Samsung announces Omnia W

Windows phone 7 Mango update is coming any moment now and so are the first phones that will have it stock right out of the box. HTC has already announced the Mango-based Titan and Radar, so today is the Samsung's turn - meet the Omnia W.

The Omnia W packs a 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED screen and is based on the Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset with a 1.4GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 graphics and 512MB RAM. Since Microsoft has strict policy about the hardware there is very little space Samsung to innovate.

    
Samsung Omnia W official pictures

The rest of the specs are pretty much standard - a 5 megapixel snapper with a LED flash, a 720p camcorder, a front-facing VGA camera, 8GB internal storage, a 1500mAh battery and the usual connectivity (Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth).

Samsung Omnia W runs on the latest Windows Phone 7 Mango version and there are just few Samsung apps you can download for free to get something unique with your phone, since Microsoft forbids customizations.

We also got a chance to play around with the Omnia W. It's nicely compact and not too heavy. The battery cover is made out of brushed metal (a nice touch!) but the rest of the body is plastic. Still, the Omnia W feels solidly built

On the front, there's the 3.7" SuperAMOLED screen with WVGA resolution. Below that is the Windows key flanked by capacitive back and search keys. There's a half-pressable shutter key on the side as it's customary for Windows Phones.

Press shots for HTC Amaze 4G (Ruby) 

HTC Ruby related things have leaked again and again. The phone that will most likely launch for T-Mobile USA as the HTC Amaze 4G can now add these two leaked press shots to its portfolio of leaked photos.

They show clear T-Mobile branding, which we've seen before in blurry-cam form. The phone reportedly sports a 4.3" qHD screen and 8MP camera with dual-LED flash (which can be seen in the photos).

 
HTC Amaze 4G (Ruby) for T-Mobile USA leaked pres shots

The HTC Amaze 4G packs a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM (like its Raider 4G sibling). It will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread with Sense UI 3.5 (which means you get 5GB free Dropbox storage).

The Amaze 4G gets its "4G" mark from its HSPA+ connectivity, which is rumored to go as fast as 42Mbps downlink. For comparison, LTE speeds reach 100Mbps downlink (note that both these numbers are theoretical maximums not reached in real-world usage).

T-Mobile should be launching the Amaze 4G in a few weeks say the rumors - the HTC event on October 6th seems like a good bet for when exactly.

Interestingly, we've seen photos of the HTC Amaze 4G free of T-Mobile branding, which suggests that we'll be seeing the device on other carriers, possibly with a different moniker.

Touch panel issues to delay the iPhone 5

Issues with the touch panels, produced by one of Apple's suppliers will, reportedly, be causing a delay in the shipments of the next iPhone. According to the latest rumors, the defect panels are going to render Apple unable to meet the initial shipping targets for their upcoming smartphone.

The panels in question are manufactured by Wintek and are allegedly suffering from a "delayed bubble" issue which becomes apparent only later during the in the process of assembly. Since Wintek is delivering about 20-25% of the touch panels for the next iPhone, the supply shortages shouldn't be too dramatic, but that also depends on how the other suppliers are doing.

We are yet to see if that new turn of events will affect the actual announcement of the next iPhone. Previously, we heard that the unveiling will take place on October 4th, but that hasn't been confirmed by Apple just yet.

Motorola Atrix 2 

A couple of days the folks at The Verge did a hands-on with the Motorola Atrix 2, then known as the Edison. They have now returned with full confirmed specs of the device, along with official images of the phone and the laptop dock it will be straddling.

The Motorola Atrix 2 will have a 4.3-inch QHD display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB (2GB card supplied) and an 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash.

The Atrix 2 will only work with AT&T's HSPA+ network and not on LTE. Motorola claims battery life figures of 8.5 hours talk time and 15.9 days in stand-by. The battery on the Atrix 2 is said to be smaller than the one on the original Atrix.

The Atrix 2 will work with the new Lapdock 100, which unlike the previous dock, is not meant exclusively for the Atrix 2. This means the phone does not plug directly into the Lapdock but sits on it and a cable connects it to the Lapdock. This makes the accessory compatible with other Motorola phones as well that supports this functionality, something the original Lapdock was not capable of. This one also has a smaller 10.1-inch display compared to the 11.6 on the previous model.

