We've seen the new Android-based XPERIA X10 from Sony Ericsson at a fast pace and a snail's pace, but have we ever seen it so stunningly middle of the road? We just got a chance to play with the phone in person for the second time, and from our random sampling of three or four different handsets, it seems that performance is very contingent upon how much content is loaded into the device and what particular thing it's trying to perform. Sometimes we'd fly through the stacks of faces, while other times we'd sit there waiting for the simplest thumbnails to load up. The good news is that we have until next year to see this thing really come together, and the word is that the software is improving and a rapid pace. The big change about this phone is the "Nexus" UX platform, which actually all takes place in two "apps" at the moment, Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is an integrated view for social networking and messaging, with an "infinite view" to see all types of communications for a particular person, while Mediascape is a more tame media app with a modicum of internet and social integration. It all seems very logically placed, and we like the fact that SE hasn't really sacrificed the Android experience -- you can still do Gmail and the Android Market and so forth, with very familiar UIs -- but it's going to have to be a lot more bulletproof before it hits the market if Sony Ericsson really expects us to use this day to day. Oh, also: the soft keyboard is terrible. We hear they're working on it, but boy does it need work.

Update: We've added the video below, go check it out!

We've finally had a chance to play around at length with a very late pre-production version of Nokia's N900 (retail units are already shipping, but not to our neck of the woods just yet) and we wanted to scribble out a few notes for you before taking delivery of a final build for a full review hopefully in the next week or two. Here are some highlights we've noticed so far:

• Processor, processor, processor. Oh, and did we mention the processor? The N900's Cortex A8-based core yields significant improvements in day-to-day usability over the N810's ARM11 unit.
• Though it's still quite raw and feature-incomplete, Maemo 5 is by far the most user-friendly version of the platform to date, if for no other reason than the fact that it's very pretty. Screen transitions are smooth and look great, the home screen is as attractive and versatile as any widget-based home screen on the market today, and the Expose-style task switcher is a welcome addition.
• The N900 may very well offer the best browsing experience of any smartphone on the market today (yes, including the iPhone). What little ground it gives up in user friendliness is more than countered by the fact that you have the closest thing you can get to a desktop-class browser in a device of this size and form factor; it's straight-up Mozilla, after all, and everything renders faithfully. Flash doesn't blaze, but at least the Cortex A8 makes it usable.

Follow the break for more impressions and a quick rundown on video!

Dubbing itself the "multimedia powerhouse" for T-Mobile's expansive Android lineup, the Samsung Behold II has just been confirmed for that rumored November 18th launch on T-Mobile (still no word on price, though we're hearing a predictable $200). The slate-style touchscreen handset has a 3.2-inch AMOLED display, and puts it to good use with a hearty skinning job on the part of Samsung, porting in most (but not all) of its TouchWiz UI -- unfortunately for us, that silly cube menu made the cut. Underneath is Android 1.5, and what seems to be a pretty standard processor.

Hardware-wise there's really nothing to complain about on this phone. It's heavy, relatively thin (not iPhone-thin, but just fine), with solid materials and wonderfully tactile face buttons. The screen is everything you'd expect out of an AMOLED display, though high-resolution phones like the Droid dampen that enthusiasm somewhat. One wonderful Samsung addition to the traditional Android experience is a "real" camera button on the side, which can even register half-presses for focus. For someone who doesn't want a physical keyboard, but doesn't want their handset to feel like a toy (sorry, myTouch) there's plenty to love. However, we're more concerned about the software side of things. We're not morally opposed to Samsung adding in TouchWiz, but we are afraid of anything that has the potential to slow down the OS, and on first glance we'd say it's notably less responsive than stock Android. We'll of course be going further in-depth to see just how usable this iteration is, but let us just put this out on the table: a virtual 3D cube to launch media apps is no way "intuitive," "helpful" or "cool." OK, maybe it's kind of cool, but seriously Samsung, stop it. Check out our unboxing below.

Update: We added some video after the break. Behold the cube!

Want to see that new Saygus VPhone in action? Can't get enough QWERTY in your Android? Enjoy videos shot amongst a crowd of screaming trade show attendees? Boy are you in luck. Check out our video hands-on of the handset after the break, and please excuse the noise.

Hosts: Chris Ziegler, Sean Cooper
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Solvent - Devices and Strategies (Ghostly International)

01:38 - Motorola DROID review
22:15 - Verizon's LG Chocolate Touch skips on the BL40 influence
24:33 - Verizon's DROID ERIS by HTC does Android and keeps it cheap
30:25 - BlackBerry Bold 9700 hands-on and impressions
32:36 - HTC HD2 officially coming to US, out in Europe and Asia today!
36:44 - Telus kicks off HSPA+ network with iPhone November 5th, HTC Hero, LG New Chocolate and more to follow
41:16 - Bell confirms HSPA launch on November 4
53:02 - Listener questions

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We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - Huawei U7517
Read - Huawei G6600
Read - Samsung B5310L
Read - Samsung C3510
Read - Samsung SCH-F339
Read - Pantech P7040
Read - LG GS107a
Read - LG 900G
Read - LG UN430
Read - LG GD350
Read - Panasonic 940P

Peripherals
Read - ZTE MF10
Read - ZTE K4505-Z
Read - Haier HC-CE310

Now that we've got the DROID ERIS in the mix, we're up to our ears in HTC Hero-derivative devices. We decided to sit the whole crew (GSM, Sprint and Verizon editions) down for a little modeling session, and we're finding ourselves reticent to pick a favorite. There are really plusses and minuses to each of them, but any way you lean it's a pretty good handset with some perhaps overly bulky software, a wonderful pricepoint (on Verizon, anyway) and probably a limited time in the sun with upcoming Android 2.0 devices, faster processors and wild new screens rolling on in. Check the video out after the break and you can make up your own mind.

