See how easy it is everyone? All that's required to snag a BlackBerry Bold well before its public release is to become a Grammy award-winning artist, sell out shows worldwide, date a smattering of superstars and convince Fender to create and sell your own branded guitar. While you're off working on step one, John Mayer is living it up with his brand new BlackBerry Bold. Granted, he can't claim to be the very first with said handset, but it's likely the first completely legitimate edition let loose. Of course, once you've landed the Curve and MacBook Air before everyone else on the planet, snagging a Bold is just child's play.

We're all about reviews of products before they're released, but reviewing something before it's even been officially confirmed by a company is its own special brand of magnificent. Granted, these are more like the hands-on impressions of a self-confessed BlackBerry addict, who was willing to fork over $828 US on the off chance that the eBay auction the other day was actually legit. A week later Kevin of CrackBerry.com has the BlackBerry 9000 in hand and seems to be loving every minute of it. Apparently the keyboard is better than the 8800 series, the OS4.6 is smooth, fast and pretty, and the 480 x 320 LCD is "awesome." And don't get Kevin started on 3G: the logo alone brought a tear to his eye -- we're clearly dealing with a bona fide fanboy here. That said, it's an encouraging sign to see all those leaked shots weren't just for show, there's a real-live performer behind the legend. Kevin's major caveat is the size and weight of the phone, compared to his Curve, but we're sure the $828 hole in his checking account will have him coming to terms with that drawback in the near future. He'll be posting more details and impressions as he goes.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The next episode of the ubiquitous Pearl is now available in T-Mobile stores across the land, bringing the spec sheet in line with the features Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T customers have been enjoying for a little while now -- a 2 megapixel camera, external microSD slot, and 3.5mm headphone jack, just to name a few. Unlike the 8130 for CDMA networks, the 8120 that T-Mobile and AT&T share adds a 802.11b/g radio, but the T-Mobile version packs yet a couple more tricks up its sleeve -- you know, the ones you'd probably expect of any modern T-Mobile phone with WiFi, namely support for myFaves and HotSpot@Home. That last bit about the WiFi calling is where it gets really interesting. Put simply, the experience we had setting up, using, and making calls with the new Pearl linked up to our router was the best we've had so far with any HotSpot@Home device; it definitely seems like T-Mobile and RIM are learning a thing or two about how to make this a truly seamless and painless process. A "UMA" indicator on the display lets you know that calls are being routed over the service, but if you're not paying attention to it, you might never know it's happening -- it's just that good. Grab it starting today for a shade under $150 on contract, or if you'd prefer to keep your money firmly in your pocket, you can still live vicariously through our gallery here!

NTT DoCoMo had a pretty lavish setup here at CTIA, though no new product caught our eye. However, they did have the results from the Super 3G / LTE shenanigans they've been up to in Japan, and the results show serious speed. They're touting Super 3G / LTE as 3.9G -- wow, that extra .4G seems to be making a huge diff -- with theoretical downlink and uplink speeds listed as 70Mbps and 300Mbps. Compared to current HSPA speeds this is a monstrous leap, can you say kiss your cable goodbye? Hit the gallery below for more pics.

We're still smarting from the apparent cancelation of the fabulously powerful K850 from AT&T's 2008 lineup, but as consolation prizes go, the Z750a ain't bad. That being said, it's solidly seated in the midrange, which seems like an unusual place for Sony Ericsson's very first carrier-launched 3G handset for the US to be; the 2 megapixel camera isn't going to "wow" anyone, and the choice of colorful, ultra-gloss shells definitely limits the phone's appeal to a certain demographic. On the bright side, the music player has an XMB appeal to it -- users of other recent Sony Ericssons will feel right at home with the app -- and it's one of the better built-in players currently available on any handset. The Memory Stick Micro slot makes that player just a little trickier to use for anyone that isn't already using Sony Ericsson kit, but c'est la vie, we suppose. Check out some shots in our handy dandy gallery here.

