You gotta see these videos of the amazing LG Renoir being seriously tortured and surviving. Engadget summed it up by saying, “The handset was left in the freezer at -20C (-4F) for 12 hours, dropped to the floor, stepped on, thrown in a clothes drier for 15 minutes, caked in dust, dunked in wine, and run over by a Ford Focus”. All that, and it worked perfectly. Pretty awesome.

Watch the videos below, might as well turn down your volume, unless of course you speak Russian.

-Hillel

If I would have told you three years ago that I would be trying to determine which 8 megapixel cellphone is the best handset, and there are quite a few to choose from, I don’t think you would have believed me, in fact I don’t think I would’ve believed me.

I am not sure which made bigger waves in 2008, the touch screen or the 8 megapixel phones, but what’s for sure, they are both pretty unbelievable achievements.

GSMArena has a detailed comparison between the four 8 megapixel monsters:

• Samsung i8510 INNOV8: The most feature packed out of the bunch. You already know what I think of this powerhouse, although there is no question I prefer the full touch screen over the slider form factor.
• Samsung M8800 Pixon: According to GSMArena’s conclusion, the Pixon does not meet the image quality of the other touch screen 8MP handset, the LG Renoir. However, its user interface is superior to that of the Renoir’s.
• Sony Ericsson C905: I personally like this one the least, but GSMArena claims it has the best camera interface out of the group.
  
• LG Renoir: Out of the two touch screens, this offers the best image quality and video performance.

In any case, I think it is safe to say we are no longer in the era that camera phones are inferior to standard digital cameras, with these 8 MP shooters, no need to carry around an additional camera.

In other big news, the HTC Touch HD is available in stores, and I for one cannot think of a better way to spend $800 right now. The only thing that can stop me now from getting myself a nice HD is some sort of a natural disaster, like say for example, a Storm.

-Hillel