Background Information & Look n’ Feel

Samsung have just announced the launch of the Samsung W960 AMOLED 3D (SCH-W960) which heralds the beginning of a new generation of 3D mobile phones. Thankfully you don’t need special glasses to view the 3D display. The phone is a basic candy bar design with no outstanding features to comment about. The phone weighs 119g and measures 113.9 x 53.9 x 13.9 mm.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

The Samsung W960 has a 3.3” AMOLED capacitive touch display with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. The screen uses gesture based interactions, an accelerometer for auto-rotate and the Touch Wiz 2.0 user interface. Whilst these specifications are not bad you can find similar technology in other phones on the market.
What is special about the Samsung W960 is the 3D effect of the display. As previously mentioned, you will not need to wear glasses to view the 3D effect. Another plus is that you can switch between 3D and 2D at the press of a button.

The phone has a 3.2 MP built-in camera with a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels. It has autofocus and video but no built-in flash.

Connectivity wise this mobile phone supports both 3G (HSDPA 2100) and 2G networks (with the quad band GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900). The Samsung W960 also has GPRS, Edge, USB v2.0, and Bluetooth 2.1. Unfortunately there is no Wi-Fi with this phone.

The phone’s other useful features include: a document viewer, for looking at Microsoft Office documents; voice memo; an organiser; and DMBTV. The phone can play both MP3 and MP4 media files.

Availability & Pricing

The w960 will initially be launching in South Korea probably in June or July. A European release date has yet to be confirmed. No information on price is available but based on the specification of this phone it is likely to be aimed at the lower to middle range of the market.

Samsung W960 3D Video Review

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Background Information & Look n’ Feel

The LG KM570 Cookie Music Phone or LG Cookie Gig (depending on which country you are in) is the newest phone in LG’s latest Cookie budget range. The phone looks nice with its chrome edging, however, the phone’s casing is all plastic. You can get this device in silver black, prism violet and blue.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

Being a music phone the LG KM570 comes with all the necessary features one would expect. It has a 3.5 mm audio socket at the top of the mobile phone, high quality speakers, Dolby sound enhancement, and a stereo FM radio with RDS. The phone also has games and a can play both MP3 and MP4 files.

The mobile phone’s display is a bit low spec in that its resolution is WQVGA and not WVGA, but this is to be expected given that this is a budget phone. The display itself is a 3” TFT resistive touch screen with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. To help improve the usability of the phone it also has handwriting recognition and an accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate.

The LG Cookie Music (LG Cookie Gig) comes with a relatively nice 5 megapixel camera with autofocus. Unfortunately the phone does not come with a flash but it does have video recording.

Connectivity wise this mobile phone supports both 3G (the dual band HSDPA 900/ 2100) and 2G networks (with the quad band GSM 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900). The LG Cookie KM570 also includes GPRS and Edge. To transfer files you can either use a USB v2.0 cable or wireless Bluetooth.

To store your music and photos this phone comes with quite a lot of memory. It has 4GB of internal memory that can be expanded to 16GB using a microSD card. Other useful features include a document viewer for looking at Microsoft Office documents, voice memo, and an organiser.

Availability & Pricing

This phone will be available in Q2 of 2010. As yet there is no information on price.

LG Cookie Gig KM570 Video Review

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Background Information – Look n’ Feel

The Nokia X2 is the latest in a range of affordable mobile phones being brought out by Nokia in the last few weeks. It is a sleek candy bar shaped phone that has with a 2.2” graphics display which should be ample for this type of phone. The X2 comes in either Black/Red or Silver/Blue colour combinations. This is a lightweight mobile phone, weighing in at only 81 grams and measuring 111 x 47 x 13mm.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

This phone primarily sells itself on being a music phone. As such it comes with an FM radio, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and two powerful speakers that deliver high quality sound. To easily access your music this phone has convenient one touch keys. You also get free songs at the Nokia Music Store which you can keep forever.
The Nokia X2 comes with a nice 5 megapixel camera which has a LED flash, a 4x digital zoom, and video at 20 frames per second. You can upload your photos using email and Ovi Share. One really useful extra is that you can use the flash as a torch.

