Skatter Tech

Earlier today, Verizon announced four new phones for the approaching holiday season: Juke by Samsung, Blackberry Pearl 8130 by RIM, Venus by LG, and Voyager by LG. Verizon normally doesn’t pre-announce phones, however they have done so in this case since they have a wide range of phones with fancy low-end models starting as low as $100. The leader of the pack will be the Voyager, which is a major revamp of the LG enV VX9900, with a large touch screen.

The LG Voyager:
The Voyager by LG also known as the VX10000 features a large external 400×240 pixel touch-screen and a full-functioning QWERTY keyboard (plus another regular screen) once flipped open. Instead of the standard BREW browser found on most Verizon Wireless phones, the Voyager will feature a true HTML browser. They haven’t specified what type of browser the phone has just yet, but hopefully it will be on level with the iPhone’s Safari browser. The VX10000 also supports VCAST Mobile TV, plays music (mp3/wma/aac), takes photos with a 2.0 megapixel camera, has high-speed broadband access, microSD expansion (8GB max!), bluetooth, stereo speakers, and plenty more. (check back for a full review)

The Venus by LG:
The Venus is a unique phone since it has two displays right on the front. The upper screen shows data, while the smaller square screen below is touch sensitive (has vibration feedback!) and is used for navigation. The phone itself remains a slider revealing a physical keypad below. (similar to the LG Chocolate) The LG Venus also supports microSD expansion, plays music, has Get It Now features, and even has a 2 megapixel camera. If you are wondering if this a replacement for the fairly new Chocolate, as far as we can tell, Verizon seems to be planning to sell both devices.

The Samsung Juke:
The Juke has been primarily created as a MP3 player phone and it would be fair to give it that title since it has 2GB of built-in flash storage. If I’m correct, this is Verizon’s first phone with built-in memory. As for the music files it will play mp3, wma, and unprotected aac files. (supports iTunes Plus and Amazon tracks) The phone itself looks unusually long, and “flicks” open like switchblade to reveal a keypad. In addition it sports a VGA camera with NightShot, supports the bluetooth stereo profile, works as a navigator, and is available in blue/red/teal. This will likely be the most sold of the four.

Blackberry Pearl 8130:
The new Pearl from RIM features full wireless EV-DO broadband, GPS-based Navigation, music playback, stereo bluetooth for wireless headsets, a 2 mega pixel camera, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and a new improved interface. Although too much information hasn’t been provided just yet, but it is expected to be a major improvement to the current Pearl.

As of now, no pricing or exact date has been set by Verizon, however they are guarantying that all four of these phones will be available by Thanksgiving (Nov. 22nd)! We’ve got a short little video below with a quick view of each of the four phones. We are trying to get a Voyager unit for review, so check back!

Links: VerizonWireless.com/next