A few days ago AT&T filed suit against Verizon for its “There’s an App for That” ad campaign. Verizon’s response? Welcoming the iPhone to the Island of Misfit Toys in a new commercial that embodies the Christmas Spirit. Hit the break to check out the main attraction as well as two side shows.

Yes, yes y’all. We’re back with Act 2. Following up on the much-loved BlackBerry 9700 Review: Part 1, we’re here to go over the T-Mobile version of the handset. We’ll give you another look at it, and clarify anything that might have changed between our previous not-final unit and what we have now (which is what you’ll be getting in stores). And of course give you some awesome pictures to drool over. After the jump, fine friends, is where the goodies are at!

Hardware changes

While not much has changed hardware-wise from a larger viewpoint, there are a couple things we’ve noticed. First off, if you look at the keyboard and the trackpad specifically, you’ll see a very small piece of plastic that’s connecting the back and menu keys. This actually broke in half on our pre-release BlackBerry 9700, and while it hasn’t affected its use, it got us a little concerned about the build quality. We haven’t confirmed whether the retail Bold 9700s use different parts or not, and we haven’t heard of this happening to anyone else, but it’s just something to look out for.

As far as the processor is concerned, we reported that the Bold 9700 was sporting an 800MHz capable CPU. RIM’s official specs say it’s a 624MHz processor, but we think it might be a newer model than what the original Bold had. It’s also quite possible it’s under-clocked as well. We’ll try and clarify this and report back. Regardless of the actual CPU specifications on the 9700 though, one thing is certain: it’s the fastest damn BlackBerry we’ve ever used. There unfortunately is no internal memory as there was on the previous Bold, and while we believe it’s carrier dependent, the T-Mobile unit ships with a 2GB microSD card.

One last thing about the hardware… honestly not a big deal, but since we’re comparing the retail unit to the other unit we had, Michael and I both noticed that the lock and mute keys are very easy to press on the retail unit. And that’s not for the best as we both accidentally lock / put our Bold 9700s in a mute coma from time to time. Again, not the end of the world, just a change from our other unit.

OS changes

OS 5.0 is finally ready to rock. The much-needed upgrade tries to bandage RIM’s aging yet nicely skinned operating system, and it seems to do a good job of it on the top layer. While dumb things like gradients, sounds for events, and other little UI improvements may look stupid on paper (read: they are), hey, us BlackBerry folk have to take all that we can get. And even though that’s not a lot, it’s still something to slightly freshen up this beast. Something we’ve noticed in the version on the 9700 is that marking messages as read takes a long, long time. This was an issue on a couple beta OS builds for the 9700, so it’s surprising to see it on a production OS. Not a show stopper, but something annoying if you mark message read fairly frequently like I do.

Keyboard changes

Oh those pesky QWERTY keyboards. Some are too small, some are too big, some are spaced too close, some have incorrect layouts — is there a perfect keyboard in existence? Well, if there’s one to be found, we’re pretty sure it is on the BlackBerry Bold 9700. A beautiful blend of the original Bold keyboard with the Tour’s keyboard, it really provides a great typing experience. Keys click but aren’t clackity, there’s enough spacing to allow a definition between keys yet it isn’t boat-sized like its older brother — and it just feels damn good to type on.

Phone changes

Using the phone as an actual phone is still really pleasurable. Calls are very clear, volume is great, and BlackBerry smartphones in general just rock as phones. There’s no fuss, you dial a number and make your call. We’re used to AT&T, but to be honest we couldn’t tell the difference between the two. This T-Mobile unit is solid and we experienced no dropped calls even in fringe areas, and 3G service was great.

Battery changes

This isn’t going to be fair because of T-Mobile’s global meltdown yesterday–the day when we were really pushing the 9700 to the floor– so, well, you know, it didn’t work. We were on SOS for the better part of a day, but Wi-Fi did stay connected to the outside world thankfully. Unfortunately however, Wi-Fi kind of ransacked our battery. The good news is that even with Wi-Fi on and connected for 12 hours straight with constant email usage, BlackBerry Messenger usage, and very light browsing, we still had around 25% of battery left at the end of the day. It’s great, and we’re really happy that RIM has further improved their battery life while making a device faster and smaller. We weren’t kidding when we said average usage is about double compared to the original Bold, and it looks to stay that way in the retail release.

Conclusion

You know, it’s sort of like clockwork. Once every six months we proclaim the latest BlackBerry to be the best BlackBerry ever. Well, we hate to disappoint you, but it doesn’t look like we’re stopping that tradition anytime soon. The BlackBerry Bold 9700, for whatever network it’s powered by, is the finest BlackBerry to date. From the gorgeous screen to the perfect keyboard, to the pocketable size and swift processor, the Bold 9700 seems like it can do almost anything you throw at it. With 256MB of RAM, you’ve got a little more room for applications and data, and the device doesn’t ever seem to get bogged down. We have never even gotten a spinning clock (yet). It’s that solid.

The BlackBerry platform has its advantages and disadvantages (what, we’re not vocal enough about it?), but if you’re an existing BlackBerry user or just don’t require a media-focused device, the Bold 9700 might be right up your alley.

Rogers, Bell, and TELUS in Canada have pretty much all started to release BlackBerry 9700 units into the wild, T-Mobile’s offering business customers a little head start, and AT&T’s looks to be near as well.

