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| 27 Sep 2006 09:33:42 am |
 New - Nokia N95 - games are just the beginning! |
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Nokia has taken the wraps off its new top-of-the-range N series handset, attempting to wow buyers with the gadgets two-way slider mechanism, five megapixel camera, integrated GPS receiver and support for HSDPA-enabled 3G networks.
The Finnish phone giant stressed the N95s role as the multi-blade knife of mobile phones: "This single device - which fits easily in your pocket - can replace standalone devices that you no longer need, whether its your music player, your digital camera, PDA or navigation device," Anssi Vanjoki, head of Nokias multimedia division boasted.
The N95 looks a little like Nokias N80 slider phone, but the front moves down as well as up, to reveal dedicated music playback keys and the regular keypad, respectively. The phone sports a 2.6in 240 x 320, 16m-colour display backed by a dedicated 3D graphics chip - presumably one of ATIs, the result of the two firms collaboration announced earlier this year.
The phone has built-in stereo speakers and a standard 3.5mm earphone-jack socket. It can take Micro SD cards for storing music and "DVD-like quality" movies shot on the five megapixel camera, which also boasts a Carl Zeiss lens. UPnP support allows content to be streamed to other devices.
Alas, the GPS receiver ships alone, without suitable navigation software, which Nokia said was an "additional feature purchase".
The N95 runs the Symbian operating system and Nokias Series 60 (S60) user interface. Its radio has GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, along with UMTS 3G and HSDPA. |
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Posted By : nick
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| 18 Sep 2006 11:40:25 am |
| Samsung E900 Review |
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Its not just LGs KG800 Chocolate phone that offers a buttonless front display, now Samsung has waded it with its E900 effort. But can the South Korean manufacturer behind the hugely popular D600 model steal the show? We get dialling to find out.
The E900 is a a Tri-Band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) EDGE phone with GPRS capabilities and remarkably very much like the D600 in its ethos as it is the Chocolate phone in its design.
The phone offers a limited feature set on the top of the model, while a quick slide of the display reveals a keypad hidden underneath.
However rather than a big bulky design, the E900 is considerably thinner than the D600 and this is mainly due to the lack of buttons on the front of the phone as well as some other behind the scenes changes.
Where the D600 featured rather clunky buttons on the front of the slider design, on the E900 they have been replaced by touch sensitive ones and means that you merely have to press the casing to access the function you want rather than an actual button.
Unfortunately Samsung hasnt taken this perhaps as far as it could have in our mind, so a key dpad and OK button are still present.
Slide the bright crisp 2-inch 240x320 262K Colour TFT screen back and you are presented with a small, but easy to use keypad with no additional buttons - these are on top. Realising that any phone with either a camera or MP3 player must have direct access buttons, Samsung has tucked these out of the way on the side of the handset.
Featuring a 2 megapixel camera, the E900 is keen to promote itself as more than just a phone images can be stored on either the phones internal 80MB memory or directly on to an optional micro SD slot.
However its not all good news. For some reason there is a slight delay in pressing the button to activate the camera and the software actually loading. This slowness is certainly noticeable against other Samsung models weve tested, most specifically the D600. The slowness also affects the shutter lag on the camera and in our tests we noticed that it took a long time to take an image after we pressed the shutter button.
Of course taking photographs isnt all the E900 can do and taking advantage of its internal memory and micro SD slot the phone also features a MP3 player and speaker so you can share the love.
The player supports all the usual suspects including MP3/AAC/ACC+/AAC+(e)/WM playback and you can transfer tracks to the phone via bluetooth or USB.
THE GOOD
Bright screen, touch sensitive, two megapixel camera
THE BAD
Camera isnt as good as it should have been, some will say youve opted for a Chocolate phone copycat
WE SAY
It might be a copycat, but its still likely to be one of "The" phones of the year.
VERDICT
As the successor to the D600 the E900 ticks all the boxes, the interface although retro in its design is easy to use and will be second nature to other Samsung users, who liked the idea of the chocolate phone however werent too sure of the interface.
As for a style icon, like the Chocolate phone, the SGH-E900 does a good job, the touch sensitive screens passed the wow factor down the pub, while the large screen meant seeing anything youre doing also got the thumbs up.
