The Nokia Lumia 800 has been officially listed on the Telus Mobility website, coming with an official launch date of March 2. The product page is also saying that the Lumia 800 will be offered “only from Telus,” snatching up the exclusive away from Bell and Rogers. Quick highlights include the 3.7-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display, 16GB internal memory, and 8MP Carl Zeiss camera with LED flash.

No word on pricing just yet, but we can see that Telus will have the Lumia 800 in your choice of black, blue, or pink. And yes, it’ll take advantage of that 4G HSPA network too.

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To be available in stores starting on November 21, the MOTOKEY SOCIAL isn’t a smartphone. Instead, it’s a feature phone that is clearly geared toward the social networking fans in the audience. It comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen, as well as a full QWERTY keyboard that includes a dedicated Facebook button.

Clearly hitting the lower end of the pricing spectrum too, the MOTOKEY SOCIAL is less than 10mm thin and comes with a 3MP camera. The user interface features five home screens, two interface themes, and plenty of integration to Facebook, Twitter, and so on. You also get Opera Mini and an email client. It’s no smartphone, but it’ll do the job for many folks. At $89.99 on prepaid, it’s pretty cheap too.

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There’s the whole Mobile BRAVIA Engine thing for better visuals, as well as the 8.1MP camera with Exmor R for mobile, giving you better photos. Coupled with that is the interesting 3D Sweep Panorama feature that lets’s you create 3D images for viewing on your 3DTV. Other perks include the Sony Entertainment Network, Facebook inside Xperia, DLNA compability, gesture input, screen capture, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

We’ve previously gamed with the Xperia Play and texted with the Xperia Pro, but many people don’t like the added bulk that a side slide-out creates. That’s where the Xperia ray can come into the picture with its 9.4mm thin aluminum frame. Look for the Xperia ray — in your choice of red, black, or gold [Telus isn't getting red or gold after all] — to sell for $49.99 on a three year contract.

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As we make our way down the spec sheet, we also learn that it has a full gig of RAM, Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, and a 4.3-inch qHD touchscreen display. That’s an effective resolution of 960×540. There’s also dual carrier HSPA+ for wireless speeds of up to 42Mbps. Rounding out the features are 16GB storage, 8MP primary cam, 2MP front cam, NFC, and WiFi.

The HTC Ruby is apparently a Telus exclusive, but it is also known as the HTC Amaze. This leads us to believe that a slight variation on this phone might show up on other carriers, or at the very least, through American carriers too. Pricing has yet to be announced, but I’d imagine that it would be in line with other higher-end Android superphones. Look for it “within the next several weeks.”

Curiously, while there is an “HTC Sense” mention on the back, the screen appears to be showing stock Android. My guess is that this is a relatively early build being shown and they’ll load it up with HTC’s custom UI before shipping to customers.

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The original HTC Desire is getting replaced at Telus by the bigger and hotter HTC Desire HD. Sprint has been rocking the HTC EVO 4G for a while, it’s good to see its GSM counterpart hit our shores too.

As you may recall, the HTC Desire HD boasts the same 4.3-inch mega-sized display as the EVO 4G. This comes accompanied by the 8MP camera, 1GHz processor, and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities.

You get preloaded with Android 2.2 Froyo and the HTC Sense user interface. I’m not personally a fan of these massive displays (at least it’s smaller than the gargantuan Dell Streak), but all the more power to you if you’re willing to shoehorn this into your jeans pocket and keep it constantly plugged in.

Pricing for the Telus HTC Desire HD runs pretty much par for the course. Take it on no term for $499.99 or sell your soul on a three-year contract for $149.99.

Update: Telus will carry both the HTC Desire and HTC Desire HD. It will not be “replaced” but is more of an upgrade.

[Telus]

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The Early Device Upgrade Fee effectively lets you buy a new phone, whether it be of the dumbphone or smartphone variety, at any point during your contractual agreement with Telus. If your term is running out, you can usually get the full subsidy on a new contract, but EDUF lets you get a new (subsidized) phone when you’re some time away from renewal.

For a feature phone with no minimum data commitment, the EDUF is $5 per month remaining in your contract. A smartphone with a minimum data commitment is $10 per month and a “premium device” is $15 per month. I’m not sure how they would clearly differentiate between a smartphone and a premium device (so much for “Clear and Simple” from Telus), but there you have it.

