Nokia N9 now sold in the States via www.m2cmobile.com, costs $769.98

Even though Nokia said it won't officially sell the MeeGo-running Nokia N9 stateside, retailer www.m2cmobile.com has taken care of customers by bringing the much anticipated devices to US/Canada on-line shores. And you can get yours now, but it's offered only unlocked, which means that you don't get a carrier subsidy and have to pay the full retail price, which stands at $769.98. But in exchange, you're granted carrier freedom and no 2-yearly ties.

The Nokia N9 is a GSM handset, which translates into compatibility with such US carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Simple Mobile with 3G enabled. The $769.98 price applies to the 16 gig model of the Nokia N9.

If you're still making your mind up about the handset, you'd want to check out our in-depth review of the Nokia N9, which will help you make an informed decision. Put in a nutshell, though, the N9 offers stellar calm convex design and a colorful polycarbonate body, but the real highlight is MeeGo – an all-touch experience that you'd love for its simplicity, but hate for its lack of apps if you care about them. The N9 also has a pretty capable 8-megapixel camera on its back to round up the package.

Excited? There seem to be only limited supplies, so you'd better hurry up if you really want this device and share your feelings about it in the comments below.

Nokia N9 vs iphone 4G vs xperia Arc vs galaxy S2 First Look (Video)

Nokia N9 vs iPhone 4s vs Samsung Galaxy SII

HTC Rezound against the world: spec comparison

Verizon's HTC Rezound spec sheet has arrived and it's truly a beast: 4.3-inch 720p LCD display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and support for Verizon's blazing fast 4G LTE network. But that's only part of the picture - the Rezound redefines high-definition audio on a handset with a pair of Beats Audio headsets with their signature red cable. First reports about the audio quality have been really impressive, saying that it's truly an audible difference, and really that's what most users care about. 

The HTC Rezound also ships with Gingerbread skinned up with the latest HTC Sense, 3.5, which is as gorgeous as ever. What's more, HTC promises an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich early next year. What you might want to know, though, is how it stacks up against the rest of the Android heavyweights and the iPhone 4S. Don't worry - we've got you covered with all the essential specs lined up for your curious minds. What you won't see in the table below is the amazing pixel density of the screen. Simply put, it's the best on the market, finally dethroning the 326ppi pixel density on the iPhone and becoming the new king with an amazing "retina" pixel density of 341ppi.

In addition, the Rezound comes with an 8-megapixel camera with f/2.2 allowing more light in for better low light shots. It also captures 1080p video.

So with no further ado, here's the HTC Rezound going head-to-head against the iPhone 4S, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Motorola Droid RAZR and the Samsung Galaxy S II. Which one would you pick?

Apple may be crowd-sourcing ideas for iPhone 4S battery problems

Unfortunately, it seems like short battery life is no longer just a worry for Android users, because Apple has battling its own troubles with the iPhone 4S. There have been widespread complaints that battery life in the iPhone 4S is unnecessarily short, even after users turn off persistent battery draining services like iCloud, Siri, location awareness, and Ping. In our informal poll from last week, we found that a significant number of users were noticing a problem. 

Now, there are reports that Apple may be contacting users directly to find a solution to the problem. One user has claimed that Apple had contacted him and asked that he install a diagnostic tool on his iPhone 4S. That user told The Guardian, and also added that he had noticed his battery drain by as much as 10% per hour while in use and about 5% per hour in standby mode. And, these findings came after he had done a clean install of iOS 5 on his new device. He wrote a blog post about his troubles, and says that an Apple engineer reached out to him to try finding a solution. As we could have expected, the man even said that the engineer was very helpful "in the typical Apple way". The engineer even went so far as to admit that Apple isn't even close to finding a fix.

It seems as though Apple still is no closer to finding a fix for whatever is causing the extra battery drain for users, but it's great to know that the company is being proactive about finding a solution to the problem. 

iPhone 4S hits 22 more countries

The iPhone 4S has been released in twenty-two new countries today, meaning twenty-two new countries get all the highs and lows from the Siri virtual assistant to the nagging issues with battery life.  

On Friday, the new Apple smartphone launched in twenty new European countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The iPhone 4S also launched outside of Europe in Mexico and Singapore.

This brings the total countries selling the iPhone 4S to twenty-nine once we include the original seven launch countries of the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany and Japan

Nokia Lumia 800 against the world: specs comparison

The Nokia Lumia 800 has finally been announced and it's the "first real Windows Phone," as Stephen Elop himself put it. But fancy words aside, what does it really hide under that beautiful pillow-shaped display? The guts are what really matters in the Android world, but even the iPhone has jumped into dual-core territory. 

The Lumia 800 however stays single-core with a 1.4GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 processor. Nonetheless, we shouldn't just judge a book by its cover, nor a phone by its specs. We've seen that the first wave of Windows Phone might have seemed underpowered compared to the well specced competition, but still managed to deliver a flawless, buttery smooth experience.

We don't expect this to have changed much in the Nokia Lumia 800, but we couldn't resist the urge to put its technical details alongside its biggest competitors on iOS and Android: the iPhone 4S, the Samsung GALAXY Nexus, the Motorola DROID RAZR and the Samsung Galaxy S II. Do you consider it capable of competing with those heavyweights? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Poll results: Galaxy NEXUS vs Galaxy S II vs DROID RAZR vs iPhone 4S

The Samsung GALAXY Nexus was announced last week with industry challenging huge 4.65-inch screen with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. The beautiful contoured screen was the biggest and brightest highlight of the device, but along with it came a brand new Android – 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwhich. Together, last week's joint Samsung-Google event was like the two companies shouting in the mountains – the echo would definitely trigger an avalanche of devices.

But the Galaxy Nexus, the first one is already announced and it's shifting the tectonic plates of the industry. At least over here at PhoneArena, as the majority of you opted for the new Nexus amidst all other top-tier handsets. Let us remind you – last week we brought you four cream of the crop smartphones in a spec smack down for you to judge the winner. But it wasn't just specs that mattered – you had to pick the device you'd vote for with your dollar in the future.

The contestants were the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Motorola DROID RAZR, the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S II. 

The Galaxy Nexus turned out to be the clear winner, but the battle for the second place was fierce. It was up until the very last minute that a couple of votes tipped the scales in favor of the upcoming Motorola DROID RAZR and deservedly so – the handset packs LTE, a dual-core chip and a previously unseen ridiculously thin body. 

The Galaxy Nexus got nearly half of your votes.

The RAZR got 21.35% of your votes, while the now available Galaxy S II snatched 21.2% for the third place.

Strangely, given the incredible sales data about the iPhone 4S, it couldn't hold its ground and only got a meager 8%, or 314 votes.

In our view, there's one clear conclusion to draw from your vote – the Nexus line has for the first time managed to produce an Android flagship, a device other phone makers will probably reference in the form of the beautiful GALAXY Nexus. The iPhone 4S also seems to have lost its cutting edge status and is now admired more for its traditional stability. Now, what do you make out of the results?