Samsung announces Galaxy S II LTE and S II HD LTE 

Samsung has announced two new smartphone for the South Korean market. The first is the Galaxy S II LTE that we saw back at the IFA and the second, and the one that a lot of people were waiting for, is the Galaxy S II HD LTE.

The Galaxy S II LTE has a 1.5GHz processor, 4.5-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display, 8 megapixel camera, 1080p video recording, 16GB internal memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, TV-out via MHL and an 1,850mAh battery, all in a 9.5mm thick body. The Galaxy S II LTE will be sold through SK Telecom in South Korea.

Now coming to its more exciting brother, the Galaxy S II HD LTE has a stonking 4.65-inch SuperAMOLED (not Plus) screen with 1280 x 720 resolution display (316 PPI), making it rather unique in the Galaxy S II range of handsets. All the other specifications of the device remain identical to the Galaxy S II LTE. The Galaxy S II HD LTE will be sold through three carriers, SK Telecom, KT and LG U+.

Motorola DROID RAZR with QHD Super AMOLED 

A tantalizing new Motorola smartphone has just leaked through the taps of the interweb. Called Motorola DROID RAZR, the device is packing some serious kit in that sleek Kevlar and Gorilla glass body.

First of all, it has a 4.3-inch QHD display, but it's not your run-of-the-mill LCD but a Super AMOLED display. There is a good chance that it will be a PenTile-matrix display but most people couldn't care less about the underlying technology when the actual image quality happens to be eye-poppingly good.

Other specs include 4G LTE support, dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording and image stabilization, HD front camera and support for Motorola's WebTop accessories. The design looks really attractive and being a RAZR it should be really thin as well. The DROID nomenclature suggests it will be available on Verizon, although there could be a version for other networks and markets (called the Spyder).

LG Optimus EX and Samsung E120L 

South Korea is in for a treat as both LG and Samsung are planning to treat their motherland with two new high-end smartphones.

First up is LG with the SU880 Optimus Ex. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory (expandable), 4-inch WVGA IPS NOVA display, 5 megapixel camera, 1080p video recording, Android 2.3.4 and a 1,500mAh battery.

The Optimus Ex weighs 127g and is only 9.65mm thick. It will be sold in two colors: black/silver and white/champagne gold, on the SK Telecom network in Korea. No pricing or release date is known at the moment.

If you think that's good then you will love what Samsung has to offer. The SHV-E120L will have a massive 4.7-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, 8 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.

Now there may be some concerns about the usability of a phone with a 4.7-inch display that's even bigger than the one on the similarly specced LG LU6200 but you can't deny it's one hell of a device. This one's supposed to hit Korea in October but sadly there is no information about it's international availability.

iPhone 4S launching on October 21

According to a Greek website an iPhone will be announced in early October and released to the major markets around the world on October 21. The site claims this will be the iPhone 4S with the same size display, 8 MP camera with 1080p video recording, a dual-core 1GHz A5 processor inside and a second antenna on the top.

The rest of the specs are pretty much identical to the current iPhone 4. The site claims to have a "100% reliable source", but we wouldn't rush to bet our salaries on it if we were you.

We also received another tip, claiming that the next iPhone will feature BlackBerry's Messenger service. According to the tipster, BlackBerry will be getting a lot of cash in return for their messaging service. Once again there's no confirmation of any kind to those rumors, so it might all end up to be science fiction.

Now, we are not quite sure what to make of those rumors. The iPhone 4S seems likely as Al Gore himself says there will be more than one iPhone announced next month, JP Morgan confirms that, and AT&T haslisted a white iPhone 4S. But what about the iMessage service that will come with iOS 5 - is Apple just going to put it side by side with BlackBerry Messenger?

HTC Raider 4G with LTE 

HTC Raider 4G (or HTC Holiday as it was known previously) has leaked numerous times before, but now we finally got official information about it. The Korean version of the LTE-packing smartphone was just unveiled.

HTC Raider 4G packs a 4.5-inch qHD IPS display and is based on the same platform as the recently announced Sensation XE - Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon (but for the GSM radio, which has been replaced by CDMA). So there is a 1.5GHz dual-core Scorpion processor inside, Adreno 220 graphics and 1GB RAM. It also has 16GB internal storage expandable via a microSD card slot.

