The specifications are same as before. It will have a 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD, unlike the Super AMOLED Plus on the Galaxy S II. It will also be running on a dual-core processor. Although Samsung does not specifically mention which processor it is we know for a fact that it is the Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, which may not be as good as the Exynos but still packs a punch. It retains the 1GB RAM from the Galaxy S II and will have 8GB of internal memory that can be expanded up to 32GB using micro SD cards.

The camera has also been downgraded and can now capture 5 megapixel still images and 720p videos but the Galaxy R can still play 1080p videos. Connectivity includes HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 support. The Samsung Galaxy R runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is powered by a 1650mAh Li-Ion battery.

No exact date has been mentioned regarding the launch but Samsung says the Galaxy R will be released in Europe by the end of July and will eventually be rolled out globally.

The department’s revenue was USD11.55 billion with operating profit of USD1.58 billion, which works out to 13.7% operating profit margin for the quarter. Shipments increased 10% YoY and “high single digit” percent quarter-on-quarter, with the Samsung Galaxy S II and other smartphones driving the demand up.

Samsung was pretty modest in their press release – analysts are saying that Samsung shipped around 19 million smartphones world wide (a number not confirmed by Samsung), which puts it ahead of the former king, Nokia, and its 16.7 million and quite close to Apple’s (the current leader) 20.3 million smartphones.

Anyway, the Average Selling Price of Samsung mobiles went up by over 10%. Samsung plans to drive sales even further in Q3 this year by adding new LTE-enabled handsets to their lineup. LTE seems to be a buzz work among phone makers, doesn’t it? Strange things since operating commercial LTE networks are somewhat low in numbers and territorial coverage.

They also say they’ll “respond to increased demand for tablet devices with its GALAXY Tab portfolio in various sizes”. Does that mean we’ll get other options besides the 8.9″ and 10.1″ Galaxy Tabs? If you will recall, a 1.2GHz dual-core Galaxy Tab 7 was rumored for this fall at one point.

The company as a whole posted improved sales YoY (4%) but net profit fell (18% YoY). Falling LCD prices were in part responsible, with nearly USD200 million in operating loss. Weak demand for memory also didn’t help (though that department is still in the black).

The only thing that stands between a certain fourth spot and HTC are the LG smartphone shipments results for Q2 2011. Since the manufacturer decided not to disclose the numbers and went with total phone shipments all we’re left with is a guessing game. Still, some estimates point that LG plans to ship little over that 20M smartphones for the whole year so it couldn’t have shipped more than HTC this quarter alone. We can’t know for sure though. You can find HTC’s detailed report here.

With the way the tides have turned in the last year, the smartphone market share has grown by 76.3%, which was reported by Alex Spektor, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics. The trend is that year after year smartphones will carve themselves a more important role in our lives.

LG Optimus Pad official shots

On paper, the LG Optimus Pad is a beast. Other tablets lose out on quite a few specs. The Optimus Pad is powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset, which is the norm for droid tablets, as is Android Honeycomb.

5MP cameras are fairly rare though, dual-5MP cameras even harder to find. And they’ll record 1080p in 2D mode when most others stop at 720p. And there’s 720p 3D video capture. The 2MP front-facing camera promises solid video calling experience.

Also, a standard miniHDMI port will sure save some adapter-related headaches. There’s USB On-The-Go too, with a cable for that and a miniHDMI cable both included in the bundle. The LG Optimus Pad has the richest tablet package we’ve seen yet.

So, the Optimus Pad has a few more tricks than your average tablet. Here’s the summary, along with the downsides.

Key features

8.9″ 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WXGA (1280 x 768 pixels) resolution
Tegra 2 chipset: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; ULP GeForce GPU
Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb
GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
32GB of built-in memory
Dual 5 MP 2592×1944 pixels resolution autofocus cameras; geotagging
2.0 MP front-facing camera; Video calls
1080p FullHD video recording @ 24fps (2D), 720p HD 3D video recording @ 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with hotspot functionality; DLNA
microUSB port; USB On-The-Go support
Stereo Bluetooth v2.1
miniHDMI port, HDMI v1.4
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Flash 10.1 support
GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
Accelerometer and proximity sensor; Gyroscope sensor
Document viewing and editing out of the box
6400 mAh Li-Ion rechargeable battery

Main disadvantages

Quite expensive
Camera can’t shoot 3D stills
Non-replaceable battery
No microSD card slot
Screen is regular 2D, 3D viewing with anaglyph glasses
No DivX/XviD support
No telephony

The Optimus Pad and Optimus 3D are leading LG’s charge into mobile stereoscopic imaging. Unlike the phone however, the Pad doesn’t have a goggle-free screen – it uses anaglyph glasses (unfortunately, there aren’t any to be found in the box), which spoils the viewing experience somewhat.

