Mobile Mentalism » Leaked Photos news and latest mobile phone reviews

Leaked pictures of Lenovo Android Phone

Mike Evans — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:29:27 +0000

Seems everyone and his dog is working on a Google Android handset at the moment! The latest news is of a new Android phone being developed by Chinese laptop and PC manufacturer Lenovo.

As you can see from the pic, it certainly looks more like a phone than a Photoshop fake, so Lenovo are clearly working on something.

Whatever it is, it looks bloody good! If it's an Android phone, then it looks like it's set to come with an iPhone-esque virtual keyboard, which is apparently coming to the Android platform early next year. The result is a super-sleek touchscreen phone that looks very minimalist.

The rumours suggest that the phone is based on the concept of the OPhone - basically a custom version of Android that comes with support for China's TD-SCMDA 3G standard. A Lenovo OPhone would therefore give China Mobile the iPhone-like phone it's been craving without having to give any subscriber revenue to Apple.

Those are the rumours, anyway, and to be honest, I'd be more surprised if Lenovo aren't working on an Android phone at the moment! Android seems set to be the new mobile operating system of the year for 2009, with almost every company that owns a soldering iron feverishly working on building its own variant!

[Source: Electronista]

Leaked pictures of new Nokia touchscreen interface

Mike Evans — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:14:10 +0000

Where would we be without leaked pictures?! This time, we have some leaked pics from none other than Nokia themselves, seemingly showing a new touchscreen user interface for an as yet unnamed mobile phone. The pictures come from a slide presented at Nokia's Capital Markets Day 2008, so as it comes from the company itself, the pic itself is genuine. Quite whether the phone it depicts is real or just a Photoshop teaser is another matter, though.

If nothing else, though, it shows the direction Nokia are working towards. Full touchscreen phone, context and presence, integrated services, multiple homescreens. Seems that direction has "iPhone" written on it in super-huge letters!

[Source: Engadget]

Leaked Pictures of Samsung Memoir 8 megapixel camera phone

Mike Evans — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:43:35 +0000

Leaked pictures have emerged of a new camera phone from Samsung. Currently called the Samsung Memoir, the new phone will feature an 8 megapixel camera, Omnia-style touchscreen, and the TouchWiz user interface found in the Omnia and the Samsung Tocco. Other details are scarce, unfortunately, but apparently it's destined for the US, among other places, although on T-Mobile - sorry about that! [Source: TMONews, via Engadget]

Leaked pictures of the 8 megapixel LG Renoir

Mike Evans — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:32:29 +0000

Unofficially christened the LG Viewty II, the new LG KC910 has been given the official name LG Renoir, and it's specs are simply awesome. With an 8 megapixel camera with more camera-specific settings than you'd find in you, er, camera, plus GPS, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Wi-Fi and a giant 3" touchscreen, the LG Renoir is set to be one of, if not the, most feature-heavy mobile phones on the market.

As these leaked pics show, it's not exactly bad looking, either, although it does seem to take its styling cues from another rater more famous touchscreen smartphone that's been on the market for a while now.

Indeed, it's pretty obvious that the LG Renoir is LG's attempt to trounce the iPhone, and in terms of features, there's absolutely no contest.

The Renoir could pretty much beat any other phone around in a game of Top Trumps, let alone the iPhone's relatively weak feature list.

However, the proof, as they say, is in the accessibility, flexibility, intuitiveness, speed and all round user experience afforded by the device's user interface (not the pudding - this is a mobile phone, remember, not a cake!)

The iPhone's unique selling point is its incredible UI, and Apple have rightly realized that all the features in the world don't mean a damn if the don't actually work all that well, or they're not actually that usable due to a poor UI.

So we can judge the Renoir now as a definite success based on its feature set alone. But as a viable alternative to the iPhone?

We'll just have to wait and see the real thing in action.

Certainly these leaked pics don't exactly make me gasp with amazement, as the UI looks very plain indeed, but pictures alone can't give the full story, so I'll reserve judgment until the Renoir is released.

[Source: BoyGenius]

Pictures of the T-Mobile G1, the world’s first Android phone

Mike Evans — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:17:07 +0000

Here at last are leaked pictures of the world's first Google Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. Actually, it's an HTC Dream rebadged as the G1, but T-Mobile will be the network offering it first, so the G1 it is.

Being a smartphone, it could either be pure touchscreen, like the iPhone, or come complete with a physical keyboard like the majority of Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 smartphones. Thankfully, it chose the latter, and has a slide out keyboard that will be familiar to many users of other HTC devices.

Better still, the keyboard isn't just a full QWERTY keyboard, it's also got dedicated number keys as well as two ALT buttons for selecting the punctuation symbols that are doubled up on some character keys. As I found out with my MWg Zinc II review, you need two ALT buttons, as just having one leaves you trying to do finger contortions that nobody over the age of 14 can manage!

