LG has struggled to grab consumer interest the way Samsung has with its Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones, and it doesn’t look like the manufacturer has a worthy competitor in the pipeline just yet. PocketNow purportedly leaked LG’s entire 2011 portfolio and while there are several attractive devices that run Android and Windows Phone, there is nothing that really blows us away. The lineup includes the following devices:

• LG Prada K2 - An Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) smartphone with a 4.3-inch NOVA display, 16GB of storage, and support for 21Mbps+ networks.
• LG Univa – An Android 2.3 device that is equipped with an 800MHz processor and a 3.5-inch HVGA display.
• LG Fantasy - A Windows Phone Mango-powered device that could make its debut in the fourth quarter of this year. Renders of the phone suggest that it will offer a large display, but other hardware specs are currently not available.
• LG Victor – A mid-range Android Gingerbread device with a 3.8-inch OLED WVGA display, a 5-megapixel camera and a 1GHz processor.
• LG Gelato - A device that may land on Sprint with the model number LS685, a version of the Gelato will reportedly offers support for near-field communications (NFC). It’s equipped with  a 3.2-inch HVGA display, a 3-megapixel camera and an 800MHz processor.

PocketNow also revealed two more devices, the LG K and the E2, but little is currently known about them. We’re assuming that LG also has some more high-end handsets up its sleeves that it’s currently keeping closer to the vest — after all, the LG Thrill 4G (Optimus 3D), offers a high-end dual-core processor. Why would the manufacturer take a step backwards and just release a half-dozen mid-range handsets?

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Pocketnow has gotten its hands on an image of the HTC Lead from AT&T, and 911 Sniper has leaked a few of the specs. Neither AT&T nor HTC have announced the Lead yet, but it’s rumored to sport a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660 processor — which we first saw in the T-Mobile HTC Sensation 4G — 768MB of RAM, a 4.3-inch WVGA display, and a 5-megapixel camera. It’s unclear when the Lead will launch, but the device is rumored to run Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread), which could make it the first Gingerbread device on AT&T. There’s no word of HSPA+ support, but we’d be stunned if this device launched without a 4G label glued to the end of its name.

Read [Pocketnow]

Read [911 Sniper]

If you’re aching for a great unlocked Android phone and the plasticky feel of the Nexus S doesn’t float your boat, Dell may very well have the cure for what ails you. Dell’s Venue Pro smartphone is, in our opinion, the most impressive Windows Phone 7 handset on the market at this point. It has a fantastically solid build, a terrific look and feel, and extremely capable guts that facilitate a silky smooth experience. Now, the Dell Venue takes everything we love about the Venue Pro, sheds some girth by eliminating the slide-out QWERTY, and swaps Windows Phone 7 for Android. Notable specs include a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1GHz processor, 1GB of internal storage expandable to 33GB, 512MB of RAM, a 1400 mAh battery and the Android 2.2 Froyo OS with Dell’s Stage software. The Dell Venue is available immediately for purchase directly from Dell for $499.99 unlocked. The phone is available with either AT&T or T-Mobile 3G bands and orders begin shipping on February 18th.

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Today, via a brief press blast, Samsung Mobile Display announced its big intentions for this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Sammy’s mobile display unit hopes to make a splash with two, very distinctive products: a 4.5-inch WVGA flexible AMOLED display and a 19-inch qFHD transparent AMOLED display. As Samsung explains:

SMD is presenting a prototype of the most advanced flexible AMOLED display. Only 2mm thick, the 4.5 inch flexible AMOLED runs at a WVGA 800 x 480 resolution and can be rolled down to a one centimeter radius.

At WVGA, this new concept prototype offers a display resolution four times that of the previous most flexible AMOLED prototype in the industry, thanks to the use of a new plastic substrate that can withstand the 450-500 degree temperatures required in the manufacturing process.

—

SMD is showing the world’s first large transparent AMOLED Display prototype, designed for use in applications from PC monitors to TVs.