No doubt most everyone has already seen Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” ad campaign and had a good chuckle over it, but apparently the big wigs at AT&T are the only ones not laughing and have decided to sue Verizon. The logic behind the move? AT&T feels Verizon is attempting to deliberately mislead the public with its map comparing Verizon’s nationwide 3G coverage to AT&T’s limited 3G coverage. Granted all major cities and towns have AT&T 3G, but AT&T would really like Verizon to show its EDGE network, which according to AT&T spans 1.75 million square miles and reaches 256 million people, a little bit of love on the map. Cute move AT&T, but you might want to think about transferring some money from your legal budget to your network upgrade budget so you can bolster up your fledgling 3G network.Read

Canadians with a ravenous appetite for all things BlackBerry should take note that Rogers Wireless has begun selling the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on its website. Available for $299.99 on a 3-year with voice and data, the Bold 9700 is also being offered for $599.99 with no strings attached. As for when HSPA newcomers Bell and TELUS will be offering up the 9700, the latest word is that both carriers will offer the device the day they launch their new networks. For Bell, that’s the 4th of November with TELUS following the very next day.

Thanks, ILLIONAIRE!

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Let’s be clear right off the bat: this is no rumor. The Motorola DROID is steaming towards a release on O2 Germany under the name MILESTONE. The news of this came from a German blog which leaked a photo of a business guide (pic after the jump) as well as an official O2 device price list which shows the MILESTONE coming in at 404.20€ or $594.93 USD before taxes (and subsidies). If that isn’t proof enough, we pulled the image above from from O2’s site after a simple Google query. No doubt there will be some people Stateside that refuse to go over to Verizon to get the DROID (we get a huge kick out of network fanboyism), so how many of you would be willing to import one of these Android 2.0 behemoths even if it lacks US 3G?

Thanks, Schreifels!

Read – Business Guide

Read – O2 Price List [PDF link]

Read – MILESTONE on O2’s website

We know many of you are close to dying and holding your breath for the awesome Nokia flagship device, the Maemo-packing N900. It was probably a big tease when we told you guys it was going to hit U.S. distribution centers on September 27, but for some untold reason sales planned for October have been delayed and it will go on sale in November. In just days T-Mobile will be making its Even More and Even More Plus plans available, and the N900 will totally support the network’s 3G, and several of our readers are waiting to jump on this handset/carrier combo. Just be prepared to fork over somewhere in the neighborhood of $650 – $700 for the device itself and you’ll be good to go. You’ve waited this long, what’s another week or two?

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It’s always a lot of fun for us — and hopefully for you, the readers — any time we can run wild with pictures, news, and even reviews of an unannounced handset. Today, however, RIM spoiled our fun and formally announced the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Things like carriers, release dates and pricing have been withheld for the time being, but RIM has made a statement saying that we should all expect to see the BlackBerry 9700 go on sale “around the world beginning in November.” Spec wise, nothing has changed since our pre-release review, but just in case some of you forgot or weren’t paying a whole lot of attention, here’s a quick refresher on the critical specs:

• BlackBerry OS 5.0
• 624MHz CPU
• 256MB flash memory and support for microSD cards up to 32GB
• Quad-band UMTS/HSDPA (800/850/1900/2100 MHz) or tri-band UMTS/HSDPA (900/1700/2100 MHz)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UMA support (carrier dependent)
• A-GPS
• 2.44″ HVGA+ display
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash
• Optical trackpad
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP/AVCRP
• 1500 mAh battery
• 6 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby (3G)
• 109mm x 60mm x 14.1mm, 122g

In short, this is the BlackBerry device of your dreams. We’re expecting pretty much every single major GSM carrier on the planet to pick up the 9700 sooner or later, so we’ll be sure to keep the updates coming. As always, high res pics and a few other odds and ends are available after the jump.

UPDATE: AT&T, Rogers and T-Mobile have announced they will be carrying the Bold 9700 in the weeks ahead. AT&T and T-Mobile’s 9700 will go for $199.99 after a $100 MIR on 2-year deals while Rogers will be asking for $299.99 on a 3-year contract with a monthly minimum voice and data plan of $45. Bell and TELUS have yet to come forward with pricing but have confirmed they will be carrying the device.

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Businessmen and women have been able to get their hands on it for the past 10 days, but starting today AT&T will sell the HTC Tilt2 to us regular folk. The second Windows Phone Windows Mobile 6.5 handset to be offered by AT&T after the Pure, the Tilt2 is available for $299.99 on a 2-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate or $499.99 contract free. But we have to ask for the sake of stirring up a little Sunday discussion: Considering the fact that all four carriers in the US offer up the Tilt2 in one form or another, why pick AT&T over Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon?

Thanks, Alexander!

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T-Mobile users that have grown accustomed to nothing but boring handsets might want to have a change of underwear on standby before reading any more, because it looks as if Magenta is actually going to offer a a handset of lust-worthy proportions.. According to TmoNews, its carrier namesake will offer the Snapdragon-powered HTC HD2 sometime in the near future, although it does not appear to be a part of Project Dark. We’re going to go and hit up some of our T-Mobile connects to see what they have to say on the matter, but in the meantime we suggest that those of you who are into it start praying that T-Mobile doesn’t ask for silly money if and/when it launches the HD2.

Thanks to everyone that send this in!

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In case you thought you were imagining things before, Bell Canada will definitely be adding the iPhone to its lineup following on the heels of the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Bold. Canada’s largest network has a splash page in place but no release dates have been leaked just yet. Where are our Canadian connects at? We’ll keep you updated as usual when there’s more to report.

