This was a huge week for new smartphones, as HTC showed everybody’s what’s up when it comes to Android superphones with the introduction of the HTC Desire HD and the Desire Z. But HTC wasn’t the only one bringing the heat, as the world’s largest handset maker used its Nokia World conference to unveil some new (and, yes) cool smartphones. The Galaxy Tab is also coming to the United States in a big way, Research In Motion proved its still alive and kicking and there were some neat, new apps.
It’s time for this week in mobile news, buckle your seat belts.
HTC knows what you desire
HTC seemed tired of Samsung and Motorola getting all the love in the high-end Android market, so it unveiled a pair of killer devices with the Desire HD and the Desire Z. Both of these devices seem like excellent smartphones which should help set the standard.
It would be easy to dismiss the Desire HD as an EVO 4G for the GSM set but the new HTC handset has a few improvements. It sports a 1 Ghz next-gen Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen, 8-megapixel camera (larger image sensor and dual-LED flash and 720p HD video recording), 1.5GB onboard storage, 768MB RAM, 3G data, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, microSD card slot (hot-swappable), all-aluminum unibody construction, and runs Android 2.2 Froyo with the updated Sense UI.
The Desire Z is similar but it sports a 3.7-inch screen, an 800 Mhz processor (don’t worry, that baby smokes) and a full, physical QWERTY keyboard.
The new Sense looks groovy, as it includes online backups and a navigation service that could be considered an assault on Google. Enough with the jibber jabber, check out the videos below and let us know what you think.
Nokia fights back
As it faces crumbling market share and increased criticism, Nokia used its Nokia World conference to stage it comeback to the top of the mobile phone market. Make no mistake, it still ships more units in a week than Apple does in a year but it is quickly losing ground at the high-end of the market and with midshare.
The Nokia E7 is one of its upcoming high-end phones and the device looks okay from a hardware side but some may not like the Symbian^3 OS, especially when it’s compared to other platforms.
Will Park had some hands-on time with the E7 and said the hardware is solid. It should be with a 4-inch AMOLED CBD (ClearBlackDisplay) display, 8-megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash), 16GB of onboard storage, penta-band 3G support (850/900/1700/1900/2100Mhz), WiFi (B/G/N), GPS, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 3.0, 3.5mm headphone jack, and an HDMI-out port for porting 720p HD video and audio to your TV.
The software wasn’t up to snuff though:
It’s just too bad that the software was not up to par. Screen-sliding animations were too slow to compete with Android or iPhone. Button presses would either be super responsive, or completely unresponsive, depending on how the demo unit was feeling at any given moment. The menu-based user interface also takes away from the “modern” smartphone feel of the E7, which is really too bad, because the hardware rocks (awkward slider notwithstanding).
The company also introduced the Nokia C6 and the C7, check out those links for more information on those Symbian-powered handsets.
Samsung Galaxy Tab coming to all four U.S. carriers
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AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon will be offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet before the holidays, which is a pretty impressive achievement. The Galaxy Tab is a pretty cool devices as it has a 7-inch screen, 1 Ghz processor, Android 2.2 with Flash capabilities, multiple cameras and all the connectivity goodies you’d expect from something like this including WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3G.
We know that the Galaxy Tab is good but how much will it cost? Samsung is staying quiet about that, as much of the final pricing will depend on the carrier subsidy. There will be a WiFi-only version later on and I think the company would be insane to go beyond the iPad’s $499 initial price.
There’s no word on what each carrier will do to the device but you can expect hardware and software tweaks – this also happened with the Samsung Galaxy S Android phones. I’d expect a mandatory data plan to go along with these tablets, which could hurt the chances of success.
RIM BlackBerry still not too shabby
Research In Motion also gets battered around for “failing to innovate,” but the BlackBerry-maker reported a solid second quarter, which shows its devices are still relevant and popular. Among the highlights:
* Revenue grew 31% over the same quarter last year to $4.62 billion
* Earnings per share in the second quarter increased 76% to $1.46 over the second quarter last year
* BlackBerry smartphone shipments grew more than 45% over the same quarter last year to 12.1 million and RIM has shipped approximately 115 million BlackBerry smartphones to date
* BlackBerry subscriber account base grew approximately 56% (4.5 million) over the prior year to over 50 million
* Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 ending November 27, 2010 is expected to be in the range of $5.30-$5.55 billion. Gross margin for Q3 is expected to be approximately 42%.
Yaawwwwn
We have been working our behinds off this week for you lovely readers, as we’ve been hop-scotching the globe and digging up them scoops. As such, I’m a bit too weary to do the “Cool app of the week” but it will come back next week, you have my word.
Please follow IntoMobile on Twitter (@intomobile) and on Facebook. We’ll have updates throughout the weekend and we’ll come back and hit it hard on Monday.
Have an easy fast.