Chinese phone company ZTE plans to make a big splash at Mobile World Congress with a Windows device and a slew of Android handsets. ZTE isn’t exactly a household name, at least in the U.S. The smartphone maker aims to change that by dropping an as-of-yet unannounced handset running Microsoft’s Windows Phone software along with …

Rugged phones have been around forever, but melding extreme survivability into a true Android smartphone that’s not laughably large or looks like an off-road tire is a challenge. Samsung feels it has created a tough device that has beaten the odds. The $99.99 Samsung Rugby Smart certainly has a rough and tumble name. The company claims it’s built to meet …

I’ve used the massive Samsung Galaxy Note as my sole handset for a week, and life is going surprisingly well. Samsung certainly has high hopes for its unique product, which was first launched globally last summer. Here in the U.S., the device burst onto the American scene with a splashy Super Bowl Spot that depicted the Galaxy Note as having …

The lack of many phones running Android Ice Cream Sandwich has left a sour taste in the mouths of Android fans everywhere. Hopefully LG’s three new L-Style handsets will sweeten the situation at Mobile World Congress very soon. According to LG’s Korean press site, the company plans to unveil a trio of smartphones at Mobile World Congress next week. Two …

Smartphone maker HTC might go big at Mobile World Congress with a One X handset boasting quad-core horsepower. Time is certainly ripe for HTC to wow the world with new cutting-edge mobile hardware. Its rivals, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony, have been hard at work churning out a number of fresh phones such as the Droid Razr Maxx, Droid 4, Galaxy …

Smaller carrier U.S. Cellular has designs to serve up 4G LTE to an additional 14 states this year. By the second half of 2012, the wireless provider has said it will roll out cutting-edge 4G data infrastructure to “select” cities in multiple parts of the country: Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, …

The Sony PlayStation mobile gaming empire could expand its borders to HTC gadgets next. That’s right, if a Pocket-lint report pans out, you’ll be able to play PlayStation-branded game titles on on HTC smartphones and tablets soon. My instant reaction to this nugget of potential news was joy and giddiness. Perhaps I’ll be finally be able to enjoy a few …

Any device that tries to combine two devices into one is asking for trouble, and random people we spoke to here in New York agree. New Yorkers are a scrappy bunch, always moving fast with no time to dillydally. They do take mobile computing seriously and a few folks spared enough time to tell me exactly what they thought about …

If you’re aching to get your hands on Motorola’s new Droid 4, at least vicariously, you’re in luck. My official review sample has arrived and here’s what I think so far. Motorola Droid 4 (photos) +14 more See all photos At CES earlier this year, Motorola dropped a trio of new Verizon handsets offering welcome improvements over the company’s existing …

Teaming up with Nuance, U.S. Cellular just unveiled a voice-mail-to-text solution that unfortunately is not free. In the Chicago-based carrier’s defense, the big boys like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all charge for the privilege of using their visual voice mail software, typically $2 to $3 a month. U.S. Cellular’s product is right in line with the market, and expects …