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While it’s certainly not much to go on, The Guardian is reporting that the BlackBerry Storm 9520 aka Storm2 will be announced this week by Vodafone UK. Specifics are scarce and it is not entirely clear as to when consumers will actually be able to actually purchase the next-gen Storm, but at the moment we’re more interested in another matter. You see, The Guardian seems to think that Vodafone subs will be able to walk away with a new Storm for free on all tariffs over  £30 ($47.40 USD). Now, whether or not these contracts are for the standard 18 months or painfully long (for the UK) 24 month affair might be an issue for some, but the fact remains that Vodafone seems to be clearly targeting O2 and its much more expensive Palm Pre.

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Even though we here at BGR think that the BlackBerry Bold 9000 is so Summer/Fall 2008 (and even that’s one hell of a stretch considering it was announced that May), it seems that RIM and its partner carriers don’t. Best Buy Canada’s internal inventory system shows that both Bell and Rogers still have plans for the 3G device even though the new hotness is but a few weeks away. From Bell we have the Bold 9000, a rather strange offering considering that it is going to be selling the BlackBerry 9700. Still, we must concede that it makes a bit of sense in that Bell can offer up the 9000 as its mid-end BlackBerry while Rogers is already stuck with positioning EDGE-only devices like the Curve 8900 and Curve 8520 as its more affordable devices. Speaking of Rogers, it is going to be picking up the white BlackBerry Bold — the very same one we’ve been going on about for months — although we’re not entirely clear when it will go on sale. That is to say we don’t know if, just like AT&T, the white Bold will be released to select markets on the 18th of this month. If you’d like to relish in what is surely straight up BlackBerry Bold fire, larger screenshots after the breakage.

Thanks, REMS!

The Android-powered Samsung i5700 stopped by the Netherlands for a high definition photo shoot on Thursday. While specifications don’t seem to have changed since initial reports surfaced, man are we happy they toned down the color a bit. The European version of the Samsung Galaxy i5700 should run you about €350 as far as retail pricing goes, and since this isn’t a With Google handset, expect Samsung’s TouchWiz interface to make an appearance. But let’s be honest, we’re just happy we got the Behold II in place of this…

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We know that some of you might get tired of hearing us say it, but damn our connects are good. Yesterday at CTIA, RIM reps showcased the BlackBerry Bold in Diddy White. According to Giz, the folks that snapped these pics, the white Bold will make its AT&T debut on October 18th with a 2-year price of $199.99 (some price as existing Bold). Though it will only be available at “select stores”, we don’t think that a lot of people will lose sight of the BlackBerry 9700 to get their hands on this special affair. Hit the jump for one more pic.

Need more proof that Verizon is on the cusp of releasing the BlackBerry Storm 9550? If so, you might want to check out this BES 5.0 flyer that one of our BlackBerry connects just sent us. Aimed towards corporate folks, the flyer lists what a glorious and indispensable business tool the still-unannounced BlackBerry 9550 is when running on BES 5.0. You know, good stuff like follow-up flags, advanced folder management, calendar appointment forwarding, wireless contact sync, document editing with DocumentsToGo and remote file sharing with the Files app. Yes friends, this is hotness personified. Hit the jump for a larger pic!

Thanks, PatBeats!

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Looks like the Palm Pre will be making another GSM appearance this month, this time in Spain on Telefonica’s HSDPA network starting October 14th. O2 has already announced a release around the same time in Germany, Ireland, and the UK.  The Official Palm blog announcement:

“Telefonica today announced the availability of Palm Pre on its HSDPA mobile network in Spain on 14 October. New Telefonica customers can receive the phone at no cost, depending on their service plan commitment. Telefonica is also the exclusive initial carrier for Palm Pre in United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany. The phone can be purchased at Telefonica outlets in Spain and online at www.telefonica.es. More information about Palm Pre is available at http://www.palm.com/es-pre-notify.”

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Could today have been a more exciting day? AT&T certainly thinks so, which is why it just announced it’s informing both Apple and the FCC of its network’s readiness and willingness to allow VoIP apps to operate over its 3G network. IPhone included. Wow. That’s a pretty awesome move, and totally out of left field. Hit the jump to check out AT&T’s press release.

AT&T EXTENDS VOIP TO 3G NETWORK FOR IPHONE

DALLAS, October 6, 2009 – AT&T today announced it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on iPhone to run on AT&T’s wireless network. Previously, VoIP applications on iPhone were enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity. For some time, AT&T has offered a variety of other wireless devices that enable VoIP applications on 3G, 2G and Wi-Fi networks. AT&T this afternoon informed Apple Inc. and the FCC of its decision.

In late summer, AT&T said it was taking a fresh look at VoIP capabilities on iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network, consistent with its regular review of device features and capabilities to ensure attractive options for consumers.

“iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets. “Today’s decision was made after evaluating our customers’ expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer.”

AT&T allows customers to download or launch on their wireless devices a multitude of compatible applications directly from any lawful Internet website. Additionally, because AT&T uses GSM technology, the most pervasive and open wireless technology platform in the world, we support customers using any GSM phone that works on AT&T’s frequencies.

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Not super excited about the November launch of Bell’s HSPA network? Fair enough, but we think you’ll change your mind once we tell you what The Globe and Mail is reporting: both Bell and TELUS are going to be selling the Apple iPhone next month. Apple, Bell and TELUS declined to speak to the matter when asked, but the fact remains that not only does this make sense considering the fact exclusivity deals are already starting to fizzle out in the UK, but for the simple fact that if The Globe and Mail says its going to happen you can confidently bet your bottom dollar that it will happen 99 times out of 100. If not, we’re going cancel our subscription for our Canadian office. Rogers, we are awaiting emails from your PR people.

