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February 2009 Roundup

28th February 2009

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February may be the shortest month in the calendar, but it is probably the biggest month for new phone releases thanks to the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) event, where most manufacturers showcase their new products for 2009.

 Mobile World Congress

Solar Power

Several manufacturers showed off solar powered phones and accessories during February, including the impressive Samsung Blue Earth touchscreen phone. Right down at the bottom end of the market is the Digicel Coral 200 Solar, bound for the Caribbean and Central America, and somewhere in between is the Commtiva Sola with more mass-market appeal.

 Samsung Blue Earth
Samsung Blue Earth

 Commtiva Sola
Commtiva Sola

 Digicel Coral 200 Solar
Digicel Coral 200 Solar

Windows Mobile

Touchscreen phones are still very much the in thing, and we have seen several of them being announced this month. The Acer DX900 finally hit the market after a year-long wait - this dual-SIM smartphone looks to be a useful device and a solution to carrying around two devices at once. Another new name appears on the Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20, basically a standard Windows Mobile device with a decent GPS system added in. LG don't compete much in the smartphone market, but the LG GM730 looks like a reasonable attempt. GSmart showed off their slim and attractive GSmart S1200 touchscreen phone, along with the useful but unexciting GSmart MS820, which is certainly a capable phone but it lacks that certain something. Earlier in the month we saw the Motorola A3000, basically a cut-down version of the upcoming A3100.

HTC are probably the biggest name in Windows Mobile, and the new HTC Touch Diamond2 improves significantly on what was already a very impressive Windows phone while toning down the design a little. One step up from that is the HTC Touch Pro2 which adds a QWERTY keyboard, but piles on the ounces when it comes to weight. T-Mobile announced their own versions of these two HTC phones, the T-Mobile MDA Compact V and T-Mobile MDA Vario V. Perhaps the most exciting device to be announced was the Toshiba TG01 which fits into the "bigger, better, faster, more" philosophy of design, featuring a big display, lots of memory and a much faster processor than the competition.

 Acer DX900
Acer DX900

 Garmin Asus Nuvifone G20
Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20

 LG GM730
LG GM730

 GSmart S1200
GSmart S1200

 GSmart MS820
GSmart MS820

 

 Motorola A3000
Motorola A3000

 HTC Touch Diamond2
HTC Touch Diamond2
 

 HTC Touch Pro2
HTC Touch Pro2

 

 

 T-Mobile MDA Compact V
T-Mobile MDA Compact V

 T-Mobile MDA Vario V
T-Mobile MDA Vario V


Toshiba TG01

 

Android

The HTC Dream is instantly recognisable as the same handset as the T-Mobile G1, bound for Singapore and Australia. HTC's second Android phone is the HTC Magic, basically a keyboardless G1 which will be widely available on the Vodafone network.

 HTC Dream
HTC Dream

 HTC Magic
HTC Magic
 

Nokia

The week before the big MWC event, Nokia announced the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic, a capable music phone with mass-market appeal. Nokia's main announcement covered the Nokia E75 with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia E55 compact messaging phone, the Nokia 6710 Navigator which is designed as a personal satellite navigation tool and the Nokia 6720 Classic which, strangely enough, seems to be aimed at people who want to make phone calls. Finally, Nokia announced the Nokia N86 8MP, their first eight megapixel camera phone which seemed more like an evolutionary device than a revolutionary one.

 Nokia 5630 XpressMusic
Nokia 5630
XpressMusic

 Nokia E75
Nokia E75

 

 Nokia E55
Nokia E55

 

 Nokia 6710 Navigator
Nokia 6710
Navigator

 Nokia 6720 Classic
Nokia 6720
Classic

 Nokia N86 8MP
Nokia N86 8MP

 

Sony Ericsson

An attractive 3.5G slider with GPS, the Sony Ericsson C903 is one of the best looking phones announced this month. The Sony Ericsson W395 is a low-end Walkman phone, but on the other end of the scale is the feature packed Sony Ericsson W995 with an 8.1 megapixel camera and plenty of other goodies. We also caught site of the upcoming Sony Ericsson C901 Cyber-shot phone and the Sony Ericsson Idou concept device with a 12.1 megapixel camera.

 Sony Ericsson C903
Sony Ericsson C903

 Sony Ericsson W395
Sony Ericsson W395

 Sony Ericsson W995
Sony Ericsson W995

 Sony Ericsson C901
Sony Ericsson C901

 Sony Ericsson Idou
Sony Ericsson Idou

Samsung

Earlier in the month we saw the Samsung Memoir touchscreen phone, destined for T-Mobile USA. Four new budget phones, the Samsung E1070, E1100, E1125 and E2100 offered smart looks at very inexpensive prices. The Samsung BEAT DISC and Samsung BEAT DJ are two very capable and distinctive looking music phones.

The two headlining Samsung phones this month are the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition, also called the UltraTOUCH or simply the GT-S8300. Featuring a bigger touchscreen, an 8 megapixel camera and slide-out keypad, the S8300 adds a lot of features to the original Tocco. Then there is the top-of-the range Samsung Omnia HD, a Symbian touchscreen phone with a large display, 8 megapixel camera and almost every other feature going.

 Samsung Memoir
Samsung Memoir

 Samsung E1070
Samsung E1070

 Samsung E1100
Samsung E1100

 Samsung E1125
Samsung E1125

 Samsung E2100
Samsung E2100

 Samsung BEAT DISC
Samsung BEAT DISC

 

 Samsung BEAT DJ
Samsung BEAT DJ

 

 Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition
Samsung Tocco
Ultra Edition
 

 Samsung OMNIA HD
Samsung OMNIA HD

 

LG

One of the stars of MWC was the LG ARENA, a very attractive high-end touchscreen phone with a custom interface that really does challenge its Apple rival. LG also gave a glimpse of the cool but slightly silly LG GD900 with a transparent keypad and the elegant looking LG KT770 Symbian slider, plus the Windows based GM730. The LG GT500 Puccini is a touchscreen phone that looks like it will be a T-Mobile exclusive.

 LG ARENA
LG ARENA

 LG GD900
LG GD900

 LG KT770
LG KT770

 LG GM730
LG GM730

 LG GT500 Puccini
LG GT500 Puccini

Other manufacturers

Hyundai Mobile showed off the incredibly cheap and compact Hyundai MB-150 Chico, the dolphin-inspired Hyundai MB-490i and the dual-SIM Hyundai MB-D650 business phone. The missing-in-action Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 threatened to make an appearance sometime before it becomes obsolete. T-Mobile demonstrated their budget touchscreen T-Mobile Vairy Touch handset aimed at Central and Eastern Europe. Finally, modu promised that their eponymous and very cool modular phone system will launch sometime during this year.

 Hyundai MB105 Chico
Hynundai MB-105 Chico

 Hyundai MB490i
Hyundai MB-490i

 Hyundai MBD650
Hyundai MB-D650

 Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60
Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60

 T-Mobile Vairy Touch
T-Mobile Vairy Touch

 modu
modu

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