A new less-than-N8 seems to be lurking around Nokia. C7-00, part of Nokia’s C-series, slots beneath the N series and sports what the company calls a nHD pixel display. Another day, another display-related jargon: nHD. What does nHD stand for? In landscape it refers to a pixel format of 640×360. Not quite the highest resolution around since most smartphones seem to come with 800×480. According to Engadget the parsed XML code has the C7 sporting 3G UMTS, HSDPA, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

HP’s ENVY 14 is a great-looking notebook PC sporting a 14.5-inch HD+ Radiance Infinity LED display. Great looking because it looks extremely similar to the unibody MacBooks. What HP means by HD+ is a pixel format of 1600×900, which is really good for nothing. It can’t play 720p HD video without scaling up. It can’t play 1080p HD video without scaling down. You can’t put up dual-windows for productivity. The only thing great about it is that you can easily figure out that the aspect ratio is 16:9. Graphics is powered by ATI’s Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB VRAM. The news is that the HP ENVY 14 is now available for sale starting from US$1099.99.

Motorola’s Charm is an unusually wide candybar smartphone. The built-in QWERTY hardware-based keyboard looks to be be quite type-able thanks to its size. Charm runs Android 2.1 and Motorola’s UI skin MOTOBLUR with improved Facebook and Twitter integration. I’m not sure what to think about the overall hardware dimensions but it is definitely something refreshing. Ah, yes, now I know: it looks like a Peek. You can find pictures at Engadget and according to the site the Charm from Motorola is headed to T-Mobile.

Yet another Galaxy S variant. T-Mobile is getting in on Samsung’s Galaxy S action with its version the Vibrant. Available July 21st for US$199.99 with a qualifying voice and data plan with a new two-year agreement, the Vibrant is Samsung’s Galaxy S sporting a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz Hummingbird CPU, 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 720p video capture, running Android 2.1. For those of you not able to wait until the 21st you can start pre-ordering the Vibrant at Radio Shack locations starting July 1st for just $50. As a bonus you get The Sims 3 Collector’s Edition and Avatar pre-installed on a 2GB microSD. Yowzer. If you’re on Verizon don’t worry, the Fascinate version of Samsung’s Super AMOLED-toting Galaxy S is available (read Samsung “Fascinate” Galaxy S on Verizon for more info). Oh, and Captivate on AT&T (read Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S: US$900 on Amazon).

Genius Electronics Optical, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of optical lens kits, has started shipping its 5 megapixel lens module for Apple’s iPhone 4 according to DIGITIMES. Initial shipments are small due to low yield rates. Genius Electronics, what a name, is busy manufacturing and shipping 3 megapixel camera modules, which account for 40% of the company’s total camera lens module shipments.

Earlier, DIGITIMES reported that Asia Optical commenced shipment of its 640×480 (VGA) lens kit for the iPhone 4′s front camera in May 2010. In the beginning of June the company’s shipment volume was around three million units.

Although I have never heard of these two companies it seems Apple has done a solid job of putting together its camera system on the iPhone 4. The quality of photographs and videos on the iPhone 4 is nothing short of spectacular, for smartphones (read Video Quality Comparison: iPhone 4 vs. Flip Ultra HD and MacWorld: iPhone 4 Sports Best Smartphone Camera).

How many names can the Galaxy S by Samsung have? I’m not sure but there’s at least four. The latest is Fascinate and it will come via Verizon according to Samsung’s press release dated June 28. Fascinate, a Galaxy S smartphone (read Samsung Galaxy S with Super AMOLED and Super AMOLED Is Decent In The Sun for more info), is a non-keyboard Android 2.1 smartphone featuring Samsung Mobile Display’s (SMD) 4-inch Super AMOLED display powered by the Hummingbird Cortex A8 CPU running at 1GHz. A 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash is on-board with 720p video recording capabilities. Availability and price are TBD.

Viliv is a Korean manufacturer of tiny mobile PCs, like the N5.  Viliv calls the N5 an ultra mini mobile PC; it is mobile, it is quite small (172x86x25 mm, 6.77×3.38×0.98 inch), weighs just 388g (0.85 pounds), and it really is a PC; the little thing runs Windows 7.

Matt Burns at TechCrunch took it for a spin:

The WSVGA 1024×600 screen is gorgeous. It’s sharp, bright, and displays adequate contrast. It might be the most impressive feature of the N5.