 
HTC Raider 4G

HTC Raider 4G has an 8 megapixel camera with 28mm wide-angle F/2.2 lens and dual-LED flash that can record 1080p video. There's also a 1.3MP front-facing snapper. It is LTE capable among the usual connectivity package - Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth.

Just as expceted, the HTC Raider 4G runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and has the latest HTC Sense 3.5 UI on top of it.

There is no info on pricing or availability yet. There is also nothing on the expected GSM version which has previously been rumored to hit AT&T.

HTC Rhyme

HTC has finally announced Rhyme. It's a mid-range Android handset targeting the female smartphone users out there. The gadget was previously rumored as HTC Bliss and leaked numerous times inpictures, specs, spy shots, etc.

Despite the lack of surprise about it, the Rhyme still looks pretty sweet. It is based on the Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon (MSM8655 for Verizon) featuring a 1GHz single-core Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU and 768MB RAM. HTC Rhyme utilizes a 3.7-inch WVGA display and has 5 megapixel snapper with 720p camcorder, 4GB internal storage, 8GB pre-installed microSD card and the usual connectivity package.

    
HTC Rhyme

HTC Rhyme runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and comes with the latest Sense UI 3.5 on top of it. There is also the HTC Watch service for on-demand Hollywood movies streaming.

The most interesting part about the Rhyme is its retail package. It comes with a docking station, a "sports armband", a Bluetooth headset and a "Charm cable" that has a small cube, which lights up for incoming calls and messages. There is also a nice in-ear wired headset with music controls. All the accessories will come in the Rhyme color. The Verizon's Rhyme will come in "lavender", but we already saw a silver version too.

There is nothing mentioned about the previously rumored pouch. We guess it might be a market-dependent thing.

   
HTC Rhyme hands-on photos

The HTC Rhyme is hitting Verizon's network on September 29. Europe and Asian markets are going to get it in October. There is nothing on the price yet, but it shouldn’t be too expensive.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich coming to all '11 Xperia phones

Sony Ericsson is really doing well this year. All of its latest Xperia phones - arc, neo, PLAY, mini and mini proturned out to be really great devices, with even more coming soon up - ray, active and arc S.

All the latest Xperia are based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and as we found out have quite good performance. Recently, Sony Ericsson announced it will update all of them with Android 2.3.4, which brings tons of new features - USB on-the-go, Sony 3D sweep panorama for the camera, even better Facebook integration, Swype-like text input (T9 Trace), integrated screen capture, video chats via Google Talk and more.

And today the company confirmed that all those Xperia phones will be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, when that becomes available. The Android best-of-both-worlds edition should come out this October or November, so early next year is when the Xperia updates can realistically be expected.

The Ice Cream Sandwich is the Honeycomb version for smartphones and will include the 3.0 major features plus lots of new ones - various NFC options, Xbox Kinect-like feature called Virtual Camera Operator, USB hub support, etc.

Sony Ericsson isn't exactly known for its timely updates, but the company is obviously set to change its ways and fix its reputation in the process.

Nokia N8-01 (801?) 

We just stumbled upon photos of a new Nokia smartphone. The device dubbed to be the Nokia N8's successor, is said to be called N8-01 (though, considering Nokia's new naming policy the Nokia 801 seems more likely) and features a qHD screen.

The images come from this Nokia 700 hands-on video, courtesy of the Greeks from Techblog. While testing the Belle-running 700 video player, the review runs a video, which features the unannounced smartphone with an edge-to-edge curved screen.

 
Nokia 801/N8-01

You may check out the video itself below. The Nokia 801 makes an appearance at 2:20 minutes in.

The Nokia 801 is another Symbian device that, if the N8 successor guesses are true, should pack one hell of a camera. Will we see it go live at this year's Nokia world?

HTC Sensation 4G

Rating

4.5

Pros

• Dual core + 4G = awesome performance
• Gorgeous qHD display
• Thin, curved design

Cons

• Some antenna issues may exist
• Camcorder footage looks shaky

Bottom Line

The Sensation delights with a gorgeous display, a beautiful design, and dual-core power, but possible “death grip” issues are worrisome.

