all T-Mobile handsets, for free as a part of its Father’s Day promotion.

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And once again we have proof that where there’s a good amount of smoke, there’s likely to be fire. Today Nokia announced it will be bringing the E73 Mode, a Symbian S60 device said to offer a perfect balance between work-life and, uh, life-life, to T-Mobile. Best thought of as a E72 with a facelift, the Mode features not only a 2.4″ QVGA display, full-QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and 10.2Mbps HSDPA, but also free turn-by-turn navigation from Ovi Maps. The Nokia E73 Mode will be available from T-Mobile on June 16th for $69.99 on a 2-year contract.Read

Here it is, folks. Motorola has gotten around to announcing the FLIPOUT, aka that strange and square Motorola smartphone. The big news here apart from its strange, swivel design and 67mm square body and Android 2.1, are the enhancements made to MOTOBLUR. In a nutshell, you’re going to be able to resize widgets, implement filters in your Happenings and Messages widgets, and have access to corporate email. Apart from the modern Android staples of digital compass, Wi-Fi, GPS and 7.2Mbps HSDPA, the FLIPOUT has to its name a 2.8″ QVGA display, 3 megapixel camera and 512MB internal memory. We’re trying to find out processor powers this thing, but we imagine it won’t be anything too special. The Motorola FLIPOUT will be available in Europe sometime this quarter. Hit up the break to check out a trio of videos which show off the FLIPOUT and the changes made to MOTOBLUR.

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We interrupt our regular programming to bring you this late breaking bulleting: Fido will be launching the LG Gossip on June 1st. One of those quick messaging devices the kids are always going on about, the Gossip will retail for $90 off-contract/pre-paidand $0 on a 2-year deal. It’s definitely not an expensive phone, and for that reason the noteable specs are as follows: full-QWERTY keypad, 2.0 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, FM radio, 3.5mm headphone jack and quad-band EDGE. Sure, the lack of 3G kind of really sucks, but let’s be honest here… Anyone that has a desire to browse the web on a 2.4″ QVGA display needs to have their head checked. Fast. Hit up the jump for proof of pricing.

Thanks, anonymous!

Well, well, well, look what we have here. No, it’s not some Chinese knockoff of the Desire — it’s the entry-level Wildfire, announced today by HTC. Running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense UI, its key specs include a 3.2″ QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, microSD, dual-band (900/2100MHz) 7.2Mbps HSPA, 512MB ROM / 384MB RAM and 528MHz processor. One interesting feature the Wildfire brings to the table is its “app sharing widget” which allows users to recommend apps to family, friend and peers via email, SMS and social networking sites. The HTC Wildfire will be available in Europe and Asia starting in Q3. No word yet on potential U.S. availability. Yay or nay?

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Today, Sprint announced yet another affordable handset from Samsung in the m350 Seek. Geared towards text addicts and social media junkies, the Seek features one-touch access to popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace while also offering POP3 email access. $29.99 on a 2-year contract, the Seek is equipped with a 2.6″ QVGA touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 1.3 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD support and a 1,000 mAh battery good for 5.8 hours of talk time. The Seek also sports Sprint’s new green initiative packaging, as the box is designed to be shipped back to Sprint filled with old handsets for recycling. Furthermore, the packaging is 100% recyclable, shunning plastic bags in favor of paper alternatives. The Sprint Samsung Seek is available nationwide in both Cool Blue and Scarlet Red. A Fantasy Pink variant will be launching on June 6th.

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What you see above might just be the entire spec sheet for that mysterious Android slider from Motorola we caught a glimpse of the other day. Allegedly known as the Twist, the strange smartphone is said to measure in at 67mm-squared and 15.8mm thick, and possess a rather underwhelming feature set which includes a 2.8″ QVGA multitouch display, 3 megapixel camera, aGPS, Wi-Fi, dual-band HSPA (850/1900MHz), 700MHz OMAP 3410 processor and 512MB ROM / 256MB RAM. The slide mentions the Twist as running Android 1.5, so unless the information is badly outdated, it looks like those rumors of the device running Android 2.1 in conjunction with MOTOBLUR were wishful thinking. That is if any of this is even real.