This music phone has an internal memory of 48 MB which can be expanded to 16GB of storage using a microSD. The phone also comes with high-speed USB 2.0 and stereo Bluetooth connectivity. It also supports local and remote SyncML to enable smooth, efficient synchronization of remote data and personal information across devices.

The Nokia X2 uses Series 40 software which helps run a myriad of applications such as Flickr, two converters, a world clock, and share on Ovi, to mention but a few. The phone uses a lithium ion battery which is expected to last an impressive 13.5 hours of talk time and 26 hours on standby time .

Availability and pricing

The phone should be available sometime in quarter 2 of 2010 and will probably be priced around £80.

Video Review

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Background Information – Look n’ Feel

The Nokia N8, which is part of the N series, is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It has fantastic components on it, and outstanding technology. It comes in 5 different colours, dark grey, blue, silver, lime green and vibrant orange, so there is definitely something to suit everyone.  The shape of this phone differs from the conventional ‘slab’ these types of Nokia phones generally appear in, making it a little more interesting.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

This touch screen measures in at 3.5 inches, and has an accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate and weighs in at 135g.

This Nokia is the first of its kind to have an astonishing 12 Mega Pixel camera to appear on a mobile phone. This camera also has impressive Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Xenon flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection and video. As if that wasn’t enough, it also has a secondary camera allowing for the function of video calling.

The Nokia N8 also has the standard features of an alarm clock, organiser, calendar, games and FM radio. The memory isn’t bad at 16GB, which can be expanded up to 32GB with a microSD card.

With a Li-Po battery, this phone has a stand by life of 720 hours, and a talk time life of 5 hours and 20 minutes.

Software

Another Nokia first is the new Symbian operating system which is the most sophisticated software to date. The new Operating System has kinetic scrolling with multi touch support, pinch-to-zoom, 3D and 2D graphics acceleration and multiple home screens. All these features have been highly customised to suit Nokia.

These features are leaps and bounds ahead of what Nokia have produced previously. However, whether the performance will match the impressive specifications will only be seen over time.

This model also caters for all the social networkers, with different applications to use. It also has internet expertise, with WAP, WLAN, GPRS, Bluetooth and EGDE technology.  It also possesses the option for push email, instant messaging, Nokia Maps, and a digital compass.

Availability and pricing

The launch date has been delayed to July 2010. The price has not yet been specified, although it’s rumoured that Nokia are proposing this new N8 at a mere €370 before tax. This makes it a complete bargain compared to the HTC Desire phone, with its new and improved features.

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The BlackBerry Pearl 3G comes in two models, the 9100 and the 9105, which are the long awaited updates for the 8110. The 9100 model features a 20-key condensed QWERTY keyboard and the 9105 model features a 14-key traditional phone keyboard. Both models include SureType® software that can complete words as the user types, making texting fast and accurate.

Apart from the keyboards both BlackBerry Pearl 3G phones are relatively similar in appearance to the old 8110 in that they are all basic candybar phones. One noticeable difference is that the track ball has been replaced by an optical trackpad. This is a marked improvement as the track ball was continually breaking because of dirt.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

Compared to the 8110 the new 3G BlackBerry Pearl has a really high definition display at 360 x 400 pixels. The device is also slightly slimmer and heavier, measuring 108 x 50 x 13 mm and weighing 93 grams. The phone also comes with a 3.2 megapixels camera with autofocus, LED flash, and video.

As the name suggests the new BlackBerry Pearl now has 3g whereas the 8110 only had 2g. In terms of connectivity the BlackBerry Pearl 3G has GPRS, EDGE, USB, Bluetooth and WAP. These phone is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to support ‘n’ Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n).

Like for like the BlackBerry 3G also beats the 8110 on battery power. According to the manufacturers you should get 5 hours of talk time and 13 days on standby on 3g.