HTC Sensation 4G Review: Beautiful and Powerful, but Its Antenna May Be Weak

The HTC Sensation 4G ($200 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile) pretty much has it all: a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the latest version of Android (Gingerbread), and 4G speeds on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. When I first played with Sensation 4G, I was blown away by its beautiful hardware, gorgeous display, and slick user interface. After spending a few days with the phone, my opinion of it hasn't changed; but I did run into some troubling issues with its antenna.

Death Grip Issues?

There has been quite a bit of rumbling about the possibility that the Sensation 4G has "death grip" issues similar to those that plagued the iPhone 4. Sites are reporting that when you hold the Sensation in a certain way, you can lose Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 4G connectivity. According to a Swedish Website calledNordic Hardware, the problems occur when you lay the phone flat in the palm of your hand.

I decided to take matters into my own hands (no pun intended) and conduct a series of informal tests in which I mimicked the way that the Nordic Hardware folks held the Sensation 4G in this video. I streamed a movie trailer over 4G from HTC Watch and managed to choke the video three times during playback, though I had to move my hands around quite a bit and grip the phone to kill the 4G signal and send the video into buffer mode. When I performed the same test over Wi-Fi, I couldn't kill the Wi-Fi signal, no matter how hard I tried.

I also tested T-Mobile's HSPA+ network in various parts of San Francisco, using the FCC-approved Ookla app. Again, I found that how I held the phone seemed to affect its data speeds. In three tests conducted in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco, I recorded an average download speed of 1.82 megabits per second and an average upload speed of 0.79 mbps when I held the phone by its edges. But in three tests immediately afterward in the same location, this time with my hand covering the phone's back cover in the "death grip," the phone delivered an average download speed of 0.83 mbps and an average upload speed of 0.64 mbps. These test results suggest that holding the phone in a certain way may have contributed to the observed degradation in data speeds.

One caveat: T-Mobile does not have a very strong 4G signal in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco (where PCWorld's offices are located). When I asked the company about these issues, HTC replied, "Every phone experiences a slight variation in signal strength when the antenna is covered in its entirety by a palm or fingers, however under normal circumstances this does not affect the performance of the phone."

I view my test results as worrisome, but not conclusive. We will be conducting more of our own tests over the next few days. Stay tuned for a video and our test results.

Thin, Curved Design

I love the way HTC unibody phones look and feel, but it's getting hard to distinguish one from another, with their solid gray or black battery covers. Thankfully, HTC has mixed up the color scheme with a tritone paneled battery cover for the Sensation 4G.

You'll also feel a change in design when you hold the Sensation 4G. Despite having a 4.3-inch display, the phone doesn't feel oversize. Large phones such as the HTC EVO Shift 4G and the HTC ThunderBolt are wider and more difficult for me to use (I have small hands). The qHD display technology allows the phone to be relatively narrow, so it's easier to hold and use in one hand. Measuring 4.96 by 2.57 by 0.44 inches, the Sensation 4G is quite thin as well. And because the display is slightly concave, it won't get scratched if you place it face down on a table.

The Sensation 4G's 4.3-inch Quarter High Definition display has a resolution of 960 by 540 pixels arranged in a 16:9 aspect ratio. That resolution is one-quarter of a full-HD 1080p frame (hence the name), or three-quarters of a 720p frame. The HTC EVO 3D for Sprint, which we saw at CTIA last month, has a qHD display, too, but it uses a parallax barrier to create 3D images.

The screen on the Sensation 4G yielded spectacular images: Colors were bright yet not oversaturated, details looked sharp, and animations in the user interface--and native video--played back smoothly. In bright sunlight, however, the display completely fades. Don't phone manufacturers know that people need to use their phones outdoors sometimes? I had a very hard time finding a phone number to let some friends know that I was outside their apartment.

You'll find the usual touch-sensitive buttons below the display: Home, Menu, Back, and Search. The headphone jack and the power/lock button sit at the top of the phone. A very long chrome volume rocker occupies the left spine, with the micro-USB port situated below it. The left spine and the bottom of the phone are bare. Note that there is no HDMI port or MHL port for connecting the Sensation 4G to your HDTV.

