BlackBerry Storm 3 breaks cover, full specs unleashed

And as if the revealing of the 2011 series of BlackBerry phones – the Torch 2, the Dakota and the Apollo Curve weren’t enough, now the curtain from the BlackBerry Storm 3 has been lifted as well.

It surely looks like RIM is trying very hard not to lose its customers as well as attract new ones. If the information that has been sent to BGR could be trusted, the new BlackBerry Storm 3 looks like a pretty powerful device.

The Storm 3 will feature a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen with the highest resolution for a BlackBerry phone ever – 800x480 pixels. Still unknown is whether the Storm 3 will feature the SurePress display or not. From the leaked photos of the device it seems that it will feature the trackpad that RIM’s customers have been used to.

Also impressive are the 1.2Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM that should give plenty of power to the device. On board is a 5MP camera capable of 720p video recording, 8GB storage, Wireless N connectivity and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR.

The usual accelerometer, magnetometer, microSD card slot and proximity sensor are present as well. Juice will be provided by a 1230mAh battery. OpenGL ES 2.0 suggests the Storm 3 should have a more advanced GPU on board, but we’ll wait for an official word from RIM on that.

The device will run the new BlackBerry OS 6.1, which has the 3G mobile hotspot feature. Reportedly, the device is aimed to launch in September this year with a couple of variations around the world.

Nokia X7 appears again, looks AT&T bound

More photos (well actually renderings) of the youthful looking Nokia X7 surfaced. This time we are getting to see the Symbian^3 smartphone from all sides and once again we notice an AT&T tattoo on its forehead.

In addition to the carrier allegiance, the new Nokia X7 images confirm the 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash on the back of the device. If we were gamblers our money would be on it being a fixed-focus unit, much like the one of the E7 and C7.

 

There is still no information as of when the 4-inch display device (nHD resolution and ClearBlack technology seem certain) might be officially announced. The Mobile World Congress starts next month and sounds like an easy guess, but last year Nokia made no announcements there so we don't know what to expect now.

We'll find out more about that soon enough. Stay tuned!

1.2Ghz BlackBerry Torch 2 on the way, 11mm-thin Curve Apollo too

That nice BlackBerry Dakota yesterday is obviously in for some company. We just spotted a couple of new devices by the company, leaked in all their press glory and full specs. Meet the BlackBerry Torch 2 and the Curve Apollo.

It seems BlackBerry plans to go big has some big plans for this year. As much as we appreciate their service, you can't deny they've been offering only under-spec'd, over-priced handsets lately. But they've obviously had enough of that.

BlackBery Torch 2

The next generation of the BlackBerry Torch (aptly named Torch 2) will double the processor clock speed of the original to the whopping 1.2 GHz.

The new uber-BlackBerry will also have a 3.2-inch VGA screen, 8 gigs of storage, 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi, GPS, a digital compass, a proximity sensor and a 5 megapixel camera. The NFC support comes as an unexpected bonus.

The Torch 2 will run the BlackBerry OS 6.1 and will launch in Q3 (at least in the AT&T network in the US).

BlackBery Curve Apollo

If the recently leaked devices are anything to go by, BlackBerry is on the way of bumping the base specs throughout its portfolio. The Curve line isn't quite known for its high-end features or performance, but the leaked Curve Apollo surely has some nice specs - at least on paper.

Here's what the next generation BlackBerry Curve will look like. Preserving the traditional look, the new BlackBerry Curve Apollo is trendy and modern at the same time.

The BlackBerry Curve codenamed Apollo has a HVGA display (480 x 360 pixels), a Marvel Tavor MG-1 800MHz CPU, 512MB RAM, Wireless N, GPS, and again, NFC connectivity. We did a little digging on that CPU and it seems it's the same Marvel core used on all previous BlackBerries, but it's now clocked at 800Mhz instead of 624Mhz. We hope that will be enough to pull a nice performance under the new BlackBerry OS 6.1.

Finally, the BlackBerry Curve Apollo is only 11mm thin and has a 5 megapixel camera with flash. We don't know any more details about its availability just yet.

Pics of two Samsung Galaxy Mini phones leak with Froyo on them

Just days after another photo of the Samsung Galaxy S2 leaked, two new baby Galaxy phones get their photos out in the wild as well. The Galaxy Mini S5570 and S5830 both run Android 2.2 Froyo and are expected to be showcased at the MWC ’11.

The Galaxy Mini S5830, which honestly looks way too iPhone-ish, features a capacitive touchscreen with an HVGA resolution (480x320 pixels). It also sports a 5MP camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0.

While the S5830 is sleek-looking and means business, its brother, the Galaxy Mini S5570 is the funkier member of the Galaxy Mini family. With its green accents all around the sides and the curved back it definitely looks fresh and flamboyant. As for the specs, it will feature a capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 240x320, Wireless N, and Bluetooth 3.0.

Proper specs, availability and price information for these Galaxy Mini phones should be announced at the Mobile World Congress in February.

LG Optimus 2X excels in Quadrant benchmark on Froyo

LG Optimus 2X, the first smartphone with the dual-core Tegra 2, was one of the spotlights at CES 2011. Here's the first public record of its performance under the Android Quadrant benchmark. We gotta say it's pretty good even though it's still a pre-production unit.

Mind you, the Quadrant software isn’t still up-to-date with the dual-core craze and recognized the processor only as single-core. Still, the LG Optimus 2X, which by the way, is running Froyo 2.2, smashed the available single-core competition, scoring the mind-blowing 2391 points.

The LG Optimus 2X is currently available for preorder. We can’t wait to get our hands on it.

P.S. We just an on-site video from CE 2011, which showed the Motorola Droid Bionic do the same benchmark. It achieved pretty much the same score, so we guess that's the general performance you should expect from the Nvidia Tegra 2 platfrom on other devices as well.

If you're interested, you can see the Droid Bionic do the Quadrant on video on YouTube.