Camera Phones Plaza

Despite the fact that Americans aren’t what you could call Nokia-addicts, the Finnish corporation doesn’t seem to give up on this very important market segment. More than that, the company persists in launching new handsets in the United States, at least every once in a while.

Partnering up with Verizon, a broadband and telecommunications company, Nokia has just released a brand new mobile phone that is already available in North America. Nokia 2605, also known as Mirage, is the successor of another clamshell, Nokia 6205 (including the Dark Knight edition), that was sold by the same provider.

The small handset has a sleek design, being aimed at young people (teenagers) and fashion-conscious users. A very important thing is that Nokia 2605 can be easily customized by its owner, according to his/her lifestyle and personality. Therefore, if you don’t like the blue cover, you can always change it to different colors or patterns with the replaceable Nokia Xpress-on snaps, as Verizon names them. The snaps cover the camera, the LED screen and the battery.

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Nokia 2605 Mirage is a pretty well equipped handset. The features include: a 1.8-inch TFT internal display (which has 262k colors and a resolution of 128x160 pixels), 1.2-inch CSTN external display (with 65k colors and a resolution of 128x128), a VGA camera, Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technology, Mobile Web, Verizon Navigator, built-in speakerphone, the voice recognition function and the already-mentioned Nokia Xpress-on covers.

Measuring 3.22 x 1.65 x 0.62 inches and weighing 2.32 ounces, the Mirage provides up to 210 minutes of talk time and up to 240 hours of standby time.



For those who are interested, Nokia 2605 can be purchased at the moment from the Verizon Online Store, for a price of $49.99 with a two-year agreement after a $50 mail-in rebate. The device will be available in the carrier’s retail stores a little bit later, starting January 23, 2009.

(Source: unwiredview.com)

Verizon seems to spare no effort in order to direct customers’ attention to their products these days, right before Christmas, when we all are a whole lot more generous than usually. They want to bring a smile to all of our faces, which is why they are launching a number of new handsets just in time for the holiday season.

One of those devices is the Samsung SCH-U810, also known under the name of Samsung Renown, a global clamshell cell phone that works on CDMA and GSM (quad band) frequencies. This new Samsung phone is a tough-looking device aimed at Verizon customers that use to travel on a regular basis and will be available in a couple of weeks. More precisely, the Renowm is said to launch on November 19th and expected to start selling sometime around December 1st. The device is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, a 2.3-inch LCD and microSD card slot for expandable memory.

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The Samsung Renown will be available in a bronze outfit, being a tough clamshell, as you can see in the pictures. There are some messaging capabilities and Verizon Wireless-branded services on board, such as Verizon Navigator, V Cast Music with Raphsody and V Cast Video. Being so well equipped, the handset should prove itself to be very useful anywhere in the world, or almost anywhere, as it also features a quad band GSM radio. This could easily turn into the perfect handset for the jet-setters, don’t you think?

As I’ve already mentioned, those who are interested in purchasing the Samsung Renown, should keep their eyes wide open, because it’s rumored to launch on December 1st, and prepare to pay $179.99 from signing up for a two-year agreement.

(Source: engadgetmobile.com)

Isn’t it that you often have the impression that the world we live in is actually a realm of gadgets, where all manufacturers try their best to bring astonishing inventions on market, here and there wacky, if I may say so? But sometimes people need a basic phone, with no camera, no games, no blitz, no nothing. They need a phone that has absolutely no pretensions, a phone that doesn’t fall into the trap of having all sorts of flashy features or sporting a runway-worthy design. That’s why, the new Samsung Knack SCH-U310, available for Verizon Wireless customers, is designed to be easy to use, and it succeeds. Despite its name, the device doesn’t live up to it, not being that advanced when it comes to performance.

The Verizon Knack was released in the United States shortly after the M320 and M220 (coming from Sprint) and AT&T’s A237. Similar to these three North American Samsung devices, the Knack comes in a clamshell form factor and doesn’t bring anything spectacular as far as the design is concerned, except the fact that its microSD slot and its headset jack covers are colored in red and blue respectively.

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However, the Knack has a nicely built design and provides the user with the greatest call quality and with the most unbelievable mixture of functional features, including voice dialing. Therefore, if you were looking for a basic phone for communication, then SCH-U310 might catch your eye.

