In the market for a high-end handset? Hang on to that wallet and get ready to drool: HTC and Nokia have four new pieces of advanced kit ready to battle for your hard-earned hundreds.
First up is the HTC S740, not to be confused with the Touch Pro. The S740, which will debut in Europe next month, takes design cues from the Touch Diamond, but loses the touchscreen in favor of a dialing pad on the front and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard underneath. You'll still get the a 2.4" VGA touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.1, WiFi, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, and HSDPA (no North American bands, sorry) along with a 3.2MP fixed focus camera. If you want your QWERTY with a touchscreen as well, look to the aforementioned Touch Pro, and not this dual-keypad beast.
Not to be outdone, Nokia officially launched three new N-Series "multimedia computers," as well. The N96, N85, and N79 will all come in North American versions, which means 3G data speeds if you're on AT&T (though the phones have only been announced in unlocked version). All three quad-band GSM/EDGE devices run Symbian S60 v.3 Feature Pack 2, and all three feature WiFi, GPS, a microSD card slot, and a 5MP camera with dual LED flash to go along with that HSDPA connectivity. The N96 packs 16GB of internal storage along with that microSD slot, while the N85 has a super-bright OLED display with QVGA resolution. The N79 will feature Sidekick-esque snap-off covers that reportedly pack sensors to trigger the phone's theme to change to match a given cover's color. Three covers - red, white, and dark-blue - will be included with the device.
Look for all three new Nokias to be available in Q4 of this year.