Thanks, Scott, and everyone else who sent this one in!

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While it might not be intended to be so, it’s generally an exceptional event if a given phone isn’t sold before its launch date by various carrier outlets. Case in point: the HTC Pure. We know over the past few days some AT&T locations begun receiving stock of the customized Touch Diamond2, but now word is that some of those locations are selling the Pure ahead of what is assumed to be its official release date of Tuesday. Overall, the Pure doesn’t appear to be packed with any surprises other than the disappointingly non-existent 3.5mm headphone jack. As we exclusively told you, the Pure is indeed going for $149.99 on a 2-year after a $100 MIR meaning that a lot of WinMo junkies are going to have a touch decision between the more affordable Pure and the better spec’d Imagio.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

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Let’s face it. Unless you’re really into BlackBerrys and have your heart set on the Bold 9700, you don’t really have a whole lot of choices for a new candybar QWERTY smartphone. But that’s just fine with us, because Nokia’s E72, the successor in every sense of the word to the much loved E71, is now up for pre-order on Amazon. No, it’s not some crappy Euro version that likes to play “football” and drink tea; this is a real red meat eating, red, white and blue NAM edition. It’s unlocked, $469, comes in any color you like so long as it’s Zodium Black and seems destined to sell a lot of units. Why? Because Nokia has discovered just how easy it is to move handsets through fire sales.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

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Although not a soul alive is shocked by the news, today Verizon Wireless announced it will be releasing the HTC Imagio — its first Windows Mobile 6.5 device — online starting October 6th. The Imagio, known to most by its codename Whitestone, will feature the following key specs: 3.6″ WVGA touchscreen display (resistive, of course), 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, Wi-Fi, EV-DO Rev. A, quad-band EDGE and 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA for international roaming. Being a WinMo device from HTC, TouchFLO 3D is naturally included while Verizon will be chipping in MediaFLO support for those who are willing to part with an extra $15 per month. So what will the Imagio cost come its big day? $199.99 on a 2-year deal after a $100 MIR which isn’t all that shabby, all things considered.

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Motorola. Regardless of your brand loyalty, the aforementioned company changed the mobile landscape. Twice. First with the legendary StarTac and once again with the Motorola RAZR. Unfortunately, the RAZR by itself wasn’t enough to keep propelling Motorola’s mobile handset division forward for eternity. Here we are some five whole years later looking at what is Motorola’s most important product (and upcoming products) in recent memory. Enter the Motorola CLIQ. We’ve been fortunate enough to have one or two units of our own, even though there’s already been hands on sessions and a couple of reviews, we’re finally ready to tell you about it. We labeled this as a preview instead of a full review because we’re about two months out from launch. We’ll follow up to this post with findings from a unit T-Mobile sends us if there are any differences and additional thoughts.

Hardware:

Motorola really hasn’t been known as the most reliable company when it comes to manufacturing, but they’ve also previously dictated trends as far a cellular devices go. With that said, the Motorola CLIQ’s hardware isn’t a surprise to us. It seems decently solid, albeit a little cheap. Physically, buttons are spread nicely throughout the casing with a loud / vibrate ringer switch on the left side of the handset, volume bottoms below that, and a microUSB port just underneath that. On the right side there’s a power / lock and unlock button (one key for all three actions) followed by a two-stage camera shutter key. On the front of the device there’s a menu key, home key, and back key. Pretty simple and clean.

When you slide the display up to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard (the slide mechanism is very solid and fun to use), you get access to more Android-specific keys as well as a 5-way directional pad. There’s a dedicated search key and a back key, but what’s a really nice design touch is the alt key.

No, the alt key itself isn’t anything special, but when the backlight on the keyboard is active and you press the alt key, the alternate numbers and symbols on the keyboard independently light up. Very cool. (This doesn’t seem to be the case on the titanium version of the CLIQ).

Plus, who could forget to mention the glowing Motorola symbol on the back of the display? That’s right. It’s a blatant rip on Apple’s notebooks and we love it.

Screen

With a 3.1″ capacitive display, it’s a little tough to completely fall in love with the screen even though it’s one of the best as far as capacitive ones go. The smaller size of the display really affects usability and the on screen keyboard shows this issue the best — Motorola had to use even smaller on-screen keys for the keyboard. It’s plenty responsive but without multi-touch, it just feels primitive to say the least in some applications. The screen itself is definitely bright enough and pretty accurate in the color space, though it’s a little pixelated for our tastes.

OS:

Motorola did something pretty smart with their customizations — unlike HTC’s Sense UI, we don’t believe there’s a complete skin (extra process) running on top of the regular Android OS. Instead, Motorola uses widgets to display live information on the homescreen of the device and their other customizations seem to be OS-deep. This speeds up the entire phone dramatically. They even modified the Android homescreen to display 5 pages instead of 3, again, without having to run a process on top of the existing OS.

What’s not so good about the CLIQ’s software is that everything is disconnected and nothing really flows. For example, you can update your Facebook status, but there’s no way to see your previous statuses in one place, or even refresh the latest status manually. So, if your phone is powered off and you just updated your status from a computer let’s say, then powered the phone on, it shows your last update from the handset but not from the web. Not unless you let it refresh on it’s own schedule which can sometimes be never. The whole refreshing thing automatically is a little wonky, but again, that might just be not final software talking.