However where the Samsung E900 wins out is its feature set: 2 megapixels compared to 1.3, in-built loud speaker and like the D600 a TV out connection to share photos and video with others.
It might be a copycat, but its still likely to be one of "The" phones of the year.
The review was provided by www.Pocket-lint.co.uk the leading website for gadget news and reviews in the UK. |
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Posted By : nick
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| 02 Aug 2006 11:23:38 am |
| Samsung SCH-V940 |
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Here is something you do not see everyday: an orange phone. Okay, so the new SCH-V940 from Samsung will also be offered in the more standard black, white, and silver casings as well, but who can resist the uniqueness of having a cell phone the same color as a tangerine.
On the spec sheet side of things, this (likely) slim slider comes with most of the stuff youd expect from Koreas largest cell phone maker. Its got a bright TFT LCD display of undisclosed size, an integrated camera (though its only 1.3 megapixels, which is a shame really), and a built-in media player. Theres no mention of an expansion slot, but with a full gig of internal memory, you dont really need one anyways. After all, thats as big as microSD cards come these days.
No word on pricing and availability, but my best guess has the SCH-V940 as a Korea-only launch anyways. Prove me wrong, Samsung please, prove me wrong. |
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| 19 May 2006 10:58:31 am |
| LG KG800 slider aka Chocolate phone review |
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Straight out of A Space Odyssey, LGs new KG800 slider (aka Chocolate) is a black monolith of a slider with an unusually stylish exterior; Jorgen Sundgot finds out whether its beauty is merely skin deep.
Joining a crowded space, the fashionable LG KG800 slim phone has its work cut out for it. At 95 x 48 x 15.2 mm and 83 g, its slim, lightweight and undoubtedly one of the most stylish handsets weve ever reviewed - provided one favours minimalist designs, that is. In fact, its front half is completely flush; flick the handset open, and 9 touch-sensitive navigational controls are lit up in bright red. Not only rather cool, the setup works very well indeed, although it takes a little adjustment to avoid accidental presses from resting ones thumb on the surface.
Let me entertain you
Another aspect of the KG800 which lights up when opened is its bright and crisp medium-resolution display, which does a good job of conveying the colourful, pretty and mostly intuitive interface of the handset. This also works as the viewfinder for the integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera, which - with the exception of a slight blur and slow picture saving - does a decent job at taking pictures and recording short video clips. Its 128 MB of onboard memory will hold in excess of 700 highest-quality pictures, which should suffice for most shutterbugs.
The music player of the KG800, however, quickly runs out of space due to the handsets lack of memory expansion. Capable of storing only in the range of 40 MP3 files at best, out-of-box audio quality as delivered by the bundled handsfree kit is at best mediocre - as compared to a dedicated music phone, that is. Furthermore, the only functionality offered is a simple playlist and shuffle, and USB 1.1 is merely sufficient; basic sums it up.
Keep your eye on the basics
Speaking of basics, this is an area where LG should have paid more attention. Although the keypad of the KG800 is equipped with large, comfortable keys, they not only lack a backlight for use in the dark but also suffer from not being able to keep up with rapid-fire text input. Similarly, wireless reception doesnt quite compare to other slim phones, although voice quality in general and the handsets Bluetooth performance - including headset and laptop connectivity - are good. GPRS is the only option for data transfers, which means business users should look elsewhere.
Also present in the KG800 are the usual trappings such as SMS, EMS and MMS for messaging, along with a barebones e-mail client. A WAP 2.0 microbrowser makes for light surfing, while a 500-entry phone book joins a calendar and memo function in taking care of daily duties. Lastly, it should be mentioned that the battery life of the KG800 is unimpressive; talk time hovered in the 2 hour range, while standby time clocked in around 140 hours.
Price and availability
The LG KG800 will be available throughout Europe in May 2006, selling in the EUR 500 range.
Conclusion
With the KG800, LG clearly made the decision to keep specifications on the down low in order to bring forward a small, light and supremely stylish handset - although its price tag claims otherwise. Its feature set - including a mediocre camera and music player - compares reasonably well to other slim and fashion phones; its most aggravating fault is the lagging text input, which stands in contrast to its responsive touch-sensitive navigational controls. This is a handset for those who primarily call and text, and want to look good doing it.