[Via Android Central]

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Do you do just about everything you can for Mother Earth, including having a bamboo wardrobe filled with hemp clothes? Do you ever think “man, I really could use a cell phone to quickly and efficiently organize tree sittings?” Do you wish that phone would have a built in Eco Calculator so you could calculate just how much CO₂ you’re not pumping into the atmosphere by walking instead of driving (calculated in your choice of CO₂ or trees planted)? If so, we strongly suggest you check out the newly announced LG Remarq from Sprint. Available on May 9th for $0 on a 2-year deal after rebates, the Remarq is made up partly of recycled plastics and the entire device will be 87% recyclable once the time comes for it to be powered down for good. Not only that, but its box is made of recycled brown craft paper, is printed with soy ink, and isn’t filled with wasteful paper manuals which will only to be made available online. Spec-wise the Remarq isn’t all that remarkable with a sliding QWERTY keypad, 1.3 megapixel camera and QVGA display, but let’s face it: you’re too busy saving the earth to be fiddling around with a brawny smartphone.

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Sony Ericsson today announced the Aspen, the latest handset in its GreenHeart line of eco-friendly devices. A no-nonsense Windows Phone geared towards business users, the Aspen’s features include a full-QWERTY keypad, 2.4″ QVGA dispaly, 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and SPB Mobile Shell floating on top of Windows Mobile 6.5.3. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the Sony Ericsson Aspen is scheduled to drop in Q2. And yes, this puppy is available with some US 3G love, albeit only on the 850 MHz band. Oh well. 1900 is teh suck anyway. Right, AT&T?

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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.

While it might not be intended to be so, it’s generally an exceptional event if a given phone isn’t sold before its launch date by various carrier outlets. Case in point: the HTC Pure. We know over the past few days some AT&T locations begun receiving stock of the customized Touch Diamond2, but now word is that some of those locations are selling the Pure ahead of what is assumed to be its official release date of Tuesday. Overall, the Pure doesn’t appear to be packed with any surprises other than the disappointingly non-existent 3.5mm headphone jack. As we exclusively told you, the Pure is indeed going for $149.99 on a 2-year after a $100 MIR meaning that a lot of WinMo junkies are going to have a touch decision between the more affordable Pure and the better spec’d Imagio.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

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Love your Bell service in Canada? Don’t really want to spring for a brand new BlackBerry Tour? Well, it seems as if Bell is gearing up to launch the BlackBerry 8530 pretty soon. Full retail price is showing up at $499 without a service agreement, but don’t let that scare you off too much — it should be pretty reasonable once a contract is factored in. We also have shots of the BlackBerry 9700 making its way into Bell’s system meaning that it’s likely we’ll see Bell’s HSPA network overlay launch with it in tow. As always, hit the jump for some bigger and better shots.

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.

We recently told you that both the Curve 8520 and the Bold 9700 were entered in Rogers’ upgrade system, and now the former can finally be found in its natural habitat — and by natural habitat, we mean leaked shots on BGR. Currently running OS 4.6.1.274, the Rogers 8520 appears to have escaped from one of RIM’s manufacturing plants without having been horribly disfigured by physical branding. We think it would be foolish to assume this will be the case once the device launches, but at least there’s hope. You know the drill; hit the jump for a couple more pics.

Thanks, Guiscard!

Look out, Motorola, because HTC has just fired a major salvo at your lines just two days before you officially enter into the Android arms race. HTC, the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones with Google’s open OS has come out and announced its ultra-affordable offering in the Tattoo (aka HTC Click). According to HTC’s literature, the Tattoo is all about customization thanks not only to the Sense UI but also customizable covers from HTC. Just because it’s affordable doesn’t mean HTC is looking to sell people yesterday’s garbage as the Tattoo has specs that rival higher end offerings from other companies with specs. Examples include the following: 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth, accelerometer, digital compass, microSD slot, Wi-Fi, GPS, and dual-band (900/2100MHz) 7.2Mbps UMTS/HSDPA alongside quad-band EDGE. As for the brains of the device, the Tattoo has 512MB RAM/256MB ROM and a 528MHz processor which should be enough power to keep up with most users demands. The HTC Tattoo will be available abroad starting at $0 on contract in early October. Hit the jump for two more official press photos.

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