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With so may cell phones on the planet, it's hard to find a model with a design that stands out from the crowd. Yet, Samsung manages to do just that with its new Beat DJ. I caught up with it at the GSMA World Congress in Barcelona.

With rounded edges and a bright blue trim, the Beat DJ offers a striking design that feels comfortable in the hand. As a touch-screen phone, the only physical controls on the front face are Talk and End controls and a back button. Over on the right side you'll find a memory … Read more

BARCELONA--Verizon Communications' chief technology officer dished out details Wednesday on the company's soon-to-be-built 4G wireless network that's set to go live in 2010.

Verizon will begin testing the service this year and launch it commercially in at least 25 to 30 markets in the U.S. in 2010, CTO Dick Lynch said during an interview with CNET News after his keynote speech Wednesday at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress here.

"We are modeling the roll-out after our EV-DO deployment. So we expect to get to about the same level in the first year of deploying LTE … Read more

Normally a cell phone headset jack doesn't get us excited, but with the Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman we couldn't help ourselves. Sure, the W995 may pale a bit when compared with the Sony Ericsson Idou, but it offers plenty of merits. Two days after Sony Ericsson unveiled the phone at the GSMA World Congress, we took it for a spin.

Overall, the W995's design is very similar to other Walkman phones. It comes in three colors--energetic red, progressive black, and cosmic silver--but we're partial to the bright red. At 3.8 inches tall by 1.9 … Read more

Pantech has just announced the Pantech Matrix Pro, a dual-slider smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1. If you think Pantech Matrix sounds familiar, it's because Pantech released its non-smartphone cousin, the Pantech Matrix, a few months ago as a dual-slider messaging phone. The Matrix Pro is also Pantech's second attempt at a smartphone, after the rather sad Pantech Duo of two years ago. Also note that Pantech is the manufacturer behind the Helio Ocean and the Helio Ocean 2, which have a similar design.

Like all of its dual-slider handsets, the Matrix Pro slides up vertically to reveal … Read more

As Samsung made an impressive showing at the GSMA World Congress it's difficult to pick one of its new phones as the most notable. Yet, the company's Omnia HD certainly would be in the running. We had the opportunity to check it out while visiting with Samsung in Barcelona, Spain.

Though the Omnia HD is the next-generation model of the existing Omnia, it shows a few design differences. The curved ends give it a more eye-catching, aerodynamic look. It's also slightly bigger than its predecessor is, but we'll gladly take the extra heft with the stunning … Read more

Samsung wasn't the only company showing a solar-powered cell phone at the GSMA World Congress. On Wednesday, Chinese manufacturer ZTE launched a green model of its own.

Created with Digicel and Intivation, the Coral-200-Solar is designed for emerging markets where electricity may not be readily available. And, of course, it's Earth-friendly.

Exact feature details are sketchy at this point, but from what we can tell, the phone won't offer a lot of goodies. Considering its target markets, the Coral-200-Solar is really about making calls. It should be available in June.

The candy bar design is pretty plain … Read more

The Sony Ericsson Idou may just be a concept phone, but I had the opportunity to handle it while visiting the company's booth at the GSMA World Congress. Indeed, a press pass has its benefits, as other show attendees could gaze at it only in a glass display.

As the Idou is not a finished product, the Sony Ericsson rep wouldn't let the model out of his sight. We had a similar experience at CES 2009 when we examined the Palm Pre--we could touch the outside all we wanted, but we couldn't get an extensive tour … Read more

We've just had a super-sneaky peak at the future of Windows Mobile--version 6.5--and got to demo the new operating system in all its glory ourselves, on a brand-new HTC Touch Diamond2.

Microsoft has completely overhauled the user interface and the mobile OS, and aims to capture more of the consumer handset market with its launch later this year. Check out some of its features in the gallery below.

(Via Crave UK)

Another day at GSMA winds to a close, and even though there aren't as many new devices, we did get a few important announcements.

The most exciting announcement of the day was probably about the HTC Magic, Vodafone's Android-based smartphone. It doesn't have the slide-out QWERTY keyboard of the T-Mobile G1, but it does look quite sleek. Speaking of Vodafone, we also read news of a GSM Palm Pre that may be slated for Vodafone in the near future, but unfortunately Palm's lips are sealed.

As for other manufacturers, LG announced another handset, dubbed the LG … Read more