I just dashed off this quick video for my Twitter followers to demonstrate that the DROID doesn't have a multitouch soft keyboard, and pretty much instantly realized that I should probably share it with everyone else, since we've been getting a lot of questions about it. Long story short, while Android 2.0 and the DROID's hardware support multitouch, the device itself doesn't do multitouch out-of-the-box, and the soft keyboard suffers mightily for it. Why it's missing is certainly open for debate, but for now just know that no amount of hoping, wishing, or booze is going to make the stock keyboard register more than one press at a time. Don't despair, though -- while I'm not a fan, Chris Ziegler absolutely flies on this same keyboard on his DROID. Videos after the break.

Rounding out the flurry of interesting Verizon Wireless launches today are the BlackBerry Curve 8530 and LG Chocolate Touch (pictured). The 8530 is pretty much just the Verizon edition of T-Mobile's 8520, but the LG Chocolate Touch bears closer examination. Basically it's just a war on the eyeballs of anyone who's ever seen the BL40, with the front, back, materials and interface of the device all falling incredibly short of aesthetic pleasure. However, the $80 phone does have a relatively responsive and usable touchscreen interface for a "dumbphone," and we've used worse touchscreen keyboards on Windows Mobile. So it's not a complete tragedy, but we really feel sorry for someone who skips over the DROID ERIS for this just handset just to save $20.

Hey look, it's a Hero! We've got the brand new DROID ERIS for Verizon in hand, and it's not hard to see which particular family of phones it hails from. Still, Verizon has its own twist on the form factor, almost scoring a compromise between the "shiny" Sprint Hero and the more angular, matte GSM Hero. Confusingly, the capacitive touch buttons along the bottom of the ERIS' screen are a haphazard twist on the DROID's arrangement (though it's really Motorola that's the non-standard one here), but the phones don't look completely unrelated. In all the rounded, black matte body of the ERIS sort of "fades away" and you're just left with a nice, bright LCD -- it's not making a statement, which is sort of the statement. There's also an iPhone-style face proximity sensor for turning off the display during calls, and HTC has multitouch pinch-to-zoom on here, something Motorola hasn't seemed to manage. Sure it can't stack up to the DROID for aggressiveness or sheer specs, but it's got it's own sort of budget-friendly charm that's not overshadowed by the DROID's bombastic ways, and two out of three Engadget editors agree that the HTC keyboard beats the pants off the stock Android keyboard.

RIM's successor to the original Bold -- the BlackBerry Bold 9700 -- has finally landed on our doorsteps. The 9000 is in many ways a hard act to follow. Hardware-wise, it lived up to its name, going where most phones never went with its retro, leathery, nearly clunky looks in an age of rounded edges and shiny curves. Don't get us wrong -- we loved the 9000's aesthetics obsessively -- which is why we couldn't wait to get our hands on its newborn child. A few questions we had in mind: would the 9700 live up to its predecessor's notoriously uncompromising fashion sense? Would the new Bold feel as good to hold and use in the hand as its loving parent? How would it stack up against other, new devices from RIM? If these are the kind of questions you think you might want answers to, read on for our impressions.

That's right... the HD2 has landed. Actually, we took the phone over to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other day, but didn't get a chance to show it off, so here we are. Sure, you've seen this guy in action in earlier videos... but it's still nice to get a look at this monster up close. We're still blown away by the fact that this is a Windows Mobile 6.5 device -- the skinning job that HTC has done here is nothing short of a miracle. So far we've found the phone to be snappy and responsive, but we're currently putting it through its paces. We'll have a full review shortly, but for now, feast your eyes on the photos below -- and start saving for that imminent US launch.

The first Android device from Sony Ericsson may have undergone an upgrade in the naming department, jumping from X3 all the way to XPERIA X10 (probably to avoid confusion with Nokia's X3 handset), but what lies under the hood is reassuringly in line with what we've been hearing. That is to say, a 1GHz Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, wide 4-inch capacitive touch display, 8.1 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a thoroughly tricked out Android skin named Rachael. Sony Ericsson stressed to us the symbiotic importance of both the new flagship device and "open OS" UI -- they see the X10 as the patriarch of a whole new family of handsets, which we can expect to see in the first half of 2010, all sporting the beauty of Rachael and perhaps helping to bridge the gap between featurephones and, well, more advanced featurephones. So don't be shy, come along to Engadget Classic to see our full and uncensored first impressions of both, along with hands-on video and pictures.

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - LG GB280
Read - LG LN510
Read - LG MT310
Read - LG GW825
Read - Samsung B5310
Read - Samsung i6330C
Read - Samsung S3600i
Read - Samsung SCH-W259
Read - Samsung SPH-M8400
Read - Samsung SPH-W9700
Read - Sanyo SCP-6760
Read - Huawei U8220-6
Read - Panasonic 840P

Peripherals
Read - Huawei ePico3801
Read - ZTE AC2766
Read - Parrot Grande Specchio