Whether the prototype AMOLED display is turned off or on, it maintains up to a 30% transparency. The average amount of transparency elsewhere has been below 10 percent.

SMD’s transparent AMOLED prototype provides the highest resolution on a transparent large screen TV (over 19 inches) or monitor display.

Look for more information about the two displays next week on January 5th.

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Originally announced in June, the Motorola Milestone XT720 has landed sans carrier in the UK today. The unusually-contoured handset sports an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 3.7-inch display with 480 x 854 resolution, 8 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and 720P video recording, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, 512MB ROM / 256MB RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio, and Android 2.1. The Milestone XT720 is available unlocked from online UK retailers Play for £359.99 ($550 USD) and Clove for £381.88 ($583 USD).  Anyone across the pond interested in this feature-rich handset from Motorola?

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Ah, yes 4.3-inches of sensual haptic, multitouch glass strapped to a 1 GHz processor, 8 megapixel camera, and so much more. The Motorola DROID X is the latest and greatest Android handset to be unleashed upon the U.S. market, and it will be making its debut on America’s largest network — Verizon Wireless — on July 15th. We’ve been using, abusing, and confusing our review unit for just over a week, so lets jump right into our review. Buckle up and hit the break.

First — we just need to get this out of the way — there may be a comparison or two to the iPhone 4 or EVO 4G. We aren’t trying to pit the three devices against each other, but they happen to be the most current, and perhaps hottest, handsets available in the U.S. market. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff!

Size/Build

This phone is solid, like really solid. Its form factor doesn’t ooze sex quite like the iPhone 4′s, but it brings its own unique design charms to the table. First, the weight. It is really good. The DROID X feels like a high-end, well-built piece of electronics that is made to last. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel as heavy as the original DROID does (no pun intended), the weight is distributed nicely throughout the phone; we put together an initial impressions video that has several size comparison at the end for those of you who would like them. We even fulfilled a commenter request to see how “pocketable” the device is. The moral of the story: both the construction and weight feel great to us.

There is no give or wiggle in the lock button or the volume up/down keys, and while there is a little in the dedicated camera button, that is by design. The camera button has a double-press action built into it; halfway down to focus, all the way down to capture. The four front keys move north and south a bit. The two left keys (Menu and Home) are attached, and wiggling one will move the other; the same goes for the next two dedicated keys (Back and Search). The front keys are raised higher than all the other exterior keys on the DROID X and are made from plastic — which could account for the wiggle we feel (see video). There is a tiny bit of give in the left-middle of the phones case. If you grab the phone by its “waist” there is a little bit of bend on the left hand side of the frame due to the battery bay (see video). Despite this, if you pick the phone up and physically shake it there is no rattling or movement of any kind.

The phone has an equator that runs around its horizontal axis which creates a very nice, tight line. The the top half of the phone (with the display) is black and the bottom half (with the camera) is slate gray. The back cover is made of metal and snaps in firmly, the battery has an easy to handle pull tab for removal (which is appreciated), and the micro-SD card slot is flush with the battery (meaning if you want to take out the SD card you have to remove the battery). Honestly, the wiggling keys and outer-frame bend didn’t really bother us, however we thought those of you with discerning eyes (and hands) would want to know about it. All-in-all, the construction, and QA on this device looks really, really tight.

Display

The display really is great. 4.3-inches of WVGA multitouch, haptic goodness with a 480 x 854 resolution. Who wouldn’t like that? Text is crisp and clear, images are bright and have depth on the screen; it is something you have to see for yourself to appreciate. The contrast ratio and pixel density not quite as good as the iPhone 4′s, but unless you have the two side-by-side (or switch from one to the other after extended use) we’re sure you won’t mind. Motorola also confirmed to us — via email — that The X uses the same Gorilla Glass as the original DROID.