It's hard to stand out in the sea of Windows Mobile handsets; no smartphone platform is already more stratified, serves more market segments, and offers more form factors, so where's a new entrant supposed to fit in? Somehow, though, Velocity Mobile manages to do exactly that -- partly through an interesting software strategy, partly through sheer brute force of its first devices' impressive spec sheets. We had a chance to check out both the 103 and 111 models that'll lead off Velocity's production roadmap, and while they don't really look much different than your average high-end WinMo handsets, the flush touchscreens, trackballs, and clean lines all feel great to the touch. We're told that Velocity's slick, finger-friendly, widget-based interface will improve over time; the improvements will be made available to all existing owners, too, so don't let that little fact deter an early purchase.

Putting Windows Mobile 6's user interface at ease with fat fingers is a monumental challenge -- but it's not a challenge manufacturers are shying away from. Perhaps they see devices like the iPhone as a threat they can't ignore any longer, or perhaps they're simply tired of waiting for Microsoft to roll something truly revolutionary, but at any rate, companies like HTC with its TouchFLO interface are doing pretty much everything they can to keep the stylus firmly locked away. That's where the LG KS20 comes into play, which steals as much of the Viewty's identity as it can while still keeping Windows Mobile 6 under the hood.

LG's effort results in limited success. The home screen is about as attractive as any we've seen on a WinMo 6 Professional handset, but it's not particularly useful beyond the plain-vanilla functionality beyond what you'd see on any device in this class. No big, pretty clock, no weather widget -- just a nice color scheme and a four-pack of touchable buttons above the two regular soft keys. Hitting the right three buttons will take you to the normal dialer, messaging, and browser apps, respectively, while the leftmost button takes you to another Viewty-esque display for launching apps. It's nice, but we noticed that it's not difficult to confuse the phone into reverting back to the normal, stock launcher, which looks starkly out of place in this glossy beaut.

As usual, the lack of North American HSDPA is a dismal downside, too. Bottom line? It's a great looking device -- but don't expect LG to have worked any miracles with the platform.

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

Here's the story: this Sony Ericsson T303 is a tiny one. Like, really small. We spotted it behind glass at the Sony Ericsson booth here at CeBIT, and we could easily see it becoming a top fashionista pick. Unfortunately, the paltry specs are going to divert all but the staunchest supporters of fashion minimalism. We're also a little confused why Sony Ericsson still hasn't replaced that generic "SE 123" logo the phone was sporting when we first saw it in February. Forget to pay the sticker guy? Perhaps we'll never know.

T-Mobile gave us a quick look today at Nokia's latest clamshell, the 6550. The Series 60 phone is pretty sexy as far as Nokia flips go -- and quite the looker in its own right -- but it's still clear that Nokia's struggling to make any of its S60 units truly "skinny." The QVGA screen is naturally stellar, and the secondary display on the back includes a few capacitive touch buttons to control music playback. We also liked the main keypad, which is a bit of a departure for Nokia. The phone won't blow any minds, but it's certainly a solid play by Nokia for the budget set in Europe -- how about a little Stateside love, eh Nok?

What will it be, the good or the bad news first? How 'bout the good. After an initial rebuff, we finally managed to grab some photos of that exclusive T-Mobile MDA compact IV. You remember: 7.2Mbps HSDPA, GPS, VGA resolution screen, WiFi and 4GB of on-board storage. It'll also launch "mit neuestem Microsoft Betriebssytem" which we can safely assume is Windows Mobile 6.1 at this point. Oh yes, and the bad news. It's only a plastic dummy and our photographs were restricted by a glass cube. Still, this is as close as most of you will get for a long, long time. Full gallery over at Engadget.

We've finally seen the M8 in the wild, made with real molecules -- sort of. The prototype being passed around doesn't really function beyond showing a few screens, though a rough cut of the full interface was available on a decidedly un-M8 looking prototype board. Check out our comprehensive coverage of the device, which looks nothing like the iPhone, below!

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As sexy as the idea of a keypadless, pebble-shaped device with a full-face touchscreen may be, for some, there's simply no replacement for the real thing. A real, physical keypad continues to be a necessity for some folks, and for as much popularity as devices like the Touch and iPhone have garnered, old-fashioned keys really aren't going anywhere any time soon. HTC recognized this pretty quickly and followed up the Touch with the Touch Dual, a phone that carries over most of the original device's high points while adding in 3G data and, perhaps even more notably, a keypad that tucks neatly away when it's not needed.

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