More details and pics after the jump

I have high hopes for this phone. I love my Nokia E90, but there aren't many Symbian applications you can download for it, and it has nowhere near the web/mobile application integration that the iPhone does (for example, there's no dedicated FaceBook app for the Symbian S60 platform on which it's built).

Equally, the applications on the iPhone look fantastic, but the phone itself is no good for me. Sure it has 3G now, but that's still ten times slower than my E90, and I hate the Apple store, which locks the development process and restricts innovation by ensuring Apple get the final say over which apps are developed and which aren't.

Google Android, by contrast, is entirely open, and the Android Market will be a place where any developed can upload their applications for people to use, without Google saying what can and cannot be sold.

As such, if they can get the hardware and features right, Android phones should eventually blow the iPhone out the water, as the pace of innovation within the Android market should be much faster than that of the iPhone's. Just witness how fast the Web has evolved, and Android phones are based on exactly the same open model.

The T-Mobile G1 is still scheduled for a release sometime in September,and as these pics show, it's looking pretty close to being finalized, so even if it misses its September deadline, it shouldn't be by much.

The battle for the smartphone market is shaping up nicely, something which Nokia has itself recognized in a post I'll cover tomorrow. With the market soon to have Symbian, Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone and now Google Android platforms to work with, the mobile Web is about to become a much bigger part of our lives than it is now, and feature much tighter integration with the Web applications and services we've come to rely on on our desktop.

[Source: EngadgetMobile]

No more Walkman phones from Sony Ericsson?

Mike Evans — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:00:16 +0000

Leaked pictures of the Sony Ericsson Remi have emerged, which show a super-thin (10mm) candy bar phone that has overtures of Sony Ericsson's old T610 phone. Looking rather stylish in a minimalistic kind of way, the Remi (which is currently a codename, and not the final name of the phone) will be a mid-range phone, and quite highly specced, with HSDPA and a 3.2 megapixel camera .

In fact most of the features are already on the Sony Ericsson W890, as the Remi is pretty much exactly the same phone, just without the Walkman branding. All of which leads me to wonder quite why the Walkman branding has suddenly been dropped...

OK, before I begin, the following is pure speculation on my part, and should be treated as such.

Recently, there's been a few rumours that Sony are unhappy with Sony Ericsson's performance, particularly with the way it's been using Sony's Walkman brand. As a consequence, Sony are extremely reluctant to offer any more of its famous brands for use on mobile phones. We already have the Walkman and the CyberShot phones, and in Japan they have a Bravia mobile TV range of phones, but that would appear to be as far as Sony are prepared to go. Certainly Sony will not be letting Sony Ericsson use the PlayStation or PSP brands for a gaming phone.

And now onto the speculation: just why are Sony Ericsson working on a phone that's the same as an existing phone but without the Walkman branding? Could Sony be about to pull its brands from Sony Ericsson? If so, then it makes sense for the company to have an array of phones already on the market that don't have any of Sony's brands on them.

Of course, this is, as I say, just speculation, but given the fragile nature of the current partnership between Sony and Ericsson, it's not beyond possibility that Sony Ericsson is hedging its bets in case Sony's famous brands are suddenly taken away from it.

As such, this might be the last year that we see Walkman phones or CyberShot phones, and any hopes of seeing a Bravia phone outside of Japan (much less a PlayStation phone) will be dashed against the rocks of disappointment.

[Source: Se-Nse.net]

Leaked pics of Sony Ericsson F305 game phone

Mike Evans — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:24:39 +0000

Rumours that Sony Ericsson have been working on a PSP phone have been rife for some time now, but despite the company dismissing the rumours, they never actually said they weren't working on a game phone. So when these leaked pictures of a new game phone by Sony Ericsson emerged, the mobile phone world collectively held its breath. A game phone from Sony Ericsson? Could it be a real PSP phone?

Er, no! It's a Sony Ericsson F305, which is actually quite a low end phone, but which comes with an accelerometer for motion-controlled games, a few game-oriented buttons on the front keypad, and, well, that's about your lot! No HSDPA or even standard 3G - just slow old EDGE connectivity, plus a few other features such as an MP3 player.

The new phone is set to be announced on June 17th, if you can contain your excitement. A Sony Ericsson game phone the F305 clearly is; a PSP phone it most certainly is not. Shame.

[Source: EngadgetMobile]

More leaked pics of the Sony Ericsson C905 camera phone

Mike Evans — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:02:07 +0000

Just in case you didn't believe that Sony Ericsson were serious about releasing an 8 megapixel camera phone, here are a few more pics that just might make you change your mind. The first thing to note is that these pics aren't Photoshopped - they're the genuine article. Then look at the detail - not only is "8 megapixel" clearly written on the side, but also Wi-Fi and GPS.

Make no mistake, the Sony Ericsson C905 is going to be one monster of a camera phone, but only as far as features are concerned. As you can see from the pic below, although bigger than a Motorola RAZR, it's not vastly so, meaning it'll be a large camera phone, but not an enormous one.