Phone

These things are still phones right? It’s funny to see a manufacturer press release that contains phrases like “ultra high-speed Web browsing” and “intuitive social messaging” but never any mention of the devices ability to function as a phone. Even though it isn’t stated, the DROID X is a really, really solid phone. The reception on the phone is great; the bars and signal strength – in dB — matched that of a BlackBerry Bold 9650 we had lying around. The DROID Incredible doesn’t seem to get as strong of a cellular signal as some of our other Verizon Wireless devices, so we were pleased to see this was not the case with the DX.

As we’ve mentioned several times in earlier posts, the DROID X has a trio of microphones at its disposal that it uses to discern your voice from background noise and stray sounds. The call clarity emanating from the ear piece is superb; thanks in part to Verizon Wireless’ network and in part to Motorola’s engineering. As an iPhone user myself, the call quality on the DROID X makes me green with envy. The unit is equipped with a voice-dialing feature that works as expected, saying “call home” or “Call Boy Genius” yielded accurate results. Double-tapping the home key will activate voice-dialing or you can get to it from a soft-key in the Android dialer. The speakerphone is loud, although not the loudest we’ve ever heard. The E73 Mode and the iPhone 4 both seemed to be much louder when on a call or playing media.

Typing

If you dislike on-screen keyboards, you might actually like this one. Like the EVO 4G, the extra screen real estate yields a bigger on-screen keyboard, thus making it easier to accurately type. Coming from an iPhone we had no problem diving right in and typing with both speed and accuracy. If you lean towards/love a physical keyboard, we still recommend trying before you buy. The speech-to-text option is super convenient as always; it is one of those simple features that really sets Android apart from its competitors.

Camera/Video Camera

So, we’ve complied several video and still image comparisons between the DROID X and the iPhone 4. All things considered we were thrilled with the audio recording quality, satisfied with the 720p video quality, and a little disappointed with the still-camera.

Again, the DROID X has three microphones, and when you record video it utilizes all three. Audio is clear and crisp, perhaps a little high on the treble, but not muffled like we’ve come to expect from smartphones. The video quality was generally great in 720p mode. The DROID X shoots 720p video at 24 fps (30 fps for lower quality video) and the color accuracy is spot-on.

The camera we can’t quite fully endorse. The DROID X has an 8 megapixel, mechanical-shutter camera that, by looking at the stat sheet, seems quite impressive. Our gripe has to do with our inability to take clear shots on the first try. The DROID X defaults to shooting in 6 megapixel mode to save space on your SD-card, and while a quick adjustment of the settings will get you shooting up to the phones full potential, we can’t figure out why you would slap an 8 megapixel camera on the phone and not use it. Shots from distance and outdoors are completely acceptable and above average for a phone. Shots from close range and indoors tended to be a bit blurry and grainy. Now, we understand this isn’t an SLR or a point-and-shoot — this is your cell phone we’re talking about here — but we did expect a little more from the DROID X’s camera.

SMS/MMS

Android is very efficient at handling MMS and SMS messages and the DROID X is no different.  Messages are displayed in a threaded conversations with chat bubbles alternating left and right. Speech-to-text is amazing. This is obviously an Android thing, not a DROID X thing, but we had to mention it again. Love it. Hitting the menu button from within a text will give you several options including “insert file.” You can attach: pictures, audio, video, a slide show, or name cards to MMS messages. You can access SMS/MMS messages from the “Text Messages” icon, the “Messaging” center, or the unified inbox.

Calendar/Contacts

There is only one calendar application on the DROID X and it combines the calendars of all your synchronized accounts (Exchange, Gmail, etc.). You can turn certain calendars on and off if you want them visible, and adding new events is quite easy. Not much else to say about the calendar application, so moving right along.

Contacts works like it does in any other Android phone, you see an alphabetized list, recent contacts, and favorites. The favorites list does have a “Most Frequently Contacted” section at the bottom of it that we found quite useful.

Browser

The browser really benefits from the extra screen real estate on the DROID X. The resizing of webpages isn’t quite as accurate as the iPhone but a pinch here and double-tap there usually gets things right where you want them. The browser feels really snappy and renders webpages as fast, if not faster, than any other smartphone currently available. We can’t wait to see what this puppy can do with Android 2.2 on it!

The big news with the browser is obviously that, at some point this summer, it will support Flash. We have to wait until “summer” like everyone else for Flash (as it wasn’t available on our demo units), but we’ll be sure to chime in with our thoughts as soon as it hits the streets.

Email/Accounts

The email and account implementation on the DROID X is very well done. The DROID X actually has an icon in the main applications window called “My Accounts” launch that app and you see a list of the accounts you currently have configured on the phone. Click “add” and you are brought to a screen that asks you if you would like to aadd a: Backup Assistant, Corporate Sync (Exchange), Email, Facebook, Google, MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa, Skype Mobile, Twitter, Visual Voicemail, or Yahoo! Mail account to your DX. Once you have an account added you can hit the “Messaging” icon to access the Universal Inbox and view badged icons for each account.” The only thing not shown in the Universal Inbox are Gmail messages. Like all Android phone that are “with Google” they are in their own separate Gmail app.

Battery

The DROID X’s battery was not an issue for us. When we first got the device — and pawed at it for about 3 hours straight –the battery lasted for roughly 8 hours. With normal to moderate use we got at least a day out of the battery (unless we were tethering of course).  The X has a Battery Manager that lets you to set custom battery profiles –allowing you to turn push services on/off at certain times — and see what applications are taxing your battery the most. There is also a Data Manager application that allows you to customize how often applications using background data should update. The Data Manager also allows you to force certain applications (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to update over Wi-Fi only. The battery is 1570 mAh, and seems to get the job done. Verizon said there will be a 1930 mAh extended-life battery offered soon, it will add 1mm of thickness to the phone via a custom back cover.

A few nice features…

Since each Android device gets customized just a little bit (depending on carrier and manufacturer) we thought we would point out some of the niceties Motorola and Verizon included in the DROID X. Mercifully, Motorola has added a security lock timeout feature. You can set a passcode (or pass-pattern) and have the unit require that code after the phone has been locked for a specific interval of time. This is a welcome feature.

Wireless DLNA support is also built into the phone and will allow you to share your DROID X’s media with other DLNA devices.

Summary

We enjoyed our time with the Motorola DROID X, and feel it is a well-balanced, powerful addition to Verizon Wireless’ Android lineup. We would have liked the device to have a better camera, a front facing camera, and perhaps some sort of optical tracking device for easier text correction, but all things considered…we really like this device. If you are or plan on being a Verizon Wireless customer, and love Android — or maybe are just Android curious — you definitely have to take a good, long look at the DROID X.

Click on over to our DROID X Gallery!

It’s no secret that the next delicious chapter in Android will be made out of Gingerbread, but until today we didn’t have much of an idea about its ingredients. Thanks to Russian mobile guru Eldar Murtazin, we believe we now know. First and foremost, it’s important to note that Android 3.0 is designed exclusively for high-end devices. For the foreseeable future, everything else will advance no further than 2.1 or 2.2. As much as that might rub people the wrong way, there’s a very good reason behind it: 3.0 has a strict set of hardware requirement that must be met. Specifically we’re looking at a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, and a minimum display size of 3.5″ (presumably WVGA). If a manufacturer wants to build a Shaq-sized phone with display in excess of 4″, resolutions of up to 1280×760 will be supported. Curious to know what 3.0 will look like? Thanks to Google’s actually paying attention to updating the UI, 3.0 will expand upon the UI seen in the Photo Gallery on the Nexus One. That is definitely a redesign we don’t take issue with. Excited? Well you should be, but apparently you’re going to have to sit tight a while as Android 3.0 Gingerbread is said to be headed towards an announcement on or around the 15th or 16th of October, with the first handsets going on sale in time for Christmas.

