A new Philips handset is now available in Eastern Europe, in Russia more exactly, coming in a really good-looking clamshell case. The handset is named Philips Xenium 9@9q and doesn't bring too many advanced features, which is why it falls into the "fashionable entry-level" category.

The 9@9q has two color versions, a black one and a red one, which make the handset look quite attractive, both when closed and when open. The new Xenium comes with a main internal 2 inch TFT display with 262K colors and 176 x 220 pixels, plus an external hidden display that can show info like incoming/missed calls and messages or the signal strength.

Besides the nice design, Philips Xenium 9@9q has another strong point - its battery. All the Xenium handsets pack powerful batteries, and the new 9@9q is no exception, as its 890 mAh battery can last up to 9 hours in talk-time mode, up to a whole month in stand-by mode or up to 22 hours if you only want to listen to music.

The rest of the features packed in the Xenium 9@9q include: Music player with support for MP3, AAC and WMA, Bluetooth, WAP browser, a 3.5mm headset jack, a 1.3 Megapixel camera with video recording, tri-band GSM connectivity (900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS, 10.5MB of internal memory and microSD card support (up to 2GB). The dimensions of 9@9q are not known for the moment, but the clamshell seems to be pretty small.

In Russia, Philips Xenium 9@9q retails at 4499 RUB, which means only 122 Euros or $195. This is an attractive price for a handset that looks so good, so we hope the 9@9q will also be released on other European markets in the near future.