Software

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G uses the latest BlackBerry® OS 5 which is also used in the BlackBerry Bold. The UI has been smartened up and made fasters and you can now synch iTunes and Windows Media Player.

Availability and pricing

According to RIM the BlackBerry Pearl 3G should hit the market in May 2010. No information is currently available on price.

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The LG GX500 is a stylish touch screen handset that will be launched as LG’s third dual SIM phone in May 2010. It seems LG are going head to head with Alcatel, as they too are releasing a new dual SIM phone around the same time as LG.

The features of the new Alcatel mobile phone are not common knowledge yet, although in appearance it is a more old school phone with an alphanumeric keypad in a block style. Whereas, the new LG GX500 feels much more modern, with a swanky touch screen and a slim feel.

The new dual SIM type phones are quite hard to come by, although, this type of phone is growing in numbers, and it seems that other well known brands of mobile phones will be following suit with a dual SIM functionality.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

This smart phone has not one, but two SIM card inserts and supports simultaneous operation.  With a TFT 3-inch colour touch screen and a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels, it is yet another touch screen with a number of social networking functions. This phone weighs in at 118g.

The LG GX500 has a primary built in camera of 3.2MP, with a pixel resolution of 2048×1536 and autofocus. There is also a secondary camera for video call functionality. The primary camera also has video capabilities and a video player.

This model uses a Li-Po battery and has a battery life of up to 6 hours talk time and 400 hours standby.

Software

This LG doesn’t seem to have 3G technology, which is a bit of shame when using the internet. Although it does have GSM networks, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a microUSB port. It also has WQVGA display, a music player, FM radio, WAP, GPRS and EDGE technology.  Gamers can also be satisfied as a number of games can be downloaded via Java.

Availability and pricing

It is not yet available on the market, and is not anticipated to be released until May 2010. Pricing has not been specified.

General

Sony Ericsson are releasing two phones soon, the Spiro and Zylo. They have been named as ‘walkman phones’ due to their music capabilities. This is a slider phone, so doesn’t have a touch screen like a lot of the new phones out at the moment, although it is incredibly light to carry around. It will be available in carbon black, dusky pink and light green.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

It only weights 90g, with a 2.2 inches screen and 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA). The mobile can store up to 2000 entries and 30 received dialled and missed calls.

This model has a not-so-great built-in camera at 2MP, but does have video capabilities. For all the music lovers, this phone has a Walkman 4.0 player, and instant access to the TrackID feature. This function allows the mobile to ‘hear’ a song that is being played, and will identify the artist and the title of the song, which is then downloadable. This feature seems to have been very popular in 2009, and Sony Ericsson are planning to continue this success.

Bluetooth connectivity, social networking features (facebook and twitter apps), 3.5 mm audio jack, a 2.2 inches display, up to 5 MB of internal memory, a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 16GB of additional storage space, USB mass storage, and support for GSM GPRS/EDGE are all present on this model. This mobile also has other features which you would expect to find on a modern phone and more. Such as, a calendar, alarm clock, FM radio with RDS, SMS, MMS, organiser, speakerphone and flashlight.

This phone possesses a standard Li-lon battery, with a talk time of 4 hours and 30 minutes, and a standby life of 476 hours.

Availability and pricing

This model is not yet available in the UK, although it is predicted to be hitting the market in Q3 2010. Price has also not been specified.

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Background Information – Look n’ Feel

The Nokia E72 business phone appears to be the successor of the Nokia E71, hence it looks very similar. It comes in carbon black, subtle purple, copper brown, and a metallic grey. For quite a relatively heavy phone, at 128g, the Nokia E72 is very slim and feels easy in the hand. The smart phone measures in at 11.4cm tall by 5.8cm wide by 1cm deep, with a screen of 2.36 inches.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

The Nokia E72 is yet another QWERTY keyboard, Blackberry style phone. For some, the QWERTY keyboard makes using the internet and accessing emails quicker and easier than the alphanumeric keypads seen in older models. The person using the phone can view documents in a number of formats, including PDF files, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

The phone has a 5 megapixel camera, with auto focus, LED flash, and video recording capabilities. There is also a secondary VGA camera to use for video calls at the front of the phone.

