Mophie’s Juice Pack for the iPhone 3G is without a doubt a must-have if you can swallow the high price tag of $100. But I’d gladly pay the extra $100 knowing that I can leave the office or my apartment and gallivant around town without fear of having to find a power outlet by mid-day.
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Short Version: The $99 Samsung Highnote is a capable music phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack and built-in stereo speakers. If music’s your thing, the Highnote could serve you well.

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Short Version: The $99-after-rebate Quickfire from AT&T is an appealing alternative for the Sidekick crowd, but the promotion of AT&T’s music features without including earbuds or even some sort of adapter for the proprietary connector a real head-scratcher.

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Quick Version: The idea behind the Clarity C900 mobile phone is sound – big keys, bright display, loud ringer, emergency call button – but the interface might be a bit feature-heavy and confusing for most elderly users.

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First off, someone at Verizon Wireless must have been drunk or asleep at the wheel when they gave the Omnia the green light because it has Wi-Fi. Isn’t Verizon notorious for stripping that feature from every single phone in its lineup? Something tells me the other manufacturers are going to throw a fit over this bit of news.

Quick Version: The Omnia boasts just about every feature you’d want from a smartphone and Verizon, surprisingly, left it exactly the way it leaves the Samsung factory. Sure, they added their VZ Navigator app and the VZAppZone but we’re okay with that because they left the Omnia untouched. For a Windows Mobile device with a decent skin Samsung calls the TouchWiz, the Omnia is the clear choice for Verizon Wireless customers. Read More

The ‘iPhone killer’ label (which I hate using – BTW) has been thrown around since the first touch-screen device hit the market after the original iPhone was launched last year. Unfortunately, nothing has been able to live up to the hype. Both consumers (you) and techies (us) have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Storm in the hopes that it would knock the iPhone down a peg, or even level the playing field. I don’t want to dash your dreams, but the Storm is not on par with the iPhone. It is, however, the closest device available on the market today to compete with the iPhone. But that’s not saying much. Imagine the iPhone being on top of a mountain with the rest of the touch-screen devices at base camp. The Storm sits atop all the rest, but it’s still at base camp.

Video after the jump.
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Short Version: The HTC Touch Pro is easily the best HTC device available from US carriers right now. If you’ve been considering a professional-level Windows Mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard, the Touch Pro is an excellent choice.

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The ClarityLife C900 succeeds in so many places that the iPhone fails that it’s not even funny. First of all, it’s unlocked and, at $269.95, it’s not that much more expensive than an iPhone with a two-year contract. Once you get to a certain age, locking into contracts is silly. As my ninety-one-year-old grandmother says when asked about remarrying, “What’s the point?” The same can be said for cell phone contracts.

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How can I put into words how I feel about the BlackBerry Bold? In short: I love it and never ever want to let it go, ever. For any BlackBerry user/fan the Bold is everything you’ve wanted and expected from RIM. Sure, it took a little longer than we all expected, but it’s definitely worth the wait. It’s far superior in every respect from anything that RIM has put out on the market. Of course, those of you with a hankering for a touch-screen need not apply. The Bold is for the hardcore CrackBerry addict or is it?

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Have I mentioned lately how much I love Blackberries? Well, I do.

The Pearl series will never have a place in my pocket, but 70 percent of the population in the US who own a mobile phone carry a clamshell. To bridge the gap between the consumer sector and business sector, RIM introduced the Pearl and Curve models. The Pearl Flip 8220 is the device RIM hopes will saturate the market even further.

This won’t be a traditional review in the sense that I asked a current Pearl owner whether or not he would switch and what he thought about the Flip version.

Breken, a friend with a Pearl, pointed out what he did and didn’t like about it compared to his Pearl 8120. Read More

Quick Version: The Samsung Rant is an excellent phone for text messaging addicts who want to be able to do a bit of light web browsing over a high speed data network but don’t want all the feature overload of a full-fledged smartphone. And at $49.99 with a two-year contract, it’s priced to move.

