The Bold is still stealing the overwhelming majority of RIM's spotlight at the moment for a handful of pretty good reasons: one, it's actually been announced; two, it's 3G; and three, it falls in line with the traditional (and loved) BlackBerry form factor. Lurking in the shadows, though, is the KickStart, RIM's very first flip phone, and a device that could end up making a huge splash if it actually manages to launch at the sub-$50 price point that's been making the rounds on the rumor circuit. CrackBerry got a way-early peek at the 8220 version of the device, which follows RIM's typical naming convention by packing WiFi while an 8210 will hold up the GPS side of things (seriously, RIM, how hard can it be to do both?), and overall it seems that the R&D team did its homework from the quick impressions. The SureType keyboard is huge and apparently quite easy to use without making the phone excessively large, though the trackball rests deeper in the shell making it a bit trickier to operate -- you win some, you lose some. The QVGA display is said to be just shy of Bold quality (which is a compliment, considering the killer screen on the Bold), and it's always hard to argue with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Come on, T-Mobile, let's make this happen.

Well, if this isn't a sign that times are a-changin', we don't know what is: a new Moto handset with a non-capitalized, non-abbreviated word for a name has just garnered FCC approval. Granted, it's an absolute snoozefest of a phone -- and the name, "Ischia," doesn't exactly roll off the tongue -- but at least it's a step in new direction. Bluetooth and EDGE are included, there's a camera on board; hell, the only thing stopping us from saving up to buy one is the lack of GSM 850. That, and our fragile sanity.

Well, there you have it: the very real-looking Katana Eclipse pictured in that leaked Sprint roadmap is, in fact, real. The upcoming clamshell flew right on through the FCC recently (filed under new parent Kyocera's name, no less) bearing the expected external music controls and an evolutionary design that's kinda sorta reminiscent of everything that makes the Katana series, the Katana series. We've got EV-DO in here, too, so if we had to guess, this will end up slotting in somewhere toward the bottom of Sprint's midrange when it goes on sale -- which may or may not be August 17 depending on the accuracy of said roadmap.

[Via Cell Phone Signal, thanks Marco]

AT&T appears to be fiddling around with its online store pages for this one, because we're not finding it outside of the business-to-business at the moment. Do we care, though? Do you? The SGH-a227 from Samsung is about as basic an offering as you're going to find on American Telephone & Telegraph at the moment, serving up a hot pile of EDGE data, 160 x 128 internal and 96 x 96 monochrome external displays, and a speakerphone. That's it -- no camera, no crazy haptics, and at $9.99 on contract, virtually no expense. Sammy throws in a true HTML browser, though without 3G, it's of somewhat limited use. Odds are you can find this one floating around in stores now, otherwise, we'd expect it to be back on AT&T's main site in the not-too-distant future.

[Via MobileBurn]

As boring (or in the case of the W6, difficult) as they may be to look at, we've got to hand it to Motorola -- they've managed to pack in a nice mix of interesting features into the latest round of wallet-friendly W-series phones. Starting at the bottom, the W231 candybar has an FM radio with RDS and recording capability, media player, microSD slot, "streamlined interface" for text messaging (your guess is as good as ours), and Moto's CrystalTalk noise reduction circuitry. The W388 and W396 -- a candybar and flip, respectively -- are dead ringers for one another on the spec sheet, with both offering VGA cams and Windows Media compatibility in addition to the W231's decent list of capabilities. Our personal favorite, though, has to be the W6 (pictured), which has a few really unique features: a host of built-in training software (and A2DP doesn't hurt either) for making the phone particularly useful on the jogging circuit, the ability to export recorded data up to your PC in Excel format, and the tendency to burn your retinas with one of the loudest, most painful shades of yellow we've ever seen on a phone.

[Via Celularis, thanks Mariano]

Read - Motorola W6
Read - Motorola W231, W388, and W396

Sure, you might be the biggest Christian Bale fan in the world right now, but what about this time next year when The Dark Knight DVDs are already collecting dust on bookshelves around the globe? That was the million-dollar question on our minds when we heard that Verizon was commemorating the launch of its Nokia 6205 and the latest Batman flick with a tied-in version of the low end flip. Turns out it's all good, though -- a look through the custom packaging revealed a grand total of two battery covers, one with the Batman logo and one without, so it should be pretty easy to avoid those embarrassing "what's with the batphone?" queries in a few months' time. Otherwise, there's very little to say about the phone -- it truly is a minimalist flip -- though we're definitely excited to see Nokia's apparently renewed commitment to working not just with CDMA, but with CDMA carriers in North America.

