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Vodafone UK launches Smart II: Android Gingerbread for £70 (hands-on)
UK carriers often like to elbow their way into the limelight when a rival's getting some attention. This time, Vodafone's cutting into Orange's Intel excitement with the Smart II; an update to its wallet-happy Android device from 2011. The UK carrier even let us get some hands-on time with the pebble-sized phone. While the specifications (800MHz processor, 3.2-inch screen) aren't going to wow, at £70 (around $109) it could reel in plenty of feature phone graduates. Check out a brief hands-on video and our own impressions right after the break. %Gallery-156540%
Verizon adds Motorola Barrage today, Nokia Shade next week
There's a certain joy, an undeniable stress release associated with heaving your phone directly at a wall. Of course, your average handset isn't likely to respond favorable to that kind of maneuver, so you might want to pick up something that makes boastful claims about its ability to stand up to shock, vibration, and all the other ails of an abusive relationship with its owner -- something like the Motorola Barrage, for instance. The Barrage is a mil-spec 810F that can tolerate submersion in a meter of water for half an hour, dust, baking in the sun, and everything in between, giving Casio's place at the top of the rugged food chain on Verizon a run for its money. It's got external music controls, a 2 megapixel camera, and support for VZ Navigator, launching today for $129.99 on contract -- or if you prefer to skip on the camera, you can look for a blind version to hit on the 21st of the month. Separately, Verizon is trotting out yet another member of its heavily-renewed partnership with Nokia, though this one isn't nearly as odd as the Twist. The 2705 Shade is your basic, run-of-the-mill clamshell with a 1.3 megapixel cam and swappable covers that's ready to do battle in the very lowest shelves of the store thanks to a $29.99 on-contract price -- though it'll take a while to get to those shelves since it's an online exclusive for the time being starting October 6. Read - Motorola Barrage Read - Nokia Shade
Motorola Barrage for Verizon sounds aggressive, has specs to match
Casio has a pretty tight lock on Verizon's market for ruggedized gear, but they don't own it outright -- Motorola's got the V750 in the mix, too, though it's a little stale at this point (it launched last July, which amounts to an eternity in phone years). That might just be where this puppy comes into play: meet the "Barrage," a phone that both sounds and looks like it's gearing up to kick ass and take names. Verizon boasts in the launch pack that you don't have to "be afraid of getting dirty" when you're carrying the Barrage thanks to its mil-spec 810F compliance -- and you don't have to be afraid of getting wet, either, since 810F covers submersion in a meter of water for up to a half-hour without ill effect. If EV-DO, a 2 megapixel camera, external music controls, and GPS all sound good to you -- and you can tolerate a meager QCIF display -- it looks like you'll be able to score the Barrage online on the first of next month, while in-store availability follows on come November 16.
