Nokia’s WiMAX-enabled N810 Internet Tablet has surfaced at CTIA 2008, and yep, this critter is destined to go on sale here in the US of A this summer. Beyond that, you’ll notice the familiar 4.13-inch touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and even a built-in webcam for video calls, Mozilla-powered browser, integrated GPS / media player, 2GB of internal memory and a microSD expansion slot.
Nokia’s WiMAX also announced with the freshly updated OS2008, which includes an enhanced e-mail client, support for Chinese character rendering in the browser and RSS feeds and “Seamless Software Update functionality” to boot.
Nokia offer up a couple new CDMA sets with AWS bandwidth in the Nokia 1606 and the 3606. The 1606 is low-end character packing 8MB of memory, flashlight — with dedicated button, ooh-la-la — 1.8-inch internal 262k color and external monochromatic display, and 3.5 hours / 10 days talk and standby time.
The Nokia 3606 holds more tech joy under its hood — but is still a lower-end device — sporting a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 15MB internal memory with expansion via microSD, and up to 5 hours of continuous music playback. We’ve not heard who the lucky carrier will be for either of these, but we expect an announcement can’t be too far off.
The Blackberry Curve hitting Sprint of this month, and it looks like they were dead-on — say hello to RIM’s latest, the Curve 8330, all done up in black. Apart from looking way hotter than the silver version that’s made the rounds, you’re getting GPS, a 2 megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth, “enhanced” web browsing, and the usual suite of Sprint music and TV services. $179 with a two-year contract later this month, says Sprint. One more shot after the break.
The American version of the HTC Touch Dual and the Verizon XV6900, a bleached Touch with a Verizon logo slapped in place of the Sprint one. Both of these phones are rehashes of existing products, and there’s really very little to say about them — other than a heartfelt “yippee,” we suppose, seeing how they’re both intended for 3G in North American markets. We really enjoyed the appearance of the XV6900 — white’s definitely a color that suits it well, and while the bright shell’s probably going to keep it out of the office, we think Verizon might have a consumer-market smartphone winner on its hands.
That’s the Samsung Instinct, due to hit Sprint in June. Better get used to it, because Sprint’s about to start hyping it with the biggest marketing push in its history — it’s going to drop some $100M on this lil’ guy. Of course, there’s no escaping the comparison to a certain other touchscreen candybar phone, and Sprint’s not backing down from a fight — it’s just being willfully obtuse, saying that while the Instinct wasn’t developed in response to the iPhone, the company recognized that it needed “a product from a usability standpoint that can compete.” Um, sure. Samsung and Sprint worked together to simplify the UI, which features a reconfigurable home screen, music, and TV features, but we’re going to hold off judgment until we get a look at the browser in person a little later. One more shot after the break.
