Get over to the other side and get updated in the mean time.

Nokia X6 To Land In The UK This Friday

If you have been eyeing Nokia’s latest touchscreen music phone – the X6, it is coming to the UK Friday. As is usual with many phones there, it has found a carrier who will be offering it for free against a long-time contract. This time it is Orange for £35/month.

For the SIM-free version you will have to pony up £449, which is roughly around $670 at today’s exchange rate. You can pre-order it from shop.nokia.co.uk from today. [read]

Skype Nokia N900 Demo Video

Nokia N900 comes with Skype built-in. So now you have more reason to buy the N900 for $649, that is if you can wait for the next shipments to arrive. The last I heard of it was that it was pre-ordered to capacity and new orders were behind huge queues. At least now you can get one for $480 on Amazon ($530-$50 mail in rebate). [read]

Skype has demoed Skype for Maemo on an official video. Since Skype is already available on Linux, this port could not have been all that hard to execute. [read]

UK Retailers Pull Satio, Big Bugs Need Squashing

Bad news folks, Sony Ericsson’s Satio is now as good as off the shelves right now. This decision had to be taken after numerous customers came in with complaints about freezes, mysterious powering down of the phone and other problems. The two major retailers of the Phone in the UK – Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U – have decided to offer replacements to customers who are returning the Satio.

Official word from Sony Ericsson is that the issues will be fixed before Christmas. The bugs are apparently to deep for normal updates to tackle. Well, I guess that’s what we get for lusting after a too-good-to-be-true 12MP camera phone.

Kurara Reviewed, Is OKAY

Like he promised, the man behind mobile review has posted a more detailed look at the Kurara. From Murtazin’s post, it is clear that the phone sounds good on paper but it is pretty ordinary in person. It definitely fits the bill for an understudy of the Idou and should be priced somewhere around half of the high-end offerings. That said, if this phone is priced right, it could become a hot-selling phone for those who are looking for an entry-level touchscreen experience that is slightly better than the Samsung options.

The ARM Cortex Ab with 256MB RAM still is powerful enough to breeze through the Symbian UI. So that part is covered I suppose. Read the extensive review of it right here.

O2’s ‘Free’ HTC HD2

The Brits are at it again. They are really good at giving away phones for free as long as you promise to pay them a hefty sum. If you are in the market for the HTC HD2 and if you are in the UK, you can get it for free from O2 against a long-term contract. You will have to pay a nice £45 per month on it though. So far, I do not think the HD2 retailing SIM-free there. So O2 looks like the only option right now. [read]

So here we have some of the more high profile Snapdragon phones that are coming our way.

HTC HD2

After that big a whispering campaign courtesy of the leaks and the high anticipation during the launch, there is no way you can forget this mobile phone. Arguably the first device to bring the processor to the limelight, this is the phone that in a way started it all.

If you are not too impressed by the 4.3inch screen, then you might be impressed by the custom UI made by HTC. The UI has been demoed on video and it looks really great and responsive. The acceleration, the transitions and the rendering – all look smooth and fast. That is definitely where the Snapdragon shines its brightest.

But the phone might fail to generate the traction and sales that it deserves simply because of its platform. It is a Windows Mobile device and it runs Windows Mobile 6.5 underneath that great UI. What that means is a (ridiculously) low number of apps and low third party interest, which again translates to a not-so-good user experience when compared to the fast-moving Android or the trend-setting iPhone OS.

HTC Dragon/ Passion [?]

This was rumored to be the Android version of the HD2 but now it has been (almost) ID’d as the new HTC Passion. This would be more like a CDMA version of the HTC Dragon, which is a GSM phone. It has also been revealed that the HTC Passion is heading for Verizon and we could be seeing it in the flesh metal by the end of this year. Well, if they want to sell something this year they have to bring it out before Christmas.

But if this phone does materialize, this would be another Android phone that will be jostling for space at the top rung of things. Now that we have the Droid and the X10, this would likely become the third super-specc’d Android phone. [read]

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10

If you still do not know about the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, you are clearly not coming out from underneath your rock often enough. The XEPRIA X10 was leaked and discussed frenetically before it was finally unveiled on November 3^rd.

It features a custom UI on top of Android and it is know as the ‘Open OS’. The features to be highlighted are the Timescape and Mediascape features, that give you smarter ways to stay connected with your contacts, communications and media. If you want a hands-on review of a pre-production unit, you can check out this post. Over all, Sony Ericsson has something that is pretty sleek and stylish. If they can deliver on their promises (Timescape and Mediascape), this might become THE Android phone to get. Hopefully it will be up to Android 2.0 when they finally get around to selling this phone in the first half of next year.

Acer Liquid A1

Acer’s Liquid A1 is the company’s venture into Android smartphone field and it has so far received a lukewarm response at best. After announcing the Snapdragon processor and the Android OS base, it became the first phone to bring those two together.

However, as we have seen and heard from the folks who got their hands on the device  – Acer is clearly lacking on the UI development. Plus, the physical design of the phone leaves much space for improvement. Acer’s inexperience in the smartphone category shows through too clearly for this to be a compelling device. Sorry Acer but it looks like you need to step up your game here. [read]

Unnamed Nokia Smartphone For AT&T

Nokia is rumored to be making a new smartphone for AT&T that will be powered by Snapdragon. It is not the N900 and it is something that will be up against the likes of the Droid, the HD2 and the X10. This is a little sliver of a rumor, so more details are currently unavailable. [read]