New Sense User Interface

Like the EVO 3D, the Sensation 4G sports the latest version of the Sense user interface, with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) running underneath. Sense is the prettiest of the Android overlays, and the latest version has some sweet features.

One of these features is a new customizable lock screen, which works similarly to the newly announced lock screen in iOS 5. You can pick a theme for your lock screen (the phone offers quite a few of them to choose from) and then select four apps that you visit most frequently. When you turn on your phone, you'll see the four apps at the bottom of the screen. To unlock the screen, simply drag the circle into position over an app, at which point you'll jump straight to that app. Thanks to this feature, you don't have to go through multiple menus to reach your e-mail or other frequently accessed items.

The new version of Sense has a spruced-up Walls system, too. Rather than having to flick back and forth between your walls, as you do in the stock Android operating system, you can flick the Sensation 4G's screen to make the walls spin. The effect is reminiscent of a rotating carousel. And like the older version of Sense, you can pinch anywhere in your homescreen to see thumbnail-size images of your walls.

You'll find a clutch of new widgets in Sense, but my favorite is the gorgeous new Weather widget. HTC has a solid tradition of creating visual weather apps, and it's nice to see the company continue to improve them.

Multimedia

The Sensation 4G also comes loaded with HTC's new movie and TV show streaming service, Watch. You can download videos from Watch and start viewing them immediately. Watch is well integrated into Sense, so finding the videos that you want to view is easy. The app's interface is clean, and movies are easy to find, but the library is pretty sparse at this point. You'll find some newly released movies like Due Date and some classics like Top Gun. If you're looking for something in particular, though, you're not likely to find it (no Spinal Tap!). A few popular TV shows like Chuck and Gossip Girl show up, but you're limited to one or two seasons of episodes.

On the plus side, video from Watch played back smoothly and looked great on the Sensation 4G's display. Audio accompanying the video sounded crisp and clear when piped through the Sensation's external speakers, with ample volume.

Unfortunately, the Netflix Android app is not yet available for the Sensation 4G. Watch has potential, but HTC needs to add more content to keep customers happy.

Camera

Like the EVO 3D and the ThunderBolt, the Sensation has a back-facing 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing camera for video chat. HTC says that it has tweaked both the hardware and the software to improve the back-facing camera's shutter speed. I noticed and appreciated the quicker speed in my hands-on tests. It doesn't matter how good a camera's image quality is if the device suffers from shutter lag, since the delay makes snapping photos of people or animals incredibly difficult.

Colors in my outdoor photos looked vivid yet natural. Details could have been sharper, but overall, I was very pleased with how the snapshots turned out. Photos taken indoors also looked pretty good. There was a bit of a dark cast to the colors, but details were fairly sharp, even when the photo was blown up. The flash does a decent job of lighting up photos without completely blowing them out (except for whites, as evidenced by the middle Furby's chest in the test photo above).

You can shoot video in 1080p thanks to the dual-core processor, but I was disappointed with its overall quality. Playback was choppy, and the colors had a strange cast to them.

Performance

Call quality over T-Mobile's network was fairly good. A few of my friends reported that my voice sounded somewhat muffled. One reported that the background noise (traffic and wind) was quite distracting during our call.

Thanks to the dual-core Snapdragon processor, the Sensation 4G handled every app I threw at it perfectly. Angry Birds Rio played smoothly and looked terrific on the phone's lovely display. Even when I had multiple apps open, the Sensation 4G did not seem to slow down.

We haven't had a chance to formally test this HTC phone's battery life. Its 1,520mAh lithium ion battery has a vendor-rated talk time of 8.3 hours and up to 12 days of standby time. My unit went a full day of heavy testing before I had to recharge it.

Bottom Line

If you're in the market for a new phone this summer, you face a tough decision: There are a lot of hot phones available. Hey, that's not a bad thing at all! The Sensation 4G has some impressive specs and a gorgeous design, and I love the new updates in the Sense user interface.

The phone's possible antenna issues are disturbing. As we learned from the Apple iPhone 4 fiasco, trying to avoid holding a phone in a certain way is not a reasonable limitation to impose on users. And though I had to try to kill the Sensation 4G's signal, I succeeded in doing it. We'll be doing more testing in coming days. For now, I recommend the HTC Sensation 4G, but you should be aware that antenna problems could interfere with your data speed.