There is still not a solid word on when BlackBerry users across the lands will be able to exchange a small sum of currency for their own license of this thing, but we’re happy to report that Sling’s BlackBerry player was on full display at CTIA — and it’s looking very good. WiFi or 3G is obviously recommended for best performance, but Sling was using EDGE in lieu of a solid WiFi connection at the show and we were pleasantly surprised at the goodness of the video quality. There are still a couple bugs to work out, but it’s definitely on the right path, and we’d be shocked if it wasn’t out in the wild within a few months. Go get ‘em, Sling!

We are still smarting from the apparent cancelation of the fabulously powerful K850 from AT&T 2008 lineup, but as consolation prizes go, the Z750a ain’t bad. That being said, it’s solidly seated in the midrange, which seems like an unusual place for Sony Ericsson’s very first carrier-launched 3G handset for the US to be; the 2 megapixel camera isn’t going to “wow” anyone, and the choice of colorful, ultra-gloss shells definitely limits the phone’s appeal to a certain demographic. (more…)

Okay, we will admit, the first thought on our minds when we saw the BlackBerry 9000 in its natural habitat for the first time was, “that’s it?” RIM’s been taking on increasingly sharp competition as of late — even in its traditional corporate strongholds — and we’d expected and hoped to see something less evolutionary and more revolutionary from these cats. On closer inspection, though, we find that the phone is leaving a very positive second impression.

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Well, you knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. We’ve gotten our mitts on Palm’s latest entry to the AT&T lineup — a white, gray, and neon-green unicorn known as the Centro. We can’t say we’re surprised about anything that happened when we opened it up and turned it on, as this model is pretty much identical to the Sprint version we manhandled a few months ago (save for that pesky difference in networks). Of course, the proof is in the Garnet-flavored pudding, and we’re not seeing any big differences there, except that this model is sporting the Treo 680 phone tabbed phone interface. Check out the gallery below and experience the thrilling “you are there” feeling of getting a brand-spanking-new phone.

While HTC didnt arrive with the same kind of horsepower as Sony Ericsson or Samsung, they did manage to squeak one new handset out at the show, the Windows Mobile 6 -powered HTC 3470. It case you missed it, the handset features GPS — while not crystal clear, the press material suggests HTC includes TomTom 6 — quad-band GPRS / EDGE, 256 MB ROM, 128 MB RAM, Bluetooth, and a 1 GB microSD card. Sorry speed freaks, no WiFi or 3G connectivity here, but all the above is piled into a pretty tight container, in fact, it is one of HTC’s smallest sets. Look for this to hit sometime this month on Orange in the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands for a cool €449 or roughly $650.

Yeah, it could be fake, but if you had to pick one handset to fake up in Photoshop, would this really be it? Seriously? Sprint’s exclusivity agreement on the Centro is just about to expire, undoubtedly opening a floodgate of carriers rushing to pick up the low-end Garnet phone, so if neither Sprint nor AT&T are your carrier, we’d recommend you just hang tight for a bit.

Sony Ericsson banged out three new sets today, and one that immediately caught our eye with its Ericsson T39-esque — with a dash of Z700 — styled flip. The W350i features a 1.3 megapixel shooter, FM Radio, Bluetooth, 14 MB of internal memory plus a 512 MB Memory Stick Micro, and ships in either Electric black, Ice blue, Hypnotic black, or Graphic white — we’ll let you guess which is which. We can expect a W350a variant, which will include 850 MHz GSM in place of the 900 MHz in the W350i version, so the odds of this landing on our shores looks good. The music controls parked outside the flip are a pretty sweet idea, we’re liking what they did with this design and hope that it continues to impress once we get some hands-on time. Of course, if we were forced to nitpick, we might whisper something like: where’s the 3G fellas? Handsets are expected to hit retail channels in Q2 2008 though no word on pricing.

Looks legit enough, doesn’t it? The supposed successor to the E61i has broken cover via this shot of the device — in prototype “EXX” form, no less — being proudly displayed in some lucky son of a gun’s hand. The “E” moniker designates a Nokia smartphone with a business slant, of course, and thanks to a lovely QWERTY board, the E71 seems to be no exception; specs on the E51-ish device are said to be pretty much in line with what we’d expect for a circa-2008 piece, including HSDPA, WiFi, GPS, and a 3.2 megapixel primary cam with a secondary up front for video calling. As for North American 3G, well… as usual, we can only hope. We’re not sure whether this thing will break officially here at CES, but if it does, you’ll be the first to know.

HP’s Oak makes an appearance in the relentless binge of new handset madness that is the Vodafone roadmap. The HP Oak delivers many of the baubles we’ve come to expect from Windows Mobile devices, things like 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, quad-band GSM, qwerty keyboard, a touchscreen, and even GPS have found there way in. Other connectivity options include the almost standard WiFi and Bluetooth, with chatter time listed as 3.5 hours and 360 hours standby. We’re feeling a lot of similarities between this fella and the HTC TyTN II, but the HP gets the puffy rainbow sticker — with prancing Pegasus, of course — for opting to add that ultra-handy dialpad on the front. Oak’s due date is set for September 2008 at roughly $500.

After O2 dropped its Southeast Asian outpost at the side of the road, we weren’t terribly sure whether it’d be able to flourish — let alone survive — without the mothership’s lifeline. Turns out they’re at least giving it the old college try, though, with new models appropriately dubbed “Zinc II” and “Atom V” (notice that the “Xda” branding of old has left the building). We know this courtesy of Expansys’ Hong Kong outpost, which has done us all a favor by posting preorder pages for both devices; we only have renderings at this point, but they look pretty legit and realistic. Both devices feature quadband GSM and triband HSDPA (nice!), 256MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, integrated FM radio, WiFi, and GPS. The Atom V is the slightly higher end of the two — despite a slightly lower price — thanks to a 3 megapixel cam around back (versus 2 for the Zinc II) and an Intel core clocked 20MHz higher than the Zinc II’s Samsung silicon, though the Zinc II should win some hearts and minds with its semi-automatic sliding QWERTY pad. If Expansys is to be believed, the Atom V will run HK$4,775 (about $612) while the Zinc II will set you back HK$5,305 (about $680) when they’re available

Doesnt seem quite right to outfit a buttoned-up, all-business phone like the ASUS M530w in such playful colors, but maybe that’s exactly why we like it so much. Eschewing the original blacks and grays for oranges and whites, the new version appears to retain everything about the phone that made it so lovable to begin with: HSDPA connectivity, 2 megapixel cam, microSD expansion, full QWERTY, and Windows Mobile 6 (wait, did we just call WinMo 6 “lovable”?). We imagine it’ll be every bit as hard to find in the US as it was the first time around, but at least the visuals are a little more entertaining to look at from afar, are they not?

Its still bearing the now-famous “SE123″ designation of a true Sony Ericsson prototype, but this slim flip — allegedly the Z660 — is looking more real than it ever has before and should do a halfway decent job of silencing a few naysayers (convincing folks that this is a good looking phone, though… well, that’s another matter altogether). Unlike the last spy shot we saw, it seems that the Z660’s exterior has been done up in a brushed metal of some sort, lending a small sliver of legitimacy to the premium price this model will likely command. We’ll still withhold final judgment until Sony Ericsson says it’s good and ready, but we’re a little more encouraged now by the way this thing’s shaping up than we were before.