On the upside, the Optimus Pad is capable of playing 3D over HDMI, which can quickly turn it into your 3D movie player of choice. And if you don’t have a 3D TV, you can use the same anaglyph glasses you use with the Pad itself.

LG Optimus Pad visits our office

HTC on the other hand managed to acquire 20 percent of the market, with 14 percent of it being due to Android phones and the remaining 6 percent due to Windows Mobile/Windows Phone sales and became the second largest manufacturer in the US after Apple. Samsung came third with 8 percent of Android sales and 2 percent through Windows Mobile/Windows Phone. Motorola is still holding onto an impressive 11 percent thanks to all the Droids.

Others are not doing so well. RIM share dropped down to 20 percent whereas the combined share of the old Windows Mobile and the new Windows Phone is still just 9 percent. webOS and Symbian brought up the rear with a lowly 2 percent each.

Mobile Devices posted USD2.4 billion net revenue for Q2 of 2011, up 41% compared to the year-ago quarter. However, they also posted USD85 million in operating loss for the quarter, compared to USD87 million in operating profit for Q2 of 2010.

The total number of phones that Moto shipped was 11 million, 4.4 million of which were smartphones. Those numbers for Q2 of 2010 read 8.3 million phones, including 2.7 million smartphones. This Q2 Motorola also shipped 440,000 Motorola XOOM Android tablets, which is something they didn’t have back in 2010.

Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said that sales in China and Latin America were strong, double what they were during last year’s second quarter. He also said that Motorola Mobility is looking to go back into profitability in the final quarter of this year. Their expectations for Q3 of this year are to break even.

Jha also said that the company plans to achieve that through “differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets”.

Motorola Mobility as a whole posted net revenues of USD3.3 billion, up 28% year-over-year, and net loss of USD56 million. It’s worth noting that last year Motorola Mobility was part of a bigger Motorola company so the numbers may not be directly comparable though sales numbers are.

The updated Atrix design is slightly different than the current one – the earpiece shape, the headset jack and Power/Lock combo are repositioned and there is a dedicated camera key, but no fingerprint scanner.

The Atrix 4G successor

The supposed Android 2.3 Gingerbread inside is somewhat different and if there is MOTOBLUR UI on top it is not like anything we’ve seen so far.

Anyway the most notable differences are in the camera department – it now has an 8 megapixel snapper and 1080p-capable camcorder at its disposal plus a dedicated camera shutter.

There is no info on the chipset yet, but we hope an official announcement to clear that up soon.

Here are the pictures of the international Touch 9860 Monza:

BlackBerry Touch 9860 Monza

A few more comparison shots with the 9520 Storm2:

BlackBerry Touch 9860 Monza next to Storm2

You can watch the Monza hands-on video here.

The last pic shows both the 9860 Monza and the slider 9810 Torch 2. Both devices should be based on 1.2GHz processors, should pack 5 megapixel cameras with 720p camcorders and should run the latest BlackBerry OS 7. Rumors has it that the Monza will have a 3.7″ WVGA screen, while the Torch 2 will tout a smaller 3.2-inch VGA one. In case you need more details, you’re welcome to check our rumored specs pages.

BlackBerry Touch 9860 Monza and Torch 2 9810

C’mon, RIM, announce those phones already!

We first saw the two when a Chinese site uncovered their renders along with the HTC Sensation, which at the time was still known as “Pyramid”. The Sensation went official a while ago, but the HTC Prime and Ignite have remained undercover.

Both phones are listed as “Coming soon” on ThePhoneHouse.nl

Unless the ThePhoneHouse site jumped the gun way too early, HTC should be announcing these devices soon. Unfortunately, the site gave us nothing on specs – all we have is the initially reported specs.

They put the HTC Prime in the mid-range with a 3.7″ WVGA and a 5MP camera with LED flash. RAM is reportedly 512MB but there was nothing on the CPU. And of course, there’s the four row slide-out QWERTY.

A new look at the HTC Ignite and HTC Prime

The HTC Ignite seemed oddly underpowered with an 800MHz CPU (the Microsoft-set minimum is 1GHz) and 512MB RAM. We also learned the Ignite had a 5MP snapper and HSDPA-enabled 3G (7.2Mbps/2Mbps). Presumably, both phones run the latest Windows Phone 7 Mango.

The rendered images of the Prime and Ignite that first leaked in March

The ThePhoneHouse offers nothing to confirm or refute these specs – but you can sign up for notifications when new info is available.

HTC EVO 3D was announced just a month ago and it is already available for pre-order from various online retailers. But for some reason Vodafone UK is giving up on the glasses-free EVO 3D because of “delays”.

Whatever’s causing the delay, it can’t be that bad. As Eurodroid points out, the reason for the carrier’s decision is, more probably, the not-so-good reception received by the already available LG Optimus 3D more than anything else.

Anyway, if you are a Vodafone UK user who was saving for an EVO 3D, you might as well ditch that idea for now, or look elsewhere.