For example, let’s say you want a new BlackBerry Bold and you’ve got 10 months left on your contract. Pony up the $100 (10 months x $10/month), sign a new contract, and you can have the Bold at the current 36-month subsidized price. That’s not terrible, actually, but bear in mind that you can’t do the EDUF thing within the first six months of your contract.

SOURCE: MobileSyrup via Telus

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Motorola CHARM QWETRY Android smartphone

You know, Motorola really ought to give up on this whole all-caps thing when it comes to their product names. I know it’s meant to be distinctive, but it’s almost like they’re trying too hard. Case in point is the new Motorola CHARM, the latest Android device to join the Telus Mobility family.

After being bombarded with names like RAZR, ROKR, and MILESTONE, we are now treated to the Motorola CHARM. The square messaging-friendly device is rocking Google Android 2.1 and it has a full QWERTY keyboard below its 2.8-inch touchscreen display.

Keeping up with the all-caps dance, this smartphone also features the MOTOBLUR user interface and the Motorola BACKTRACK controller. The latter is like the Motorola BACKFLIP with the trackpad on the rear, allowing you to navigate without obscuring the display.

Rounding out the specs are its 3G speeds, 3MP camera, Adobe Flash-friendly web browser, and 1170mAh battery good for up to 13.9 days of standby. Rock out with the CHARM through Telus for $29.99 on a three-year contract or $249.99 outright.

Motorola CHARM specifications

Motorola CHARM Android QWERTY smartphone announced for Telus Canada [Mobileburn]

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Nokia E72 may be coming to Telus by summer

Ever since Telus decided to embrace HSPA, its assortment of smartphones has become much more desirable in my books. One of the newest phones bound for Telus is the Nokia E72.

As a proud owner of the Nokia E71 myself, I guess you could say that I’m a little biased toward this news, say, but no more so than an iPhone owning news reporter. Either way, it’s good news for Telus smartphone fans. It seems that someone was able to snag a screenshot from the internal database at Telus Mobility. It clearly includes the Nokia E72 smartphone, but there is no mention of a release date just yet. The rumor says it’ll be out in the next couple months.

As a quick refresher, the Nokia E72 is basically a beefed up version of the E71. The camera gets bumped to five megapixels (in addition to the front-facing video camera), the processor clocks in at 600MHz, and the five-way navigator gets upgraded with an optical trackpad. Other features include the 2.4-inch QVGA display, 3.5mm headset jack, QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi, and microSD expansion.

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You won’t be able to get the upgrade over-the-air (OTA), but a free upgrade is a free upgrade. You can now get Android 2.1 loaded onto your Motorola Milestone. The process is reasonably straightforward.  First, go to the Motorola site and select the Telus Milestone. Accept the user agreement, download the software updater, and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. Before you know it, you’ll be flying with Android 2.1 on your Telus Milestone.

So, what sort of upgrades come with the new OS? You get more home screens (up to nine), animated wallpapers, a free Facebook app and widget, Google Maps updates, a new Help Center app, better Bluetooth support, optimized battery management, and improvements to the manual removal of email accounts.

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Koodo Mobile BlackBerry website

The approach taken by the so-called “budget” carriers in Canada is quite interesting. They start out saying that they want to be as affordable as possible, but they slowly creep up into the territory of their parent companies. It seems that the Telus-offshoot Koodo Mobile could be expanding its business beyond their initial focus of cheap phones with cheap plans. They got a little better with some QWERTY-packing “feature” phones, but it seems that the latest plans are hinting at BlackBerry service too. That’s quite a step up from a simple keyboard-equipped “dumbphone.”

So, what is the source of this rumor? As you may already know, Research in Motion sets up a sub-site for each carrier that uses the BlackBerry service. Some keen sleuths were able to find koodomobile.blackberry.com, possibly pointing out their intentions to offer the largely business-oriented service to their customers. On the other hand, it may be an internal system for Koodo Mobile employees.

If it does surface, Koodo customers shouldn’t expect the latest and greatest from RIM, but since Telus recently launched that HSPA network a pretty good variety of handsets could come your way. Maybe they’ll get the older Storm or perhaps an inexpensive Curve.

By adding BlackBerry to the mix, Koodo Mobile will be able to better compete with Fido (Rogers) and Virgin Mobile (Bell), both of which already do the ‘Berry thing.

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