Nokia unveiled their C5 smartphone yesterday, and today the device made an appearance on the FCC.  The C5 is the first offering in Nokia’s line of C-Series devices and is targeted towards the economical consumer market.

The C5 is an S60 3rd edition device that sports a 2.2” QVGA display (320×240), 3.2 MP camera (with flash) and FM radio.  Although the C5 is targeted at the lower end of the smartphone market, the device still offers a pretty impressive range of features, including GPS mapping, access to Nokia’s Ovi portal, video calling and video sharing.

According to Nokia, the C5 will be released in Q2 2010, and will be available in EMEA and Asia for about $185.  There’s no word if the phone will be released in the US, however.  The C5 is a quad band GSM device, so it will work in the States.  But with support for only WCDMA bands I and VIII, you won’t have 3G with the C5.

South Korean communications equipment vendor EpiValley passed the compact Spider portable 3G hotspot pictured above through the FCC today.  The Spider supports CDMA/EVDO 850 and 1900 bands and shares its wireless data connection through 802.11 b/g wireless.

We don’t know much else about the Spider, however it does appear that the device is battery-powered, making this a good portable 3G hotspot option.

The FCC label on the Spider, above right, indicates that Franklin Wireless will be branded by Franklin Wireless in the United States.  Franklin Wireless’ customers in the US include Alltel and Sprint, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the Spider is offered through these carriers.

No word on pricing or availability.

We’ve seen a couple of projector phones here and there, but Lanstar Mobile’s Q8 projector phone wins the compact crown.  The Q8 squeezes a brillianceoptic projector (yeah we don’t know what that means, either), quad band GSM phone, camera, ATV tuner and FM radio into a  4.5” x 1.9” x 0.7” package.  That’s about two tenths of an inch thicker, and about half of an inch thinner than the iPhone 3G S.

While FCC filings for the Q8 don’t revel much about the device’s projector features, it does appear that the projector is designed to display multimedia content, as well as live TV.  The Q8 also features an eBook reader, so presumably you could use the device to project books or other PDF content.

A look at the Q8’s internal pictures, below, show a compact projector module that sits at the top of the device.  It also appears that there are vents besides the projector (above right) to manage heat.

Lanstar Mobile focuses primarily on the Chinese market, but hopefully today’s FCC filing means that the company will bring the Q8 to the States.  We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

Nokia’s subsidiary Vertu makes only one thing:  luxury phones.  The company’s cheapest model will run you $5,000, while the cost of custom, limited edition models can reach six figures.

So what makes Vertu’s phones so valuable?  To start, Vertu doesn’t skimp on materials.  The exterior of the company’s Constellation Ayxta phone pictured above is made of brushed stainless steel with leather accents.  Open the phone and you will see laser-etched ceramic keys surrounded by a stainless steel bezel.  The device’s 2.4” touch screen is made from sapphire crystal.

But if you look beneath the Ayxta’s stainless steel exterior you see a pretty standard collection of silicon.  The phone offers Bluetooth and GPS – a decent, but unremarkable feature set.  It’s unclear what processor the device relies on, but with minimal storage on board and a basic OS, the Ayxta doesn’t need that much horsepower to operate.

At the end of the day, the Vertu brand is responsible for adding many of the zero’s to price of the Ayxta.  Vertu only sells devices through Vertu-owned stores – you won’t be pushed to buy a Vertu phone from a mall kiosk.  Instead, you can visit a Vertu store in one of their high profile locations such as the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas.

The “[fill in the blank] killer” moniker is a bit overused, but what else do you call a QWERTY smartphone from LG?  The GW550, which was announced last June, has much in common with RIM’s BlackBerries, as well as Nokia’s own BlackBerry killer, the E71.

With Windows Phone Series 7 coming out by the end of this year, we don’t expect to see much demand for the GW550, which runs Windows Mobile 6.5.  However, we can’t pass up an opportunity to take a peek inside the GW550, thanks to internal photos contained in FCC filings.

The GW550 relies on a Qualcomm MSM7200A processor that contains an ARM11 applications processor running at 528 MHz and an ARM9 processor running at 256 MHz.  Dual cores is a nice feature on smartphones, which do a lot of data downloading in the background.

The MSM7200A is also able to render 4 million triangles per second, and 133 million textured pixels per second.  Sure, that doesn’t do you a whole lot of good with the limited selection of Windows Mobile games out there, but those are decent specs for a smartphone.

