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Equipped with Stylish Form Factor, the Samsung Illusion is Made from Post Consumer Material and Has Attained UL Platinum Rating

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) have announced the Samsung Illusion™ will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning Nov. 23 for $79.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.The Illusion will be available for free with a new two-year customer agreement between Thursday, Nov. 24 and Monday, Nov. 28 as a online promotion. The sophisticated Samsung Illusion smartphone features a sleek form factor and is powered by the nation's most reliable 3G wireless network. The Illusion boasts a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird Application Processor, 3.0-megapixel camera, HTML Web browser, music player and integrated contacts, calendar and social networking applications, as well as access to more than 300,000 apps available to download from Android Market™.

CNET have published a review of the Motorola Droid 3 (Verizon Wireless) Android smartphone. 'The Motorola Droid 3's design is very familiar. It doesn't stray far from previous models and, in fact, more closely resembles the original Droid because of the extra lip at the bottom of the sliding display. Though we understand maintaining a consistent look within a line, we wish Motorola would change up the design just a bit to keep it fresh and interesting. That said, Motorola has always built solid devices, and the Droid 3 is no exception. The smartphone has a nice, high-quality build with soft-touch finish on back. At 4.9 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and 5.9 ounces, it's a handful but thinner than before. Motorola claims the Droid 3 is the world's thinnest full QWERTY smartphone, but the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide is also 0.5 inch thick.'

PC Magazine have published a review of the HTC Droid Incredible 2 (Verizon Wireless) smartphone. 'Measuring 4.8 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (HWD), the 4.8-ounce Droid Incredible 2 has a smoothed-out soft-touch case. With the rounded edges, it's now a dead ringer for the iPhone 3GS, albeit with soft touch gray rubber on the sides instead of chrome. The 4-inch, glass capacitive touch screen sports 480-by-800-pixel resolution. Typing on HTC's predictive text-enabled, on-screen keyboards is easy in both landscape and portrait modes. I credit the uptick in screen size. The handset is a dual-band EV-DO Rev A (850/1900MHz), quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz), and dual-band HSDPA (900/2100MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.'

CNET have published a review of the Palm Pre 2 (Verizon Wireless) smartphone. 'The Palm Pre 2 doesn't stray far from its roots, sporting a design very similar to the previous versions of the Pre. It retains the attractive pebble-like shape, but it's not quite as round since the smartphone's display is flat instead of curved. Still, it's comfortable to hold and has a soft-touch finish on the back and along the outer edges. It's also compact and pocket-friendly at 3.96 inches high by 2.34 inches wide by 0.66 inch thick and 5.1 ounces. As we just noted, the Pre 2's display is flat but remains at 3.1 inches with an HVGA (320x480-pixel) resolution, just like the Pre Plus. Admittedly, it feels small compared with the bevy of smartphones we've tested lately with 4-inch-plus displays and it's not the sharpest, but it's still clear and bright and the multitouch screen is responsive.'

CNET have published a review of the LG Cosmos Touch (Verizon Wireless) messaging phone. 'Measuring 4.05 inches long by 2.08 inches wide by 0.65 inch thick, the Cosmos Touch is small and compact, especially for a touch-screen phone. It's wrapped in a layer of soft touch material, and the rounded corners of the phone contribute to a comfortable feel in the hand. At only 4.37 ounces, the Cosmos Touch is lightweight and very pocketable as well. Because of its small stature, the Cosmos Touch only has a 2.8-inch display, which isn't the greatest size for viewing videos or browsing the Web. Still, this basic phone isn't really meant for that. Graphics and images are bright and colorful with 262,000-color support and a 400x240-pixel resolution. You can adjust the backlight timer, the wallpaper, the charging screen image, display themes, the font type for text and dialing, and the clock format.'

PC Magazine have published a review of the Motorola Droid 2 Global (Verizon Wireless) smartphone. 'Just like the Droid 2, the Global is a sliding-keyboard smartphone with a 3.7-inch, 854-by-480 screen, made of classy-looking metal and plastic. There's a SIM card slot and MicroSD memory card slot under the sliding metal back. The four-row QWERTY keyboard is quite good; I like the keyboard on the Samsung Epic 4G ($249, 4 stars) better, but it's very easy to type on the Droid 2 Global. The Droid 2 Global connects to Verizon's CDMA EVDO Rev A network here in the States and to CDMA, GSM or HSPA 900/2100 networks abroad. (No, the GSM side doesn't work on AT&T or T-Mobile--only foreign networks.) It also has Wi-Fi 802/11 b/g/n. Basically, it'll work anywhere, as long as you're okay with the roaming rates.'

CNET have published a review of the LG Vortex - black (Verizon Wireless)Android phone. 'If the LG Vortex looks familiar to you, that's because it's essentially Verizon's version of the LG Optimus T from T-Mobile and the LG Optimus S from Sprint. It has many of the same specifications--it's billed as an entry-level Android smartphone and it ships with Android 2.2, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and EV-DO, and it can act as a 3G mobile hot spot. However, Verizon has added its own flair to it, for example by giving it Bing search and Bing maps, with no way to switch those services over to Google. It's also not nearly as affordable as the other two Optimus devices, at around $79.99 after a $100 rebate and a two-year service agreement with Verizon Wireless. We do think the Vortex is a great device for first-time smartphone users, but it's just not as good a deal as the competition.'

The Gadgeteer have published their review of the Verizon Samsung Fascinate Galaxy S Android smartphone. 'For those of you not familiar with the term "Galaxy S", it refers to a line of Android smartphones from Samsung. Samsung created a phone for each of the major US carriers (AT&T, Tmobile, Verizon, Sprint) with the same basic feature set that includes a 4″ AMOLED 480×800 pixel display, 1Ghz processor and 5MP camera. The phones are not identical. Each phone has a different form factor / shell (the Sprint version even has a physical QWERTY keyboard) and may have different memory configurations and / or other modifications.'

A review of the RIM Blackberry Curve 3G 9330 (Verizon Wireless) smartphone has been posted over at CNET. 'The RIM BlackBerry Curve 3G 9330 comes with BlackBerry OS 5 but RIM and Verizon have promised that it will be upgradable to BlackBerry OS 6. The new OS promises quite a number of improvements like a revamped home screen, universal search, easier access to messaging, a new Webkit browser, and more. The Curve 3G 9330 has the usual phone features like voice dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, a speakerphone, vibrate mode, and of course text and multimedia messaging. Instant messaging options include BlackBerry Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and Windows Live. Continuing the RIM legacy of strong e-mail features, the Curve 3G 9330 can sync with your company's BlackBerry Enterprise server in addition to other e-mail systems like Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, and your own POP3 or IMAP accounts.'

A review of the Samsung Intensity II SCH-U460 (Verizon Wireless) handset has been posted over at PC Magazine. 'The Intensity II measures 4.3 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.1 ounces. The electric blue paint and textured plastic on the back panel looked spiffy in person; a grey version is also available. The 2.2-inch, 240-by-320-pixel display looks sharp, and is a nice improvement over the original model's 176-by-220-pixel, 2.1-inch LCD. Still, Samsung has managed to squeeze in even larger displays on similar handsets like T-Mobile's Gravity 3 ($49-$179, The Intensity II's Send and End keys are wider and easier to press than before. The phone's slider mechanism felt a little weak, as if the bottom half was pressing too close to the top half when opening it.'