The US operators are in their usual October scramble to have the most eye-catching handsets for the holiday buying season, and several of the latest models are also coming to Europe soon. This week alone, the Sony Ericsson Equinox (at T-Mobile USA), HTC HD2 (in WinMo and possibly Android versions) and Palm Pixi (at Sprint) have caught our eye, and all three will be crossing the pond soon too.
The Equinox comes to T-Mobile USA on October 28, at $50 with two-year basic contract. Simultaneously, it will be launched by T-Mobile in Europe, under the less exciting name of T707. It is positioned as a fashion phone for the midmarket, particularly for young female users, and comes marketed by a host of celebrities including tennis star Maria Sharapova.
The Equinox, true to its fashion credentials, is pretty to look at but light on in-depth features. It is a flip-phone with customizable light effects – when linked to the TMo MyFaves service, which supports a list of close contacts for special rates and messaging apps, the Equinox lights up in one of five colors, each representing a different person on the list. There is also a hidden OLED screen on the exterior shell that lights up when a call is coming in.
Features include GPS, FM radio and 3.2-megapixel camera with software to upload videos automatically, from the phone directly to YouTube. The 3G handset also supports some gesture controls such as swinging the phone around to silence a call or alarm without opening the device. Under the flip, it sports a 2.2-inch, QVGA screen.
T-Mobile and Sony Ericsson are sponsoring a Maria Sharapova lookalike contest on Hallowe’en to promote the new phone.
Also going for the mass market is the cutdown version of the Palm Pre, the Pixi, which will be available through Sprint on November 15 at the price of $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, and with contract. As it tries to compete with a host of midrange phones sporting smartphone brands and capabilities, it may have to drop this price quicksmart to grab consumer attention. It will also come to the Pre’s exclusive European carrier, Telefonica O2, in time for Christmas, at least in the UK and Spain.
Far higher up the cellphone food chain is the HTC HD2, one of the most impressive of the recent wave of new Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets, and reportedly set to arrive at Verizon Wireless next month in an Android version codenamed Passion. The WinMo version, previously known as Leo, is coming to O2 UK in November, free with a £35-a-month two-year contract, and until then, it will be available via online retailer Expansys for £500 or Insight for £486. In the US, the Windows variant will debut at T-Mobile USA at the end of October, no pricing yet.
The product runs the superfast 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm and comes with a huge 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen. Its screen has far higher resolution than the iPhone’s, at 800 x 480 WVGA, and comes with the ‘pinch to zoom’ option beloved of Apple users. It also features a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, 960Mb of internal memory and 2Gb microSD card.
It now seems likely the planned HTC Passion will in fact be a CDMA/Android 2.0 version of the Leo and will come to Verizon Wireless in November. The Passion has been pictured in the wild with hardware buttons more like those on the Motorola Droid than the Leo. This has led to speculation that Verizon will insist on a similar button design and control interface across all its Android phones, and that it may use the term ‘Droid’ for the entire line-up, not just the Motorola phone (formerly known as Tao, and being launched officially by Verizon next week).
Source: unthinkable.biz | Published by Walri on Tuesday, 27th October 2009
The Equinox comes to T-Mobile USA on October 28, at $50 with two-year basic contract. Simultaneously, it will be launched by T-Mobile in Europe, under the less exciting name of T707. It is positioned as a fashion phone for the midmarket, particularly for young female users, and comes marketed by a host of celebrities including tennis star Maria Sharapova.
The Equinox, true to its fashion credentials, is pretty to look at but light on in-depth features. It is a flip-phone with customizable light effects – when linked to the TMo MyFaves service, which supports a list of close contacts for special rates and messaging apps, the Equinox lights up in one of five colors, each representing a different person on the list. There is also a hidden OLED screen on the exterior shell that lights up when a call is coming in.
Features include GPS, FM radio and 3.2-megapixel camera with software to upload videos automatically, from the phone directly to YouTube. The 3G handset also supports some gesture controls such as swinging the phone around to silence a call or alarm without opening the device. Under the flip, it sports a 2.2-inch, QVGA screen.
T-Mobile and Sony Ericsson are sponsoring a Maria Sharapova lookalike contest on Hallowe’en to promote the new phone.
Also going for the mass market is the cutdown version of the Palm Pre, the Pixi, which will be available through Sprint on November 15 at the price of $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, and with contract. As it tries to compete with a host of midrange phones sporting smartphone brands and capabilities, it may have to drop this price quicksmart to grab consumer attention. It will also come to the Pre’s exclusive European carrier, Telefonica O2, in time for Christmas, at least in the UK and Spain.
Far higher up the cellphone food chain is the HTC HD2, one of the most impressive of the recent wave of new Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets, and reportedly set to arrive at Verizon Wireless next month in an Android version codenamed Passion. The WinMo version, previously known as Leo, is coming to O2 UK in November, free with a £35-a-month two-year contract, and until then, it will be available via online retailer Expansys for £500 or Insight for £486. In the US, the Windows variant will debut at T-Mobile USA at the end of October, no pricing yet.
The product runs the superfast 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm and comes with a huge 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen. Its screen has far higher resolution than the iPhone’s, at 800 x 480 WVGA, and comes with the ‘pinch to zoom’ option beloved of Apple users. It also features a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, 960Mb of internal memory and 2Gb microSD card.
It now seems likely the planned HTC Passion will in fact be a CDMA/Android 2.0 version of the Leo and will come to Verizon Wireless in November. The Passion has been pictured in the wild with hardware buttons more like those on the Motorola Droid than the Leo. This has led to speculation that Verizon will insist on a similar button design and control interface across all its Android phones, and that it may use the term ‘Droid’ for the entire line-up, not just the Motorola phone (formerly known as Tao, and being launched officially by Verizon next week).
Source: unthinkable.biz | Published by Walri on Tuesday, 27th October 2009
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