New Orleans – More new phones showed up at Wireless 2005 than street musicians on Bourbon Street. Here’s a peek at some of the new handsets unveiled at Wireless 2005 for the U.S. market:
Haier: New phones included two PDA phones, one of which is the Linux-based 900/1,800/1,900MHz N60 with touch screen and bundled Wi-Fi SD card to deliver voice over IP. A PocketPC-based PDA phone is the 850/900/1,800/1,900MHz M500. Both feature 1.3-megapixel camera and GPRS. The latter features Bluetooth. They’ll be available in the second half to carriers.
Kyocera: The new KX5 is a CDMA 1x slider phone that combines a 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder and MP3 player that decodes compressed-music files in the Windows Media Audio (WMA), MP3, AAC, and AAC+ formats. It accepts TransFlash memory cards up to 512MB to store music and pictures. It’s due in the third quarter.
LG Mobile Phones: Plans for 17 new handsets this year include an expanded selection of slider phones and the LG8100 CDMA 1x EV-DO phone, the company’s second EV-DO phone for the United States. Compared with the current EV-DO phone, the 8100 is smaller but adds MP3 playback; stereo speakers; Bluetooth; 3D graphics engine; and Mini-SD slot for storing music, images and video. It’s the company’s second EV-DO phone for the United States. Both feature a 1.3-megapixel camera.
Another new EV-DO phone featured music-on-demand service.
The company’s first two push-to-talk (PTT) phones were the 7200 GSM handset and the 4750 CDMA 1x handset, which uses the Kodiak PTT technology adopted by Alltel.
The company’s first EDGE phone, the 7110 shown at CES, was on display and will be followed in the second half by “several” more EDGE models, a spokesman said.
Motorola: The styling cues of the RAZR V3 quadband super-thin, clamshell GSM handset has been expanded to two thin candy bar-style phones, both of them 850/1,800/1,900MHz GSM models due in the second half.
One is the SLVR V8 with EDGE, Bluetooth, VGA camera, digital audio player, TransFlash slot and 262K color display. The other is the V280, a midtier VGA-camera phone with Bluetooth but without EDGE.
The EDGE-equipped V557 is a multiband GSM phone with VGA camera and Bluetooth. It’s the first handset with the company’s Screen3 personal portal service, which pushes customized information that scrolls across the phone’s display.
Also new: the dual-band GSM/GPRS V176, a mass-market-oriented clamshell due in the second half with speakerphone, instant messaging, MMS and push-to-talk.
Recently introduced phones included the 1.23-megapixel EDGE-equipped V635 and the EV-DO-equipped E815, due in the first half with MP3 player and TransFlash memory card. The E815 will be Motorola’s third U.S. phone with MP3 player, a spokeswoman said. More MP3 phones are planned for this year, she added.
The V635, due late in the first half at an expected $199 to $249, will expand the company’s selection of camera phones with removable memory to about four. It also features Bluetooth.
Nokia: The company expanded its CDMA selection with three new models that join a CDMA model that just became available. The new models bolster its mid-tier CDMA selection, expand the CDMA line to the high tier, and deliver the company’s first four CDMA clamshell models, a spokesman said.
Nokia also showed a new triband GSM smartphone; dropped the price of its N-Gage game-phone, and showed its first handset for MVNO Virgin Mobile.
The CDMA quarter includes the 1,900MHz entry-level 2115i candy bar at 3 ounces. It features built-in flashlight, voice dialing, voice commands, speakerphone, Web browser and optional color covers. It’s expected to be available in the second quarter. The step-up clamshell 3155, due in the third quarter, operates in CDMA 800/1,900MHz and analog 800MHz networks. Dual screens include a 262K-color primary screen. Features include FM radio, voice dialing, voice commands, MP3 ringtones and downloadable applications.
The 4.4-ounce 6155, due in the fourth quarter, is the company’s first megapixel CDMA phone, which operates in 800/1,900MHz and analog 800MHz networks. It features LED flash, 15 fps video recording, dual color screens, 262K-color primary screen, FM radio, enhanced voice command and voice dialing, push-to-talk, applications that can be downloaded, and streaming audio and video support.
The top CDMA model is the 6255, which just became available. It’s the company’s first CDMA phone with MP3 player. Its expected retail is expected to exceed $200 with activation.
The new 850/1,800/1,900MHz Symbian-OS smartphone, due in the second quarter, is the 6683. The GSM model features MP3 and unprotected-AAC music player, EDGE, 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, PictBridge connectivity, reduced-size MMC card and included stereo headset. It uses the Symbian Series 60 OS.
Samsung: A smorgasbord of new phones includes the company’s first five CDMA 1x EV-DO phones for the U.S. market, including an EV-DO PDA-phone and an EV-DO smartphone. Also new: its first two U.S. phones with 2-megapixel cameras, multiple phones with speech-to-text conversion to simplify text messaging, and its second-generation CDMA 1x/GSM world phone, which adds GPRS.
The i730 EV-DO PDA-phone, based on Microsoft’s PocketPC Phone Edition OS, adds Bluetooth, built-in Wi-Fi, and a QWERTY keyboard compared with its CDMA 1x predecessor. It’s due in the second quarter with stereo speakers and SD Card slot.
The EV-DO smartphone, based on the Windows Mobile Smartphone OS, is a clamshell phone with an SD card slot. It’s due in the second quarter.
The a970, one of the company’s first two 2-megapixel camera phones, also features EV-DO. The clamshell is due in the second quarter with MP3 player, stereo speakers and swivel/twist screen that gives the device an LCD-camcorder look.
The other 2-megapixel camera phone, the CDMA 1x a800, is the company’s first phone with quarter-VGA screen resolution. It’s also the company’s first with optical character recognition, which reads business cards and places the info in the phone’s address book. The slider phone features TransFlash memory card, PictBridge printer compatibility, MP3 player, 3D gaming, video-on-demand support, and internal antenna. It’s due in April.
The a795 CDMA/GSM world phone, due in the second quarter, operates in U.S. 800/1,900MHz CDMA 1x networks and in foreign GSM 800/1900MHz networks. The clamshell features dual color displays, including a 260K-color main display.
Another new phone with MP3 player is the GSM/EDGE 850/1,800/1,900MHz p777. It’s the company’s first EDGE phone and features 100MB of embedded memory to store pictures and music. It is equipped with stereo headset, MPEG-4 video playback and 1.3-megapixel camera. It’s already available through Cingular at $299.
Sony Ericsson: The first in a series of Walkman-branded phones available in the United States is the W800, a 900/1,800/1,900MHz GSM phone optimized for music playback and equipped with 2-megapixel camera. It’s due in the third quarter at an expected $299 or more with activation through the company’s web site, through distributors, and direct through select retailers.
The W800 will play unprotected MP3 and AAC music files stored on an included 512MB Memory Stick Duo car. It’s compatible with higher-memory Memory Stick PRO cards. It doesn’t play music encoded in Sony’s proprietary ATRAC, ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus formats.
Another new 2-megapixel phone is the 750i, available through the same channels. It’s the company’s second EDGE phone and second with MP3 player. A 64MB Memory Stick Duo card is included.
Both camera phones feature spot auto focus.
