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Acer is all set to bring out the devices that it announced at the MWC. The Tempo line is ready to hit the market, with the DX900 to be available towards the end of this month. The DX900 is a dual SIM touchscreen (one SIM for HSDPA and one for EDGE) that runs Windows Mobile 6.1.

The X960 will is expected to see the light of day in April. The X960 features a 2.8 inch touchscreen, a 3.2MP camera, GPS, a 5-way navigation button that lies under the screen and also runs on Windows Mobile 6.1.

The remaining 3.8 inch touch screen models will make a Q2 appearance. The M900 and the F900; the M900, with a QWERTY keyboard slider, is aimed at the business market while the F900 is a thin, stylish handset that anyone could use.

Pricing and carrier details aren’t known yet, but we’ll keep our eyes open.

If there’s one word that can get people to accept your product, its gotta be the word, “Free”. I mean when people pay money they tend to think twice but when it’s free you’re a pack rat. In response to the not so enthusiastic welcome it received, Acer has added the magical word “free” to its newly introduced phones displayed and dissed at the WMC. To refresh your memory, the phones displayed by Acer at the WMC were your average smart phones with windows mobile touch screen a UI band aid…been there done that. Acer picked up the response and in an attempt to turn things around has decided to offer free handsets via AT&T and T-Mobile according to Acer’s smartphone unit president Aymar de Lencquesaing.

This will most definitely work to gain some hype and acceptance and is also a good way to get people to give your stuff a chance. If people are willing to download dozens of Apple apps they will never use just because they are free, then who would actually say no to a free phone. Acer already has influence on the notebooks market and will use it to boost its position on the smartphone market with this tactic. If all goes as Acer plans, then a whole new breed of smartphone owners will be born. Initially, it is expected that Acer’s Windows Mobile 6.1-powered Tempo line will be the only range of handsets that might come in for free any time soon, with choices from its C1, E1, F1 and L1 possibly being introduced further down the line as Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets begin to launch. How many of us will get pulled in by a Tempo with a $0 entry fee?

In pure James Bond fashion, and with relatively simple equipment at hand, an MWC attendee has done the unthinkable. Well at least Acer probably didn’t see this coming, (another thing you guys don’t know about us Mobile junkies; we’re hound dogs.) Seems like an MWC attendee walked up to an Acre representative and asked about the rumored Android handsets, the gullible and so-not-disciplined-in-the-arts-of-stealth representative took out a notebook and today we have a road map and clues to Acer’s two new products to show you. Oh glee!

The notebook shows that there are two ‘secret models’ planned under the heading of Android as well as four handsets that haven’t been announced yet and are slated for release in the second half of this year. Now just keep your fingers crossed that the smartphones are truly smart and not like these.

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Nokia, Nokia, Nokia…it seems 2009 has just decided to be unkind to Nokia. Or maybe Nokia’s New Year’s resolution was to make a spectacle of itself in as little time as possible. As we complained about Nokia NOT launching the 8 megapixel N86 at the MWC, only to find out later that the handset had already been launched in Singapore at Showcase Nokia 2009. And now, Nokia has decided to ‘re-launch’ the N86 at the MWC. That’s right folks, Tuesday, February 17, 2009; Nokia announced the N86. So…umm….why all the chaos put around such a great phone? Why was the pièce de résistance allowed to be manhandled so long before its mega release? More ranting about that later, right now, let’s take a look at the Specs of the N86;

