As far as we can tell, this totally nondescript candybar that just "rocked" the FCC as the C300 from Haier doesn't appear under the official Virgin lineup by any catchy name yet, which would put it solidly in the unreleased, unannounced category. Our normal instinct when that happens is to get excited -- maybe break out the bubbly and celebrate our fascinating find with a night of sinful debauchery -- but in this case, this thing is so positively uninspiring that we're having trouble getting fired up about the ordeal. The phone's ugly (at best) and ultra low-end -- you won't even find a camera on this one -- so we're guessing you'll find this in your local CVS for $20 or so within a few weeks, quite possibly without the fanfare of an official press release. One thing we can say for certain: this won't be a Helio-branded device, if you catch our drift.

Update: Rich over at Phone Scoop points out that the C300 is CDMA800 only, which would seem to preclude it for action on Virgin Mobile USA; makes you wonder why they bothered with an FCC approval then, but who are we to question Haier's wisdom?

Just a few short months after rolling out the silly-small C300 from Pantech, the diminutive flip phone is getting an update (sort of) and a new name to mark the occasion: C3. The re-upped model looks like a C300, walks like a C300, and quacks like a C300, but it's not quite a C300 -- the C3 adds interchangeable face plates for when the stock silver gets a little long in the tooth. Look for the C3 now on Cingular for $40 after rebates; for the record, that's $40 more than the C300 will run ya.

[Thanks, Jonathan]

Cingular customers can now run out and grab the freakishly small Pantech C300 clamshell (which reminds us vaguely of Zoolander), but there's a catch: you have to be on GoPhone, Cingular's prepaid service. That's alright, postpaid customers aren't missing much -- other than the unusual size (2.72 x 1.69 x 0.76 inches closed), the C300 doesn't have much going for it. Tri-band 850/900/1900, VGA camera, and an MP3 player round out the feature set. Available now for $119.99.