The writers at Gizmodo got their hands on a delivery of the new HTC Touch Diamond for a series of reviews. Their biggest complaint? It’s slow:

The exterior looks as nice as we’ve already seen in unboxing shots, and the TouchFlo is much more refined than the previous incarnations in HTC’s ever-expanding Touch line. The problem? TouchFlo is slow as balls…

The other problem is that the processing power is not fast enough to keep up with natural gestures. Sweeping through the list of available applications on the bottom of the screen in the app strip often gets locked up halfway through, when some app decides it wants to slow everyone down and load up its icons.

It’s not all bad though. They were pleased with the improved keyboard functionality and the overall interface:

The good news is that the virtual BlackBerry-esque SureType split-key keyboard is much better than the built-in one Windows Mobile sticks you with, and can actually be used with your finger tip…

Other things we like are the improved dialer screen and call screen (it’s very, very iPhone-like), the fancy weather app, the very bright screen, the size, the glowing circle inside the D-Pad, the magnet on the right side that grips the stylus, and the general prettiness of the UI.

For the full review and more details, check out Gizmodo.

The PRADA Phone by LG (KE850) is a real breakthrough in the industry, as it is a unique, sophisticated and elegant mobile phone with the first complete advanced touch interface.

The PRADA Phone by LG introduces the world’s first advanced touch interface which eliminates the conventional keypad making the overall usage experience a highly tactile one. An extra wide LCD screen maximizes visual impact, allowing the user to benefit from several key features of the phone, including the 2 megapixel camera featuring Schneider-Kreuznach lens, video player and document viewer capacity. Above all, these features contribute to the phone’s beautifully sleek and simplistic appearance.

The phone is ultra thin (just 12 mm) and hosts an array of additional multimedia functions, including an MP3 player and a music multitasking function for messaging. It also boasts an external memory slot, allowing the user to increase memory capacity for images, music and film clips.

The new touchscreen iClone from Samsung, i900, has been spotted in the wild. Specifications for the Samsung i900 were also made available:

Samsung i900 Specifications:
* 3.5G HSDPA connectivity
* Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro OS
* 3.5? 240×400px, 262K color TFT touchscreen display
* 5 megapixel autofocus camera
* front camera for video calls
* Built-in GSM
* FM Radio
* TV-Out
* 16GB of built-in memory
* microSDHC memory card slot (up to 8GB)
* Bluetooth 2.2, A2DP
* Wi-Fi b/g
* 1500mAh battery
* Dimensions: 112×56x13mm

Source: UnwiredNews

Yahoo! Tech got their hands on the new HTC Touch Diamond and enjoyed its aesthetic aspects:

First off, the Diamond comes in a sleek, and relatively light (according to the specs, at least) jet-black shell. Measuring 4 by 2 by 0.45 inches, the Diamond is a little shorter, narrower, and a hair thinner than the iPhone, and at 3.9 ounces, it’s almost a full ounce lighter.

Then there’s the touchscreen: 2.8 inches diagonally and at full VGA resolution, easily beating the iPhone’s 480 by 320-pixel resolution. Whether one can appreciate VGA resolution on a 2.8-inch screen is an open question, although initial reports indicate that the Diamond’s display is, indeed, dazzling.

But can this iPhone iClone be the next Apple Killer? Not so fast, says Yahoo! Tech:

Click Here to Continue Reading »

Blackberry’s RIM engineers have dubbed the new Blackbery Thunder an “Apple Killer”, that means an iPhone iClone. And no, the above photo isn’t real, it’s just a concept picture.

Boy Genius had the following details on the new Blackberry Thunder: Thunder will only ever be available with Verizon in the US and Vodafone in Europe. The phone will use 3G EV-DO Revision C and then GSM HSPA while in international areas. No release date has been announced.

*Update*: Rumor is the Blackberry Thunder will be available through Verizon this September (2008).

Philips has finally released the official list of specs for their new iPhone iClone, the X800 Xenium with edge to edge touchscreen.

Philips X800 specifications:
General: 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
Announced: 2008, May
Display: Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors
Size: 240 x 400 pixels (Wide QVGA), 2.9 inches
- Screensavers and wallpapers
Ringtones Type: Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Customization: Download
Vibration: Yes
Memory Phonebook: Yes
Call records: 30 received, dialed and missed calls
Card slot: microSD (TransFlash)
Data: GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

Click Here to Continue Reading »

Sony Ericcson’s 5 megapixel slider phone, Paris, has more leaked photos released into the wild: