Walk into a Japanese phone store just a few years ago and you’d likely see lots of “locally-made” models by manufacturers like NEC, Fujitsu, Sharp and Panasonic. Branded as phones by NTT DoCoMo or other telcos in the land, these phones often sported the familiar clamshell design with an ultra-thin frame.

Turn up in Japan now, years after the Apple iPhone first made it as a successful “foreign-made” device, and you’ll easily spot a Samsung Galaxy SII and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc among the most popular of all smartphones.

While the clamshell smartphone still has its place in a corner of the store, the obvious hot choice for many Japanese consumers now is big-screen touch-based models. Not surprising, considering that there are more phone users than PC users in the country and many use the phone to surf the Net instead of the PC.

Here’s a look at some of the interesting models Techgoondu saw on a recent trip to an NTT DoCoMo shop in Tokyo. Unfortunately, many of them are either not here yet in Singapore, or likely won’t make it here. …

After several unconfirmed reports yesterday, Samsung has come out to say that it has indeed sold a cool five million Galaxy SII phones in just 85 days – a figure that will surely make Apple sit up as it prepares the next iteration of the iPhone in the coming months.

The Korean firm’s good start is achieved before it has even started selling the newfangled smartphone in the United States, one of its key markets. And things don’t seem to be slowing down – in the first 55 days, three million Galaxy SIIs were sold in places like Asia and Europe; the next 30 days saw another two million phones added to the chart. …

Okay, so you’ve just bought your spanking new Samsung Galaxy SII (read review) but hate it that Samsung has put in those kiddy icons along with a lot of junk from your telecom operator?

Fret not. There are ways around these little annoyances, as I found out as a Nexus One user who is used to configuring everything to his whim. After all, it’s my phone. …

Should I wait for the next iPhone 5 due to be out some time in the next few months, or should I just go out and buy an iPhone 4 now, a friend of mine asked, like many other iPhone users who have never considered anything other than Apple.

My answer: buy an Android phone instead. It’s here, it’s better and it’s time you checked it out.

Indeed, my suggestion now for anyone waiting for the next iPhone or any top-end smartphone is to first take a look at Samsung’s Galaxy SII. Look first at the best out there now before deciding. …

Samsung has sold 3 million of the Galaxy SII in just 55 days, making its latest top-end phone its fastest moving one and possibly winning over lots of new Android converts from folks not keen on waiting for the Apple iPhone 5 expected in September.

Even in Apple-crazy Singapore, the Korean electronics firm took just a week to sell 10,000 units of the costly S$998 phone, it said a statement yesterday. The figure will delight the three telcos here, which are understood to have committed to larger than usual amounts of the phone. …

The followup to one of the most popular Android phones last year is proving to be a good one for Samsung, as the Galaxy SII was sold out in Singapore over the weekend.

No numbers from Samsung Singapore folks yet, but they must be beaming with smiles at the “unexpected” sales at launch, while waiting for more stocks to arrive “in the next few days”.

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After being relatively quiet with just “updates” of its previous Desire and Desire HD phones, HTC has come up with a pretty impressive smartphone that will compete strongly with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy SII hitting the stores this month.

Shipping in Singapore today, the HTC Sensation comes with a speedy dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, large 4.3-inch screen and an 8-meg camera that will make phone geeks tick off their checklists in delight. …