Whats positive:
Superbly suave design; touch sensitive navigational controls; compact
Whats negative:
So-so battery life; lagging text input; lacks memory expansion |
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| 19 May 2006 10:54:38 am |
| Music lovers identify with Sony Ericsson |
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Sony Ericsson has strengthened its mobile Walkman brand with two new devices and the first model to feature song identification software.
The UMTS-enabled W850i arrives with TrackID, powered by Gracenote Mobiles MusicID application, which allows users to record a few seconds of a song and send it with one click to the Gracenote database for identification. Recording can be done via the microphone or directly from the built-in FM radio.
The phone is loaded with Walkman 2.0 software for music playback and management and comes with a 1GB memory stick expandable to 4GB. Its also configured to work with operator over the air music download services.
The second new device is the W710 Walkman. This ones aimed at the gym crowd, with a built-in motion sensor that measures running speed, distance, time or steps; its the first pedometer phone. The W710 comes supplied with a 512MB Memory Stick.
These announcements perpetuate an extraordinarily busy year for Sony Ericsson. The manufacturer has just revealed the Z710 and Z550 clamshell phones, which brings the total announced in Europe this year to 17. |
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| 03 May 2006 07:46:45 am |
| Samsung D520 slimline slider to offer Bluetooth stereo audio |
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Samsung will this month offer its latest slimline slider phone to European consumers, pitching the 1.6cm-thick, "easy-to-grip" devices Bluetooth 1.2-based wireless stereo playback and 80MB of on-board music storage at "the modernist and music appreciator in you".
The SGH-D520 also sports a 126 x 220, 262,144-colour screen and a 1.3 megapixel digicam with flash. The phone has a tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS receiver. The whole shebang weighs a mere 93g.
Samsung said it will ship the D520 in South-East Asia as well as Europe this month. |
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| 20 Mar 2006 11:13:00 am |
| Motorola RAZR Z Slider phone launch hope for 31st March |
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The Motorola RAZR is back again, this time in an updated format, with more features. The product name is the Z Slider.
This handset has a 2.2-inch display, MP3 player, and 1.3-megapixel camera. Its slick sliding design hides a suite of other buttons that users will find useful.
The super-thin phone (just 14.8mm in width) was developed and launched in South Korea. It will operate on the SK Telecom CDMA network and is available only there now, prices are expected to be between US$500 and US$625. The company has issued no official word yet on a worldwide launch or a GSM version of the existing product although rumours are for March 31st. All we can do is wait and pray. |
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| 27 Feb 2006 04:56:12 pm |
| DRM delayed Nokias iPod phone |
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Nokias music N91 smartphone - its first phone with a hard disk - has been held up because of DRM issues, the company confirmed.
Nokias Pekka Pohjakallio told us last week in Barcelona that adding Windows DRM was the primary cause of the slip. That confirms what Nokia executives said when the delay was acknowledged last Fall.
Nokia had originally hoped to ship the N91, which was announced back in April, by Christmas. Instead, it promoted the N70, an incremental improvement over the 6680 series, as its Xmas bait.
The N91 is due by the end of Q1. It cant have escaped your notice that were already more than halfway through Q1.
Nokia has been bundling Symtella - a Symbian port of the Gnutella P2P client - with media units Stateside, and last year made much of this Wi-Fi phones sharing capabilities. It seems to have lost its fervour, with Pohjakallio talking guardedly about sharing N91 playlists by Bluetooth or MMS.
Nokia says it shipped 46.5m music phones last year, and expects to ship USD80m in 2006. But only the hefty N91, with its dedicated music controls, 4GB hard drive, and a real headphone jack, and the slimmer, mid-market 3250, look like theyre able to give the ever-shrinking iPod a run for its money. |
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| 08 Feb 2006 12:09:55 pm |
| Motorola SLVR L7 music phone review |
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According to the word on the street, there are two reasons why you would want Motorolas SLVR phone over any other. The first is the dimensions of the device and the second that its the second phone from Motorola to offer users iTunes software.
The first point is very true. The SLVR is incredibly slim: its just 1.2cm thick, and this means you can happily tuck it in a trouser pocket without every girl you talk thinking youve got other things on your mind. In profile, its 11.4 x 4.9cm.
