Well, that’s a nice change of pace. We generally have to turn to UK handset retailers to spill the beans on new phones ahead of schedule; this time around, it’s Best Buy with the loose lips.

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All of the signs (that is, all of the leaks) told us to expect the T-Mobile Gravity 2 to launch on August 19th. We’re just a few hours into August 19th, and sure enough: we just got word that the Gravity 2 is now available.

Coming in at $29.99 (after a $50 mail in rebate and a 2 year contract) and being pitched as an “affordable messaging phone”, don’t expect much more beyond the basics. On the upside, it does come in “berry mauve” and “metallic pumpkin”, the latter of which would make a totally bitchin’ band name.

Check out the full release after the jump.
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If the “S” in “iPhone 3G S” stands for speed, we’re going to wager that the “Q” in “Instinct Q” stands for QWERTY. And if it doesn’t? We don’t really care, because BAM! QWERTY KEYBOARD!

After the release of the touch-only myTouch and Hero, we were starting to wonder when we’d see another Android handset with a QWERTY keyboard beyond the G1 – and here it is in all of its glory by way of Phandroid. The Sprint logos adorning the face should come as no surprise; it is an Instinct, after all.

We can’t wait to use that keyboard. Helio Ocean-esque keys complete with a full number row? Yes, please.

We’ll probably have some more details on this later today, but we’re able to spill some of it now seeing as much of it just went live on Samsung’s own site

If you haven’t been keeping up with all the latest in Samsung news, here’s what you need to know: Samsung’s got a widget interface called TouchWiz, which they’ve been rolling out across their touchscreen phones since around June of last year. You’ve got a drawer containing some widgets, and four flickable pages to toss these widgets onto. So far, they’ve got TouchWiz up and running on Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Samsung’s own proprietary OS. TouchWiz looks and behaves more or less identically on all of these platforms, providing some degree of uniform user experience across vastly different interfaces.

We haven’t been huge fans of TouchWiz thus far, largely because of its lack of expandability. Each TouchWiz-enabled device came with 10-15 widgets, and that was that. If you wanted to download more, you were out of luck. If you wanted to make your own, that was just too bad. That’s all about to change.
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Earlier today, AT&T announced the touch-screen Solstice from Samsung. Equipped with a 3-inch touch-screen, an accelerometer, Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera and little else, the Solstice is an entry-level touch-screen device. But, the one really cool thing about the Solstice is that it comes with TouchWiz 2.0. The second gen UI from Samsung features live widgets, which makes it infinitely better than previous TouchWiz devices. Grab one for th tween or yourself on August 2 for $100.

Alright, so Samsung wasn’t exactly the first kid on the block to break the mobile gigahertz barrier, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort. It looks like they’re ready to put that behind them, as they and partner Intrinsity have unveiled their first foray into the realm of high performance mobility: the 1 GHz Hummingbird processor.

The Hummingbird itself is based on ARM’s Cortex A8 processor, but what sets it self apart from other A8 processors are modifcations Samsung and Intrinsity’s crew have made to the Cortex arcitecture that allow it to run at such a high clock speed even at low voltage. According to Samsung, the Hummingbird also sports “32KB each of data and instruction caches, an L2 cache, the size of which can be customized, and an ARM® NEON™ multi-media extension.” Read More

Perhaps it’s the die-hard QWERTY keyboard purist in me, but I don’t see how these tiny touchscreen phones are viable options these days. Look at the size of the screen on the Samsung Highlight compared to that of the iPhone and G1. (I am not comparing this device to the iPhone or G1 in any way, shape or form other than the size of the screen.) It’s so freaking tiny. Regardless, we welcome the Highlight to the T-Mobile lineup today.

