Cell phones

The best of CTIA 2009

As CTIA comes to a close, we pause to select the best products from the show. The scene in Las Vegas was much quieter than in past years, and it lacked any high-profile announcements like the Palm Pre. But, there were a few products that deserve recognition as the Cream of the Crop from CTIA 2009.

Best phone: Samsung Impression

For the third year in a row, Samsung takes the title of the best phone in CTIA. While the Samsung Impression can't quite compete with the hype of last year's Instinct or 2007's Upstage, it is the most practical of the three. And in a year where messaging phones were all the rage, it stands out in a crowded field as the one of the best-designed messaging phones we've seen in a while.

The keyboard is spacious and tactile, and while the handset isn't quite sexy, it has a pleasant, minimalist shape that feels nice in the hand. Yet the Impression's biggest draw is its gorgeous active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display. As Samsung promised, the display is positively brilliant with bright colors and vibrant graphics. Features are decent, even if they're not groundbreaking.

Inside you'll find a 3-megapixel camera, a full HTML browser, Bluetooth, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, 3G support with access to Cellular Video and AT&T Music, a personal organizer, AT&T Navigator, and a speakerphone. No, that won't knock your socks off; in fact, you might even see it as somewhat boring. But as we said before, the Impression's story is more about functional features and an intuitive design rather than flash and glam. And at a very quiet show, it deserves its prize. The Impression will be out soon with AT&T; we should have a review shortly.

For more on the Impression, see our photo gallery and video.

Best smartphone: HTC Snap

Aside from rising importance of applications, the other theme of CTIA 2009 was messaging. We saw a slew of new messaging devices debut at the show, and it extended to smartphones. While the Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro were nice additions to AT&T's lineup, the HTC Snap stood out for its Inner Circle feature.

With a simple press of a button, Inner Circle brings e-mails from a preselected group of people to the top of your in-box so you can read and reply to them immediately. The capability isn't the wave of the future, but it does help prioritize your e-mails based on your preferences.

In addition, HTC, once again did a nice job on the design. The Snap is a beautifully constructed and sleek smartphone. The QWERTY keyboard also features good-size buttons for easy messaging. Finally, don't be fooled by its diminutive size, as it's packed with features, including Windows Mobile 6.1, push e-mail, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, and a 2-megapixel camera. We look forward to checking out the U.S. version of the Snap, the HTC S522, when it's released in the summer. … Read more

Revisiting Zer01

Thursday I told you about the launch of Zer01, a new VoIP carrier. At the time, however, information was slim since the carrier's Web site was out of service, which isn't a great sign. But it's back up and running now, and I got a chance to meet with CEO Benjamin Piilani at CTIA.

First on my list was to ask how the carrier isn't a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), even though it depends on major wireless carriers to operate its services. As Piilani explained it, while MVNOs buy capacity from a carrier and resell … Read more

PCD previews a few messaging phones

PCD didn't have any major announcements at CTIA, but it did give us a brief sneak peek at what we can expect from them this year. All of the offerings appear to be messaging phones, with full QWERTY keyboards for easier texting. I apologize in advance for just taking photos of posters; they didn't have any real hardware on hand at the booth.

The first handset we saw was codenamed the TXT8026, which has a 2.2-inch color screen with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, an MP3 player, and measures around 3.… Read more

Nokia Messaging adds Windows Live Hotmail support

In conjunction with the Web 2.0 Expo and shown in action at CTIA 2009, Nokia announced that it has added Windows Live Hotmail support to Nokia Messaging.

Nokia Messaging is a free, downloadable application that lets you access up to 10 personal e-mail accounts on a Nokia device, all of which organized under a single icon. The app also supports Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL Mail, among others.

In addition, the Hotmail integration, the company also said it will add Nokia Messaging support to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic starting in May. Currently, the app is available on 20 Nokia models … Read more

LG shows off ATSC mobile digital TV at CTIA

Aside from showing off its latest handsets, LG also took the opportunity at CTIA 2009 to demonstrate Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) mobile digital television on some of its phones. ATSC is the new digital television standard that is replacing NTSC, and LG has been helping to develop a mobile version of the standard in the form of embedded chips.

At the show, LG incorporated these chips in the LG Lotus and the LG Voyager, and showed off live local TV on both handsets. There is no real service fee involved, since it's basically receiving the television signal over … Read more

A limited-edition 'Transformers' LG Versa phone

Bringing new meaning to the phrase "more than meets the eye," LG has partnered with Dreamworks to bring you a limited edition of the LG Versa with a Transformers theme to help promote the sequel to the 2007 summer blockbuster. In fact, Michael Bay himself will be on the scene at the LG booth in CTIA at 2 p.m. PDT Thursday to promote the phone and the movie, titled "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

It's fitting that they chose to make the LG Versa their promotional phone, as the touch-screen handset is quite transformative … Read more

Nokia's Point & Find gives new life to the camera phone

At its CTIA booth Nokia showed a new camera phone application that will allow users to get information about an object. Point & Find is a downloadable app that uses real-time image processing and recognition technologies to access information related to books, movies, DVDs and similar media content.

Though Nokia officially unveiled Point & Find back in San Francisco at the Web 2.0 conference, I got see a demonstration in Las Vegas. The Nokia rep pointed an N95 at a poster for the movie Ice Age 3. You don't actually have to take a photo--all you need to … Read more

LG Neon hands-on

The LG Xenon is clearly LG's premier announcement at CTIA this year, but the LG Neon deserves a closer look too. I had a brief hands-on with the device early yesterday, and it left a pretty good impression though I question some of the design choices.

Like the Xenon, the Neon has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and is meant to be a messaging device. It has a nice display and is slim and lightweight. The keyboard only has 3 rows instead of the 4 rows on the Xenon, so it's slightly more cramped. Still, the keys are well-spaced … Read more

Hands-on with the LG Xenon

My first stop this morning at CTIA was to the LG booth, particularly to take a closer look at the LG Xenon, which was announced earlier this week. The Xenon is quite svelte at 4.16 inches long by 2.11 inches wide by 0.62 inch thick, and it has a nice 262,000-color 2.8-inch QVGA touch-screen display. Underneath the display are three physical keys; the Send, task manager, and End/Power keys. The task manager key brings up a list of open applications that you can toggle through. The touch screen has vibrating feedback, and there's … Read more

T-Mobile grabs Nokia 1661

Nokia may have a big booth at CTIA, but so far the company's news has been light. Besides the E71x for AT&T, Nokia's only other new cell phone in Las Vegas is the 1661 for T-Mobile's prepaid service. The low-end handset sports a simple candy bar design with basic features. The handset is dual-band (GSM 850/1900), which means it will only work in North America.

Inside you'll find an FM radio, messaging, a 250-contact phone book, a speakerphone, a calendar, and an alarm clock. Yet, there is one unique touch. On the 1661'… Read more