2009 is the year of the Moto for Verizon; more upcoming handsets revealed
When our ninjas get going they don’t stop until the job is done. Yesterday your pals here at BGR gave you an exclusive preview of four tasty upcoming Motorola handsets - codenamed FLASH, RUSH 2, CALGARY and INFERNO. As sexy as they are, you didn’t think we’d stop there did you? Today we have three more exclusive looks for you and just like yesterday, each of these handsets comes bearing a codename and a date with Verizon Wireless sometime next year. First and foremost is the NIAGRA seen above. It looks almost like an updated RIZR and shows off the same sharp angles seen yesterday on the FLASH. The slider opens to reveal a RAZR-like keypad and speaking of the RAZR, we wouldn’t be surprised if we finally see the RAZR line get a more substantial refresh that echos the shapes and lines seen here on the NIAGRA. Hit the jump for a look at the next two handsets.
Above to the left you’ll find the FAIRBANKS, a rugged clam shell sporting Push to Talk (PTT) and dedicated music controls beneath the outer LCD. To the right is the HARMONY, another clam shell that we wouldn’t recommend beating on quite as hard as the FAIRBANKS. It’s sleek, sexy and also has music buttons beneath the outer LCD - but this time they’re touch sensitive. It looks like the HARMONY also has a touch sensitive mute key below the standard back, play/pause and forward buttons, along with another touch key with an unknown function [UPDATE: the fifth button is most likely an enable/disable bluetooth button as is the case on the W755 - thanks pwmccarthy]. There you have it folks. 2009 has to be a pivotal year for Motorola in every sense of the word - a few more missteps and there might not be any coming back. Out of the seven upcoming phones we’ve shown you over the past few days, there are definitely a few gems that will likely be well received. At the same time however, we’re not seeing anything killer that will lead the charge for Moto as it fights gale force winds in an effort to stay afloat. What do you guys think; has anything you’ve seen so far knocked your socks off?
Tags: 2009, Fairbanks, Harmony, leaks, Motorola, Niagra, Rumors, Verizon, Wireless
Nice Job Guys! You always get the scoop first!
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Actually it sounds like the year of Motorola and Canada.
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I guess I’m the only one not feeling these 09 Moro phones. The sharp lines and razr keypads are still not appealing and rather tacky to me. I wan Moro to completely ditch the razr designs immediately.
But hey maybe these phones look better in reality.
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Stupid iPhone. Look at all those spelling errors in my previous post LOL
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Looks good. Great for verizon,(because how lame their phones are) but whats up with the at&t/gsm phones?
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BORING!!!
I think they are basically the same dumb phones we have seen in the past years in just different cases.
IMO,I don’t think those phones gonna pull Motorola out of the hole they are in right now.
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so there will be two Niagara’s for Verizon in 2009?
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Just can’t see motorola digging themselves out the hole w/ CDMA units…maybe I’m GSM biasis but it’s just something about being able to switch back & forth from my unlocked HTC pro & Nokia N85,lol!
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@jorgeorge
My thoughts exactly. Except the BB Niagara will be much sweeter! Geez, moto isn’t even creative enough to get their own codenames, lol
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Well to be fair, the Moto phone is missing a third “a”. (Niag_ra) so it’s not EXACTLY the same.
lol
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Is it me or do the Calgary and Niagra have a “Space mountain” feel to them. I don’t know why but that’s the first thing that popped into my head when seeing them, and I think it’s pretty dead on.
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@Mike
Or is it LG Chocolate PLUS Space Mountain?
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whats the point if its going to have that piece of shit ui verizon puts on everything. its like serving a 5 course meal on a trash can.
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For anyone that will only use gsm and lives in north america, you are an idiot!!! There are more cdma users in NA than gsm so that market calls for unique devices which is why CDMA gets more variety in NA and gsm gets european/asian models from last year instead of the great cutting edge models
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For anyone that will only use gsm and lives in north america, you are an idiot! There are more cdma users in NA than gsm so that market calls for unique devices which is why CDMA gets more variety in NA and gsm gets european/asian models from last year instead of the great cutting edge models
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The vzw ui is different on almost every phone. It’s not like it used to be. And I don’t care what service you have, you can’t beat vcast.
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All i see is a bunch of redesigns of the razr again. they wont win any awards with these phones.
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only calgary and flash stand a chance. they’re ok, but all the others are straight garbage. too bad i’m not hearing about android on those 2 tho…
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Honestly I just hope their Android phone comes to AT&T; I preordered an Agora Pro, but I want a capacitive touch screen! I have a feeling I’m screwed, seeing all of these VZW-only Moto handsets.
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@black
I honestly don’t see verizon releasing an adroid phone. allthough they were seen at an oha (open handset alliance) conference they haven’t really shown any steps towards bringing it to end users. Sprint also didn’t show to much intrist in it either, but they are much more likely than verizon. they even dumbed down the htc touch pro on their network… moto isn’t doing anything cutting edge and their designs aren’t very cunning either. verizon ui is still verizon ui and all their phones are just shells basically doing the same thing. the razr was their last success and that was 2001.
@bg
do you think this is the end of moto? I mean they did have a cool design on the slider keyboard phone but its still a dumbphone. that with windows mobile could have been something or a gsm counterpart with andriod that would be breaking some new ground but all I see here are some more verizon feature phones with color schemes for preteens…
my opinion is motorola much like the US auto industry is just to far behind the rest to come out of the hole…
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The Calgary and Niagra actually look very beautiful to me. Hope the specs will be allright.
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I’m with David A here. Not impressed. Moto appears to have given up on trying to innovate, and like Ford/GM/Chrysler just isn’t making a product people really WANT. Verizon will sell a ton of these though, just because they are Verizon, they will be number 1, and there isn’t much choice in their lineup.
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the flash is still the only one that interest me.
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YAWN
Moto needs to pick something and focus. Look at Apple, they make one handset and it is awesome in it’s dominance.
Moto could create one great device using the Android OS and focus like mad. Eventually they could branch out, but sometimes a focused effort is warranted instead of flailing about half-assed. (I keep telling my daughter that…she hasn’t believed me yet either)
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I have always liked Moto, but I will never again buy a phone without a qwerty keypad. I have become a big time texter, and think all future phones should have qwerty keypads. Texting without one is too much of a pain
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