You will also notice NAND Flash Memory from STMicroelectronics next to the MSM7200A.  STMicro doesn’t have a large share of the NAND Flash market, but the company teamed up with Intel in 2008 to form Numonyx, which should give both companies a larger presence in the NAND market going forward.

The GW550’s wireless features are powered by a Broadcom BCM4325 processor.  This chip provides 802.11 a/b/g wireless, as well as Bluetooth.

While we don’t expect the GW550 to be a best selling device, it is satisfying to see the power LG put under the device’s hood.  If you’re interested in picking one up, you can find one from a wireless importer for around $500.  Be warned though, Microsoft’s dedication to the Windows Mobile 6.x platform will likely be minimal after Windows Phone 7 Series is released.

Earlier this month we spotted Microsoft’s first mobile phone, the PB10ZU aka Turtle on the FCC.  Sharp Corporation, which manufacturers devices for Microsoft’s Danger subsidiary, was responsible for the PB10ZU, as well.

The first images of the PB10ZU were leaked last year, along with another device codenamed ‘Pure.’  Interestingly, Sharp’s filings for the PB10ZU also mentioned another device called the PB20ZU (below, left).  This note made it clear that the PB10ZU is the Turtle and the PB20ZU is the Pure.

Today, the PB20ZU made it’s first appearance on the FCC.  Unlike the PB10ZU, the PB20ZU has a more traditional smartphone design with a rectangular form factor and a sliding QWERTY keypad.  The PB20ZU is a 835/1900 CDMA device with EVDO 3G.  The device also features Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g wireless.

FCC filings don’t reveal much else about the PB20ZU.  Neither is any timeframe for release mentioned.  We originally suspected that the PB10ZU and the PB20ZU would be unveiled at MWC, however at this point we have no idea when Microsoft will officially announce these two devices.

Earlier this month, Acer’s E110 Android-powered smartphone made an appearance on the Bluetooth SIG site, and today the device popped up on the FCC.  The E110 received FCC approval for GSM 850 and 1900 bands, as well as WCDMA Bands II and V.  However the Bluetooth SIG site indicates that the device will support GSM 900 and 1800, and WCDMA bands I and VIII as well.

The E110 features Bluetooth, of course, as well as GPS.  However, no mention is made of WLAN, which would be a glaring omission for a smartphone.

No word on pricing or availability.

Earlier today we spotted the HTC PB76100 as it passed through the FCC.  The only pics revealed by HTC were the FCC label, above right, and the label location, below.  We noted, among other things, that the tapered base of the PB76100 was somewhat similar to the tapered design of the HTC Legend.

Well, thanks to New Mobile, we’ve confirmed that the PB76100 is indeed the HTC Legend.  New Mobile got a hold of the Legend and removed the innovative battery/SIM card cover that slips off of the Legend’s bottom.  This revealed the black and red HTC logo that we saw in the PB76100 postings, as well as the tapered form factor we saw in label location pics.

We’re glad to to have this confirmed.  Thanks to New Mobile for the great pics.

Looking for a phone that will run you 5 figures?  Check out Vertu.  The company offers luxury phones that come with a 24/7 concierge service and range in price from $5,000 to $88,000.

Currently, Vertu offers only a few devices, but it looks like the company is expanding its lineup with the Ascent X, which passed through the FCC today.  This is a quad band GSM device (although only 850 and 1900 bands were tested for the FCC) and WCDMA bands II and V.

The only pictures we have of the device is the label pic, above.  Vertu does note that the Ascent X will be available in a variety of finishes, including metal and leather.

HTC passed a device called the PB76100 through the FCC this morning.  According to test reports, the device will support GSM/GPRS/EGPRS 850/1900, and feature 802.11 b/g WiFi and Bluetooth.

Interestingly, FCC documents make no mention of 3G.  We’re guessing that this device does actually have 3G capabilities, but doesn’t support WCDMA bands in the United States.

Label pics of the PB76100 (above) expose an interesting form factor that appears to taper inwards at the bottom of the device.  Our guess is that this is a 2D representation of a device with a chin, such as the HTC Legend.

The Legend also only supports WCDMA bands I and VIII, which are not used in the US.  This would fit with our theory that the PB76100 has WCDMA capabilities, but HTC didn’t test these since they aren’t supported in the States.

Still, details are hard to come by at this point.  We’ll keep you updated as we find out more.