Nokia N8 Specs:

• Network: 2G GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
• Dimension: 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm
• Weight: 135 grams
• Screen: AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16 million colors, 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches, Multi-touch input method, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
• Camera: 12 Megapixels, 4000 x 3000 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, Autofocus, Xenon flash, 1/1.83” sensor size, ND filter, Geo-tagging, Face detection, Video 720p@25fps, Secondary camera (VGA)
• Connectivity: HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2.0 Mbps, EDGE Class 33, GPRS Class 33, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, UPnP technology, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, MicroUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support, 3.5 mm audio jack
• Memory: 16 GB internal, 256MB RAM, 512 MB ROM, MicroSD up to 32 GB external
• Battery: Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-4D)
• Other features: Symbian^3 OS, 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, WAP 2.0 / xHTML, HTML browser, RSS feeds, Java with A-GPS support, Ovi Maps 3.0, Java MIDP 2.1, Games, TV-out (720p video) via HDMI with Dolby Digital Plus sound, Anodized aluminum casing, Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic, Digital compass, Voice command / dial, Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF), Flash Lite v4.0, Predictive text input,Audio player (MP3 / WMA / WAV / eAAC+), Video player (DivX / XviD / MP4 / H.264 / H.263 / WMV), Audio recorder, Video recorder, Video / photo editor, MP3 & WAV ringtones, Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM transmitter

Nokia N8 unboxing photos:

I’ll be spending the next few days testing all its features so expect the full review by next week. Let me know if you have any questions or specific features you’d like to know about the Nokia N8 and I’ll try to include it on my review.

Mini versions of larger and more expensive handsets/smartphones is becoming one of the trends in this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Earlier today, HTC released 3 new mobile devices at MWC 2010. First one is the HTC HD Mini which specs-wise is a mini version of the HTC HD 2. The other 2 handsets are the HTC Legend, a sexy aluminum-cased phone and the HTC Desire which has a very striking resemblance to the Google Nexus One.

The HTC HD Mini is a small version of the HD2 running on Windows Mobile 6.5.3, a 600MHz MSM7227 processor, has a 3.2″ HVGA multi-touch capacitive display, a 5 megapixel camera and 512MB ROM / 384MB RAM. It will be available in Europe and Asia in the 2nd quarter of this year.

Product Photos

HTC HD Mini product page

Next is the HTC Legend, a beautiful and sexy mobile device running on Android 2.1, a 600MHz MSM7227 processor, sporting a 3.2″ HVGA AMOLED display and the Sense UI, a 5 megapixel camera, 512MB ROM / 384 RAM and an optical joystick. The HTC Legend will start shipping in Europe next month and will be available in Asia in the 2nd quarter of this year.

Product Photos

HTC Legend product page

Last, but not least is the HTC Desire which is actually the most impressive one in this new batch of HTC phones. The HTC Desire is an Android 2.1-powered device running on 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB ROM / 576 RAM, with a 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED display, a 5 megapixel camera, an optical joystick and full Microsoft Exchange support. This phonen will be available both in Europe and Asia starting in the 2nd quarter of this year.

Product Photos

HTC Desire product page

Inspite of being 3 totally different mobile devices, the HTC HD Mini, HTC Legend and HTC Desire have these things in common: GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, G-sensors, 3.5mm headphone jacks, dual-band (900/2100MHz) 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity and a new social media app called “Friend Stream”. There’s no word yet when or whether the HTC HD Mini, HTC Legend and HTC Desire would be made available here in the US or in North America or how much each handset costs.

Among these 3 new handsets released by HTC, which one do you like the most? The HTC HD Mini, HTC Legend or the HTC Desire?

Yesterday, HTC introduced their latest QWERTY smartphone called the HTC Snap at the CTIA convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. When I first saw it, what immediately came to my mind was that it had the resemblance of a Blackberry Bold and a Nokia E71 with its trackball and QWERTY keyboard in full public display.

