Gizmodo: quad-band

Nokia N96 Media-Cameraphone Lands at Best Buy For $800

Kit Eaton — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:42:30 EDT

News of the European debut and pricing of Nokia's anticipated N96 slider cellphone stirred up debate about its cost: but now it's nearly here in Best Buy and yes, that $800 price tag is intact. That's clearly just for the phone, naked and un-contracted to a provider, but it's a massive amount of cash—half as much again as an unsubsidized Blackberry Bold. If you're skeptical but want to check out if the beast is worth 800 smackeroos, there'll be hands-on display units in some stores apparently. [BGR]

Sonim XP3 "The World's Toughest Phone" Coming to the US

Sean Fallon — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:40:00 EDT

Sonim has gone to great lengths to convince European customers that its XP1 is the toughest phone on the market. They even went so far as to take the phone on tour and encourage spectators to try and beat it into submission. Now the company is planning on launching an updated version, the XP3, in the US complete with GSM, quad-band EDGE, GPS, Bluetooth, a 128x160 screen, a 3-megapixel camera and a flashlight mode (not to mention a seriously rugged design and a 3 year no-questions-asked guarantee).

Apparently, the XP3 can handle temperatures from -4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (although the CEO claims it can actually operate at -40), 6-9 foot drops on concrete and it is completely waterproof. It also boasts 2.5 days of talk time and up to 2 months of standby thanks to a 2200 mAh battery. Obviously, this kind of phone is intended for use on the construction site or in the great outdoors by rugged, bearded individuals—not button-down boardroom types. If you want to get your hands on one, the device should be available in several rural markets starting in March—although no pricing information has been released.[Gearlog]

Nokia's N96 Has European Debut, $800 Price Ticket

Kit Eaton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:35:00 EDT

Nokia's much rumored, much anticipated N96 slider has just had its debut—in Europe. It's on sale for €550, or around $798 (yes, this is obviously the unsubsidized price—before tax, too). And though there's no firm info on the US launch timing or prices, this is a good indicator it's on its way. [Nokia]

Nokia's N96 Now Official, Quad-Band and HSDPA

Kit Eaton — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:00:00 EDT

After much leaking of information, Nokia's N96 slider cellphone is now official. It's a quad-band, US 3G-enabled (WCDMA) phone with a 2.8-inch screen, 16GB of built-in memory, a 5-megapixel Carl-Zeiss Tessar lens, A-GPS and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi. The media-player functions of the phone get their own dedicated slide-out keypad, as we knew. It's due out in the last quarter of the year, and pricing is estimated by Nokia at around $810. Full specs are below.

Technical profile:
WCDMA 850/1900 (HSDPA)
GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
4 x 2.2 x 0.7-inches (local depth up to 0.8-inches)
4.4 ounces
2.8-inch QVGA Display (240 x 320 pixels) with up to 16 million colors
Nokia BL-5F battery, 950 mAh
Media:
16 MB on-board memory
Expandable via microSD slot
MPEG-4/SP MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
Up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution
(scaled max QVGA on device, SDT on TV-out)
Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30fps
Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in browser
MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA

Main Camera:
Carl Zeiss Tessar lens
Up to 5 megapixels (2592 x 1944) JPEG/EXIF
MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 380) at up to 30 fps
F.28 Aperture
5.2mm Focal length
Dual LED camera flash and video light

Operating Times:
Talk time Up to 160 mins (3G), 230 mins (GSM)
Standby time Up to 200 hrs (3G), 230 hrs (GSM)
Video playback Up to 5 hours (offline mode)
Music playback Up to 14 hours (offline mode)

Connectivity & Data Services:
WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g with UPnP support
Micro-USB connector, hi-speed USB 2.0
3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio,
enhanced data rates
GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

Sony Ericsson's T700 Succeeds the Venerable T610

Jason Chen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:19:52 EDT

It took half a decade, but the T700 is Sony Ericsson's attempt at finally releasing a successor to one of our old favorites, the T610. The T700 has a 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo speakers, a "premium metal finish", 2-inch TFT display, 512MB storage (with expandable storage), quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA 3G. Release date's set some time in Q4 2008, and will come in black/silver, black/red, and just plain silver. For those who owned a T610 a few years ago, this will be both sweetly nostalgic and deeply confusing, when you look down and see that your T610 has a camera that can take photos that aren't mistaken for abstract paintings. [Sony Ericsson]

Quadband GSM Wristphone from Epoq Charges Kinetically

AddyDugdale — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:11:05 EST

The EGP-WP88 from Epoq is the first GSM wristphone that actually looks like a watch. Waterproof to 50 meters, the WP88 has a kinetic recharge system, meaning you can charge it just by walking around, and boasts a 1.3-megapixel camera, OLED display, plays MP3 and MP4 files and can transfer data via either USB or Bluetooth. You get between two and two-and-a-half-hours' talk time, and 70 to 100 hours' standby. Costing $530, the Epoq WP88 goes on sale on March 1. [GadgetCraver via UberGizmo]

New Ben-Q Quad-Band P50: Kinda Old OS

johnb — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:30:32 EST

First Ben-Q announces a tie-in with Siemens to make cellphones and now we have news of the P50 smartphone/PDA. It offers quad-band coverage and runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2003 (that's a bit odd, huh?). The insides are powered by an Intel PXA272 416MHz processor and it has 64MB of SDRAM and 64MB of Flash ROM. Throw in the 2.83-inch TFT LCD and you've got a nice-lookin' and pretty powerful device. Also included is a 1.3-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, WLAN, GPRS, Bluetooth, IrDA, USB, and SDIO and a four-hour talk time. Goes for about $650.

BenQ P50 PDA Phone Hits The Shelves [Biosmagazine]