Click through for the full review.

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Quick Version: The Motorola Renegade V950 is a good choice for people who want a rugged phone with excellent call quality and push-to-talk capabilities. What’s more, Motorola and Sprint-Nextel manage to throw a little fun into the mix as well.

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I will keep this review short and straight to the point, folks. You know how Google likes to keep things in Beta for years and years? Well, Android is no different. Like many of you I was excited at the prospect of a new OS to muscle it’s way in and take down the iPhone, but I’m afraid Android is not it – at least not yet. The OS actually isn’t that bad, but it does have its issues and those cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately it’s the hardware that will be Android’s folly this go around until the other manufacturers can churn out some better goods.

Let’s start with the hardware.
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I’ve been putting this one off for a while, but it’s time you youngsters learned about this lovely little device. It’s the latest in Nokia’s E series of smartphones, and as you will learn by clicking above and/or below, it’s a bit of a conundrum. By the way, that part of the video review is supposed to be boring.
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In my humble opinion, the biggest issue concerning the Peek e-mail device isn’t whether or not it does what it’s intended to do, but who is it intended to serve? There’s a big market out there, to be sure. Who doesn’t have e-mail nowadays? Doesn’t matter, there aren’t many of them and they’re not reading CrunchGear.

I’ll make that first question – Who is Peek intended to serve? – two pieces of bread in a delicious gadget sandwich. The meat inside will be the review of the device itself.

And so we dance.

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So we return to the Palm Treo Pro, a $549 unlocked Windows Mobile Treo aimed squarely at the business set. It’s been about a week and I’ve used this guy off and on. It kept a nice charge – two days, for the most part, without much data use – and fit nicely in the pocket. But is it the Treo of which we all incessantly dream? Is it the Treo that will bring us closer to world peace and better burritos on the East Coast? Is this the Treo for you?

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Also making its way into CG HQ is the Sprint Katana Eclipse from Sanyo. This too is a simple, yet effective flip phone. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s the tiny details that make this particular device stand out from the crowd. Said tiny details are the two light bars on the front flap that can be customized for contacts, messages, phone calls, etc. in one of 40 different variations that range from simple blinks to elaborate light shows. The colors include, red, green, blue, yellow, purple, orange and light blue.

The 1.3-megapixel camera is nothing to write home about and neither is the camcorder. It’s GPS enabled and has the ability to stream video via the Sprint TV service. It’s a simple device that makes and receives phone calls with a few added bonuses from Sprint’s array of services. I do, however, like the three external MP3 player controls.

It’s available now for $100 with a 2-year agreement. Specs after the jump.

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Landing in the CG office is the latest flip phone from Motorola to hit Sprint, the Motorazr VE20. My first reaction to the VE20 is that it’s very thick, but that’s in comparison to the original RAZR line. The VE20 may be fatter, but it certainly has more features.

The VE20 is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera capable of video recording. The camera loads up rather quickly once you activate it via the right side button and choose between camera and camcorder. When the camcorder is activated it prompts you to choose between “video mail” and “long video.” It appears the only difference is that “video mail” is smaller than 1MB in size whereas “long video” takes up more space. You can also take photos of yourself without ever opening up the phone since the camera is located on the front flap. Nothing revolutionary, but it’s very convenient and I wish other manufacturers would follow suit.
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I am not a huge fan of Windows Mobile. I am, however, a huge fan of Palm and, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m befuddled by their recent decisions. As a blogger I’m full of half-baked opinions and prejudices and no where is this more prevalent than in my understanding of Palm and its various incarnations over the years.

That said, I’m going to try to be calm and objective and state, for the record, that the Treo 800w is one of the better Windows Mobile phones I’ve seen in recent years, even surpassing phones like the HTC Touch Diamond. and the T-Mobile Dash in terms of performance, price, and durability.

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