Vodafone UK has brought a range of rainbow colours for the fashion conscious to its VF 527 phone. Previously only available in black, the VF 527 now comes in four fun fresh colours: Moss Green, Mandarin Orange, Aqua Blue and Pink.

The GPRS candybar VF 527 is exclusive to Vodafone and comes with a built-in camera, FM radio, MP3 player, Bluetooth while the handset sports an external memory card slot to increase storage space for all your media content.

According to Head of Device Management for Vodafone UK, Chris Edwards, they have introduced the Rainbow range after the successful launch of the VF 527 in black and believe that the new colours will appeal to those fashion conscious customers who want a low cost handset that compliments their individual style but is not compromised on features. This phone delivers all that and at £30 is another great value mobile from Vodafone.

TmoNews has posted what it is claiming to be an internal T-Mobile USA memo that reveals its plans for Sony Ericsson’s upcoming TM506. The memo says that the TM506 will become available to consumers on September 3rd.

The Sony Ericsson TM506 is for users who want to express their personal style. Its compact design fits into any pocket, purse or briefcase.

There are 2 choices of the handset: Chrome with Amber or Emerald highlights with a sleek ebony gloss. It might not a high-end handset. But, it already comes with an UMTS antenna along with few specifications.

An external screen displays the caller ID without having to open the phone. With its 2.0 megapixels camera, users can snap photos or video clips with My Album, slide show and video blogging capability.

Music listeners can save songs and share music using the removable Memory Stick Micro (M2). Stereo Bluetooth connectivity allows handsfree calls and music streaming.

The TM506 has 3G download speeds for faster access to media and content viewing. They can keep up with news and weather with customizable web feeds. An integrated GPS with Telenav lets travelers know their location. Users can send pictures, videos, IM notes and email to their contacts directly from the home screen.

These are some of the specifications:
* 2 megapixel camera
* Media Center
* Integrated aGPS
* TeleNav Navigator
* RSS Feeds
* MyFaves-enabled
* Audio Postcard
* Quicksend
* Mobile Backup (T-Mobile Address Book)
* Bluetooth 2.0/A2DP/Stereo streaming
* Tri-Band GSM (850/1800/1900)
* Dual-Band UMTS (1700/2100)
* GSM/GRPS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA

Nokia has just announced a new addition to the Arte series, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte, which is made from carbon fibre, titanium, polished glass and stainless steel to exude an unprecedented level of class and finesse.

The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte, is a slight upgrade to the existing 8800 Arte comes with a useful memory upgrade, now featuring 4GB of internal memory. Until now, there was the original variant in black metal and the Sapphire Arte with a gem in the D-pad and genuine leather on the front and back.

The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte is priced at €1100 (around £900 or $1600) before tax and subsidy. This is a phone that will still be very expensive even if you can get a carrier discount on it.

Feature-wise, the new Carbon Arte is absolutely identical to the previous two models, and the only improvement is that the integrated memory is now 4GB instead of 1GB.

The sales package includes a matching Bluetooth headset and desk stand plus a “story booklet” to tell you about the Carbon Arte’s design story.

The 8800 Carbon Arte is a 3G phone with a multimedia player, 2″ QVGA screen and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The Carbon Arte is actually quite useful as a communication device.

Custom ringtones and themes that change throughout the day complement the design of the 8800 Carbon Arte to make the whole experience very impressive. One nice touch is that the Carbon Arte comes with a special coating to help reduce fingerprints and smudges.

The T700, a lightweight 3.5G handset is Sony Ericsson’s attempt at finally releasing a successor to one of our old favorites, the T610. Sony Ericsson’s T700 is a slim and elegant handset which is weighing in at just 78 grams and a thickness of just 10mm.

The T700 has a 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo speakers, a “premium metal finish”, 2-inch TFT display, 512MB storage (with expandable storage), quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA 3G.

Despite its lack of Walkman branding, the Sony Ericsson T700 should handle music playback fairly well, and also come with Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP) support and a color matched headset. Furthermore, the Sony Ericsson T700 offers the Access NetFront web browser, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, geo tagging of photos and Google Maps.

The Sony Ericsson T700 squeezes in an impressive amount of features for a handset of this size. It features video calling, expandable memory, a multimedia player and an FM radio.

Sony Ericsson say that the T700 should be available during early Q4 2008 in “Black on Silver”, “Black on Red” and “Shining Silver” colour combinations.

LG, one of the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, launched the KT520 3G slider mobile phone in Taiwan.

The KT520 is a slider with new finger mouse. The device is mainly targeted for the Net surfers, with its zoom in/out functions, dedicated Internet Hotkey and single band HSDPA. The new slider weighs 100 grams, measures 100 x 50 x 15 millimeters.

It features 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, 10x digital zoom and video recording plus a secondary video calling camera. Unfortunately, there’s no flash on it.

The KT520 features a 2.2″ QVGA high-contrast display, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0, a pretty comprehensive multimedia player and microSD expandable memory, plus a web browser and email client.

The KT520 has been set up in the Internet phone display area, in addition to support HSDPA 3.5G network, the largest of the five characteristics is the key to the operation of the design, in addition to basically function under the press around, in the middle finger can be identified key SHI Li mobile screen Cursor on the icon, through the design, the use of 260,000 color QVGA screen web browser, the more quickly the mobile pages, even if the switch to horizontal operations, but also to one-handed summary of the Internet browser.

Designed for Asia market, KT520 3G currently available in Taiwan with around $295 price tag.

The original 3 Skypephone was a useful but fairly basic handset launched last year. It was almost definitely the easiest way to get Skyping on a mobile phone, and combined with 3’s generous data tariffs and excellent approach to roaming charges it proved to be a minor hit, but somewhat overshadowed by the release of the iPhone.

