Upcoming Smartphones to Look Out For

The smartphone segment is going to explode soon and handsets that are loaded up with all kinds of goodies like NFC (Near Field Communication) technology and 3D mobile viewing will soon be making the scene. But it won’t just end there, we’ll also be witness to new operating systems like MeeGo and updates to existing systems as well. Keeping that in mind, here’s my list of handsets that you should be looking out for soon.

Nokia N9
One of the first of the all new MeeGo line of devices and from what we hear the last for Nokia as well, is the Nokia N9. This rectangular colorful block of a handset is equipped with all kinds of goodies from a Gorilla Glass display that’s also coated with an anti-glare polarizer (very handy for out door viewing I imagine) to a 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU for speed, NFC (Near Field Communication) support with Angry Birds Magic thrown in plus the Dolby Mobile sound engine. Although the handset will be available in 16GB and 32GB models, like the Nexus S, it will not have support for external memory which might be a bit of downer for some. The Nokia N9 will also be available in a variety of funky colors.

Nokia N9 - MeeGo on the horizon

The MeeGo toting smartphone features -

• a 3.9-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a 480 x 854 pixel resolution and 16 million colors
• 3G, Wi-Fi with hotspot capabilities, EDGE/GPRS,
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0
• GPS with A-GPS support for Ovi Maps, Geotagging
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 720p video recording
• Secondary camera for video calling
• 16GB internal memory
• 3.5mm handsfree socket for TV Out as well
• Dolby Digital Plus

MILESTONE XT883
It was disappointing to realize that the Motorola MILESTONE 2 never did make it to India so my hopes are high for the XR883 making it here. This next-gen MILESTONE will feature a Dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP4 processor running Android Gingerbread and of course the customary MILESTONE slide out QWERTY keypad. Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed, it's quite unlikely that Motorola would not include it on this model when its predecessor the XT720 was equipped with a port. The onboard 8MP camera will be capable of full HD video recording and so naturally full HD video playback as well. The high-res mobile display should put it in the league of the HTC Sensation or Samsung Galaxy SII although it falls just a little bit short of “Retina” quality resolution.

Next Gen MILESTONE

Motorola’s MILESTONE XT883 will also come with -

• a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 540 x 960 pixel resolution and 16 million colors
• 3G, Wi-Fi with hotspot capabilities, EDGE/GPRS,
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0
• GPS with A-GPS support, Geotagging
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording
• Secondary VGA camera for video calling
• 16GB internal memory
• 3.5mm handsfree socket
• microSD card support up to 32GB

Xperia Pro
Sony’s Xperia range of Android enabled smartphones have been enjoying their spotlight for a while now and the Xperia Pro with its slide out full QWERTY keypad with individually spaced keys is due to hit the shelves soon. The Xperia Pro is also said to have a scratch resistant display. This funky looking smartphone will be out with Android Gingerbread running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 GHz processor and Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine to help enhance the device's visual capabilities. With DLNA as well as HDMI media streaming will be a breeze. The onboard 8 Megapixel camera will have features that include Geotagging, face/smile detection and Touchfocus.

The Next Xperia will be curvey

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro will be equipped with -

• a 3.7-inch LED-backlit LCD touchscreen with a 480 x 854 pixel resolution and 16 million colors
• 3G, Wi-Fi with hotspot capabilities and DLNA compatibility, EDGE/GPRS,
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0
• GPS with A-GPS support, Geotagging
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 720p video recording
• Secondary VGA camera for video calling
• 1GB internal memory
• 3.5mm handsfree socket for TV Out as well
• FM radio
• HDMI Out
• microSD card support up to 32GB