First announced back in November of last year, the Casio G'zOne Brigade has finally gone on sale over at Verizon's website. Sporting ultra-rugged features paired with a slew of multimedia and messaging capabilities, it's one of the most unique handsets to make its way to the market.

As expected, the handset can withstand some serious stress, certified to 810F military standards for resistance to shock, water, dust and a whole host of extreme conditions. If you're used to rugged phones being short on features, you'll appreciate the talents that this outdoor-ready clamshell brings forward. Designed for serious messaging, it boasts a full QWERTY keyboard, visual voice mail, IM and corporate email. Not to be outdone, it's heavy on the multimedia prowess too, providing support for the range of VCast services (including streaming music and videos).

The Brigade comes with two screens - a 1.2-inch external display (paired with a T9-style keypad so you can use it like a candybar phone) and a 2.9-inch horizontal panel with 400 x 240 resolution. Details include a 3.2 megapixel camera module, aGPS (with VZ Navigator), Rev. A push-to-talk, a full HTML browser, microSD card expansion (up to 16GB) and six hours of talk time. It measures 4.4 x 2.2 x 0.9 inches and weighs 6oz.

Sure, Casio G'zOne looks a tad bulky and industrial. However, this kind of feature set rarely comes posted right next to a rugged device, that also especially a cell phone . One possible barrier? The price. Available for $249.99 with a two-year agreement (after a $50 rebate), it's more expensive than the current crop of high-profile smartphones. Still, if you need a heavy-duty cell phone that can do more than the basic stuff, it's hard to beat.

[Verizon via Softpedia]

At the time it came out, the HTC Hero was, by far, the best Android phone on the block. With the HTC Legend, the manufacturer took everything good about that handset and made it even better.

Physically, it looks a lot like the Hero, down to the trademark chin. The body is cut from a single piece of aluminum (taking a bite out of Apple's aesthetic), making it both more attractive and durable at the same time. Replacing the trackball with a metal-trimmed trackpad also raises the style points up a notch, apart from working just as effectively.

Display is a gorgeous 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, with 320x480 resolution. Colors literally pop out, adding a "wow" factor that you seldom get with the mass of Android phones in the market. At 3mm thinner than the Hero, it's easily one of HTC's more pocketable devices.

As a phone, the HTC Legend manages slightly above average call quality. Voices sound natural with plenty of volume to go, although we did encounter a slight amount of distortion. Speakerphone worked just as well, perhaps lacking just a tad more volume to my liking. Battery life is quite disappointing, though, likely requiring a recharge every day and a half for most common uses.

While the Hero suffered from some form of sluggishness (which they later rectified via firmware), the Legend runs with satisfying speed out of the box. Navigation is smooth, transitions are fast and apps launch quick, putting all 600Mhz of that processor to good use. Web browsing (both over WiFi and HSDPA) is exceptional, with pages rendering almost twice as fast, compared to many Android phones we've seen. Plus, the browser's got multi-touch and some amount of Flash support.

It delivers all the usual Android 2.1 favors, from the nominal music player to the mass of Google apps to extensive messaging capabilities. HTC primps it up with their fancy Sense UI, which adds a lot of value to the device, including features such as being able to add mail to your Outlook folders, an improved mail interface, a very good onscreen keyboard and the MotoBlur-like Friend Stream. The latter, by the way, doesn't work as well as expected. Expect software updates on that end. Camera module is a 5.0 megapixel unit that manages to snap average-looking shots.

Sure, the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One have probably gotten the most press out of today's Android phones. In terms of overall value, though, I'm tempted to side with the HTC Legend, with its great looks, sleek operation and robust feature set.  Price should vary from retailer to retailer, but expect it between $550 to $600 unlocked.



What tastes better than a cookie? A freshly-baked chip, of course. Maybe that's what LG was thinking with their brand new touchscreen based off of the popular Cookie (over 12 million units sold). Billed as the LG Cookie Fresh GS290, the phone just received its official stamp today.

The handset sports a largely youthful form factor and appears to be angling for the entry-level slice of the market. It sports a 3-inch TFT resistive touchscreen with 240 x 400 resolution, an accelerometer for auto-rotate and a "cartoon UI," as with the Cookie Plus.

Details of the Fresh GS290 include a 2.0 megapixel camera module, stereo Bluetooth, complete messaging capabilities (SMS, EMS, MMS, email), social networking integration, FM radio with RDS, a 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card expansion (up to 8GB). There's no 3G or WiFi, though, so you're stuck with GPRS/EDGE for connectivity.

The LG Cookie Fresh GS290 is slated for a European launch sometime this month and the rest of the world later in the year. It is expected to be released alongside the slightly more feature-rich Cookie Plus, although no pricing details have been announced yet.

On a side note, this battle of the Korean cheap-ass touchscreen phones between Samsung's ever-growing Corby line versus LG's similarly-multiplying Cookie probably won't end soon, would it?

[via Unwired View]

Nokia has announced a new phone for T-Mobile USA, the first carrier-supported handset from the manufacturer to come with free voice-guided navigation (via Ovi Maps 3.0) in the States.  Called the Nokia 5230 Nuron, the device will be a full-fledged touchscreen smartphone running Symbian S60.

With the GPS feature as its biggest selling point, the handset will come preloaded with maps of the US, Canada and Mexico, along with easy download access to 180 other maps via the Ovi service and the Lonely Planet guides.  It will also come preinstalled with the Ovi Store app, which gives users access to Nokia's application and content storefront.

The Nokia 5230 Nuron doesn't veer away from its European version, featuring a 3.2-inch touchscreen (with 360 x 640 resolution), a 3.2 megapixel camera, a 3.5mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth and microSD card expansion.   It boasts fast HTML browsing via 3G and full messaging support (including IM and corporate mail), apart from the usual niceties offered by Symbian S60.

No official pricing has been given, with availability vaguely stated for "the coming weeks."  According to rumors, though, T-Mobile might be offering the Nuron for as low as $69.99 on contract, which is a huge value, especially with free GPS software and a full smartphone OS in tow.

[Nokia Press Release]

These aren't likely official announcements, but Gigabyte has a pair of new GSmart handsets making the rounds in Ukraine news outlets.  The two smartphones, which run Android OS and Windows Mobile respectively, are the Gigabyte GSmart G1305 Codfish and the Gigabyte GSmart S1205 Cougar.

The Codfish comes with Android 1.6 at the helm and measures 116 x 56.8 x 12.4 mm.  Handset details include a 3.2-inch touchscreen display with HVGA resolution, a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, 256MB of RAM, quad band GSM/tri-band HSDPA, WiFi and aGPS.  As with all phones running the open source OS, it will come with Google's suite of apps pre-installed.  On paper, this sounds like it can stand up to most Android devices currently out.

The lower-end Cougar, on the other, will get Windows Mobile 6.5, paired with a 416MHz processor and 128MB of RAM.  Not much details are known, although features include dual SIM card support, a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, quad-band GSM connectivity, WiFi and aGPS.

From the pictures, both the Gigabyte GSmart G1305 Codfish and the Gigabyte GSmart S1205 Cougar don't look half bad, especially considering that the company will likely price these near the bottom of the smartphone ranges.  No confirmed release dates nor pricing details, though.

[via Unwired View]