The HTC Snap was designed for business people, executives and other users whose main purpose is using a handset for communications – sending emails, text messages and other documents. The HTC Snap smartphone is also the first HTC handset to use an email prioritization system called “Inner Circle” that allows the user to specify an exclusive group of people as high priority contacts or the users “Inner Circle”. With a touch of a button, all emails from people who belong to your “Inner Circle” will be sorted and pushed on top of the list/inbox for quick and easy access.

Specifications:

• Qualcomm MSM 7225 processor, 528 MHz
• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard OS
• QWERTY keypad with dedicated messaging, email and Inner Circle hotkeys
• 256MB ROM, 192MB RAM
• microSDHC support
• Dimensions: 4.59″ x 2.42″ x .47″ (LxWxT)
• Weight: 4.23 ounces (with battery)
• Display: 2.4″ (diagonal) QVGA (320×240)
• 1500 mAh battery
• HSDPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz or HSDPA/WCDMA 850/1900 MHz (HTC S522)
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• Wi-Fi (b/g)
• GPS/aGPS

Additional Photos:

Here’s HTC’s Press Release for the HTC Snap smartphone:

HTC Snap™ makes staying in touch with more people less complicated

LAS VEGAS – April 1, 2009 – HTC Corporation today debuted its newest QWERTY smartphone, the HTC Snap™. Designed with a set of features selected to deliver everything customers need without overwhelming them with things they don’t, the HTC Snap makes it easier than ever to stay in contact with life’s most important people.

A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive® and commissioned by HTC* found that 44% of US adults are often overwhelmed by the amount of email they receive, and over half (55%) of US adults prioritize five or fewer people with whom they communicate via email. In response to these issues, HTC’s innovative Inner Circle feature allows HTC Snap users to press a dedicated Inner Circle key to bring emails from a preselected group of people to the top of their inbox, enabling important messages to be acted upon immediately.

“Recognizing that people are being overwhelmed by an avalanche of email, the HTC Snap introduces Inner Circle, an HTC innovation that makes it easy for people to prioritize messages from the most important people in their lives at the press of a button,” said John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer, HTC Corporation. “The HTC Snap represents the latest step in HTC’s mission to create a range of innovative smartphones, each with specific benefits designed to both surprise and delight our customers.”

With a slim, sleek profile designed to fit perfectly in the hand, the HTC Snap measures less than a half-inch thick (12 mm), yet it can deliver up to eight and a half hours of talk time with the standard 1500mAh battery. The full QWERTY keyboard is ergonomically designed with extra-large domed keys and responsive tactile feedback to make typing emails and text messages fast, accurate and comfortable. High-speed 3G HSPA connectivity makes it quick and easy to send pictures to friends, access favorite social networking sites, or download large files while on the go.

The HTC Snap is powerful enough for experienced business users looking for an affordable, straightforward choice for remotely synchronizing email, calendar and contacts with their Microsoft Exchange server. However, the flexible Microsoft Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard platform allows the HTC Snap to also be simple enough for first-time smartphone users wanting to keep their family life organized.

The HTC Snap is expected to be available in select channels during the second quarter of 2009, rolling out in markets around the world throughout the second half of the year. Additionally, an unlocked version supporting HSDPA at 850/1900MHz for the US market will be made available under the name HTC S522 during the summer.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a HTC fanboy. Ever since I got my AT&T Tilt aka HTC TyTN II, I’ve fell in love with HTC and their handsets/mobile devices. Although I prefer handsets with bigger screens, I still like the design and look of the HTC Snap. It’s slim, sexy and looks very classy and elegant.

HTC fans here in the US, especially those on AT&T have long been waiting for the newer version or successor to the popular AT&T Tilt aka HTC TyTn II. Several days ago, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, HTC announced the release of the HTC Touch Pro2.

HTC Touch Pro 2

Designed for business professionals, the HTC Touch Pro2 is architected with distinct style and strength while delivering the most powerful productivity experience available on a mobile phone. Leveraging HTC’s TouchFLO 3D, people-centric communication and Push Internet technology, the Touch Pro2 features a high-resolution 3.6-inch widescreen VGA display for an expanded viewing area and large finger-friendly QWERTY keyboard. With improved battery life, expandable memory, a touch-sensitive zoom bar as well as gravity, proximity and ambient light sensors, the Touch Pro2 is optimized for touch as well as heavy email use.

Specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
• Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Memory: ROM: 512 MB, RAM: 288 MB
• Dimensions: 116 X 59.2 X 17.25 mm (4.57 X 2.33 X 0.68 inches)
• Weight: 175 grams (6.17 ounces) with battery
• Display: 3.6-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen, 480 X 800 WVGA resolution, Adjustable tilt screen
• Network: HSDPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz, Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
• Network: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, (Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)
• Device Control: TouchFLO™ 3D, Zoom bar
• Keyboard: Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
• GPS: Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity: Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g, HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)
• Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
• Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
• Audio formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
• Video formats: WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI
• Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, Capacity: 1500 mAh
• Talk time: Up to 270 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 419 minutes for GSM
• Standby time: Up to 454 hours for WCDMA, Up to 348 hours for GSM
• Video call time: Up to 150 minutes
• Expansion Slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• AC Adapter: Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
• DC output: 5V and 1A
• Special Features: FM Radio, G-Sensor

Additional Photos:

The HTC Touch Pro2 is not only an improved version of its predecessor, the HTC Touch Pro but a combination of the TyTN II, Touch Pro and the HTC Touch HD with features like tilting screen, 3.6″ touch screen display and TouchFlo 3D.

With HTC’s Straight Talk technology providing crystal-clear sound quality/voice reception and built-in loudspeaker and dedicated noise-cancelling microphone, the HTC Touch Pro2 can make superior quality conference calls. Another cool feature in the HTC Touch Pro2 is the one that activates speakerphone when the phone is flipped upside down.

The slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard looks really nice, the keys are not cramped and are well spaced out, numbers and special characters get their own dedicated keypads which makes it easier to use for sending emails or text messages. The HTC Touch Pro2′s keyboard has a close resemblance to Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1‘s keyboard, which coincidentally was designed and manufactured by HTC for Sony Ericsson.

The HTC Touch Pro2 will be available in global markets, Europe and Asia by early summer. No word on when it will be available here in the US/North America or which carrier gets it, but hopefully they’ll release it here later this year and hopefully AT&T gets it.

[image source: HTC.com]

A couple days ago, Toshiba officially introduced the Toshiba TG01 smartphone. This mobile internet device looks like something that is geared to compete with the popular Apple iPhone 3G and Android powered G1. The Toshiba TG01 is only 9.9 mm thick but it boasts a 4.1″ WVGA full touch screen display (800 x 480 pixels). It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and comes with Internet Explorer Mobile 6 (full support for Flash). The Toshiba TG01 is the first device in the world to run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform (1GHz mobile CPU).

Toshiba TG01′s internal memory is only 512 MB but has a microSD card slot that supports up to 32 GB. It has support for DivX videos and unlike other WinMo powered devices, the TG01 doesn’t use RealPlayer as the default multimedia player but instead it uses CorePlayer which is considered the best mobile multimedia player around.

Specifications:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• 1.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD2850
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• 3G/HSDPA
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels
• GPS/aGPS support
• Accelerometer
• 512MB internal, up to 32GB storage via microSD
• 4.1 inches (480×800 pixels) full touch screen display
• microSD slot

Additional Photos:

Below is the official video released by Toshiba. It gives us a closer look at the Toshiba TG01′s features including the custom 3D GUI and the on-screen keyboard.

The Toshiba TG01 comes in two colors – black and white and as always, our European friends will be the first to get their hands on it this summer. So far no word regarding which operator/carrier gets it or how much it will be sold. I hope they’ll also release it here in the US or North America.

Based on the photos, videos and specifications I can say that I’m very impressed with the Toshiba TG01 except for one thing, the striped custom Toshiba 3D GUI which I think is ugly. But overall, the Toshiba TG01 is a slim and sexy mobile device that packs a punch.

So what do you think of the Toshiba TG01? Is it worthy enough to compete with iPhone 3G or G1?

[via Engadget; video by MegaWhat.tv]