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Exclusive: HTC F8181 is AT&T's Brew MP-equipped dumbphone

Chris Ziegler — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:39:00 EST

We'll admit, we'd kinda figured that HTC's venture into the seedy underworld of dumbphones with the introduction of the Smart earlier this year was a non-starter and that it'd quietly fade into the night before 2010 was out, but apparently not -- at least, not if you ask AT&T. We've been slid a couple shots of a new handset from HTC for Ma Bell going by the model number F8181 (it'll have a fancy name like "Bacon," "Double Rainbow," or "Nilay Patel" by the time it launches, obviously) that runs the Brew MP platform Qualcomm has been pushing this year for the sub-smartphone category; of course, it seems to us that smartphone hardware is getting cheap enough to push through nearly every price segment, but if we can expect this to be free on contract, we suppose there might be a market here. No word on dollars or dates just yet, but naturally, we'll keep you in the loop.

Gallery: Exclusive: HTC F8181 is AT&T's BrewMP-equipped dumbphone

Exclusive: HTC F8181 is AT&T's Brew MP-equipped dumbphone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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O2 scores exclusive on HTC Smart

Chris Ziegler — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:32:00 EST

Carrying HTC's very first feature phone exclusively: a blessing or a curse? O2's about to find out the answer to that question as it's hooked up with HTC to be the one and only carrier to offer the Smart in Germany, Ireland, and the UK. Though it's not running Android or WinMo, the Smart's not your average crappy, free-on-contract kind of handset -- it offers its own implementation of Sense, email access, and a browser, just like its bigger brothers, and it runs on Qualcomm's newly-introduced BrewMP platform. Look for it to hit in April, while TIM will grab it in Italy, Netcom in Norway, and the rest of Europe through direct sales.

O2 scores exclusive on HTC Smart originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Smart hands-on

Chris Ziegler — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:26:00 EST

At a glance, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that HTC would be devoting time, money, and energy to moving downmarket into the dog-eat-dog world of dumbphones -- but after chatting a bit with the company today, we've got a slightly better sense for why the Smart exists: it's a stepping stone, not a final destination. It's promoting the Qualcomm Brew MP-powered device as a way to get folks who would otherwise buy... say, a Samsung Corby, and use it to get them interested in (and locked into) the Sense UI, which looks surprisingly similar here to what you'd find on anything else HTC makes. The Smart's screen animations are pleasantly fast and you've got basically all the stuff you'd expect to find on a basic new-in-box smartphone including full HTML browsing and support for Twitter, email, and so on. The 2.8-inch resistive display seemed totally usable to us; clearly, a full QWERTY keyboard won't be terribly comfortable on any 2.8-inch screen, but it ain't bad. In a word, we're impressed -- we wouldn't buy it (and we suspect you wouldn't either), but it's definitely got a valid target demo. Follow the break for video.

Gallery: HTC Smart hands-on

Continue reading HTC Smart hands-on

HTC Smart hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Smart is, ironically, company's first dumbphone

Chris Ziegler — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:32:00 EST

Remember that Touch.B that leaked a few weeks ago? Well, it's real now -- and amazingly, it turns out that the rumored non-smartphone status is totally confirmed. This would be the first time HTC has released a device that doesn't run a true smartphone operating system in the traditional sense of the word, instead going with Qualcomm's Brew Mobile Platform -- the very same setup AT&T's standardizing on for its dumbphone range starting later this year. It's got 256MB of RAM and ROM, a 3 megapixel cam, Euro-friendly 3G plus quadband EDGE, and the now-familiar Sense UI that the Smart shares with its WinMo- and Android-powered siblings. Look for this puppy to launch across Europe and Asia this Spring -- likely at a very, very competitive price point, if we had to guess.

HTC Smart is, ironically, company's first dumbphone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NTT DoCoMo reveals fall 2008 lineup: Bold, E71, 20 others

Darren Murph — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:02:00 EST

Hot on the heels of RIM's BlackBerry Bold finally hitting AT&T sales channels comes word that Japan's NTT DoCoMo has also joined in to offer the handset. As the Asian carriers dump their cornucopia of fall 2008 mobiles onto the world, this particular one is serving up 22, all divided into the STYLE, PRIME, SMART and PRO series. Naturally, the latter category piques our interest the most, as it hosts the Bold, Nokia E71, HTC Touch Pro (HT-01A), HTC Touch Diamond (HT-02A) and Sharp's decidedly handsome SH-04A. Feel free to have a look at the entire family (and their respective launch dates) just below in the read link.

Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Others, RIM, Sharp, NTT DoCoMo

NTT DoCoMo reveals fall 2008 lineup: Bold, E71, 20 others originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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