Calm down, that’s not a CrackBerry here at WM Experts. It’s the Velocity 111 making its way through the FCC. [via Engadget Mobile]

As Dieter noted when he got his hands on it back in April, the keyboard is all but lifted directly off the BlackBerry 8800, which doesn’t bother us that much. Plagiarism is still the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Fast forward to the fall CTIA event, and we got to put the 111 up against the Treo Pro. It certainly isn’t as sexy and the screen isn’t as deep, but, yeah, that keyboard’s gotta be more usable than the Centro-style one that Palm went with.

We’re still hoping that any of Velocity’s recent offerings will be picked up by a carrier, but we’ve heard nothing to that effect yet. In the meantime maybe they’ll keep licensing out their devices, like they did with the 117 and 127.

More FCC pics after the jump. Full spec goodness here.

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A week ago today we posted up this story about the Dell Pharos, confirming longstanding rumors that Dell was finally going to get back into the Windows Mobile game. Then, as Malatesta and I were discussing it during the WMExperts podcast last week, yours truly did a double-take.

See that there Velocity 117 on the left? Looks a might bit like the Velocity 111 on the right that we did a brief hands-on with at CTIA, don't it? Heck, some Engadget commenters suspect that the Pharos 127 is a prettified version of the Velocity 103 (though our money is on it being a prettified Velocity 301).

Either way, it's nice to see Velocity finally get some marketing oomph and it's equally nice to see Dell find a way to jump-start it's entry back into the WinMo landscape. All that being said, these devices don't exactly project the aura of absolute power that used to come with the Axim line.

Dieter's dodging Hurricane Ike as he wings his way back from the West Coast and CTIA, so let's recap what all he brought back for the rest of us.

First up was live-blogging the keynote event with the chief executive officers of T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. Some good nuggets about openness in the industry and Yahoo Go.

Of course, what we all couldn't wait for was for the big D to get down on the floor and get his hands on some devices. And he didn't disappoint, with videos and full photo galleries.

Check in after the break for the entire rundown, in one easy-to-carry package.

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Above, an unboxing and first look at the Velocity 103, the Windows Mobile smartphone we just told you will be available in an unlocked from in the very near future. We took a slightly closer look at the Odyssey interface than we did with the Velocity 83. More importantly, though, that interface will likely see some improvements -- heck, the entire device will -- based on the Velocity over the Air (VOTA) service they've drummed up. Expect a full review of the 103 in the coming weeks, but so far we're digging the 640x480 screen, find the overall form factor a bit brick-y, and are rushing to install a 3rd party soft-keyboard.

For now, though, we're going to get into the VOTA stuff a bit more after the break, plus take a gander at the QWERTY Velocity 111 and an upcoming device from the upstart startup. Read on!

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The Velocity 103, ladies and gents, is a sweet device. Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, Quad-band 3G on GSM, 128 meg RAM, 256 ROM, 4 Hour Talks Time, AGPS, TV-out, WiFi, and a 480x640 Touch screen.

We know that people throw the term “Treo Killer” around a lot, but the Velocity 111 just might do the trick. It's a Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro device with a flush touchscreen at 240x320 screen resolution and all the other trimmings of the 103.

It also sports a decent-enough QWERTY Keyboard that has a design that's ripped off directly inspired by the BlackBerry 8800 keyboard. The BlackBerry “inspiration” doesn't stop there, though, check out the white scroll ball in the center. Tell you what - that scroll ball works darn well on a Windows Mobile Device. We approve.

Velocity doesn't have any carrier deals set up, so if you're hankering for either on of these you'll need to a) wait and b) try to find it unlocked somewheres.

Full Gallery after the break!

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