Right around this time last year, we actually had lofty hopes that Motorola would get its handset business in gear and shock us all with an ultra-potent, completely refined smartphone. Here we sit today, still waiting. Still, we can't pass up an opportunity to throw Moto's hardware design team a bone, as the ROKR ZN50 is downright sexy from any angle. The music-centric, full touchscreen slider packs a 3.2-inch panel (427 x 240 resolution), automatic screen rotation, shake to switch tracks, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, Bluetooth stereo headset support, SRS WOW HD audio tech and a battery good for 30 hours of audio playback. There's also a T-DMB TV tuner, 4GB of inbuilt memory, a microSDHC card slot, 3.2 megapixel camera, an e-dictionary and support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Sadly, it seems as if the phone is being reserved for the Korean market, but seriously, can you imagine this hitting North America with Android loaded on? Motorola: you're this close.

[Via Unwired View]

Is the world ready for a white, black, and shiny metallic blue Android phone? Well, the world may not have to be -- but we strongly suspect this picture claiming to be the Motorola "Morrison" for T-Mobile USA is real since it exactly matches the thumbnail in that leaked roadmap from a while back. We can only guess from the coloration that this is likely going to be billed as a youth device -- and Motorola's said in the past that it wants to build its Android lineup around a social networking platform, which all the kiddies are into these days -- so we're thinking this could end up being positioned below the G1 and its contemporaries / successors in T-Mobile's catalog. Would we buy it? Yeah, maybe -- the keyboard looks usable, but maybe we're still so Android-starved around here that our judgment can't be trusted.

[Thanks, Stanley]

Samsung's being tight-lipped with the details, but at least it did us the solid of making its Omnia Pro B7610 (aka, B7610 Louvre) QWERTY slider official today at CommunicAsia. The phone on the right is the Omnia Pro B7320, which, if we're not mistaken, is just the Jack candybar already available to AT&T customers. Unfortunately, Samsung isn't giving out any detail on the B7610 so we'll have to go on believing in the rumored 3.5-inch AMOLED display with 800x480 pixel resolution, 5.1 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA data, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, 1GB built-in with microSDHC expansion, and 800MHz processor driving Windows Mobile until they tell us something different.

[Via Akihabara News]

So this really doesn't look anything like that Bigfoot we saw a little while ago, but we can sorta see the familial resemblance if we squint really (really, really) hard. According to Boy Genius Report, what we're looking at here is allegedly Samsung's Android-powered Bigfoot for T-Mobile, said to be attacking the high end of the carrier's smartphone line thanks to a 3-inch capacitive AMOLED display, full QWERTY, 3 megapixel camera, and naturally, HSDPA. If we had to guess, this is probably a newer version of the same product concept that we'd seen in that roadmap a few weeks back -- Sammy probably started with its Beat DJ (or an Ocean 2) and worked backwards from there to get to the retail version they wanted to launch. We're told it'll launch "like, really soon," so would-be G1 or myTouch 3G buyers might want to hold on for a hot second.

We've been toying with the North American version of Sony Ericsson's W995 slider recently, and we don't want to spoil anything for you, but here's a teaser: this could definitely be the best Walkman phone to date. Curiosity sufficiently piqued? Head on over to Engadget Mobile for the full story!

Launch details for the Satio was the 800-pound news gorilla out of Sony Ericsson today, but slotting in right underneath that set are another couple of phones that are still very much in the higher end of the range -- the Yari and Aino. The Yari slider (pictured left) is being billed as a gaming device, featuring gesture-controlled actions in the same vein as the Wii (and for the record, that's Sony Ericsson's comparison as much as it is ours). It features a 2.4-inch display, GPS, and support for the company's PlayNow services; it'll be available in the fourth quarter for about €400 ($558) unlocked. Next up, the Aino takes some cues from the Satio with a relatively large 3-inch touchscreen -- but also tosses in a numeric slider for good measure. It's got an 8.1 megapixel cam, Sony Remote Play support, GPS, HSPA, and a scratch-resistant mineral glass display; it'll be ready to rock in the same timeframe as the Yari in black and white, though we don't have pricing stats just yet -- needless to say, it'll be more than the Yari.

[Via SEMC Blog]

Luckily we've got solid word of HTC's Touch Pro2 headed for all of the majors Stateside, or this would come as a bit more of a blow for the hopelessly selfish Windows Mobile users among us: HTC's QWERTY slider flagship is now available online and unlocked, though its Euro-centric nature means there's no 3G for folks who'd like to use it in the wilds of the United States of America. Still, there's plenty of greatness here outside the HSPA data, and the $800-ish pricetag doesn't seem too unreasonable for what you get. And hey, maybe you live in Europe -- we're not ones to judge.

LG's been getting cozy with Microsoft lately on the Windows Mobile front, and it looks like one of the most significant fruits of that labor to date might find a home on AT&T -- eventually. This brassy little number is the LG "Monaco," which is apparently also known as the "Pico" to some folks; what it'll eventually be called at retail is anyone's guess, but the big news is the feature list: 3.6Mbps HSDPA, a 3.2-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel AF cam, microSD expansion, an add-on pico projector of some sort, and Windows Mobile 7. Though the screen is 0.3 inches smaller diagonally than the alleged minimum specified by Microsoft's "Chassis 1" guidelines, everything else here would work (and look) great as a next-gen device -- and the accessory projector's a pretty nifty selling point, too. At one point, AT&T had a crazy idea that they'd have this puppy on shelves by September of this year, but seeing we'll be lucky to have 6.5 devices in our hands by then, this date has undoubtedly slipped since the slide was made. And yes, we'll admit -- we're intrigued by the gold accents. Is that so wrong? Follow the break for a better view of the phone.

