If you still haven't decided on what sort of next-gen cellphone to buy, then here's something that could make your choices just a bit more difficult: the latest phone in the BlackBerry line, the BlackBerry Kickstart. Guess what? It's been revealed as a clamshell flip phone. Check out all the details of this very nifty gadget in the full article and see if the need for one doesn't overtake you.

Edging out the competition with a mere 6.99mm statistic, the Samsung X820 is now the record holder for being the slimmest mobile phone in the world. But being so slim, how durable is it exactly?

Though its exterior may really appear to be fragile, it actually has an excellent construction. While its body carries no steel reinforcements, all parts are elaborated of plastics. Its weight of 66 grams attests to that.

Fitting nicely into your grasp, it really brings on a whole new meaning to holding the world in the palm of your hands. Its key features, other than its extreme slimness, include a high-quality horizontal display, 82MB of internal memory, EGDE and Bluetooth.

A shortcut button for the camera is installed on its right side, as well as a connector for both the earphones and the charger, which is protected by a rubber cap fastened to the phone body, and thus isn't easily lost. Situated on the left is the dual volume-control button, while the top area of the rear side is where the camera lens is integrated, thereby explaining that wedgy look.

Announced along an entire line of ultra-slim phones, (like the D830 which will be the slimmest clamshell ever, as well as the slider D900), the Samsung X820 comes in full black.

A demo has leaked over the internet about a rumored new cell phone from Sony Ericsson. The demo runs 02:21 and it shows two hands fidgeting over the menu of the new cellphone and trying to compare it to other Sony Ericsson phones.

The demo video shows what may be an upcoming clamshell Sony Ericsson Z610i. Initial specifications are rumoured for it to have a 2.0 MP camera, M2 memory card slot and a 265K TFT screen. Not much is known about this new phone aside from the initial specs. Whether the rumor is true or not, we'll see about that...so do check on QJ for updates.

Samsung and Versace's Versus brand have teamed up to come up with stylish, innovative, and practical phones that will be original enough to appeal to the younger generation. The first product of this alliance is the Samsung E500 Versus, which applies the stylishness of Versus to Samsung's original SGH-E500.

As it is based on SGH-E500, Samsung E500 Versus will have a 1.3 megapixel camera, Music Player, and Bluetooth squeezed into its clamshell form. What will mark the Samsung-Versus phone is the color - while the Samsung clamshell came in champagne gold, the Samsung-Versus creation offers three color combinations: white and gold, white and antique pink, and black and silver.

Samsung E500 Versus will be out in the Italian market by the end of August.

First, it was Nokia who is rumored to be coming up with the N95 - a dual slide cellular phone, now the U.S. Patent Office published Sony's application for a "Flipper Phone Configuration", which they could only hope be the next 'it' handheld device. This of course deviates from the usual design of a flip or clamshell phone like the Z520 or the W300i. So just what is the essence of this flipper phone configuration?

Apparently this patented configuration would have a housing that has two portions. According to the published patent, the "first portion of the housing has an opening, an inner surface and an opposed outer surface. A module has an inner major surface and an outer major surface.

The complicated stuff do not end there, apparently the phone is geared to be the ultimate sidekick for a busy-bee, "the module is movably disposed in the opening of the first portion of the housing for movement relative to the first portion of the housing between a first position, where the inner major surface of the module is substantially coincident with the inner surface of the first portion of the housing, and a second position, where the inner major surface of the module is substantially coincident with the outer surface of the first portion of the housing."

Ok, very complicated this one is (I got lost at the third sentence), but it's a work in progress, and maybe a prototype isn't far from the horizons. With that, we could only hope that the Sony guys would shed some light on this new patent. For now, we here will always keep you posted.

The SGH-E870 is one of Samsung's many middle-range phones. It's a triband, clamshell phone that weighs just 83g and measures 92 x 42 x 17 mm - nothing to sniff at, but nothing to write home about either.

The phone's more significant features include the following:

• Bluetooth
• USB 1.1 compatibility
• Video-picture ID support
• microSD (nee TransFlash) compatible
• music player - compatible with MP3, ACC, ACC+, eAAC+, WMA files
• 1+ megapixel camera with LED flash - PictBridge compatible
  
• MIDP 2.0 Java
• GPRS
• Productivity tools - alarm, calculator, calendar, to-do list, voice memo
• Speakerphone
  

It's nicely styled - it looks like the phone version of an iBook, a departure from how Samsung usually styles its phones - and that's a good thing, because to be perfectly honest, aside from how it looks, this phone doesn't stand out all that much. It's got a decent feature set, sure, but then again so do so many of its Samsung brethren (as well as competing models from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and the like).

The phone hasn't yet been snapped up by any major US carrier, but it's available for purchase both in shops and online as well.

It's the slimmest clamshell phone to date!

During CommunicAsia 2006 in Singapore, Samsung introduced its newest line of ultra slim cellphones. It just happened that the most notable of the phones was the Ultra Edition 9.9 D830. This clamshell phone is only 9.9mm thick (or thin) but has all the necessary standard features of a mobile phone and more - all contained in its 85g body.

The D830 has a 2.3-inch Color TFT screen, a media player and Bluetooth and USB connectivity. It comes with a 2-megapixel camera, an 80MB embedded memory, an external memory slot for added storage, and an enhanced user interface with uSearch and uMenu features.

Another great feature of this phone is the design itself - it's sleek and elegant yet still easy to use. The stylish Samsung D830 comes in a variety of colors; but as always, Samsung's trademark black looks will catch consumers' eyes most as these contrast remarkably well with the slim phone's user interface and keypad design.

No word yet on its price and date of availability. We'll keep you posted.

Rumor have abound lately of this supposed "Blackberry killer," a device that will soon overthrow the reign of the RIM Blackberry. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much information about this device.

Until now.

This new Blackberry-like device is supposedly a data-only clamshell that will have no voice capabilities like the original version of the Blackberry. However, this device being called the "Blueberry" for the purposes of comparison and more speculation, will have GPRS support that will enable users to remotely download emails.

Users will have to sign up onto data only tariffs. The "Blueberry" will supposedly be sold through ISPs instead of being sold through mobile phone stores. The ISP will sell these devices already pre-configured to work with its own email mailboxes. OTA (Over the Air) technology can also be used on this device to allow tracking of emails.

If these details from a North American company snitch are to be taken seriously, the Blackberry will be in for a treat. Announcement regarding this new device will come later in the week.

Samsung has attempted to marry the two most stylish mobile phone designs in an attempt to make a practical design for Samsung's new mobile phone. The sliding-clamshell design is a combination of the sliding and folding forms.

The sliding-clamshell phone will be built from a soft cover that will allow the body to slide lengthwise and become extended and folded. In sliding phones, the displays are often large but are unprotected so they're susceptible to damage. They're also too bulky sometimes. Clamshell phones on the other hand are portable because of their small size, but the displays are also small. The sliding-clamshell phone tries to combine the great features of these two forms.

This new phone design will be portable because of its relatively small size and will have a display bigger than a clamshell's. When one opens the device, the soft external cover will become a track for the body. It has a corrugated hinge that links the track in place. When sliding the body upwards, the phone shows two keypad sections. This allows the user to use both hands in a horizontal. This design is also ideal for mobile gaming.

This design may look really odd in the start, but since usability is the essence of the sliding-clamshell design, people will eventually buy the idea. Samsung though, has not yet released any information on when they'll be manufacturing phones using this design. Hopefully soon.