The Happenings application is a valiant effort to combine your social networks into a tidy timeline, but from our usage of it, it’s pretty clunky, slow, and lacking some features. What Motorola should have done is build more custom applications a la HTC’s Peep Twitter application because Happenings isn’t really cutting it when there are 500 updates. You can also forget about flicking through 500 updates in single view mode when you launch a friend’s update from the homescreen widget. The base concept here is awesome, it just needs some refining to make it usable in high-volume situations (read: lot of status updates/messages)

We think the execution is a little flawed for anyone with more than 20 friends total out of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. While trying to simplify their creation of widgets infused with status updates and linked contacts, Motorola in our opinion has made it even more difficult to manage your social life from this handset. Things like be able to manually refresh these updates and statuses, or even allow menu-based actions would be a plus. If you go into a single “happening” and press the menu key, nothing happens. No “reply”, “email”, “call” selectable options — nothing, even though that contact is in your address book and linked with all their other networks and contact information.

Another problem is how the CLIQ’s BLUR OS treats different forms of communication. For instance, Twitter isn’t like email. Mentions if anything are more a form of direct communication that I’m interested in, not direct messages. The CLIQ only has an inbox for direct messages and there’s no way to see aggregated Twitter mentions. I swear the people that created this phone barely use Twitter or Facebook for anything meaningful…

Thankfully there’s built-in Exchange support which will lovingly sync your mail, contacts, and calendars. Unfortunately, the fastest refresh internal is a whole 15 minutes and push email is no where to be found inside the Exchange program. Hopefully that’s because our unit might not be running final firmware, if it’s not, then well… yeah.

Maybe Motorola could have used the lock screen on the device to give previews of unread status updates, messages, notifications? There’s a ton of ways to properly integrate social services and while this is a decent attempt, its clunkiness we think will turn off any user looking to do more than lightly communicate with a select group of friends.

Phone:

Using the phone was surprisingly pleasant. There are no send/end keys on the device (physically, at least) and it’s a little different than what we’re used to for a Android phone. The built in voice dial/command function is absolutely brilliant and we fell in love with the virtual number pad. The phone app is one of the areas on here where you’ve got a lot of different options. Sorting by all calls, missed calls, outgoing calls, frequent called, recently called, and more are all some of the ways you can access your phone logs and contacts quickly and efficiently. In terms of incoming calls, you not only get the person’s name, number, and photo (if available), you also get their latest status update from whatever service that contact is linked. Sooo cool. We can’t believe no one has done this before (yes, we’re looking at HTC right now). In terms of actually using the phone to talk on, calls sounded pretty clear, though it wasn’t the best phone we’ve ever talked . Speakerphone was definitely loud and surprisingly clear with callers being able to hear us well, and we could hear them fine and have a normal conversation. Just as you’d expect from a phone…

Keyboard:

This is tough. Early reviews have said that the keyboard of the CLIQ was fantastic. We have to unfortunately disagree. It’s decent. Definitely usable, just not something we’d want to bang on all day and every day. The buttons are hard, cheap plastic, and while there is some tactile feedback when you press a single key, it doesn’t “bounce” back up and it’s a little unsettling.

The space bar on our unit has practically no feedback and since this is a sliding phone, the keyboard is sunk into the case which allows for the handset’s shell to rise slightly above the keyboard. The 5-way directional navigational pad suffers from the same common issues as the keyboard — not enough feedback. Childrens will have no problem with it, but anyone over the age of 12 might take issue to the keyboard. We’ll see.

UI:

While widgets are what spices up the homescreen of the CLIQ, Motorola also decided to blend contact information from all your different social networks together in a clean and useful live address book. Think of it as Synergy on the Pre, just executed a lot, lot more intuitively. For one, you can hide and view different networks if you don’t want to see every single Facebook friend or Twitter account you follow.

In terms of being intuitive, there a little UI work on here — Motorola has customized some default Android graphics and thrown on a custom color scheme, they’ve also overhauled the address book with a nice skin, but a lot of it is more application-centric.

We mean instead of there being an actual user interface on top of Android, there’s applications like Motorola’s unified inbox, inboxes for your social services like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc., widgets on the homescreen with popups, and things of that nature.

Something very cool about the Exchange email program, though, is that you actually have a font editor. You can bold, italicize, and completely format text. It’s really neat if not completely useless, but cool nonetheless.

Battery:

Not even joking when I say this — the Motorola CLIQ has possibly the worst battery life of any phone I’ve tested in recent memory with the current software. Maybe Motorola’s BLUR back-end isn’t optimized yet, maybe the phone software isn’t final, but this is ridiculously bad. Especially since it doesn’t even deliver your status updates when you want them, it just sits there pulling in data constantly updating in batches. I haven’t used the device as a primary device so I couldn’t give hard statistics on battery life when phone calling, but with on and off usage, it’s ridiculously bad. The battery itself looks to be 1390mAh for those that are interested.

Again, let’s hope the software isn’t prime time.

Conclusion:

The Motorola CLIQ isn’t a StarTac. It isn’t a RAZR. It’s a decent phone with a great concept. A concept that unfortunately wasn’t executed as well as it should have been when the entire industry is watching. We feel that the Motorola CLIQ’s appeal will be to the young teen market as opposed to consumers as a whole like other Android handsets. It’s only the first phone from Motorola and their new initiative, and they deserve credit for putting together something this unique and creative. Yet compared to something along the lines of HTC’s offerings, we don’t think many people are going to spring for a clunky Android handset regardless of price.