Who said Nokia doesn't have a major commitment to North American carriers? We've landed news of a whole plethora of Espoo-sourced devices scheduled to hit AT&T over the coming months, and a few in particular caught our eye. Most notably, the Mako (pictured) is unlike anything we've ever seen Nokia make, mostly thanks to a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard that doesn't really resemble any existing hardware. It rides on the same S60 3.2-based platform as the 6650 and E71x, features dual-band HSDPA, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, AGPS, 2 megapixel camera, Video Share, and 128MB of internal storage with microSD expansion. Sadly -- this is going to be a dream killer for some folks, we think -- it's only got a 2.5mm headphone jack, which is a step back for multimedia support. This one was at one time targeted for June 5, but if we had to guess, it's been pushed back -- maybe we're crazy, but we feel like it hasn't leaked enough to meet that date at this point. Anyhow, looks like this one's a good foil for that QWERTY swivel allegedly due on Verizon.

Speaking of "this looks nothing like a Nokia," the Thresher is an ultra-glossy slider that doesn't quite resemble anything officially announced in other markets. It shares its Series 40 guts with Grouper, which was the codename assigned to the 6750 Mural flip we recently saw hit the FCC. Both devices do HSDPA and AGPS; the Grouper makes do with a 2 megapixel cam, though, while the Thresher steps up to 3.2 with an integrated flash. The Thresher's signed up for September and the Grouper for July, but as with all of these, it's anyone's guess whether those dates will hold.

Finally, the Snapper flip is a lower-end device that we could envision replacing the 6555, lacking the Grouper's style but still staying strong with triband HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS, and a 2 megapixel camera. This one's tentatively targeted for August.

On the surface, the new SCH-W760 looks like a totally typical midrange Korean domestic market slider: 3 megapixel camera, DMB reception, Bluetooth, and a semi-notable 2.8-inch AMOLED display. You know, the usual. A closer look reveals one very interesting feature, though -- it features a front cam sensitive to infrared spectrum so that you can hold grayscale video calls in complete darkness. Beyond scaring the poo out of friends with your spooky, grainy, low-res visage and holding the occasional video conference from the confines of an unlit closet, we have absolutely no idea what practical value this offers -- but look, ridiculous features are what exotic new handsets are all about. Well played, Samsung. The W760 hasn't yet been officially announced, though it'll apparently be coming to SKT, so keep an eye peeled (and bring a flashlight).

Well well -- it looks like whatever Android handset Motorola's cooking up might not be the T-Mobile G1 v2 after all. Mobile-review just published this shot of a Samsung Bigfoot with a slider QWERTY keyboard, and we've got to say, it looks a hell of a lot more like the device in that leaked T-Mobile roadmap than that rendered Moto unit. (It also looks a lot like the Samsung Beat DJ, but that's neither here nor there.) Not only that, but there's also an early spec sheet and another image of a candybar set called the Spica -- apart from the slider, Bigfoot and Spica are nearly identical lower-end versions of the I7500, with three-inch screens, three megapixel cameras, and Android 2.0 "Donut" preloaded. That certainly throws a monkey wrench into what we had thought was a neatly-tied little bow, but we've got to say we're stoked to see so many Android sets appearing all at once. Now if someone could just tell us when and where these would ship, we'd be all set. Spec sheet after the break.

[Via Unwired View]

Okay, so T-Mobile confirmed on Saturday that it's launching "multiple" Android devices from "three partners" later this year, and since most people assume the HTC Magic / Sapphire / myTouch / whatever and the Samsung I7500 are pretty much locked in, speculation has generally centered around that mysterious G1 v2 and the identity of the third partner -- and it looks like it's going to be Motorola. Not only did commenter Someperson notice that the button labels on the alleged G1 v2 are basically identical to those on other recently-launched Moto phones, Boy Genius Report says today that they can "more or less confirm" the v2 will be Schaumburg's first Android set -- a development that lines up perfectly with last month's rumors of a slider QWERTY piece. Yep, it all fits together nicely, except for the fact that HTC is oddly out of the loop on the sequel to the G1 -- but since T-Mobile owns that particular trademark, it can do whatever it wants, you know? Hopefully we'll find out more soon -- if that sketchy leaked roadmap is correct, we'll be seeing this guy in the fall.

Update: Or... the G1 v2 could really be the Samsung Bigfoot. It's a mystery for now, we'll let you know.

If this looks vaguely familiar, that's because it likely is -- we suspect this image out of Boy Genius Report is a newer (or older) render of the "G1 v2" called out on the recently-leaked Android roadmap out of T-Mobile. It'd make sense -- by October, when this is allegedly hitting retail for $150-ish, the G1 will be getting long in the tooth. What's more, this sucker's clearly running Android, and it's a whole hell of a lot better-looking. More on this as it develops, of course, but in the meantime, that myTouch is looking just a bit less appealing, isn't it?

If flash animations and S60 5th edition are your idea of a good time then you'll want to head on over to Nokia's new interactive N97 landing page. From there you can get as close as you'll ever get to Nokia's flagship slider with 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel resistive touch-screen display prior to its expected June launch. So go ahead, take 'er for a spin and then hit the newly live pre-order button after you're convinced that this is the smartphone for you. Sure, there's lots of potential June competition out there but take heart: the Android-powered Samsung i7500 lacks a QWERTY, there's no guarantee that a next-gen iPhone will launch in June, and the Palm Pre might be a big fat dud. There, feel better about your choice?

Update: Tipster Chris just let us know that the N97 shows a $699 phone-only price on the "find products" tab over at Nokia USA. That's $6 cheaper than the N96, strangely enough. See screen-grab after the break.

Update 2: Pre-order is go for the US.

[Via mivadika, thanks Nikos K.]