Aside from the 8 megapixel shooter with a shutter speed of up to 1/1000 of a second, f-stop range of 2.4-4.8 and a wide-angle lens that Nokia states is equal to that of a wide-angle 35mm SLR (yeah right), the N86 8MP runs S60 3rd Edition FP2 and features a 2.6″ AMOLED QVGA display, 8 GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi and aGPS with Nokia Maps 3.0 pre-installed. And those in the North American region won’t be left out, we get the N86 by way of our very own tri-band HSPA model though we can’t say for sure if it will launch around the same time as the Euro model. Battery life is bearable with a rated talk-time of 3.9 hours 3G / 6.3 hours EDGE and standby falling in at 11.5 hours 3G / 13 hours EDGE. Finally, the dimensions and the N86 8MP (I just love saying that over and over again), comes with 103.4mm x 51.4mm x 16.5mm and 149g. All in all it’s a handset with a great camera, above average specs and horrible display resolution – truly Nseries. Expect to see the N86 8MP begin shipping sometime in Q2 for €375 ($474 USD). Get your fresh press release right here.

Rumors are stronger than ever that Dell is set to enter the smartphone world. And while the company didn’t make any announcements at the MWC, AT&T’s CEO Ralph de la Vega made a slip of the tongue that has set the rumor mill on fire. De la Vega was heard saying “Dell announced they’re entering the smartphone market.” You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to crack this one. Why is AT&T’s CEO talking about Dell rumors? Is it possible that the Dell smartphone is coming to AT&T? Although De la Vega has denied any knowledge of Dell’s plans beyond what rumors the rest of us have heard, we still wonder; what made him say it. Maybe Dell is going to try and give the iPhone some solid competition on its very own pet carrier.

Acer really tried to make an impression at the MWC, too bad it brought stale cookies. I mean smartphones that run on Windows Mobile 6.1 and have spec from about 2-3 years ago…who wants that? The handsets, launched in the Tempo line, have pretty sleek forms, but what’s under the hood also counts. The four handsets are the X960, F900, M900 and DX900. Here are the specs for each;

X960

1.      Pre-installed GPS software

(Navigon try-and-buy, for Europe market)

2.      2.8″ VGA touch screen

3.      High speed HSPA connectivity

4.      New easy-to-use virtual keyboard

5.      Access directly to key applications

via widget-based home screen

6.      3.2MP Auto-focused camera

F900

1.      Pre-installed GPS software

(Navigon try-and-buy, for Europe market)

2.      2.8″ VGA touch screen

3.      High speed HSPA connectivity

4.      New easy-to-use virtual keyboard

5.      Access directly to key applications

via widget-based home screen

6.      3.2MP Auto-focused camera

M900

1.      Physical Qwerty keyboard

2.      3.8“ WVGA touch screen

3.      Fingerprint reader

4.      5 Megapixel autofocus camera

5.      HSPA, WiFi, BT

6.      Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook, Office

DX900

1.      Physical Qwerty keyboard

2.      3.8“ WVGA touch screen

3.      Fingerprint reader

4.      5 MP autofocus camera

5.      HSPA, WiFi, BT

6.      Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook, Office

7.      Standby time 160h / Talk time: 5h

While LG was not exactly centre stage at the MWC, it certainly won over admiration with it’s handset that featured a transparent keypad. The handset goes by the name GD900 and is a slider phone. And the keypad, well as you can see in the image above, it’s totally see-through. No joshing. When the keypad is opened, it “illuminates a cool glow that reflects the phone’s sleek and polished silver body.” Very cool. Beyond the design or transparent keypad feature, LG is keeping it’s lips zipped, but expect details soon. The phone will defiantly be a pricey one and will come out sometime in Q2, 2009. Asian markets will get a taste before the rest of the world, let’s just hope the rest of the world wants this bad boy.

Sony Ericsson was all set to make its appearance with the Hikaru at the MWC. And thankfully, right on spot, they came out with the handset, now officially named the W995. Now let’s just recap on this baby, the W995 is an 8 megapixel slider phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, 2.6″ QVGA scratch-resistant screen, 118MB built-in memory, A-GPS with Google Maps and Wayfinder Navigator pre-installed, Wi-Fi and full PlayStation 3 compatibility. The phone also supports Sony Ericsson’s new Media Go service which allows you to easily transfer music, videos, photos and podcasts between your mobile phone and computer. Choice of colors? How do you feel about Progressive Black, Cosmic Silver and Energetic Red? The rub is, it will start in select markets by the end of this quarter.

