SmartFlip
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A 4G flip phone with Google Assistant is coming to the US
Dumb phones are getting smarter. Last year Nokia showed us what was possible in a feature phone with its 8110 4G, now Alcatel is leveraging the same operating system, Kai, to launch a 4G flip phone with Google Assistant integration, as well as apps such as WhatsApp and YouTube.
Orange shows small army of Windows Mobile devices
Talk about sensory overload -- MoDaCo got its hands on a bunch of semi-official Orange debuts for a number of devices over the weekend, and we have to admit, we're insanely jealous. Perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, Samsung's "Blackjack" WM5 Smartphone comes fresh on the heels of the i320, offering basically the same functionality plus 3G data and a forward-facing camera for video calling (feeling the heat, Moto?). Also shown were the HTC Breeze and Oxygen, known on Orange as the C700 and C100 respectively; no real surprises here, though we can now confirm that the Oxygen won't be sporting DTV like we had previously heard might be the case. In case that all doesn't have ya impressed, the Hermes (M3100) and Star Trek (F600) showed up for the party, too. Don't know about you, but we're feeling a bit overwhelmed here; excuse us while we lie down for just a few minutes.
Qtek 8500 gets put through its paces
HTC's Qtek brand may be looking to close up shop but they're going out with a bang, dropping their version of the Star Trek / Smartflip. TrustedReviews has posted a fairly thorough, honest opinion of the WM5 clamshell, and the reviewer has thrown a good bit of fair criticism at the phone. The shared 64MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM leave less than half for the user to play with, battery life when busting out the tunes works out to about four hours, the headset connector is of a proprietary design, and the phone is arguably not quite as stylish as the RAZR it looks to emulate. The author concludes that while the 8500 is the only real game in town if you demand a WM5 flip, there's no compelling reason to get it over, say, a Faraday.
i-mate Smartflip (Star Trek) now available
We always like to put a big, shiny asterisk when we say "now available" in reference to an unsubsidized Windows Mobile device since actually tracking one down could be an exercise in futility for the next few weeks, but for what it's worth, i-mate has announced the release of its rendition of HTC's svelte WM5 clamshell. Cleverly called the Smartflip, availability is said to be for the Middle East only at the moment, but we all know they'll find their way across the globe post haste. With dual displays, RAZR-esque keypad, 64MB of RAM and ROM, and quad-band EDGE, the Smartflip is about as hot a WM5 Smartphone as you can get your paws on for now -- at least until the Breeze drops. [Warning: PDF link][Via Smartphone Thoughts]
Barrage of HTCs rumored in the pipeline
HTC, making sure that the enjoyment of our fresh Star Trek is kept to an absolute minimum, looks to be preparing a spectrum of lustworthy new devices. This information is entirely unconfirmed, and we don't know much about what we're about to tell you -- some of these code names are as new to us as they are to you -- but we can tell you it comes from a reliable source.First up, the Muse has been mercifully renamed the "Melody," and the Triolgy has become "Monet." The Hermes, which is just starting to drop across Europe, has been upped to 400MHz for full-scale production; you might recall we recently reported that O2 was bringing a 400MHz Hermes to the table, and it now appears this will be standard fare for launches going forward. Trinity (pictured) specs are coming into focus, and we should expect this beast to throw down HSDPA, WiFi, and integrated GPS. There have been some rumblings of an "Artemis" recently, and that device still appears to be on the map, bringing integrated GPS and a trackball (wha?) but topping out with EDGE data. The "Herald" sounds positively gorgeous, similar in concept and functionality to the Hermes but measuring just 17mm thick. The Foreseer and Monet will be joined by the "Oxygen" in HTC's mobile TV lineup, though we don't know which standard it'll be packing. Looking to steal some of the Q's thunder, the "Excalibur" will be getting its QWERTY on and running Smartphone. Finally, look for "Vera" as a possible successor to the Star Trek, packing HSDPA and a front-facing camera for video calling.That's a lot of unconfirmed data to digest, we know, and we're still trying to make sense of it all ourselves. No word on release windows for most of these -- if we could divine you a Vera tomorrow, we would -- but as always, we'll be burning the midnight oil in our quest for deets.
HTC Hermes and StarTrek launch plans revealed
Well, well, well, it looks like HTC took the opportunity to detail their 2006 US launch plans at CTIA while dropping that DVB-H capable Foreseer we peeped earlier. According to Phone Scoop who had the opportunity to sit down with an "HTC exec," we’ll see the quad-band GSM/EDGE HTC Star Trek WinMo 5.0 Smartphone arrive on these golden shores in mid-2006 while the HTC Hermes (pictured) should arrive sometime in Q4, most likely with Cingular. The US flavor of the 3G Hermes will go WCDMA 850/1900/2100 with all that high-speed HSDPA we’ve got the rangin' fiend for. Good to know.
