U.S. Cellular welcomes the Samsung Stride SCH-r330 into their family. The fairly basic clamshell phone sports a 1.3”-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 55MB worth of internal memory, MMS and speakerphone. It also has the innovation, called easyedgeSM services that make the downloading of games, wallpapers, ring tones and stuff a lot easier. Hmm, do people still pay for that? I mean, you can get almost everything you need for your phone over the internet, right?

Err, anyhoo, the Samsung Stride only serves a cellular phone’s core functions, which is communication in the form of calling and texting. And that’s not a bad thing, in fact I like it, complex technologies can sometimes be pretty sickening. Actually, right now I’m using a Nokia 5000, which is as basic as this Samsung Stride; not bad, I’m actually loving the simplicity of it all.

A fairly crushing news for the land of the sleeping giant, India recently enforced a mandate banning all telecom equipments from China. Brands like ZTE, Meizu, Lenovo and the likes might cringe at the thought, but yeah, India is pretty darn serious.

The said forbiddance isn’t due to rivalry or any kind of national assault, India stated that it’s a matter of National security. India’s main concern is that Chinese spies may infiltrate India’s networks by using phones as vehicles of spywares and the likes. I’m not sure if India has any proof of that possibility, but to impose such a prohibition, there must be something that happened or something they discovered. Anyway, National security is every government’s business, so its understandable.

Nokia annunciates the knocking of the X2 on India’s doors, a new “Xseries” candy bar phone. I won’t go playing around the bush so I’m going to say that this is a relatively simple or basic phone, low-end perhaps, but yeah, it is very basic.

The phone starts off with a 5-megapixel camera with flash, a 2.2” QVGA display, Ovi Store and Facebook application. The dual loudspeakers is something the X2 can boast of, as well as the FM radio and keys especially dedicated for easy music access. You cans tore up quite a hand full of tracks in an expandable memory of up to 16GB.

The Nokia C5 is the first unit to be named after Nokia’s created its new name-giving policy, which states models to be named with designation numbers of 1-9, 1 being the simplest and most basic phone and 9 being the most advanced. The C5, being in the middle promises affordability, function and an easier access to your social networking tasks.

The C5 is an S60 3rd edition phone; it sports a 3.2-megapixel camera and a standard QVGA screen resolution. It has al the functions of a basic Nokia phone, with GPS courtesy of Ovi Maps and messaging system courtesy of Ovi as well. The C5 was also recently launched for China Mobile but with minimum spec revisions though.

Unveiling here, releasing there… Releasing here, unveiling there.

South Korea has been getting a hand-full of new mobile phones from different manufacturers, they seem to be unveiling and releasing new models every week, some times more than once a week. I wonder if that’s how hungry South Korea’s cellphone market is, and if it is, I assume each South Korean ditches an old cellphone for a new one every then and now.

Anyway, the LG-SU950 is the latest mobile phone to be released in South Korea either May or June of this year. Some specs include a 3.5” AMOLED WVGA display, WIFI and GPS. It will run on an Android operation system with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Hmmm, like they haven’t got enough of models like this huh? I bet each South Korean can have a bazaar of their used cell phones.

This is very interesting news, because I have never had on my hands a Vodafone and this might be a good way to experience Vodafone for the first time.

The Vodafone 845 is the first ever Android Smartphone from the brand, it boasts of qualities certified from a leading global telecommunications solutions provider Huawei. It sports a 2.8” touch screen with a 320 x 240 resolution that poses promising captures, especially with a 3-megapixel camera. The phone is also capable of 3G, Wi-Fi and Vodafone 360 services.  Vodafone have been extending the function of its Vodafone 360 services to numerous clients, such as HTC and Android.

The LG Optimus GT450 will soon be available for the folks of UK in black, white, pink and silver.  For refreshments, the Android powered Smartphone sports a 3” HVGA display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, and a 3.5mm jack. You can capture pictures and videos via a 3-megapixel camera, or preload your phone with videos with a built in DivX and Xvid.

Social networking lovers will love this phone too; it makes Facebooking, Twittering and etc. much easier. I’m not sure how much of internal memory the phone has, but it is expandable via a microSD card slot. No word yet on the prices though.

The Sanyo Juno becomes available via Boost Mobile for $99.00 together with a $50 monthly unlimited plan. The phone will e offered in two colors, deep blue and impulsive pink.

The Juno’s spec sheet includes a 1.3-megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth, a 2.2” QVGA display and a QWERTY keyboard. The phone’s address book can swallow a good 6000 contacts, that’s like half of your Facebook friends list. But the similarities lead spectators to suspect that the Sanyo Juno is just a rebranded version of Sprint’s Sanyo SCP-2700. Could it be? Perhaps yes. The similarities in the looks and specs department may lead to my believing that it may possibly be just a rebranded version. Say it ain’t so Sanyo.

Nokia’s 12-megapixel camera phone, N8 has been recently unveiled. The main focus on the phone is in its photography capabilities, sporting a 12-megapixel camera complete with Auto Focus with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon Flash. The phone is also built with a large sensor that can compete with today’s latest compact and digital cameras. Perhaps that explains why Nokia’s CEO said that Nokia camera phones will soon replace cameras. I guess I could believe that their latest camera phones can replace digital cameras, but replacing DSLR’s? That’s still a bit of a dream.

Anyways, Nokia released a statement recently, saying that reviewing the N8’s software is a bit too early. The models they recently released turned out to be samples only, and that they still have to put finishing touches on the N8.