Cell phones

LG had a rather action-packed Mobile World Congress, making several product announcements including the high-end LG Arena multimedia phone and choosing Windows Mobile as the primary operating system for its smartphones. As a result, the company's booth was buzzing with a steady stream of visitors, and we stopped by ourselves to take a look at some of the company's offerings.

The one thing I came away with is that LG loves its touch screens. Everywhere I turned, there was a touch screen staring back at me. Not that I'm complaining, but it got to the point where … Read more

With so may cell phones on the planet, it's hard to find a model with a design that stands out from the crowd. Yet, Samsung manages to do just that with its new Beat DJ. I caught up with it at the GSMA World Congress in Barcelona.

With rounded edges and a bright blue trim, the Beat DJ offers a striking design that feels comfortable in the hand. As a touch-screen phone, the only physical controls on the front face are Talk and End controls and a back button. Over on the right side you'll find a memory … Read more

Pantech has just announced the Pantech Matrix Pro, a dual-slider smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1. If you think Pantech Matrix sounds familiar, it's because Pantech released its non-smartphone cousin, the Pantech Matrix, a few months ago as a dual-slider messaging phone. The Matrix Pro is also Pantech's second attempt at a smartphone, after the rather sad Pantech Duo of two years ago. Also note that Pantech is the manufacturer behind the Helio Ocean and the Helio Ocean 2, which have a similar design.

Like all of its dual-slider handsets, the Matrix Pro slides up vertically to reveal … Read more

As Samsung made an impressive showing at the GSMA World Congress it's difficult to pick one of its new phones as the most notable. Yet, the company's Omnia HD certainly would be in the running. We had the opportunity to check it out while visiting with Samsung in Barcelona, Spain.

Though the Omnia HD is the next-generation model of the existing Omnia, it shows a few design differences. The curved ends give it a more eye-catching, aerodynamic look. It's also slightly bigger than its predecessor is, but we'll gladly take the extra heft with the stunning … Read more

Samsung wasn't the only company showing a solar-powered cell phone at the GSMA World Congress. On Wednesday, Chinese manufacturer ZTE launched a green model of its own.

Created with Digicel and Intivation, the Coral-200-Solar is designed for emerging markets where electricity may not be readily available. And, of course, it's Earth-friendly.

Exact feature details are sketchy at this point, but from what we can tell, the phone won't offer a lot of goodies. Considering its target markets, the Coral-200-Solar is really about making calls. It should be available in June.

The candy bar design is pretty plain … Read more

The Sony Ericsson Idou may just be a concept phone, but I had the opportunity to handle it while visiting the company's booth at the GSMA World Congress. Indeed, a press pass has its benefits, as other show attendees could gaze at it only in a glass display.

As the Idou is not a finished product, the Sony Ericsson rep wouldn't let the model out of his sight. We had a similar experience at CES 2009 when we examined the Palm Pre--we could touch the outside all we wanted, but we couldn't get an extensive tour … Read more

Another day at GSMA winds to a close, and even though there aren't as many new devices, we did get a few important announcements.

The most exciting announcement of the day was probably about the HTC Magic, Vodafone's Android-based smartphone. It doesn't have the slide-out QWERTY keyboard of the T-Mobile G1, but it does look quite sleek. Speaking of Vodafone, we also read news of a GSM Palm Pre that may be slated for Vodafone in the near future, but unfortunately Palm's lips are sealed.

As for other manufacturers, LG announced another handset, dubbed the LG … Read more

On the second day of the GSMA World Congress, Modu added to the gallery of jackets it released last week by unveiling a new music jacket with JBL. Called the Modu Music Jacket (the company really has a way with clever names), it's designed to turn the tiny Modu phone into a pretty snappy music device.

On one side of the jacket are two JBL Odyssey speakers and dedicated music controls, while the opposite side resembles a regular cell phone with a 2.2-inch display, a full navigation array, and a standard alphanumeric keypad. Admittedly, it's a little … Read more

The new Sony Ericsson Idou and W995 Walkman weren't the only new handsets sitting pretty in the company's GSMA World Congress booth. We also spied the C903 Cyber-shot and W395 Walkman, which debuted before the show began. To refresh your memory, the C903 is a 5-megapixel camera phone and the W395 is low-end Walkman phone.

We dropped by the Sony Ericsson booth on Tuesday to put the handsets through their paces. First up was the C903. Sporting a slider design, the C903 has a rather angular look, even with the rounded corners. The slider mechanism is solid and … Read more