More news from the Mobile World Congress (assume most of today’s stories will be about, since it’s the biggest event of the year for us mobile phone fans!) now, as we take a look at what we can expect from the big Korean manufacturers, LG and Samsung, and American manufacturer, Motorola.
LG
No surprises from LG, as we already knew what was going to be announced… the first handset being the LG Venus, that we’ve already spoke about, and since we went into the specs of it here, I won’t list them all out again. Suffice to say, it looks stunning.
The other big news, though, was their other new phone, the LG Virgo (or the KF700, if you want numbers), and it’s not even been officially announced yet! Basically, imagine the sleek touchscreeniness of the Viewty, with a sliding keypad and a fabulous little jog wheel controller on the back. That’s the Virgo. And having played with it, I know it rocks!
More news on new LG stuff as and when they release more info!
Samsung
Samsung are also on top form in the announcements department. First up (and I’m going to be smug about this for weeks), it’s official, the Samsung Soul is in fact officially the Samsung U900. I was right, I was right! Ok, I wasn’t being amazingly telepathic, I have to confess, I knew because I’ve seen it in the flesh. And it is jaw-droppingly stunning.
But that’s not all they announced, no sirree bobby! Expect to see some chuffing awesome Samsung phones later in the year. The U900 will be the flagship phone, but hot on its heels will be Samsung’s answer to the N95, the G810:
Building on the heritage of the G800, the G810 packs in a 5 megapixel cam, and on top of that, built-in GPS. And a new Symbian operating system, which… well, there’s no getting round it, it’s very N95-ish… not that that’s a bad thing, mind you!
Sticking with the G’s (well, and the F’s), we have 3 new handsets announced, the G400, F400 and F480. And they look stunning as you can see below (order from left to right: F480, G400, F400):
Starting with the F480, the best way to imagine it is… well, imagine the Samsung Armani, but a weeny bit bigger, and without the Armani badge. Oh, and 3G… and a 5 megapixel camera. Which sounds rather appealing to me!
Next up after that is the G400, described by Samsung as “Dual Touch Chic”. Translated into English, that means it has 2 screens, on the outside of the flip, one on the inside, both of which are touchscreens. Which is a nice twist and should make it a nice intuitive phone to use. Finally from the Samsung stable comes the F400, also known as the Opus, which is a damn good name if you ask me! This one promises to be their music-centric phone, as it’s powered up by Bang & Olufsen clever techy stuff, just like the Serene and Serenata both were. The cleverest thing about it is the dual slide mechanism. Slide it one way, you get a keypad. Slide it the other, you get a whacking great pair of stereo speakers. Which is rather cool!
Motorola
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It was all going so well. After Motorola’s teaser video, many people expected them to rock up to the show with some mind-bending new phone, that would alter our perceptions of what phones can do, and thus cure the ailing company’s ills.
They didn’t.
They brought these:
Why, Motorola, why? Why do you tease us with goodness only to deny us?
It’s never nice seeing a big company get it wrong so big time, but it’s becoming glaringly obvious that Motorola are fast becoming the Britney Spears of the mobile world…
Leave a comment and have your say!
February 13th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Is it true LG are going touch crazy this year?
February 20th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Yep, very much so. They love their touchscreens, which is why I will always have a huge soft spot for LG!