Latest Mobile Phone News

Here is a video tour by Phone Scoop of the new HTC Hero and its custom-built Sense user interface.The HTC Hero is the first Android phone of the manufacturer to run the personalized Sense interface. It changes the overall appearance of the OS and adds a number of new features. The Hero is also the first Android phone to support Flash and is powered by a Qualcomm 528MHz processor and 288 MB RAM/512 MB ROM. Additional functionality includes a 3.5mm jack, trackball, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi. It is a quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G handset.

Popularity: 8%

Remember the Sony Ericsson Rachael – SE’s first Android smartphone? Its official name might be Sony Ericsson Xperia X3, and not Xperia X5, as we previously guessed.

A few weeks ago, when the first images of Rachael were leaked, we didn’t know too much about its features.

But now, thanks to the online retailer Expansys, we have an almost complete list of its specs.

The 8MP camera we already knew about is obviously confirmed, coming with autofocus, image stabilization, face detection, smile shutter, LED flash and VGA video recording.

The rest of the smartphone’s specs reportedly include:

* Quad-band GSM connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
* Dual-band 3G (900/2100 MHz) with HSDPA 10Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
* 4 inches touchscreen display with 800 x 400 pixels
* Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11g
* A-GPS
* Bluetooth 2.1
* 3.5mm audio jack
* E-mail (POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, MS Exchange)
* MiniUSB
* MicroSDHC card support

Sony Ericsson could announce the Rachael X3 soon – perhaps the same time with the Xperia X2 (which we saw a few hours ago in new live pictures).

Popularity: 10%

Nokia’s only 8 Megapixel camera phone, the N86 8MP dual-slider, will be available in the US starting the next few weeks, coming to compete with the likes of Samsung Memoir and Sony Ericsson C905a.

Running on Symbian S60 3rd Edition, Nokia N86 8MP is basically an upgraded N85.

Its 8MP camera features Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, variable aperture, dual LED flash and video recording.

The N86 8MP also comes with a 2.6 inch QVGA AMOLED display, GPS, Wi-Fi, digital compass, 3.5mm audio jack, 8GB of internal memory and – of course – US HSDPA connectivity.

Popularity: 10%

We first saw it as Nokia Mako and Nokia 6790, and now it’s finally official: the Nokia Surge was announced today by Nokia and AT&T, coming as a “Symbian S60 handset” that “offers social style with smartphone capabilities at a low price.”

The new smartphone has a full QWERTY keyboard and a 2.4 QVGA display that works both in portrait and in landscape mode.

Designed in the US, the Surge obviously features advanced messaging capabilities, including email, IM, multimedia messaging and access to social networking sites like Facebook.

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity
Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA connectivity (3.6Mbps)
AT&T Navigator
HTML browser with Flash support
Bluetooth
2.5m headset jack
2MP camera

Popularity: 10%

Dual-SIM phones aren’t abundant, so Samsung probably thinks that it can get ahead of other manufacturers by releasing another dual-SIM handset in the form of the Samsung B5702. It’s a slider phone, and from the looks of it, it won’t have a touchscreen. One of the nifty features of this phone is that there are 2 LEDs at the top of the phone, which will light up to indicate which SIM card is currently in use. Hopefully Samsung will announce this phone during MWC 2009; after all, it’s just around the corner.

Popularity: 5%

Word is out that General Mobile will be showing off the first dual-SIM Android phone at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Pictures of the phone, dubbed the DSTL1, are available online, though Android users will note that the button configuration isn’t too suited for Android, as you’d need 5 hardware buttons (home, back, menu, call send, call end) to get the phone to work properly. General Mobile has said that the front of the phone will be changed in order to accommodate Google’s Android, though it didn’t mention if such changes included the screen’s 400 x 240 pixel resolution. If the Kogan Agora’s 320 x 240 pixel display wasn’t enough for Android apps, this might not fare any better, though we’ll just have to believe that General Mobile knows what it’s doing. The phone is expected to ship in Q3 of 2009. Specifications of the phone (as of now) include:

* Dual-SIM cards with dual-Standby mode
* 624MHz Marvell PXA 310 processor
* Tri-band GSM/EDGE support (900/1800/1900MHz)
* 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, 260k colors
* 802.11b/g Wi-Fi support
* Bluetooth
* 135g (4.75oz), 112 x 54 x 16mm (4.4 x 2.1 x .6 inches)
* 5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (made by Sharp)

Popularity: 4%

Folks over in Europe or China will be able to pick up the LG KS660, especially if you’re looking for a phone that has dual SIM capability. The bad news is that this device doesn’t have 3G or Wi-Fi, but fortunately there are some interesting features that can still make it a cool phone, such as the 5 megapixel camera. Features of the LG KS660 include:

* Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1800/1900 MHz)
* 3-inch WQVGA (240×400) TFT touch-screen display with feedback
* 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash, and video recording (720×480)
* microSDHC memory card slot
* Integrated accelerometer
* TV Out
* USB 2.0 connectivity

Popularity: 4%