It’s annoyingly slow at times — really hope this isn’t final software — has very little user-customizable settings where you need them (something ironic for a handset that actually does offer a real attractive “connected lifestyle” concept) and has to be pretty low on the totem pole as far as market positioning is concerned. There’s the Motorola Sholes which is said to be extremely high-end with a fusion of aluminum and other metals launching on the Verizon network (as well as a Euro 3G unit we’re told) which is completely opposite of the CLIQ, and that interests us as far as what Motorola is up to.

Motorola was and still is one of our favorite tech companies. This is only their first handset since they did a little spring cleaning and it’s decent. I’m really hoping the software side of things dramatically improves as we get closer to a release, but with less than two months to go, I’m not sure it will happen. We know not everything you wanted to hear about was covered in this preview write-up, so hit us in the comments with any questions and we’ll update the post with answers. We’ve also reached out to Motorola’s PR team and are waiting to hear back from them to clarify some information like the software version and other fun stuff.

UPDATE: We’ve been informed this unit is definitely not running the final OS.

Remember that mysterious LiMo-powered smartphone we exclusively showed you a week back? Well today it was made official alongside another handset as well as a new internet service, Vodafone 360. The two devices, manufactured by Samsung, have been dubbed the 360 H1 (the device we showed you) and 360 M1. The 360 H1 looks to be an all around solid device with a 3.5-inch OLED touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, 16GB of internal memory, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HSDPA. The 360 M1, on the other hand, leaves a little bit to be desired but still packs a bit of a punch with a 3.2-inch touchscreen display,  1GB of internal memory (expandable by microSD), GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 and HSDPA. As for Vodafone 360 platform, what we previously told you was correct in that it incorporates more or less the same sort of social media approach as webOS and MOTOBLUR, but with a slightly stronger emphasis placed upon games, apps and music. Nothing too crazy, but it’s something we think every smartphone should have as we draw nearer to a new decade. Of note, Voda’s 360 services will also work on dozens of Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets so if this new dynamic duo isn’t your thing, rest easy. Oh, and just one more thing… The H1 and the M1? H1 and M1? H1M1? A bit too close for comfort.

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Oh you thought we fell off. Nope — we’ve just been tearing apart BlackBerry’s latest flagship over the past week or so and our review is finally perfectly crafted. The BlackBerry 9700 replaces the Bold as RIM’s newest flagship device. Even though it’s not released yet — look for it anywhere from mid-October to mid-November depending on what part of the globe you reside in — it’s BlackBerry’s most advanced QWERTY device to date and combines all of their next generation features together in a smaller and lighter package. We’ve already detailed our thoughts on RIM and how they are doing on the software side of things and this review will be mostly hardware focused. We will also follow up with a Part 2 review as we did with the BlackBerry Tour since this model is not a production unit.

Hardware / Design:

Gorgeous. How do you like that description? From the beveled edges to the powder-coated keyboard, this is one good looking BlackBerry. The much loved (and hated) fake leather textured battery cover makes a reappearance here as does a trackpad to handle the navigational duties.

The 9700 makes the Tour look like a bloated 8-month pregnant single mother. Shave about 24% of the surface area off the Tour, bevel the edges, round the corners, and you’ll have something close to the BlackBerry 9700. It’s the most gorgeous BlackBerry on the planet. And no, that’s not up for debate or discussion. Early units had the straight RIM color theme on the keyboards (white letters with red accents/symbols) but the unit we have which is most likely what AT&T will receive is all white. This looks great meshed with the titanium chrome finish on the bezel and the high gloss black finish on the front of the device.

This theme is always brought up in our reviews of BlackBerry devices — RIM really keeps innovating in hardware design and manufacturing. It seems as if each device they make has a brand new manufacturing process and technique, and while you might view this as a negative, we view it as a positive. Unlike a car maker, RIM can’t make a chassis, so to speak, that they use for all their models in a series. Since each device is unique, it’s great to see RIM experiment with different planning and assembly options to deliver the best product possible. Eliminating the number one failure point on a BlackBerry (the trackball) and replacing it with something that’s not just going to save money in the long run, but is actually a better solution is great. Making desktop chargers that use battery contact points to save wear and tear on the mini/microUSB port is smart. Speaking about the trackpad, we’re not sure what’s up because there’s a nice and day difference between this one and and the one on the BlackBerry 8520. It might be the exact same hardware revision, but something about it feels better to use and after a day of not using the traditional trackball, we can’t imagine not using the trackpad. It’s a worthy successor to the trackball.

What about something that’s often overlooked? Vibrate. We’d like to be the first ones to report that the vibrate function on the 9700 is straight up violent. It’s possibly the most downright disrespectfully loud and obnoxious vibrate mechanism we’ve heard in recent memory. And we love it. Switching gears to the physical buttons on the 9700, it will make a BlackBerry user feel right at home. Two-stage camera shutter /convenience key on the lower right side of the phone with volume up / down buttons towards the top of the right side. Left convenience key on the opposite side with lock and mute buttons on the top of the handset. There’s the now-default 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB port sitting above the left convenience key. Below those are a lanyard hole. Thrilling, we know.

The 9700 is very much like the 9520/9550 in terms of industrial design and gives us a glimpse at where RIM’s styling is headed for the next round of handsets. Things like soft-touch rubberized finish on the middle of the handsets with matching rubberized buttons (instead of chrome), darker chrome finishes, high gloss black — all these lead to more pronounced and edgier designs for a historically conservative corporation.