The 4.8-inch LED-backlit LCD sports a 1024×600 pixel format resulting in a resolution of 247.26 PPI. The LCD is sharp, bright, has decent contrast, but very glossy. Most companies don’t do touch very well since it is difficult to perfect. The single-touch performance on the preproduction N5 is reportedly finicky; not quite accurate. The 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z520 and GMA 500 graphics duo are powering the N5 and the little thing runs Hulu well enough with only a little lag. That’s a very good thing. The little optical mouse is loved by some and loathed by others.

The N5 comes with 1GB DDR2 533MHz SDRAM, 32GB SSD, microSD, 3.5-mm headphone, mic-in, USB 2.0, 1.3 megapixel webcam, stereo speakers. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, WiFi BG, optional 3G (HSPA) and GPS Sirf Star3. The N5 is rated to last 6 hours with an standby time of 150 hours. If you’re in the US and can’t wait for the N5 check out Dynamism.

I am not yet convinced that an iPhone 4 is a must-buy. I’m concerned about the antenna reception issue and the yellowish discoloration on the otherwise beautiful Retina Display. Nonetheless, I am waiting for the white version. Hopefully Apple will get both of the problems licked by the time the white iPhone 4 comes out. Well, the folks over at Engadget didn’t want to wait: they took a white front cover, a prototype white back cover (model number XXXXX), a Retina Display, and an iFixit teardown guide and got to work. The result is a white iPhone 4 with a black home button. Almost as good as the real deal, almost.

Engadget’s Joanna Stern regarding the glossiness of the HP TouchSmart tm2t convertible tablet PC that was just upgraded with a new Core i3 ULV CPU:

The tm2′s 12.1-inch, 1280 x 800-pixel resolution screen is quite crisp, but the main adjective that comes to mind when describing it is glossy. … Viewing angles of the screen are also less than stellar; when we flipped the screen around and tilted it back to about 45 degrees, colors just faded, and we simply couldn’t make out images.

I would think it would be a given, something beyond obvious, that the LCD would feature a decent if not excellent viewing angles on a convertible tablet. The fact that the newly upgraded tm2t still sports a terrible viewing angle LCD makes me question whether the folks at HP designed this with their thinking hats on.

Touch response:

… the capacitive touchscreen layer was extremely responsive to finger and stylus input. Dragging a finger down the screen to scroll was very responsive, and light taps on icons / within menus was all it took to navigate Windows 7 Home Premium.

I doubt navigating your way around menus designed for the precision of a mouse would be comfortable for very long.

UI:

… its TouchSmart software layer not only provides full screen shortcuts, but some touch customized applications. The user interface is very attractive and consists of a Cover Flow-like carousel of programs.

… the entire thing is simply too sluggish for everyday use. You have to wait anywhere from five to fifteen seconds for the applications within the software to open, and then they’re even laggy in use.

An attractive but additional software UI layer on top of Windows 7… of course it will be slow. Guess HP should have equipped the tm2t with a Core i5. Unfortunately the TouchSmart UI doesn’t work in portrait tablet mode. I’m not convinced a Windows 7-based tablet PC reoriented for finger-based navigation is going to resonate with most folks. Get the entire story at Engadget.

Mark, a Gizmodo reader, sent Steve Jobs and email:

Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that this is the most amazing phone I’ve ever owned. FaceTime is incredible! Everything is fantastic except the reception issues I’ve been having.

My buddy has the same issue and he called AppleCare and was shipped a free bumper case. I called too, 2 hours and 3 dropped calls later, I was told that nobody is getting free bumpers. Which is strange because I saw my friends email confirmation showing he was getting a free one. I tried to get one on launch day but the store was sold out. Is there anything you or one of your executive escalations people can do? I love everything about the phone except my signal issues. I hope to hear back with good news.

Thanks for your time,
Mark

And here’s Steve Job’s reply:

There is no reception issue. Stay tuned.

If this correspondence is legit and if there is no reception issue why should we stay tuned. Stay tuned for what? For a fix maybe? I’m guessing Steve Jobs is asking us stay tuned so the actually-existing reception issue is dealt with and hopefully fixed. And why would Apple give free Bumpers to iPhone 4 users who call and complain about reception problems?

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