But the claim that this is the second iTunes phone might be true in America, but alas here in the UK, its not, at least not yet.
We asked Motorola why the phone was lacking perhaps the one key feature aside from the design and the reply was a simple "no comment". Its a strange omission especially considering that the phone is shipping with the software in other territories. Perhaps its because the company is still suffering from reported poor sales of the ROKR.
Get past this and the phone doesnt really offer much beyond the design. Yes, theres a media player capable of playing MP3 or AAC tracks. Yes, theres Bluetooth. Yes, theres a 64MB Transflash (aka Micro SD) card in the box to get you started - theres a mere 5MB of on-board memory. But weve rather come to expect all this from a phone purporting to be multimedia all singing all dancing models, so its really nothing to shout about.
You can see the games for the SLVR L7 here though if music aint what you are into. |
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| 11 Jan 2006 11:20:30 am |
| Motorola PEBL |
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See games for the Motorola PEBL
Jorgen Sundgot from InfoSync takes a superficial look at Motorolas new PEBL , a clamshell handset with chrome in all the right places.
Is round the new thin? Dont worry if you cant make heads or tails of that question - that just proves youre not unhealthily obsessed with mobile phones. In fact, its a reference to one of the new handsets unveiled by Motorola in Cannes this week, the PEBL; a clamshell handset which, unlike the much-coveted RAZR V3, foregoes a slim profile in favour of rounded shapes.
Nicking Motorolas own catchphrase for the PEBL , this handset is indisputably elegant. When closed, the surface is flush to the point where you wonder if youll actually be able to hold on to it whilst making a call, but fortunately the finish isnt quite as slippery as the generous amount of chrome suggests.
To open the handset, users must first slide the upper half of the clamshell downwards to release a catch, at which point the handset is intended to spring open by itself; the sample I toyed with did not, being nowhere near a final production state. In fact, powering on the PEBL wasnt even an option, and as such theres no way of commenting on neither the quality of its screen nor its user interface.
What can be said, however, is that integrated Bluetooth support, 5 MB of memory and a VGA camera in combination with tri-band GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz provide a highly mediocre feature set. Obviously, the main focus of the PEBL is looks, not features - and theres nothing wrong with that when a company delivers the goods in the design department.
Tieing discretely in with the overall, an oblong LCD screen providing basic information graces the outside of the handset when closed. Slightly more interesting is the inside of the handset, where the designers have foregone the traditional design paradigm of raised keys in favour of recessed dimples. Getting a feel for navigating these proved surprisingly easy, but theres no guarantee that this will end up being the final design; a Motorola spokesperson confirmed the layout of the keypad as tentative.
For some reason or other, I have a feeling women may take a particular liking to the PEBL as its styling is far more subtle than that of the RAZR V3 and the SLVR V8. That being said, I couldnt find a fellow male visitor who didnt like the design. |
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Posted By : nick
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| 22 Dec 2005 06:11:54 pm |
| Sony Ericsson Walkman W900 3G music phone |
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By Dan Leonoard, Pocket Lint-
The W900 is billed as the latest and greatest in the 3G Walkman phone series. Spotted at the launch in October in black and in white, the latest news is that only the white version will be released in the UK. And for the first three months, the W900 will only be available in the UK on the Vodafone network.
As with the W550, the W900 offers the user a choice at start-up - call or music only. Now Im familiar with three handsets in the Walkman family, and there are no big surprises here. The swivel is the same as the W550s, but the screen is larger and the rather odd handle that housed the antenna in the older model has been dispensed with. The exterior lacks the W550s groovy metal speaker covers, but the contours of the phone are smooth and suit the white skin. Nevertheless, the audio suffers as a result - the W900 has only one speaker, mounted on the back of the unit next to the camera.
The swivel flip opens the full 180, revealing a well-spaced keyboard, including a power button in the bottom right. This is a nice feature, preventing accidental in-pocket operation. The slide lock on the side helps too. Theres a sensible navigation control as well, and all this helps build the phones music player identity. The headphones, with a lead-mounted display and roll control, fit very well in the ear. The soft rubber collars mean the earpieces fit snuggly and seal out a lot of background noise.