Screen:

RIM really moved in a brand new direction with the Bold’s display and ever since, they’ve been continuing the tradition of awesomeness. We’re really happy to report that the BlackBerry 9700 has the best screen to date of any BlackBerry handset. It’s that good. The resolution, which is the new RIM gold standard, is 480×360 and while you wouldn’t expect it to be any better than the Tour’s or Curve 8900’s screens, it is. Pictures appear as if they’re floating on top of the display, blacks are black and colors are crisp and vibrant. There’s a pretty decently-sized black border that goes around the entire display much like how the BlackBerry Tour’s screen looks, and while people have moaned about this ad nauseum, it doesn’t really phase us.

OS:

The latest versions of OS 5.0 (which have leaked for existing handsets like the 9530, 9630, Bold, 8900, etc.) show a slight UI refresh with more blues, more gradients, updated icons and buttons and even — *gasp* — kinetic scrolling on some devices. Here’s where it gets a little tricky, though. AT&T’s BlackBerry 9700 evaluation units shipped with OS 5.0.0.169. The unit we have originally came with that OS and worked magically. It, however, didn’t have the updated UI that later OS 5.0 builds contain. After upgrading our unit to OS 5.0.0.215 (internal builds for the 9700 are up beyond .249, we’re told) it’s now rocking out with the updates features and sexified UI elements. Why we’re going into this so deeply is because there’s a good chance that if AT&T’s 9700 passes technical acceptance without issue (we don’t anticipate the same issues that plagued the Bold’s release), the version that will ship with the 9700 will be 5.0.0.169 or something close to it. That means that you’ll be running an “old” 5.0 build and it’s interesting to see this play out. You’ll obviously be able to install different OS versions for yourself that have been released by other carriers, but we just wanted to give you guys a heads up that the release unit’s OS might be a little different.

Keyboard:

We don’t have to keep reinforcing it (well, we just did, we guess): we take those keyboards seriously. Throw the BlackBerry 8900 keyboard out of the window on this because it’s completely different. Imagine the BlackBerry 9700 keyboard as a mix of the Bold and the Tour keyboards. Tour-shaped (little better) with the bounce and feel of the Bold keyboard. It’s really fantastic. Definitely not as large as the original Bold’s mammoth boat-sized chiclet pad, but it’s great. We’d probably go as far as saying out of the current generation BlackBerry handsets, the BlackBerry 9700 is the best. You’ll see that theme appear time and time again in this review. Each little key has a nice carved design that allows for precision typing at its finest. Keys have a decent amount of space and even though the shift keys at the bottom look a little small (they are tiny), they’re completely usable and really don’t turn out to be a hindrance when it comes to getting your typing on.

After a couple hours of usage we have no doubts that you’ll absolutely fall in love with the keyboard. The feel of the keys coupled with the shape and proper layout that’s standard on all BlackBerrys offer a truly excellent typing experience on the BlackBerry 9700.

Phone:

The unit as a phone is fantastic. That will obviously depend on what network you sign your life away to, but even on AT&T, when the network worked, the 9700 made for a great phone. The actual ear speaker seems less recessed than previous BlackBerrys and we could hear callers loud and clear using the ear speaker. Speakerphone also worked well (as it should) with minimal distortion at maximum volume. Quite refreshingly, the device didn’t get too hot during long voice sessions and we really had no problems using the phone as a phone.

Browser:

While the browser in OS 5.0 comes with some improved Javascript support, it’s still no where near any of the top dogs like Apple’s mobile Safari, Android’s webKit browser, or Palm’s webKit browser. Using the browser with the trackpad as the cursor is definitely a great input method (remember when the trackball made use of the cursor back in the day for the first time?) and feels natural to navigate websites. The browser seems like one of the things that changes most as OS builds move further and further along so we’ll reserve our hatred for the browser in our final Part 2 review.

Speaker:

While the Bold offered three different audible speaker ports (one on each side and one at the top) for pretty accurate sound reproduction, the BlackBerry 9700 uses a single opening towards the top part of the back of the device. This works fairly well and sound, uh, sounds good. We did notice a volume decrease compared to the Bold, but not by much. Maybe around 15% lower? Nothing is going to beat that Storm 2 speaker, though…

Battery:

We’re not sure how they did it, but the BlackBerry 9700 has the best battery life of any 3G BlackBerry in recent years. It could probably even rival the BlackBerry 8900 — truly unbelievable. The BlackBerry Tour was the king of battery life, and that was odd seeing as how CDMA devices usually are a bit worse than their GSM brothers and sisters, but the 9700 has one-upped the Tour. For some rough statistics, the BlackBerry Bold with normal usage patterns lasted me around 7 hours of usage until the battery was dead. How long do you think the 9700 lasts using the exact same BlackBerry Bold battery? Try around 15 hours. We’re talking more than double with a faster CPU and using the same battery. Really remarkable and will help those on-the-go warriors.

It’s funny to see RIM use such a wide range of batteries in their devices. Then again, for a company that has 15,000 different models, 4,000 different screen resolutions, and 2,000 different form factors it doesn’t surprise us. What you’ll be happy to hear is that your existing BlackBerry Bold battery will work perfectly in the 9700 and will yield you better battery life than you’ve ever imagined.

Note: Battery life was based on OS 5.0.0.169. It’s dramatically worse in OS 5.0.0.215 which the unit is now running.

Conclusion:

It’s pretty hard to make a general recommendation nowadays with any device, let alone a BlackBerry. With four form-factors in the BlackBerry family, it complicates things.

