Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

It’s always good news when some sort of Touch Pro garners approval from that lovable bureaucracy we call the FCC, but this one has an extra-special place in our hearts: we’re pretty sure it’s the Fuze. Digging a little deeper into the documentation for the HTC model with code “NM8RPLT” reveals that it’s a Raphael, and it sports HSUPA 850 / 1900 — and if that doesn’t dovetail nicely with what we’re expecting out of AT&T any day, week, month, or year now, we don’t know what does. So tell us, FCC, how are AT&T’s customizations to TouchFLO 3D? Tasteful? Annoying?

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Filed under: Cellphones

There’s no doubt that both of HTC’s forthcoming handsets (yeah, the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro) are coming to Sprint and Verizon. What we’re still curious about, however, are the respective launch dates and the eventual names. phoneArena has it that the Touch Diamond will go by HTC Victor on Sprint and HTC Diamond on Verizon, with the former packing a slightly speedier CPU, an aluminum frame, accelerometer, 4GB of internal memory and EV-DO Rev. A support. As for Verizon’s, expect it to boast half the RAM (128MB), a wimpier CPU, microSD expansion slot and a stainless steel frame. Moving on, we’re told that the Touch Pro will be rechristined HTC Herman for Sprint and HTC Raphael (nice to re-meet you!) for The Network. Finally, we’re clued in on a September 2nd release date for Sprint’s Victor, while the Herman is expected a month later. As for Verizon? It’ll probably be 30 or so days behind in both instances thanks to a presumed exclusivity agreement with its nemesis. Get all that?

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Filed under: Cellphones

Would you look at that: a thick slab of iPhone meat in a Sony Ericsson and HTC QWERTY sandwich. The iPhone’s big screen is nice and all but the device is starting to look a bit portly given that the Xperia X1 and Raphael both sport physical keyboards and HSDPA/HSUPA data. Tasty, regardless.

[Thanks, Al]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

No one really knows whether HTC’s May 6 gathering will usher in the age of Android (our guess is still “no”), but let’s look a little beyond that, shall we? We’ve just laid eyes on a handful of documents detailing HTC’s efforts to ready the Diamond and Raphael models — already known to be valid HTC codenames — for Sprint later this year, and things are definitely looking up in the post-Touch world. The Diamond turns out to be the successor to that very device, lacking a physical keyboard and relying almost exclusively on a large, glossy touchscreen for user input; the Raphael meanwhile (pictured) features a full QWERTY deal and is destined to replace the Mogul. The paperwork’s pretty blurry, but it appears that both Windows Mobile devices will feature WiFi, 3 megapixel cameras, and — get this — VGA displays. Goodness! The Raphael is currently lined up to be the first out of the gate, hitting the streets in September if everything goes well, with the Diamond following on in November. Surprised that these devices are CDMA-based and Sprint bound? Us too, we admit — but we’d be shocked if there weren’t GSM twins of both of these hotties getting cooked in the lab at the same time.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

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