Theres 470MB of available internal memory, with a MemoryStick Duo port for more. MP3 and WAV files are loaded over the air or through the included software. Annoyingly, theres no drag and drop functionality, and copying music via the built-in tool between internal memory and card is slow. To copy 100MB of music you will need approximately 15-20 minutes, so be sure to write the content direct to your preferred location.
Two cameras adorn the W900, one a front-mounted VGA and the other a rear-mounted 2mp job with flash. Theres no lens cover, like the K600is and as we were originally shown at a first-look briefing. The key-lock slider on the side of the phone doubles as a flash activator. Not too much of a problem as the keypad is covered during image capture - cameras can only be operated when the phone is closed.
One nice addition would have been a 3.5mm jack, allowing replacement headphones and the ability to output music to another device.
The screen is nice, with a 240 x 320 resolution and 262,144-hue colour depth. Its a shame that the W900s larger chassis isnt used more effectively. The buttons have been spread out which helps, but the lack of speakers lends weight to rumours that the W900 wasnt originally planned to be part of the Walkman family.
Verdict
A good phone, but not as distinctly music-oriented as others in the Walkman series. There are some good additions to the operating system, such as bookmarks to denote phone/card location, and the more spreading-out keypad helps ease of use. The navigation control and surrounding hotkeys give a second layer of control, and the earphones are comfortable, with an intuitive controller.
With the W800 the current king of the mobile music players crowd, the W900 has a tough job ahead of it if its to convince people to opt for this model over the GSM version. The key benefit here is 3G connectivity. |
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| 26 Oct 2005 09:47:01 am |
| Samsung Introduces SPH-B2300 DMB Handset |
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This thing slides, rotates, twists, inverts, flip-flops, and every other descriptive word out there. Actually it only rotates and slides, but it is also capable of receiving satellite DMB programming.
What else does it have? TV-out, video-on-demand, EVDO, IrDA and Pictbridge WiFi printing. This diddy is straight out of Korea and should be available to come December.
Other specs:
This CDMA handset features satellite DMB broadcasting reception, as well as BIFS (Binary Format for Scene) technology, that allows the user to interact with the TV programming. The SPH-B2300 also features a QVGA display, MP3 playback, video-on-demand, TV-output, EV-DO, IrDA, and Pictbridge for mobile printing.
Should be awesome for gaming! |
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| 08 Sep 2005 08:24:07 am |
| The all new SonyEricsson W800i review |
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Featuring a Walkman branded music player, the Sony Ericsson W800i aims to revive the once-fanatic Walkman obsession amongst youth all across the globe - or at least in Europe, since its not really made for use overseas; thats what its W800 - sans i - sibling is for. We take it for a test drive, finding a handset slightly improved over its sibling, the recently top rated K750i.
Weighing in at a mere 99 g and measuring 100 x 46 x 21 mm, the W800i is both slim and light considering its heavy feature set. When turned on, the relatively small 1.8, 262K colour screen strikes one as both bright and clear as well as unusally sharp due to its resolution of 176 x 220 pixels - more typical of smartphones than ordinary handsets.
Moving on, we find the W800i keypad to be very comfortable in use, providing good tactile feedback as well as low audible noise. Both the numeric keys and the action buttons are flat, well-rounded buttons, and Sony Ericsson has also found room for a dedicated short-cut key activating the Walkman music player. In terms of navigation the W800i offers a rather small yet ergonomically sound 5-way joystick, which provides a quick and easy way of scrolling and selecting while in the menu. All in all, the W800i comes across as slick and user-friendly with regard to user interface and text input.
Sporting the same camera as found in the K750i, the W800i snaps stills at a resolution of 2 Megapixels with good white balance, and performs admirably well under poorly lit conditions. Its appliance of contrast leaves something to be desired, however, but overall image quality must be said to be excellent with good colour saturation and crispness. Also, the W800is implementation of auto focus and macro focus deserves praise for its good performance and relatively short response times. Still, despite offering a solid improvement over its predecessors, it cannot replace a dedicated digital camera.