The BlackBerry 9700 is a much-needed refresh to the aging BlackBerry Bold. To date, RIM has released only a single 3G GSM device in the United States and with competition heating up, the BlackBerry 9700 looks to be their answer. We absolutely gushed over the BlackBerry Tour in our review and until the 9700 came along, that was our daily driver. Is the BlackBerry Tour still the best BlackBerry on the market? We think so. But as good as the Tour is, the 9700 is better. There seems to be a drastic difference between CDMA and GSM hardware on BlackBerry devices (we’re guessing it’s the Qualcomm processors opposed to the Marvells) and it’s actually exhilarating to be back on a GSM device. The BlackBerry 9700 combines the most-loved features that have been sprinkled about on BlackBerry phones over the last year (3G, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, trackpad, QWERTY keyboard, smaller size, faster CPU) and combines them into a single sexy and compact package.

“So you’re saying the BlackBerry 9700 is the best BlackBerry ever?”

Yes. It’s the finest BlackBerry ever crafted and if you’re asking why it’s so much better than the Tour, it goes back to that CDMA vs. GSM argument as well as the fact that the 9700 is simply a year newer. We nailed the Tour all the way back almost two years ago, and sadly the internals seem to be a little outdated. There’s no official CPU specifications on the Tour, but if we had to guess we’d guess it’s running at around 500MHz give or take. Rumblings have pegged the BlackBerry 9700’s Marvell Tavor CPU running at close to 800MHz! It’s a lot faster in normal usage than the Bold (both running OS 5.0) so in addition to the RAM being doubled, we’re pretty sure there is a faster CPU dropped in there as well.

Every single thing about the BlackBerry 9700 screams high-end to us, and for a device that’s a part of the Bold-series (the Bold won’t go anywhere, we’ve been told), it should. It’s the best of the best to come out of Research In Motion to date and we can’t wait until everyone’s able to use one.

Check back for Part 2 when we follow up with a review on an AT&T release unit.

Image courtesy of TweetGenius.

One of our ninjas just blessed us with a look at a portion of AT&T’s Windows Mobile road-map for the rest of the year. Quickly glancing at it we can see that the AT&T Tilt 2 will obviously launch in October, and refreshingly, the Samsung Epix and Samsung Jack will be getting upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5 courtesy of upcoming maintenance releases. What’s more exciting, however, are the HP Obsidian and LG Monaco launches. While not brand new to the world, it’s nice to know that these Windows Mobile business-focused handsets will finally see the light of day come November. We know October is going to be full of 6.5 handsets like the Tilt 2 and Pure, and November shows no signs of slowing down either. Here’s a quick refresher on specifications for the LG Monaco and HP Obsidian and a larger shot after the break:

HP Obsidian:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100MHz)
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi b,g
• QWERTY keyboard
• microSD slot
• GPS
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Windows Mobile 6.5

LG Monaco:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100MHz)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Wi-Fi b,g
• Slide-out full QWERTY keyboard
• GPS
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera

Thanks, Feech!

It looks like folks with lousy AT&T coverage may get some relief soon, as a new report suggests that AT&T is readying a soft launch of its 3G femtocell product dubbed the Microcell. The launch will target select markets including including Atlanta, San Antonio, Seattle and possibly one or more cities in North Carolina. AT&T is a bit late to the party considering how long ago these puppies popped up in its system, but better late than never we suppose. The soft launch is expected to begin next week with nationwide launch to follow some time before the end of the year.

[Via DSL reports]

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If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, what does an Apple tablet rumor a day do for you? We don’t know but if these Apple tablet rumors continue their current pace, we may just find out. Today we have some fresh Apple tablet information courtesy of the Taiwan Economic News. The Tawainese newspaper is reporting that Apple’s upcoming tablet will feature a 9.6-inch “finger friendly” Wintek touchscreen, HSDPA connectivity (no Verizon Wireless), and a processor from Apple-owned P.A. Semi. The information comes from battery maker Dynex, which claims it has a contract to produce 300,000 long lasting battery packs per month for the upcoming Apple tablet. According to this rumor, the tablet will retail for $799 to $999 and will arrive sometime in February 2010. Check back tomorrow when all of these details change yet again at the hand of another wave of rumors.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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We’re not at the final OS build (haven’t even updated this to latest available OS) and that’s always something to take into consideration. With that said, however, the Storm 2 really makes SurePress a viable touchscreen mechanism that people will enjoy using. This obviously should have been done the first go around, and there’s big bad all-touch-screen smartphones to battle, but we like where RIM has gone with it and we’re eagerly awaiting an official announcement. More photos after the break!

Thanks, Mark!t

UPDATE: Had a chance to load a more recent OS on here (5.0.0.224) and it’s improved the screen feel immensely. Any wonkiness and erroneous screen taps seem to have gone away. Plus, you know… there’s threaded SMS now.

While LG has never appeared to be particularly interested in offering Android smartphones, today the Korean company officially took the wraps off of its first Android device in the LG-GW620. A slider with a full-QWERTY keypad, LG made the strange decision to withhold most of the GW620’s specs in its press release despite having shown it off at a trade show just one week ago. But because of this recent appearance, we know that the GW620 also known as the “Etna” has 3-inch HVGA touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3.6 Mbps UMTS/HSDPA connectivity. You can expect to see the LG-GW620 in Europe sometime in the next quarter, although disappointingly there was no mention of a North American release. Hit the jump for some high-res press shot goodness.

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