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Bell Canada has announced that it will be launching the Samsung Galaxy S — bearing the name Vibrant — in the coming months. A splash page has been put up at http://galaxys.bell.ca and one of our “Ninjas from the North” was kind enough to shoot us an official Bell memo. The memo is a tad light on details (as in it doesn’t have any), but since the handset carries the same name as T-Mobile’s Galaxy S flavor (flavour for those of you in Canada) we can assume that the specs are the same; 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 4″ WVGA Super AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.1 (soon to be upgraded to 2.2). No word yet on a specific release date, but we’re hearing July from our sources. Hit the jump to check out the memo.

Thanks, Brendan!

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The Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant has been a long time coming, but today an official release date and pricing were finally announced. As of July 21st, T-Mobile will be selling the Vibrant for $199.99, that price of course assuming a new 2-year contract. T-Mobile might have a bit of a tough sell on its hands considering that AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and even U.S. Cellular will be offering the Galaxy S in one form or another, but T-Mobile has a trick up its sleeve: anyone who purchases a Vibrant will get a free copy of The Sims 3 Collectors Edition, and a 2GB microSD card pre-loaded with Avatar. Triple win, right?

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Sure it might have a laughably bad name, but there’s no way in hell you can laugh at the Samsung Epic 4G’s specs. A part of the Galaxy S family, the Epic 4G is Sprint’s second 4G WiMAX smartphone. To go on sale later this year for an undisclosed price, the Epic 4G has a 4″ WVGA Super AMOLED display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, front-facing camera for video calling, GPS, Wi-Fi b/g/n, mobile hotspot support for five devices, six-axis motion sensor, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, and 512MB RAM / 1GB ROM. It will come to market running Android 2.1 — with a bit of help from Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0, naturally — but Sprint has gone on the record as saying an update to Android 2.2 won’t be that far off once the Epic 4G is released. Good to know.

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AT&T has the Captivate, T-Mobile has the Vibrant, and now Verizon Wireless has the Fascinate, it’s very own iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S. Featuring the same 4″ WVGA Super AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera and 1GHz Hummingbird processor as its siblings, the Fascinate also has a six-axis motion control for an enhanced gaming experience, Swype virtual keyboard, and comes pre-loaded with Bing Search and Bing Maps. U.S. Cellular also announced that it will be jumping on the Galaxy S bandwagon, although what its model will be named and what most of its tailor-made features will be are still a mystery. Then again, so are its price and release date. All we know is that it, just like the Fascinate, will be available this Fall.

Read [Verizon] Read [U.S. Cellular]

AT&T is no longer the only American carrier to officially have a variant of Samsung Galaxy S coming soon, as T-Mobile has finally gotten around to admitting that it will be releasing the Android 2.1 smartphone under the name Vibrant. Sporting a chrome bezel that is reminiscent of the first three generations of iPhone, the Vibrant has the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 4″ WVGA Super AMOLED display, and 5 megapixel camera as the Galaxy S. No word yet on a release date or pricing, but we imagine we’ll learn next week, be it by press release or leak.

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There’s little in the way of proof that the following specifications are accurate, but according to one of Android Central’s “tried-and-true” tipsters, we now have the tentative specs for the Samsung Galaxy S Pro. Software wise, the Galaxy S Pro is said to be presently running Android 2.1 with Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 overlay. In terms of hardware, you have a WVGA Super AMOLED display (possibly the same unit found on the non-Pro Galaxy S), 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, front-facing camera, 512MB RAM, 8.2 GB of internal memory, and a custom 1GHz Cortex A8 processor. As for radios, it’s said that the Galaxy S Pro will run on both Sprint’s EV-DO and WiMAX networks, with a space for a SIM card indicating that we’re looking at HSDPA roaming for Europe and Asia. GPS isn’t mentioned but is surely a given, and the Wi-Fi chip will support the b/g/n protocols. Where build quality is concerned, the tipster did single out various components as feeling “plasticy”, although with the unit in question being a prototype, we won’t let that worry us just yet.