The prominent Walkman branding on the W800is smooth white and orange casing reveals the handsets strong focus on music playback capabilities from a mile away. In fact, when powering on the handset, users must choose whether to use the W800i as a combination of mobile phone and music player, or as a stand-alone music player. Having the same hardware as the K750i, audio quality has been upped significantly as compared to handsets of yore, and given the good quality of its bundled earphones, the W800i as a music player would have no problems competing with many existing portable audio players out-of-the-box. What it doesnt offer, however, is compatibility with tracks purchased from online music services such as Apples iTunes or PlaysForSure compatible varieties including Napster and Yahoo! Music.
Dedicated hardware buttons for play/pause and volume control are of course available, all of which are especially useful when in phone mode. The Walkman application relies on tag data to let users browse music by Artist and Tracks, as well as the ability to create playlists. As with the K750i, however, we did miss the opportunity of forwarding through songs without entering the music player interface - but on the other hand, the graphic equalizer with several presets proved excellent for optimizing sound. As such, its a bit of a shame that the W800i doesnt provide an integrated 3.5 mm jack but rather relies on a bundled dongle.
When it comes to mobile phone related features, the W800i supports GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz networks, as well as HSCSD and GPRS. Unfortunately, EDGE support has been left out, but at least Bluetooth and Infrared are present for short-range connectivity. Offering a Memory Stick Duo expansion slot and an USB 1.1 port, the 512 MB Memory Stick storage card and the USB cable to be found in the box allow for easy transfer of MP3 files to the phone. Furthermore the W800i also sports an FM radio, 38 MB of non-volatile internal memory, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, SMS and MMS, instant messaging and e-mail, and lastly Java MIDP 2.0 as well as WAP 2.0 support.
Reception and voice quality for the Sony Ericsson W800i both proved excellent, as did its battery with approximately 6 hours of talktime and 9 days of standby time as compared to the claimed 9 hours and 16 days, respectively. When using thye W800i exclusively in Walkman mode, we found the battery to last approximately 15 hours; not exactly the 30 hours promised, yet still favourable. |
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| 21 Jul 2005 03:03:14 pm |
| Nokia 6680 hits the UK market and is good for games |
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The much awaited 6680 promises to bring 3G well and truly into the mainstream for Nokia, but can the new multitasking phone offer you multitasking options. We look and find out.
Ive been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Nokia 6680 for quite some time. You see, Im one of the many people to be more than a little disappointed with the 6630 – Nokias first UK 3G offering. It was riddled with bugs from the outset and even after many software updates, failed to live up to most expectations. Enter the 6680, a sleeker, more business-like descendant, running on basically the same principles but with a few nifty improvements.
We have been playing games from our selection of Nokia 6680 Games and first impressions are excellent. The screen is bright and the shape is good in the hand.
It looks so much better than the 6630. A more square shape to the design instantly makes it look like a professionals tool, rather than the slightly gimmicky pear-shape of its predecessor. The keypad, despite still being a little small, doesnt have that slightly odd upwards curve to it. So its easier to use and just feels better in your hand.
The first major and noticeable improvement is a forward facing camera in addition to the 1.3 megapixel main imaging unit at the rear. So now, you can video call without having to buy an additional cradle (or developing a nasty RSI in the wrist from trying to flip the 6630 round to see and be seen!). The rear camera is also protected by an active slide, which, I discovered after taking numerous candid images of the inside of my jacket pocket, remains active even when the keypad is locked. It may be useful for getting to the camera function quickly, but the option to turn it off would be helpful. Theres the addition of a flash and at short range, its actually quite effective. Another nice enhancement to the camera is the ability to change the white balance – surely one of the best things about digital photography and a rare feature on a camera phone up to now.
The video calling function also has a new element – the ability to share video clips during a call, so all those embarrassing fall over in pub moments can be shared immediately with your mates. Or is that just me?
Nokia are most proud of the XpressPrint feature which lets you print your images directly on any PictBridge-enabled printer (Bluetooth even means you can do this wirelessly!) and as long as youre not expecting to put your photos on a billboard, the quality is actually pretty good.
Get past the printing aspects and another new element that is likely to appeal to the office boys is the active standby screen. This resembles a miniature PC desktop, with shortcuts to your favourite applications in addition to the customisable soft keys.
There are also some neat little applications bundled with the phone (although this may depend on your network). Theres QuickOffice to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and a comprehensive suite of imaging and video editing applications.
The requisite messaging and multimedia functions are here too and, as always, are straightforward to set up and operate. [/imgr] |
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