To be fair, Continental Mobiles diamond-encrusted Nokia N95 is a real bargain at £10,000 ($19,813) when compared to Amosu’s £12,000 alternative, but seriously, real richies should be holding off for the evolutionary N96, anyway. For those with enough cash to care, this particular handset / status symbol packs a Sterling silver front-panel stacked with “4.42ct of brilliant-cut, VS1 quality, color G-H, naturally mined diamonds.” If you’re craving one, you’d better get your order in now, as it takes the British craftspeople crazy enough to sell these things three full weeks to whip one up.

[Via Engadget]

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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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

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.

So what’s more creative, a disposable cellphone or a dual-mode GSM / CDMA WinMo smartphone? Tough call, but it’s a very real question seeing how Hop-on apparently makes both. This here is the HOP2001, a phone with a spec sheet that sounds just a little too good to be true: triband HSDPA 3.6, CDMA (though EV-DO doesn’t appear to be supported), a 3 megapixel autofocus cam, 256MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM, integrated GPS, microSD expansion, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, and Windows Mobile 6 (never mind the fact that the shoddy rendering shows Windows Mobile 5, we suppose). Hop-on proudly proclaims the HOP2001 to be “AT&T / Verizon ready,” though we’ll hold off on proclaiming this one of the most feature-packed WinMo handsets on the market until we see some actual units in use.

Looks like those that call Down Under home have been blessed with yet another option in the smartphone department, as HTC has apparently launched the P3600i in your neck of the woods. Deemed an “HTC P3600 with a faster CPU and more ROM,” this Windows Mobile 6 device looks to be an Asia-Pacific exclusive for now, and touts quad-band GSM, 802.11g, a two-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, 160MB of internal memory, a miniSD expansion slot, and UMTS / HSDPA to boot. Best of all, it’s available right now on 3.

Take a moment to welcome the new Nokia 6555. This 3G (WCDMA of unspecified band) clamshell goes quadband GSM with microSD expansion (30MB on-boad) and 240 x 320 QVGA display touting 16 million colors. If thin is your thing and 3G Nokia your game then this is about as good as it gets. Available next month for about €200 pre-tax and pre-subsidy. Unfortunately, Nokia doesn’t say where, but its forward-facing profile certainly matches up nicely with Nokia’s FCC approved RM-276 handset operating in the 850 and 1900MHz bands

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Believe it or not, Sony Ericsson’s P1i has one of the richest, most storied family trees in the smartphone world. Technically, it could be said that the phone can trace its roots all the way back to Psion’s EPOC-based organizers, but more practically, the P1i is a direct descendent of the R380, the first Symbian-powered phone and a device that made more than a few jaws drop with its versatile design and expansive touchscreen. What’s our point? Simply that this brushed metal-clad beast has some work to do to live up to its ancestry, lest a few P800s start rolling in their graves — and with WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel cam, and UIQ 3, it seems equipped for the job.

Once the glittering crown jewel of the Windows Mobile world, HP has sat back, taken it easy on R&D, and watched its empire dwindle to an empty husk of what it once was. The reasons are unclear, but other manufacturers have certainly had no qualms about rushing in to fill the void — most notably HTC, the ODM largely responsible for HP’s success in the first place. Does it stand a chance of reclaiming the throne? Eh, with so many competitors in the game at this point, probably not, but that may not stop it from trying. Rumors have been swirling the last few days that HP will surround its iPAQ 510 Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone with a wide variety of devices positioned both above and below it, and if the details pan out, there could definitely be a few winners in the bunch. The 600 series is said to be similar to the 510 in form factor — candybar with a numeric keypad — but will add tri-band HSDPA, a touch sensitive navigation wheel, double the RAM and ROM, and will sport Windows Mobile Professional in place of Standard. The 900 should be largely similar, but trades the numeric keypad for a QWERTY version. Word on the street is that these should be announced in September with availability late in the year — if it all turns out to be true, we wish the best of luck to ya, HP!

Going all the way back to the N95, it seems like Nokia started having a really hard time keeping a lid on hot upcoming product releases — not to say we’re complaining or anything — and the upcoming N81 slider with a penchant for music is no exception. Following some serious scoopage a few months back, we’re now seeing this shot of a believable-looking N81 dummy, which we’re guessing is in the process of getting shipped out to retailers preparing to sell the real thing. With a rumored 8GB of onboard storage, HSDPA, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, we imagine said retailers should be doing a pretty brisk business, too.

It may lack the necessary internal gizmos to grant us 3G data this side of the pond, but that really didn’t stop us from touching, holding, and loving Nokia’s E90 Communicator just the same. Check out as we bring the latest, greatest QWERTY device out of Espoo from sealed box to power-up in the gallery here — or if getting your hands on one of your own is more your thing, rumor has it Nokia should be launching it stateside within a couple months. ‘Bout time!

For better or worse, it seems 5 megapixel sensors may be on the cusp of supplanting smaller units on high-end featurephones, and naturally, Samsung’s on the forefront of the trend. Hot on the heels of the G600, the rumored G800 slider is said to feature a tri-band GSM radio with HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD expansion, a lovely 2.4 inch QVGA OLED display, xenon flash, and a sliding lens cover (a la K800) to protect that mighty cam. We’ve no idea when or where this thing might launch, but without that critical fourth band, the US seems like a long shot.

[Source Engadget]