We'd heard that the latest incarnation of the Chocolate series from LG on Verizon would be launching next Monday, but we've got some great news to close out the week, fans: you'll be able to plunk down your cash a full day early. It turns out that the Chocolate 3 will actually be launching this Sunday, July 13 for the expected $129.99 after rebate, featuring a 2 megapixel cam, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, and an in-your-face set of external music controls, all in your choice of black or light blue. Just add an 8GB microSD card and the Rhapsody tie-in, and you've got yourself a little musical powerhouse here.

So how much is it going to cost you to play Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A push-to-talk game this month? $99.99, that's how much -- assuming you take advantage of a two-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate. Documentation for Motorola's musclebound V750 Adventure suggests that it'll be available to buy in all channels (meaning web, store, telesales -- you name it) on July 28, offering a 2 megapixel cam, microSD slot, VZ Navigator support, and all the walkie talkie action you can handle. We don't know yet whether the G'zOne Boulder will launch on the same day, but if it does, we could have quite a PTT smackdown brewing here.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Though the document doesn't exactly look magazine-quality, this is a case where we'd argue that it doesn't have to be to be real; it's clearly for internal use only, for one thing, and secondly, we don't know where else the picture of that new Sanyo Katana Eclipse would come from. The Eclipse is just one of several pretty nifty releases claimed to be lined up between now and September, with the Motorola VE20 Vegas and a pair of data cards joining it on August 17. September should bring the Motorola i365 and V950 Renegade, Samsung m220 and m320, and the HTC MP6950 -- which we assume to be either the Touch Diamond or Touch Pro -- clearly in desperate need of an actual name by the time it launches. Go-go gadget, product marketing team!

[Thanks, Owen]

Anyone looking to relive the original RAZR's glory years without making the monumental leap up to the RAZR 2 might keep a close eye on Sprint over the next little while. The FCC has revealed the VE20 "Vegas," a flip that smacks of the V3's design cues while taking an ever-so-cautious approach to updating the styling and making sure that the package still stays firmly planted beneath the V9 in the food chain (or at least that's what the abundance of plastic would lead us to believe, but with Motorola, who the hell knows). It'll do EV-DO, a 2 megapixel camera, and touch-sensitive external controls on a fairly generous secondary display whenever it gets around to launching -- just don't expect the excitement, expense, or debauchery of an actual weekend in Sin City.

[Via phoneArena]

phoneArena is reporting that the latest incarnation of Verizon's Chocolate series, the clamshell Chocolate 3, will be available on July 14. It's said that the phone will run $129 on a two-year contract after the redemption of a $50 rebate -- not exactly cheap, but where else are you going to find a Verizon phone with an FM transmitter in baby blue? That's what we thought.

Virgin Mobile has released the Arc, another in a long, long line of prepaid models designed to keep the upfront payment to a minimum at the cost of a killer feature list. Still, though, the UTStarcom-sourced flip makes out with Bluetooth, dual color displays, and a VGA camera for its $49.99 asking price, and the red / black color combo doesn't look half bad. We'll have a closer look at the Arc in the next few days, but if you simply must have one now, they're on sale immediately.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Shoot, all Motorola had to do was change from pink mahogany to this nice, normal, compliant shade of black, and that would've been enough of an update to justify a model name change. There's more, though: the V9x will officially offer AT&T Navigator, the Telenav-powered navigation system already found on the Z9, and we can see from these press shots that it'll even work on the secondary display, which is pretty trick. This appears to be the same update that we'd originally heard would drop way back in January, which means we can likely expect Video Share support as well. Check 'er out!

Unlike the Sony Ericsson series of the same letter, Motorola's "W" line doesn't really stand for anything special -- it's basically a catch-all for the company's low-end fare. On that note, we've got a W265 hitting the FCC here with an endless appetite for boring us to tears, though the presence of both GSM 850 and 1900 means we'll be able to bring that boredom straight to US shores if we should so choose. There's also an FM radio in there somewhere, but that's pretty much where the feature list comes to a grinding halt. Make it free, Motorola -- not on contract -- and we'll take two.

Though they've already been well documented (heck, they're already on sale in some parts of the world), Nokia's just now getting around to making its foursome of Supernovas official. The new line reps mid-range fashion (think L'Amour, but not over the top) and comes in your choice of two candybars, a flip, or a slider as the 7210, 7310, 7510, or 7610, respectively. The 7210 features a tri-band GSM radio plus EDGE, a 2 megapixel camera, and an FM radio; look for it to launch in the third quarter for €120 (about $189). The 7310 apes the 7210's look but adds support for changeable Xpress-On faceplates, TV-out, and support for GSM 850, and while all that extra kit adds €35 (about $55) to the price over the lesser model, it's available now. The 7510 goes for the flip form factor but carries over most of the 7310's spec sheet, waiting it out until the fourth quarter for a €180 (about $283) launch in scary colors like "Fatal Red". Finally, the 7610 (no, not that one) moves up to a beefier 3.2 megapixel camera and hits next quarter for €225 (about $354).