The 3G device packs a 3-megapixel camera (3x digital zoom, video), stereo Bluetooth, aGPS and a plethora of widgets in a teeny, tiny package with a 1.61- x 2.64-inch capacitive touchscreen. (Sidenote: I’ve been hammering Samsung for years about these wimpy resistive touchscreens that they seem to be in love with. They suck. Just sayin’.)
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Man, these leakers are cutting it close. The T559 Comeback is purportedly launching tomorrow, but it took up until yesterday for the information to really start pouring out – not that we’re complaining. Yesterday morning gave us product shots, but now we’ve got some specs to roll with.
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When it comes to “luxury” brand handsets, the original Samsung Armani is one of the less ridiculous choices you could make. It is, in every sense, the exact opposite of the Dior phone. It has actual features that people might want, isn’t mindblowingly ugly, and doesn’t cost 5-friggin’-thousand dollars. We’re not sure how well the original Armani sold, but it seems to have done well enough to warrant a sequel.

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Poor Samsung. They can never keep any of their secrets. This time, images of the “Highlight” have been leaked to TmoNews. The 3G touch-screen devices looks similar to the Instinct s30 and features a 3.1-megapixel camera and GPS. Look for it to drop on July 15th.

[PSGallery=2lsbxj8w9u]

If you’re looking for a new WinMo smartphone, the Omnia 2 should definitely be on your list. I still think the cube thing is weird-looking, but apparently the phone works quite well and has a nice, polished touch interface.

It’d be superfluous to list all the details they go over, but let’s just say that GSM Arena’s “first look” is more thorough than most reviews. It isn’t a production unit, so there may be changes and probably quite a few fixes, but everything is in place and it looks like a nice system all told.

If I had to switch from Android, I might go with this thing. It seems like it’s got the whole package, but only if you’re interested in getting to know WinMO pretty intimately.

[via WMPoweruser]

Today at an event in Singapore, Samsung Korea officially launched four new handsets to the market. The flagship of the four phones introduced was the Samsung B7610, a part of Samsung’s Omnia brand of smartphones. The B7610 comes with a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen display (800×480 resolution), a slide-out keyboard, a 5.1-megapixel camera, 1GB of memory, FM tuner, Wi-Fi, TV Out, and GPS, according to Akihabara News. The B7610 will run Windows Mobile and will surely attract crowds of gorgeous Korean chicks to owners everywhere. It was showcased alongside three other equally average smartphones: the 12-megapixel Samsung Pixon 12 M8910, the Samsung Jackie B7320, and the Android powered I7500.

Pic courtesy of Akihabara News.
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Get ready Verizon subscribers for the Samsung Omnia 2 is coming your way. The Omnia 2 boasts a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen with WVGA resolution, TouchWiz 2.0 (more widgets!) and WinMo 6.5 when available (ships with 6.1). Pricing and availability are unavailable.

It seems like all the attention these days is focused on smartphones. The reality is, not everyone who needs and uses a cellphone wants a pocket-computer and/or to pay for the hefty data services required to take advantage of said smarties.

With that in mind, it’s nice to see that Samsung is still working on improving its more standard fair / “dumb” phones, if you will. The recently released Alias² is a primary example of Big Sam’s innovation-meets-pedestrian-handset tactics.

Like its older sibling, the Alias² sports a dual-hinge allowing the phone to flip open like a traditional clam-shell, as well as in landscape orientation. But unlike like its blood-brother, the most intriguing (not to mention, innovative) feature of this second-gen, messaging-centric flip phone is the inclusion of Samsung’s “Magic Key” e-ink (think Kindle-tech) back-lit keypad.

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The conversation I had with a female roommate this morning, upon receiving the press release for the Samsung Gloss:

Me: Check this out! It’s called the Samsung Gloss. It’s a QWERTY flip phone built for the ladyfolk.

Her: Misogynist!

Me: It’s pink! It has flowers! It’s called “gloss”!

Her: Still. Plus, why is it called “gloss”? If they’re going off the idea that it looks like make-up, lipgloss comes in a tube. That looks more like a compact.

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T-Mobile is betting big on Android this year. Cole Brodman, T-Mobile’s CTO,

We are looking to launch multiple Android-based devices in the second half of this year with three partners,

Three he says? HTC and Samsung have already been confirmed by the leaked Android roadmap, but who is the third?

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