The INQ Cloud Touch, first seen last month when it was spotted on Bluetooth’s accreditation site, has been made official by the London-based company, and it’s as close to being a fully fledged Facebook phone as we’ve come so far.  What’s more, according to a conversation between INQ’s co-founder Ken Johnstone and The Guardian, Facebook themselves were ‘heavily involved with it and it’s been a collaborative process’.

So just how deeply ingrained is the social network? The answer is, very.  Basically, if you’re not an active Facebook user, you won’t get much out of the standard Cloud Touch, as it forms your homepage and it’s used to prepare calls and messages, plus all status updates, photos and Places check-ins are displayed front and centre. This means you don’t have to open an app or manually check for updates; it’s all live, all of the time.

However, as the Cloud Touch is based on Android 2.2, there are other homescreens to fill with other non-Facebook widgets and if you’re so desperate for the Cloud Touch but don’t want all the Facebook integration, then you can remove them, however, this defeats the object of the device. It’s also a shame, as so much effort has gone into making this a pure Facebook experience, right down to future new Facebook features magically appearing on your phone without the need for an update.

The INQ Cloud Touch also has the following features:

• 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 320.
• 600Mhz Qualcomm processor.
• 3G with HSDPA.
• 5 megapixel camera.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
• GPS.
• Android 2.2.

To keep you connected, but with an eye on your data allowance, the Could Touch’s GPS and Wi-Fi work together to remember your home network or other wireless hotspots you’ve previously logged in to, and will connect automatically when they come within range. If you’re a Spotify user, you’ll be pleased to see the streaming music service has been set as the standard music app on the device.

It’s set to be a huge seller, and INQ say the Cloud Touch will be out in the UK this April at a competitive price.

It’s a big day for Google as not only have they given us our first proper look at Android 2.3, but they’ve officially unveiled their second Nexus mobile phone, the Nexus S too. We’ve been waiting for this one, so let’s dive in and take a look at the specification:

• A 4″, 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Contour touchscreen.
• 1GHz Hummingbird processor.
• 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA.
• 16GB internal memory.
• 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash.
• VGA video-call camera.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1.
• Assisted GPS.

The Nexus S has been manufactured by Samsung and also wears the familiar Google branding on its rear panel, while inside driving the phone is an untouched version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

But that’s not all, as the Nexus S has several other surprises too! The first is the ‘Contour’ touchscreen, so called because the capacitive glass screen is curved ever-so slightly, allowing it to sit comfortably in your hand as well as matching the lines of your face. The spec also mentions a pixel-per-inch measurement of 235 and an anti-fingerprint coating too.

Secondly, the Nexus S will be equipped with NFC, a technology for reading NFC chips and tags or for potentially using your phone as a digital wallet. Near Field Communication has been around for a while, but has yet to become mainstream in Europe or the USA.

Other Nexus S features include a 3.5mm headphone socket, a digital compass, a dedicated graphics processing unit for great games plus all the usual Android and Google apps. Amazingly, the Nexus S only weighs 129 grams too — surprising for a phone with a 4″ screen!

Like the Nexus One, the Nexus S will be available to buy unlocked, but instead of this being through Google, various retailers will carry the device. It’s out in the US on the 16th December and the UK on the 20th December.

You can watch a pair of videos on the Nexus S below, one with an overview of the birth of the S and the other a rather strange promo video for the new phone.

Nokia have announced a new phone today, the C5-03, which they say is an inexpensive way to move into the modern smartphone market. Shunning the alphanumeric keypad and Nokia Classic-style looks of the first C5, the C5-03 has a touchscreen and a sleek design reminiscent of the Nokia N8.

The feature list looks like this:

• A 3.2″ touchscreen.
• 3G.
• Wi-Fi.
• A microSD card slot for cards up to 16GB.
• 5 megapixel camera.
• GPS.

Now, wouldn’t it be fantastic if this used Symbian^3?  Yes it would, so it’s a shame it uses Symbian^1 — or S60 5th Edition to you and me — making it very similar to the trusty 5800 XpressMusic. Users will still find a clutch of Ovi tools onboard though, including Ovi Mail, Ovi Music, the Ovi Store and the latest version of Ovi Maps with its free navigation service.

The complete list of specifications hasn’t been released yet, and some important questions are currently unanswered. For example, we’re not sure if this has a capacitive or resistive screen, nor what its resolution is, or crucially, the speed of the C5-03’s processor and the amount of memory it has. But we do know it weighs 93 grams and is 13.8mm thick!

The new C5-03 will go on sale before the end of the year, when it will be available in several colours including the lime green seen on the N8, and is listed at costing 170 euros (£150) unconnected.

Like Samsung’s Galaxy range, new examples of LG’s Optimus phones keep popping up around the world! The latest pair are the Optimus T and Optimus S, this time destined for T-Mobile and Sprint in the USA respectively, although we wouldn’t be surprised if either one appears elsewhere at a later date too.

The Optimus T’s spec sheet reads as follows:

• Google Android 2.2.
• A 3.2 capacitive touchscreen.
• 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus.
• A 600MHz processor.
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a microSD card slot.
• Assisted GPS.

The Optimus S shares the same feature list, and the pair are likely to be low-cost contract phones. These two, plus a variety of other Android phones sharing basically the same spec have appeared at the CTIA show this week, from manufacturers such as Sharp with the Zio and Huawei with the Ascend.

Cheap Android phones are great, but when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, plus they never beat the HTC Wildfire in terms of features and especially, looks. Plus, if LG want to become a player in the Android world, it’s going to take something a lot more interesting than these two to do it.

Both these LG Optimus phones are scheduled for release before Christmas and will be available in several different colours. LG haven’t mentioned anything about a European launch, but in all honesty, would we really want either of them?

We heard that Huawei were expected to launch an Android mobile phone on the 2nd of September and here it is, the Huawei Ideos. It has been developed in conjunction with Google, so it has the logo on the battery cover, and is designed to be sold throughout Europe, Asia and America, providing Huawei with a great chance to gain more recognition in these markets.

The Ideos is a touchscreen phone with a similar look to the HTC Tattoo and Huawei’s own T-Mobile Pulse, and has been priced with PAYG in mind at around £100-£129. However this price point doesn’t mean it has a poor spec, in fact it’s quite good. Huawei themselves say this is the only Android 2.2 phone currently available at a ‘competitive price point’.

In addition to Android 2.2, the Ideos has a 2.8″ capacitive touchscreen3G and HSDPA, 802.11n Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The phone has 256MB RAM and 512MB of ROM, while the processor is a 528MHz chip.

Huawei want to build the Ideos name — which stands for ‘Industrial design, evolution and operating system’ apparently — into a brand for all its future smartphones, and this initial model will be on sale during October.