Hot New Phones Coming to You Soon (We Hope)

Probably the biggest cell phone show that isn't CES is held every year on the Mediterranean—first it was the French Riviera (Cannes) and now it's the Catalonian coast (Barcelona). That's where the annual 3GSM World Congress—a worldwide gathering for mobile phone manufacturers, carriers, content makers, and assorted technologists—takes place. Sure, it's devoted only to GSM phones (used by Cingular and T-Mobile in the U.S.), but since most of the world uses that standard....

I went last year and got a lot out of it. The show has been growing in importance and prominence, similar to the way cell phones have over the last five years become indispensable in our daily lives. At any rate, I'm here in India, which happens to be the world's largest cell phone market (and growing)—increasingly the focus of the emerging-market strategies of cell phone manufacturers and providers (because there's no room to grow in established cell phone markets like Europe and the U.S.) That's a long-winded way of saying I'm not in Barcelona at the show, alas, but that hasn't stopped me from salivating over all the news and new phones.

There's likely to be loads of news over the next couple of days, but here are some of the hotter new phones on display at the show (culled from reports, of course, since I can't be there myself, alas). Note that none of these phones were on display at CES.

Motorola RIZR Z8: Leave it to RAZR-creator Motorola to come up with a totally new phone form. The RIZR Z8 is a curvy slider that's supposed to fit your face better. It's got 3G-quality HDSPA capability, a Symbian OS, a two-megapixel camera phone, and the latest Bluetooth profiles for music.

Nokia E90: This update to Nokia's high-end keyboard phone is way updated, with Wi-Fi, GPS, HSDPA (3G), and a 3.2 megapixel camera, making it sort of like the N93 but with a serious keyboard.

Nokia E61i: If you liked Nokia's Q-killer E61, you'll love the E61i, which has a two-megapixel camera, works with pretty much all corporate email systems, and is slimmer.

iPAQ Voice Messenger: There are hotter Windows Mobile 6 phones, but most of them won't come out in the States (yet). This candy-bar shaped iPAQ will be coming out in the U.S. this Spring. It looks just like a regular phone—unusual for an iPAQ—but runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard. Unfortunately, it's EDGE, so no 3G just yet, but since it has Wi-Fi and VOIP capability, you'll be okay as long as you're in a hotspot.

Samsung SGH-F520 and Samsung F700: The F700, an iPhone-killer with a touch screen and a keyboard, was announced last week, and it's just as non-3G/EDGE-enabled as the Apple offering. The F-520, a smaller and slicker phone, also with a keyboard, was announced today and has 3G capability. No word on whether either will make it to the U.S.

More to come over the next few days, but the above phones are the ones that are whetting my appetite. How about you?

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