AT&T announced the launch of Samsung Galaxy Appeal, the first smartphone offered with the carrier’s pre-paid GoPhone service. The Appeal is a side-slider QWERTY smartphone running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. As an entry-level device, it is boosted by a Qualcomm MSM7225A 800MHz processor, 512MB RAM. According to Samsung, the handset’s plastic parts are made of 80-percent recycled material and it ships with reduced packaging material, cutting back on paper usage.

Along with the waterproof Hydro, Kyocera also brings the Rise C5155 to the CTIA Wireless 2012, which is a smartphone with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Except for the keyboard and form factor, the Rise is almost identical to the Hydro, though it is not waterproof. It sports the same Qualcomm MSM8655 SnapDragon 1GHz processor and also gets 512MB RAM and 2GB ROM.

Verizon has released the Motorola DROID 4, which is the thinnest 4G QWERTY smartphone. Introduced at the CES 2012, the DROID 4 is a 4G LTE mobile phone running Android 2.3.5 operating system. It is available from Verizon Wireless for $199.99 with a new 2-year contract.

Verizon and Motorola are launching another DROID smartphone, the Motorola DROID 4, which is the thinnest and most powerful 4G LTE QWERTY smartphone. Like its predecessors (DROID, DROID 2, DROID 3), Motorola’s new Android device packs a QWERTY keyboard in a slim body. The DROID 4 adds support for Verizon’s 4G LTE mobile network for high-speed data.

T-Mobile announced the LG DoublePlay, an Android smartphone with a special design featuring a split QWERTY keyboard and two capacitive touchscreens. The new phone comes with a 3.5-inch main display and a 2-inch seconday display that sits in between the QWERTY keyboard. It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.

AT&T will release later this year the Samsung DoubleTime, a smartphone with a full flip keyboard and dual touchscreens. The phone has a 3.2-inch 320×480 touchscreen outside and when you flip open it, you can find another 3.2-inch touchscreen and a four-row QWERTY keyboard for quick messaging. It has a 3.2 Megapixel camera with video recording.

Other than the Torch 9850 and 9860, RIM has another new Torch, the BlackBerry 9810 with a slider form factor. As the follow-up to the 9800, the new model looks just the same but packs upgraded hardware. The 9810 runs the next gen BlackBerry 7 OS on a 1.2GHZ processor and 768MB of RAM. Other than the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the phone also offers on-screen keyboard. It has a 3.2-inch 640×480 touchscreen, and a trackpad below the screen.

AT&T is launching Pantech’s first Android smartphone in the US market, the Crossover, on 5 June. This entry-level Android phone features a slide-out keyboard for easy messaging. It has a 3.1-inch touchscreen display, a 3 Megapixel camera with camcorder, GPS support and a microSD card slot.

AT&T is going to release on 15 May the HP Veer 4G smartphone. At the size of a credit card and no thicker than a deck of cards, the  HP Veer is the smallest full-featured webOS smartphone. The Veer 4G, as its name indicated, supports tri-band UMTS 3G, HSDPA Cat 10/HSUPA Cat 6 4G as well as quad-band GSM/EDGE networks.

Other than the new Pre 3, HP also introduces the Veer, the smallest webOS smartphone to date. With a slide-out keyboard, the compact phone is about the size of a credit card and no thicker than a deck of cards. It measures just 54.5 mm x 84.0 mm x 15.1 mm and is only 103 grams. One special thing about the Veer is that it doesn’t have dedicated micro USB port and 3.5mm jack, instead it has a 5-pin magnetic connector for attaching charging adapter and 3.5mm jack adapter.