fall

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Motorola Flipside is one of three Android handsets that Motorola announced for AT&T this Tuesday. We had a chance to take a look at it, and it's overall a decent and simple Android smartphone. We like the slide-out QWERTY keyboard--it is roomy and the keys have a nice raised texture--and the 3.1-inch high-res HVGA display. The Flipside also has a trackpad underneath the display in case you want an alternative to the touch screen for navigating the phone.

The Flipside is 4.31 inches long by 2.26 inches wide by 0.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Motorola Bravo is the highest-end phone of the trio of new Android handsets that was announced for AT&T, but that doesn't necessarily make it the hottest smartphone on the block. The Bravo only ships with Android 2.1, for example, though it also has the enhanced version of MotoBlur that lets you resize widgets and move them around.

Still, the Bravo's simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing. We did like its slim design and the curved feel makes it nice to hold in the hand. Measuring 4.31 inches long by … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Verizon Communications' recently named No. 2 executive, Lowell McAdam, was at the 2010 CTIA Enterprise & Application trade show here on Wednesday to announce the initial 38 markets for the company's much-anticipated 4G wireless network.

The network, which uses a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE, promises download speeds of between 5Mbps and 12Mbps and latency of 30 milliseconds. COO McAdam announced the initial markets for the launch expected later this year. And he provided details about how many people are expected to have access to the network. On day one, at least 110 million potential customers … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Motorola Citrus is just as green as the Android logo, or at least that's what Motorola wants you to believe. The Citrus is getting touted as one of a few eco-friendly Android phones, as it is made out of 25% post consumer plastic and is PVC and BFR free. The overall feel of the phone is that of a simple entry-level smartphone, and indeed that's what it is. It ships with Android 2.1 and has only EV-DO Rev. 0. Other details of the phone are a 3-inch QVGA display, a 3 megapixel camera, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- The big surprise at the fall CTIA show this year had to have been the Motorola Droid Pro. As a direct challenge to Research In Motion, the Droid Pro is Motorola's bold take on a business smartphone. It has both a 3.1-inch HVGA touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard that is not unlike that of a BlackBerry. Its sloped keys certainly remind me of the keyboard on the Bold.

The Droid Pro is definitely one of those phones that look better in person than it does in pictures. We thought it looked rather awkward and … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The Samsung Transform is one of three new smartphones that Sprint announced at the fall CTIA show here. And shortly after the carrier's official show press conference, we stopped by the Samsung booth to give the Transform a test run.

With a 3.5-inch touch screen, a slider design, and a full alphabetic keyboard, the Transform's design is nothing we haven't seen before. Yet, that's not to say it's unattractive. The device has a comfortable feeling in the hand, and the keyboard is spacious and comfortable even if the keys are rather flush. We … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Ever since Kyocera and Sanyo first introduced the Zio Android phone earlier this year at the spring CTIA show, we kept hearing that it would land at both Sprint and Cricket Wireless. Cricket followed through last month, but it was only today as the fall version of the trade show opened here that Sprint finally came clean.

Sprint's Zio is almost like the Cricket phone except it has a chrome border. Inside it's also a bit different with Android OS 2.1 and the carrier's new Sprint ID feature. But don't let us tell you … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--LG has just announced the LG Optimus T, which it bills as a handset for first-time smartphone users. It looks a lot like the Optimus One that was announced for Europe last month.

The Optimus T ships with Android 2.2, and features "Voice Actions for Android," which lets you control the phone just by speaking--you can send texts, listen to music, call contacts, search Google, get directions, and surf the Web just with voice controls. The Optimus T has a 3.2-inch glass touch screen, a soft touch finish on the back, a 600MHz processor, Wi-Fi, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Sprint added to its Android lineup today three times over, with the announcement of not only the Samsung Transform and the LG Optimus S, but also its own version of the Sanyo Zio. That makes Sprint the second carrier to offer the Zio after Cricket Wireless. The Zio will be available beginning Sunday, October 10 for $99.

Sprint didn't tinker with the Zio's minimalist design. It offers the same thin profile, navigation array and 3.5-inch touch screen. As before, all input is through a virtual keypad and keyboard.

Sprint did, however, make one big improvement on … Read more