Anyone remotely familiar with the HTC or Sprint Touch will feel right at home with Verizon's version, the XV6900. The XV6900 isn't content to just fall in line and play "me too," though -- Big Red decided to go with a blindingly glossy white finish, bucking the soft-touch black used as a staple of the Touch line, and that could be a boon or a bust depending on who you are and how you intend to use the device.

The tenets of HTC's TouchFLO interface are totally preserved from the other Touches we know and love, and thankfully, Verizon went easy with the application of bright red to the UI elements. Physically, the XV6900 is just ever-so-slightly larger than its GSM cousin -- not enough for the average person to ever notice in the course of regular use -- and the addition of 3G data is more than enough to make up for that slight difference as far as we're concerned. One thing that struck us was how much better the XV6900's display was over the original's; the overwhelming improvement in contrast is pretty striking, although to be fair, we would've never noticed had we not had them side by side. Check out the full gallery below.

After you delay a not-exactly-groundbreaking product like the iPAQ 900 for the umpteenth time, there should really be no surprise to find a lukewarm reaction when it actually ships. Nevertheless, loyalists out there that refuse to give up on HP's Windows Mobile 6.1-powered Business Communicator will likely love the lengthy hands-on demonstration at GottaBeMobile. There's nothing there that'll floor you or anything, but if you really needed to see someone handle this thing for 14 minutes before making your purchasing decision, head on past the break and mash that sideways triangle.

[Thanks, Rob]

Was this thing really discovered last September? Yikes. Nevertheless, Motorola's sleek sliding Z10 has been unboxed and laid down gently in order to be photographed. For those who've stuck with this thing for this long, why not head on down and peruse the gallery waiting for you? We hear there's free lemonade.

We've been tooling around with T-Mobile's just-launched @Home service for a little while now; frankly, there's not much to write about, but in the case of a product like @Home, that's a very good thing. In order to be successful, the whole setup has to be drop-dead simple -- bear in mind that the carrier is targeting folks stubbornly refusing to give up their landlines here -- and it absolutely was. We'll be upfront, we cheated a bit by simply hot-wiring the HiPort router into our existing router, but it worked like a champ nonetheless with the blue phone service status light coming on about 90 seconds after we plugged it in. Customers choosing to play it straight and replace their existing router (or those who are buying a router for the very first time) are greeted with a fold-out poster explaining the step-by-step process to get the ball rolling in plain English.

Sound quality was excellent, caller ID worked, and the voicemail system was up and running right away; if you've got messages, a blue light flashes on the router itself. No status symbol appeared on the handsets themselves to indicate that a voicemail was waiting, though, which kind of sucks considering that your router isn't likely to be positioned somewhere you can readily see it; the only saving grace is that you get the stuttering dialtone when you pick up the line.

Overall, for $10 on top of your bill, this seems like a total no-brainer for any T-Mobile customer with a landline, especially since you can port your number -- and the VTech handset isn't a bad little cordless, either.

Update: Folks have been pointing out that the voicemail button on the phone should light up when you have messages, but for us, it wasn't -- we checked it thrice. Just a word of warning!

We spent some touching (get it?) minutes with the new LG Dare that's hitting Verizon Wireless today, and while we didn't come away from the experience a changed human being, we've gotta congratulate LG and Verizon for the obvious effort they've put into this unit. Particularly with the hardware the phone seems determined to differentiate itself from its iPhone competition, with helpful tactile feedback while typing, (almost helpful) handwriting recognition, video recording (in slow-mo, if you'd like) and even editing, and the beefed-up photo taking capabilities that a 3.2 megapixel sensor and built-in flash provide. The basics aren't too bad either, with a sturdy and bright screen, peppy EV-DO Rev A., expandable memory and a flush 3.5mm headphone jack.

We got our grubby mitts all over the latest and greatest from Sony Ericsson, including that new C905 8 megapixel monstrosity, and, of course, the Xperia X1. The C905 is certainly no slouch in the camera department, with that for-serious Xenon flash and dedicated camera keys, but you'll pay for it in thickness -- the C905 is a good deal thicker than its Walkman counterparts, though that does leave room for a nicely formed slide-out keypad. The C905 is capable of geotagging pictures, but can't upload on the fly to photo services just yet like Nokia's new phones, though such capability is in the works. While the C905 seems finely honed for a specific purpose, the Z780 flip phone seems much more plain jane in comparison, with a rather large size despite its "slim proportions" and a lack of detailing in styling to make it really pop. But, of course, who needs all that featurephone nonsense when you've got the X1 staring 'em all down? We got to twiddle around with an out-of-battery Xperia for a minute, and it's certainly one of the thickest and heaviest phones headed for the market in the near future -- though the upside of that is some glorious build quality, an immense WVGA screen and an expansive, highly touchable keyboard. SE certainly does seem to have something for everybody, but with Moto apparently working on an 8 megapixel camera of its own, and touchscreen rivals to the X1 hogging all the spotlight, SE's isn't looking at an easy road to bumping back that profitability. Oh, and in case you were interested, the gallery below also includes the W760 sporting a black finish, a pink-ish red-ish W580 and the wonderfully tiny W350i.

Like it or not, the combination of high-function media players with high-function cellphones is officially an inevitability (just ask Apple). It seems like every day a new handset's being announced with that obligatory 3.5mm headphone jack on board, one of the final pieces of the puzzle that had prevented phones from becoming legitimate PMP competitors for years. Motorola took this fusion particularly seriously with the ROKR E8, a slick little candybar announced at CES earlier this year, and we sat down with a China-spec model recently to see just how well it functioned as a full-time replacement for our dedicated music boxes -- and whether it could avoid losing its identity as a phone in the process.

Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup!

Press / in the wild shots still not enough for you? Fret not, friends, as CNET had a chance to spend a few quality minutes with Sony Ericsson's F305 slider and write up a few paragraphs of impressions. For starters, they seemed to prefer the white motif versus the black, and while a trio of games will reportedly be available to take advantage of the Motion Gaming controls, only a fishing title was on tap for demoing. It was noted that the phone required "vigorous shakes" in order to get the job done, and unfortunately, critics were less than enthused by how the game actually looked. Nevertheless, it's probably worth a visit to see if SE's next shaker has the chops to earn a spot in your handset collection.

Even as we marvel at the HTC Touch Diamond's gorgeous VGA display, let's not forget that 640 x 480 resolution (buried within the larger context of a monster spec sheet, no less) is old hat for some Windows Mobile devices. i-mate's Ultimate line has been reppin' the high res displays for a while now, starting with the 6150 and 8150 models that were announced well over a year ago; more recently, the 9502 was added, offering shoppers a grand total of three distinct form factors from which to choose plus a more traditional QVGA setup with the 8502. Hate on Windows Mobile all you want, but you have to admit, it's hard to find this kind of hardware diversity with any other platform out there.

We just had an opportunity to play with all four models side by side -- an especially rare opportunity, considering that neither the 8502 nor 9502 are officially being sold in the US (despite their support for HSDPA 850 / 1900). Follow the break for some quick impressions with each of the fearsome foursome.

While Nokia makes a habit of practically defining "featurephone" for the industry, traditionally it's handsets like the N95 that hog all the spotlight, leaving Nokia's few QWERTY phones in the shadows. Not that they've been trying too hard -- while the E62 and E61i have both shipped over here, neither has featured 3G data in US bands, and the E62 even had the distinct pleasure of having WiFi stripped out. Enter E71, the successor to those phones, and Nokia's very first QWERTY device to feature US-friendly 3G.

Nokia is also (finally) taking form factor much more seriously: at 10mm thick, the E71 is one of the slimmest Nokia phones to date, and Nokia claims it's the thinnest QWERTY smartphone on the market. The E71 also attacks the drab, plastic looks of its predecessors with chrome accents and a glossy screen. The phone is incredibly pocketable, and comfortable to hold and use. Of course, with the smaller size Nokia had to cut down on screen real estate and keyboard spacing, but at a QVGA resolution there's little suffering on that front. The keyboard had a much more rigid, clicky feel to it compared to the spongy keys of the E62, and we were virtually typo-free on it within minutes.

It's one thing to describe a UI, it's another to see it in action. Laptop Mag just posted nearly 5 minutes of finger-flicking, auto-rotating, rubber banding video of Garmin's hotly anticipated Nuvifone. There's even a brief glimpse of the touch keyboard in all its landscape, predictive text glory. Sure Garmin only showed the working aspects of the not-ready-for-prime-time prototype. Regardless, it's enough to keep us impressed and awaiting the Q4 release. Video just beyond the read link.

We got a quick little bit of quality time with Nokia's new business-centric S60 phones, the E66 and the E71. Both phones are virtually identical when it comes to specs, so it really boils down to what you prefer in form factor. If you're a T9 maven and prefer a vertical screen orientation, the E66 slider is obviously your ticket, but the E71's full QWERTY keyboard and glorious 10mm of thickness are probably going to guide it into many a business slack front pocket. The E71's keys have a harder, clickier feel to them than its predecessors, and they're also a tad more crowded than usual -- we had a bit of trouble typing at first, but it's a solid, well-built keyboard that'll certainly come to be second nature with a bit of use. Despite the phone's thinness we found it to be incredibly sturdy and just the right weight. As for the E66, we just love the feel of its slider mechanism, but we're a little puzzled as to the thickness compared to the E71. That said, it's a quite comfortable and small form factor for a smartphone. Our favorite new feature on these phones is the quick switch from business to personal use, which can swap your home screen, email accounts and calendar to your personal stuff after hours -- and with that hefty 3.2 megapixel camera, A-GPS and WiFi, there's plenty of fun to be had with these phones when your work is through. Video after the break.

As you might've guessed, there isn't a whole lot going on here, but we snapped a few pictures of Nokia's new 6205 for Verizon just in case. The 6205 seems to be a well built phone, but that's about it. Rest assured, the Batman sound effects are cheesy, and the trailer inclusion is pointless -- Batman wouldn't be caught dead at a superhero party rocking this thing. What would Tony Stark think of him? Oh, and that thicker model is the one with the an extended battery, which could certainly come in handy with the standard 4 hour talk time this has.

Not much to see here folks, save for a new paint job and a few minor software changes. Still, for those of you on Verizon, this could be just what the doctor ordered. Unless the doctor has a fake degree from a made-up country -- then his orders might not be so good. Regardless, you should feel free to feast your eyes on this cobalt blue number from the folks at Palm in the gallery below!

One of Samsung's worst kept secrets (if we can even call it that) has finally been "announced" by the company, and we're guessing the timing here isn't coincidental. Nevertheless, the Windows Mobile 6.1-powered i900 Omnia features quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE support, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, a built-in accelerometer, WiFi module, USB port, FM tuner, Bluetooth, 3.2-inch 400 x 240 resolution display and a 5-megapixel camera (with smile detection and geotagging). An 8GB and 16GB version will soon be available, and prospective buyers can expect to see Sammy's own TouchWiz user interface loaded on. Reportedly, the handset will be available later this month in undisclosed areas of the globe (probably after being showcased at CommunicAsia), while Europe is expected to see it in July. Hands-on photos await you in the read link.