New phones galore

A bevy of new mobiles were released today at 3GSM 2007, the world’s biggest mobile telecommunications conference, in Barcelona. Among the highlights were new handsets from RIM, Nokia, Samsung and LG. Some pics and quick details below.

BlackBerry 8800

The Pearl's big brother (above), sporting a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS receiver to work with a mapping service, microSD slot, bluetooth 2.0, the usual email stuff and the now de rigeur 'pearl' trackball. And it's only 14mm thick.

Nokia E61i, E65, E90 and N77

Nokia released 3 new business focused phones (above): the E61i, their answer to the BlackBerry; the E65, a smaller, more stylish, slider phone and the E90, an old-style communicator flip phone. The E61i now packs a 2 megapixel camera and both it and the E90 feature 3G and WiFi.

The N77 (above) is a consumer phone which features a 2.4 inch screen, stereo speakers and the ability to pick up mobile TV broadcasts over DVB-H - a special digital TV format for viewing on mobile devices.

Samsung Ultra Edition II

Announcing a a whole new range of ultra-slim phones, ranging from 5.9-12.1mm thick, Samsung stole the show. The U100 (above) is the thinnest phone in the world at 5.9mm. Amazingly it features a 3 megapixel camera, bluetooth and 70MB of memory!

LG Prada



LG's pre-emptive, touch-screen strike against the iPhone. It's 12mm thick and features a 2 megapixel camera. Very slick and very expensive.

LG's Super Multi Blue Player (BH100)

You've probably already heard about LG's dual-format player that can handle both HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Well after having gone from rumour to unveiling at CES only last week, the Super Multi Blue Player (BH100) is now apparently in US shops already!

No word on a UK release yet but for anyone concerned about jumping off the fence and into either camp, this provides you with a 'third way'.

It's the first next-generation video device to play both high-definition disc formats and with Warner Bros releasing hybrid dual-format discs as well, together they could provide you with an insurance policy should one of the formats actually win this ridiculous war.

I'm certainly not ready to commit to either format yet and I'm sure many people feel the same way, so I welcome products like this and hope this is a trend that other manufacturers and studios will follow.