Maybe the Samsung Knack is far from being a rare beauty, but the simplicity of its style is one of its greatest attributes. As far as the features are concerned, they include: a 1 inch external display, which is a little bit small, but it shows the information you need, including the time, the battery life, signal strength and numeric caller ID, with a resolution of 96x96 pixels, a 2.5mm headset jack, placed in the right spine, colored in blue, a 2.25 inch internal display with a resolution of 220x176 pixels and 65,000 colors, a navigation array which consists of two soft keys, a dedicated “911” key, a speakerphone button, Talk and End/Power controls, a Clear key and “ICE”, the “in case of emergency” button, that can be programmed by the user, a vibrate mode, text messaging, a calendar, an alarm clock, a calculator, a word clock, a stop watch, a tip calculator, a unit and currency converter and a speakerphone.



One of the most important disadvantages of the Samsung Knack is the lack of Bluetooth connectivity and of the Web browser. The phone offers a dual-band CDMA 1X connectivity (800/1900 Mhz).

Samsung Knack weighs 3.63 ounces (102 grams) and measures, when closed, 3.78 x 2.01 x 0.74 inches (96 x 51 x 19 mm). The handset’s battery is said to last up to 270 minutes (4.5 hours) in talk time mode or up to 336 hours in stand-by mode.

Whoever is interested in the Samsung Knack, can visit Verizon’s official website, where the device is offered for the price of $39.99, with a contract agreement for two years.

(Source pcmag.com)

Today we’ll see a recent release from LG via Verizon Wireless at a price of $149.99 with contract, called LG Decoy.
I personally like this cell phone a lot because of how it looks, especially when slide open revealing this deep black keypad surrounded by light metallic silver.

Besides the design characteristics, LG Decoy is a music phone with detachable headset working wirelessly through the Bluetooth capability. The headset is built-in the back of the handset.
There is also an integrated 2MP digital camera with camcorder functionality and microSD slot for expanding the internal memory up to 8GB.
It sports a 2.2-inch TFT LCD of 262K colors with a mirror look and measures 4.01 x 1.97 x 0.67 inches at 4.05 oz.

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Decoy supports common music file formats including MP3, video playback and USB Mass Storage to transfer files between the cell phone and your computer.
The camera offers a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels for still pictures, which you can edit, and video resolution up to 320 x 240 pixels.



With it you can listen to the stereo music using the wireless headset, connect with up to 2 Bluetooth-enabled devices having one in standby, transfer files wirelessly and print your photos wirelessy using the Bluetooth printing capability with a compatible printer device.
Verizon Wireless adds V CAST Music with Rhapsody for over-the-air music downloads, V CAST Videos, the VZ Navigator, and Chaperone Parent/Child.

Also, LG Decoy has other functionalities like email, voice messaging, video messaging, Instant Messaging, voice mail, one-touch speakerphone, and speaker-independent voice commands.
You can talk on the phone for up to 2 hours continuously or keep it in standby mode up to 80 hours.

It made its first appearance among LG phones at CES 2008 in black, and now Verizon Wireless has it in titanium, with V Cast Music with Rhapsody for over-the-air downloads of over 5 million songs, and Visual Voice Mail feature, which allows you to manage your messages I a smarter way.

This touchscreen smartphone with a flip QWERTY keyboard in a laptop style, and dual-display, comes at a price of $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a 2-year agreement.
The V Cast Music costs $14.99 monthly, while the Visual Voice Mail service available at $2.99 on month lets you delete, reply or forward voice mail messages without listening to voice instructions.

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LG Voyager in Titanium provides also V Cast Mobile TV, full HTML browsing, Bluetooth 2.0 wireless transfers at high-speeds, a built-in 2MP camera with camcorder functionality, and the possibility to manage your files on a large 2.81-inch external or internal touch-sensitive Thin Film Transistor display with vibration response. The vibration response makes me thing of the haptic technology used by Samsung Instinct, which gives you a subtle feedback as you browse through the menus and access commands. Haptic comes from the Grek “Haphe” which means “pertaining to the sense of touch”, and the new technology replies to the user selections by making him/her feel subtle forces, vibrations or motions through the skin surface.



Other features include multimedia player, dual speakers for stereo sound, microSD memory slot for up to 8GB storage capacity, Instant Messaging, standard email, the VZ Navigator service for access to location details of all points of interest as well as turn-by-turn directions, USB Mass Storage for PC connectivity, retractable TV antenna for enhanced TV reception, and up to 240 minutes of talk time.
The handset measures 4.64 x 2.12 x 0.71 inches at 4.69oz and has hearing aid compatibility, like all the other newly released handsets on the market.