Update: Check out our initial impressions with our early Sony Ericsson C905 review

More pics of the Sony Ericsson C905 camera phone after the jump.

[Source: ePrice]

Leaked video preview of Sony Ericsson C905 Shiho

Mike Evans — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:38:12 +0000

Sony Ericsson will very shortly be dropping an absolute monster of a camera phone on us all - the Sony Ericsson C905, complete with an 8 megapixel camera. Currently codenamed the Sony Ericsson Shiho, the C905 is set to blow all other camera phones out of the water. Not only do you get a megapixellage so vast it makes your eyes water, it also comes with all manner of nifty photo-enhancing features normally found in cameras. Not just auto-focus, which you'd expect, but also a xenon flash, face recognition, smart contrast, image stabilization, BestPic, and red-eye reduction.

And that's just the camera! Throw in a-GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, and all manner of other goodies, and the C905 is every Sony Ericsson fan-boy's wet dream come true!

Full details of the Sony Ericsson C905 after the jump. Update: Check out or early Sony Ericsson C905 review.

Sony Ericsson C905 in detail

I touched on some of the features of the C905 in the first part of this post, so let's expand on them a bit.

Firstly, the camera. 8.1 megapixels in size, and with such a huge range of photo-enhancing features that come with it, it's set to be the best camera phone one the market bar none. Naturally it's branded a CyberShot.

Secondly, connectivity. The Nokia N95 first set the bench mark for connectivity last year, and the C905 seems to be going out of its way to beat it. Wi-Fi, HSDPA and HSUPA (for super-fast upload speeds, which you'll need when each picture is over 5MB in size!), plus Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, TV-Out and DLNA.

This last acronym, standing for Digital Living Network Alliance, is technology designed to enable compatible devices to seamlessly share content with one another. A DLNA-equipped mobile phone, for example, can beam its pictures directly to a DLNA-equipped TV for presenting, without the need for cables. As far as connectivity is concerned, then, the C905 will pretty much connect with anything, simply and quickly. There's even integrated support for Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and a number of other Web sites, too, for simple upload of your content to these sites via a single button click.

Then there's the small matter of a-GPS. Not only can you use this as a Sat-Nav, but it'll also let you geo-tag your pics as well.

Still not enough for you? How about full VGA video, complete with picture stabilizer, or accelerometer that flips pictures from landscape to portrait mode when you turn the phone 90 degrees?

Each of these features outdoes the Nokia N95 and makes the Apple iPhone, which still only has a poor 2 megapixel non-auto focus camera even on the latest 3G version, look like something Motorola would develop!

The downside, of course, is size and weight. The Sony Ericsson C905 will measure 104 x 49 x 19.5 millimetres, and weigh a whopping 136 grams. But that's the price you pay for gadgetry perfection! At least the battery life isn't too shabby, with 380 hours standby or 9 hours of talk on GSM networks, and 360 hours standby or 4 hours of talk on 3G networks.

The Sony Ericsson C905 release date isn't yet known, but it's rumoured it'll be Q4 2008. An announcement is expected from the company on 17th June, so watch this space for updates. It will come in either Copper Gold, Ice Silver or Night Black with a 2 GB Memory Stick Micro M2.

Sample pictures from the Sony Ericsson C905's camera

As if all that wasn't enough, check out some sample pictures taken from this beast:

Don't worry about the colour on the photos at this stage - it's still in prototype form, and the colours have yet to be finished.

If you want to see the photos full size, check them out over at SE-Nse.net.

Video preview of the Sony Ericsson C905

Finally, check out this video preview of the Sony Ericsson C905 to get a better feel for how it'll look.

Last year, I complained that Sony Ericsson were in danger of doing a Motorola, sitting back on their laurels and letting their competitors race ahead of them in the mobile phone features race, as they concentrated solely on churning out more and more Walkman phones and CyberShot phones, each of which was pretty similar to its predecessor. Happily, nothing could be further from the truth this year, with first the Xperia X1 and now the Sony Ericsson C905 CyberShot putting the company right back where it belongs, at the bleeding edge of mobile phone technology - and frankly, I'm delighted! [Source: Se-Nse.net]

Retro Sony Ericsson Alicia goes back to the 70s

Mike Evans — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:11:01 +0000

There's another Sony Ericsson phone on its way, currently codenamed the Sony Ericsson Alicia, and as you can see from the pics, it looks like something straight from the age of LED watches. Those of you under 35 may not be aware that there was such a thing as LED watches, but it's true. Before LCD there was LED, with big bright red numerals set against a black backgroud - which, if you look at the Alicia, is exactly what Sony Ericsson's new phone offers.

It also offers a few other tips of the hat to certain other style icons, such as what looks like an iPod-esque scroll wheel. Other than that, details are a bit sketchy, but there will apparently be animations on the screens (both internal and external) that change according to the time of day, or some other event such as the weather.

More pics of the Sony Ericsson Alicia after the jump.

[Source: SE-Nse.net]