Now 3 has just given us official word that they’re releasing a new 3 Skypephone. 3 have upped their speed to HSDPA for more broadband-like connection speed. That should mean better quality calls over VoIP and less of the dreaded robot voice.

The Skypephone S2 improves the display, camera and download speeds over the original, making it a very much more attractive handset to consumers.

The Skypephone S2’s screen is a 240 x 320 pixel panel measuring 2.2″. The camera is now 3.2 megapixels although we don’t know how sophisticated it is. The most intriguing thing about the 3 Skypephone S2 is it contains all the Windows drivers you need to turn it into a modem - plug in the USB cable and everything will install automatically without needing a CD or internet download.

Your Skype contacts are integrated into your phonebook and it’s easy to tell who’s online, which is good, as non-VoIP calls will cost your standard mobile rates, including Skype calls to mobile numbers.

There is 50MB of internal memory expandable up to 4GB using microSD cards, the handset measures 103 x 45 x 14mm and is powered by a beefy 1150 mAh battery.

It is estimated to be available Q3 2008.

Verizon Wireless has just launched the new cell phone Motorola V750. The silver flip phone offers a durable design and is the first Verizon device to operate on the carrier’s EV-DO Rev.

This ruggedized cell phone meets military specifications to resist shock, vibration, solar radiation, dust, and moisture. The V750 is also slim and stylish, clad in black and red with silver accents.

The Motorola V750 features external music controls, full Bluetooth with a stereo profile, support for the carrier’s V Cast video and V Cast Music with Rhapsody services, and a 2.5mm headset jack.

The V750 is heavy on the features, as well, with a 2 megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, and dedicated music playback buttons on the outside. The 1.6″ external color display offers a view into your music, while the 2.2″ QVGA internal display should offer a pleasant overall user interface experience.

It also features a wireless Web browser, instant messaging, messaging, push-to-talk capability and support for the VZ Navigator GPS service.

LG will soon offer a new handset for UK’s mobile users, the KS360, a fairly unremarkable looking phone at first glance, looks like a pretty standard slider phone when you first see it. But the unique selling proposition here is that the slide-out keypad has a full QWERTY arrangement rather than a standard number pad.

The KS360, with 102 x 51 x 17mm in size, has horizontal 2.4-inch screen and 240 x 320 pixel screen resolution, and underneath which is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the host of other keys and peripheral ports.

LG KS360 is targeted towards youngsters who mostly use their mobile phones for texting, emailing and social networking.

The keyboard on the KS360 is interesting for a couple of reasons. On the positive side, the key spacing is very good which should help when composing messages. On the negative side, the layout is a little more creative than usual - the space bar is where the V and B keys usually are, so the bottom row of keys is split.

The new LG also comes with an accelerometer as well as the following features: tri-band GSM connectivity (900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS and EDGE, a 2 Megapixel camera with fixed focus and video recording, Music player with support for MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+, FM Radio, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, MMS capabilities, WAP browser, Instant Messaging, email (POP3, IMAP4, SMTP and Microsoft Exchange), USB, only 15MB of internal memory and microSD card support for up to 4GB.

Nokia N78 is one of the best among NSeries because it come along with music, nagivation and photography.

This high-end bar-style smart phone sports an FM music transmitter and unique touch scroll wheel, in addition to standard Nseries features like S60 platform, WiFi, and HSDPA data.

Nokia N78 is package of powerful range of technologies such as incorporated a GPS along with Nokia maps, WLAN and elevated speed HSPDA 3G connectivity, a 3.2 mega pixel camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, MicroSD memory card, 8GB of storage music.

In addition to the up to 8GB of memory, internal speakers and support for standard 3.5mm headphones, the N78 also comes with Nokia Internet Radio, giving instant access to thousands of radio stations around the world.

Nokia N78 have integrated GPRS receiver, Nokia N78 FM transmitter, Nokia N78 Push to talk, PIM along with calendar to-do list and printing, Photo editor, Video Editor, Nokia N78 built hands free phone.

The Nokia N78 is expected to start shipping during the second quarter of 2008, with an estimated retail price of approximately 350 euros, before taxes.

Samsung i780 is one of the few recent models of the manufacturer, running on the Professional edition of the Windows Mobile 6 Operating System.

Samsung boasts of having some of the slimmest mobile phones in the world. The company has obviously applied its know-how to this i780 as it is a mere 12.9mm thick.

It has a large touch-sensitive display with resolution of 320 x 320, but yet utilizes the slim candybar form-factor with a full hardware QWERTY-arranged keyboard. The LCD takes up most of the front of the handheld.

The keypad buttons are longish in shape and well-spaced out with good tactile feedback. It makes for very good thumb typing, as good as what you’d find on Treo and BlackBerry devices.

Samsung is innovative with the navigation method: there is no D-pad, joystick, or even trackball. There is a ‘touchpad’ as in a portable computer, through which you must sweep a finger to control an on-screen pointer and press it to confirm. If this method is not your favorite, it can be turned into a ‘virtual’ 4-way controller and in addition, the 2.55” 320×320 pixels touch screen and the stylus are present, of course.

Samsung i780 supports triband GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 900/1800/1900 MHz and single-band UMTS/HSDPA at 2100MHz. The connectivity side passes the test with WiFi of 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. The long-rumored GPS is indeed included, which is fast becoming a standard on high-end smartphones.

CNET Asia Reviews:

The good: Attractive price; good QWERTY keyboard; convenient shortcuts; slim design; extra battery included.

The bad: Square screen may not work well with third-party programs; optical joystick not as fast as regular directional pad; bundled GPS app not optimized.

The bottom line: Though not perfect, the i780 is an excellent choice for those who want the most features in a sub-S$1,000 PDA-phone.