Now for the other Sony Ericsson treat; a 12 megapixel camera phone fitted inside a Symbian-based handset SE refers to as Idou. The Idou features a Xenon flash, large 3.5″ 16:9 touchscreen and will be capable of “full media consumption”. It hasn’t got a model name yet, but SE can fix that anytime. Expect this baby to be out in the second half of 2009.

Check out Sony Ericsson’s preview of the Idou.

So what did Samsung bring to the MWC picnic? There was rumor and images of the drop dead gorgeous Acme i8910. So what happened to these rumors? The Acme i8910 got renamed as the Omnia i8910 and this bombshell of a smartphone was certainly centre stage at the MWC. Forgotten what the OmniaHD is supposed to bring? Shame on you. We’re talking about a TouchWiz 3D-like GUI on top of S60 5th Edition, a huge 3.7″ glass AMOLED touchscreen display, an 8 megapixel camera that shoots 720p video, HD video out, video calling, Wi-Fi, GPS and 8 to 16GB internal storage plus microSDHC support — all crammed into a 12.7mm thin aluminum body. Sweet!

Among other conquests by Samsung was the M7600, now formally Beat DJ; well all that there is to know about it, we’ve shared. You remember right, the B&O sound, kitchy DJ tools, bla bla. Whatever, OmniaHD is all anyone can think about for now.

A lot was expected from Nokia at the MWC. But what Nokia actually delivered was a different story altogether. Here’s a simple roundup of all the devices that came our way from the Finnish manufacturer at the MWC.

The highlight of Nokia’s showing was the E75 and the announcement that the new App Store competitor, the Ovi Store, would be up and kicking in June. Among the other devices set to come out are;

6710 Navigator: As the name indicates, this is a navigation-centric handset. It features an alphanumeric slider with a 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash. The 6710 Navigator features Nokia Maps with Ovi and comes with the CR-111 car mount in the box so you’ll never be lost or alone on your lovely roadside trips. €300 ($383 USD) in Q3.

6720 Classic: Essentially the same phone as the 6710 Navigator but in candy bar form. Yawn. An estimated price for the 6720 Classic would be €245 ($313 USD), to be out sometime in Q2.

E55: The E55 features a “compact QWERTY” keypad (read SureType) and according to Nokia it is the world’s thinnest smartphone at 9.9mm. The E55 has aGPS and Nokia Maps support, a claimed 28 days of standby and will go on sale in Western Europe this summer for €265 ($338 USD).

E75: At last, the E75 has been made official after countless leaks and peaks. The E75 will be the first Nokia handset offering to come standard with Nokia Messaging. The S60 3rd Edition FP2-fueled E75 has a sliding full-QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 2.4″ QVGA display. It officially ships next month but pre-orders are now being taken on Nokia’s website for a pretty fair €375 ($478 USD).

N97: There really isn’t anything left under the sun that hasn’t been said about the N97. News of the handset has been around since forever but it just never gets around actual relasing. And now, it seems too late, the smartphone would have been the the ultimate in smartphone-ness had it been released last year, but Nokia sadly goofed missed on a great opportunity. In any case, of its own it’s still a great handset. In other sad news, the N97 was rumored for an end of March release, those dreams are now shattered and theN97 will be available in June.

Ovi Store: All set to launch in May, the Ovi Store is Nokia’s answer to Apple’s App Store. While the N97 is the first phone that is fully compatible with the Ovi Store, Nokia maintains that a bunch of existing S40 and S60 users will be able to hand over their money to Nokia in exchange for some Mosh, Download! and widget love. The good thing about the Ovi Store, as compared to the App Store is that users’ suggestions will be catered to from time to time. Hey Apple you listening? We hate having to stare at your version of ‘what’s hot’.