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Last week we got to see the Droid X strut its stuff on video, so it’s only fitting that this week we get to see the Droid 2 do likewise. Well, sort of. The guys over at Android and Me managed to score a Droid 2 from sources unknown and decided to show it off on film. As has been noted in the past, the two devices are very similar when it comes to physical characteristics. The main differences are 1) a more curved bezel, and 2) the re-sculpting of the keypad which has allowed for wider, more pronounced keys along with the elimination of that cursed D-pad in favor of arrow keys. But inside the phones slightly curvier frame is where the real differences lie. The old 500MHZ OMAP3 CPU has been swapped out for the much more powerful 1GHz OMAP3630 model (just like we said) and the RAM has been doubled to 512MB, both of which help the second iteration of the Droid achieve some impressive benchmark scores. Regrettably we don’t actually get to see the tests in action as the phone was not powered on during filming, but we’ll just have to take their word for it until we know the full story on June 23rd. We imagine you’re quite anxious to see the video, so click through to check it out.

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Even though it was the first carrier to bring Android to Canada, Rogers has always had a bit of a tough time convincing Canadians to ditch their beloved BlackBerrys and iPhones in order to get their Google on. Recently it released the Acer Liquid e, a curious little device that many people know nothing about. We managed to snag one shortly after launch and gave it a spin, so if you are curious to know our thoughts on it click on through to  check out our Acer Liquid e hands on!

First and foremost, let’s get one thing out of the way. This isn’t a phone that’s intended to be a flagship or hero device, and that’s immediately evident when you pick it up. Made entirely out of plastic and measuring out at 115mm x 64mm x 12.75mm and weighing 135g, the phones does feel quite cheap in the hands. Not poorly built; just cheap.

On the whole, the device performs very well. This is despite the fact its Snapdragon processor has been underclocked from 1GHz to 768MHz. Acer did this to help preserve battery life, but it appears to have made little difference. It really only took one work day to drain the battery, and even then we only touched the thing a handful of times.

Call quality is above average, with not a whole lot of background noise and minimal hiss whether using the earpiece or speakerphone. The phone has great reception and consistently pulled down data at just over 3Mbps in during our speed tests. Those two things are great, right? Yup. They sure are. Except that it in no time at all the phone gets so hot that you could fry an egg on it.

The Liquid e ruins Android 2.1 aka Eclair with the assistance of a few customizations. Some of them, such as the bookmark and photo album widgets, are useful, but for the most part they’re complete and utter crap. Sorry, but we just don’t see a reason why anyone should have to have a phone with junk like urFooz (look it up) pre-loaded. Thankfully not lost in all of this customization nonsense is the ability to install non-Market applications.

The 3.5″ WVGA display should please most people. Text is very sharp and there is no shortage of vibrancy to images. This isn’t to say it is without its share of issues. During our time with the Liquid e we noticed something that we feel we shouldn’t have: 112 dots which happen to be the sensors responsible for mapping where your fingers are. Granted not everyone will have good enough eyesight to notice the sensors (they’re fairly small), but if you do, it will irritate you to no end. Our device also had a dead pixel straight out of the box.

And then there’s the camera. It has a 5 megapixel sensor with autofocus. In ideal lighting, the camera does a good job with pictures with fairly accurate colors, if not a bit heavy on the red. The autofocus is fairly fast and you won’t need to wait a lot of time between pictures. If you find yourself in a lot of low-light environments, you might as well bring a pencil and sketch book because the photos the Liquid e produces without an abundance of light is quite horriffic. The Liquid e also has video capture capabilities. The resolution of the videos is only VGA, though they’re pretty decent.

Normally we fret over what to say in our conclusion knowing that our word carries a lot of weight. But in this instance, it’s not hard at all. Instead of signing up for a 3-year contract and getting the Acer Liquid e, we strongly recommend that you take that $49.99 and put it into something more exciting like a Government Savings Bond. Yeah.