This mobile has a very good connectivity selection, including HSDPA, HSUPA, WCDMA, GPRS, EGSM, and WLAN.

A small criticism of this smartphone is the poor internal memory of 4GB, which can be expandable up to 16GB. On the other hand, there is a FM radio feature on this model, which isn’t typical of other business phones, so it’s quite unusual, but can be very convenient when you’re on the go.

This phone has a Li-Po (Lithium polymer) type battery, that gives you 576 hours stand by time, and 6 hours talk time, which is nothing out of the ordinary and quite a standard battery life.

Availability and pricing

This has been available in the UK since October 2009. It retails in Europe for €370 EUROS, which is approximately £320.

General

Background Information & Look n’ Feel

The Nokia E5 smart phone heavily resembles Blackberry’s style of phone and the Nokia E72. The Nokia E5 comes in 5 delectable colours –business black, wild white, baby blue, bronzy brown and shiny silver.

It can be used for business or pleasure, which reflects the funky colours for private use, and the more subtle colours for business. This is also reflected in the software aspect of the phone as well.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

With the E5, Nokia have intended to provide better social networking tools and messaging for people all over the globe, at prices within the ordinary person’s means. It has access to a range of email accounts (including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, Ovi Mail, Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler Business), Instant Messaging unities and a number of social networking sites. This is all made very easy to use by the full QWERTY keyboard, weighing in at an acceptable 126g.

The screen is 2.4-inches, which seems very small in comparison to other Nokia models. Nonetheless, it is still adequate for internet use and taking pictures. The phone also has a 5 mega-pixel camera with fixed focus, auto flash, 4X optical zoom, and video recording.

This model also comes with 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth, WAP, GPRS and EDGE technology, which makes this phone great for using the web. Although, the internal memory doesn’t seem to be up to scratch with a 250 MB internal memory. This can be redeemed through the use of a memory card, expanding storage of up to 32GB with a microSD card…that’s better!

With a standard Li-lon battery, this smart phone has an outstanding battery life with 18 hours and 30 minutes talk time, with a standby life of 29 days! So if you don’t like charging your phone very often, this is the one for you.

Availability & Pricing

The Nokia E5 is estimated to cost €180 before taxes, which will be approximately £160 and is expected to be available in the Q3 of 2010. This is a very moderate price by Nokia to make a phone like this more accessible to a much wider audience.

All in all, this affordable smart phone seems to be quite impressive for its price tag.

Nokia E5 Video Review

General

This week Nokia announced the release of three new mobile phones of which the Nokia C3 is the entry level phone. By copying the BlackBerry style the phone gives the impression that its more expensive than it’s worth. In black, the phone looks quite business like, but for those wanting to a more chic look there’s “hot pink” and “golden white”. The phone is a manageable size at 115.5 x 58.1 x 13.6 mm and weighing 114 grams.

Hardware – Display, Keyboard, Battery, Communications, Memory, Connectors

The phone comes with a 2.4 inch graphical monitor with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels.  It is also Nokia’s first full QWERTY keyboard giving it the appearance of a smartphone. The C3 also comes with a pretty basic 2 MP built-in camera with video but this is perfectly adequate given the price tag.

The Nokia C3 does not have 3G but it has quad-band GSM and supports Bluetooth 2.1, GPRS, WAP and Edge. The phone also has WLAN (wireless local area network) which means you can use your phone like a laptop by accessing the internet wirelessly at home or via hotspots.

Software

The C3 uses Series 40 which is both a software platform and application UI (user interface) used for Nokia’s mid range mobile phones. The software helps run Ovi Mail, Ovi Chat and social networking apps such as Facebook and Twitter. Incidentally, this is Nokia’s first phone that can access the social networks from the homescreen.

Availability and pricing

The Nokia C3 will be available in the second quarter of 2010 and will cost about €90.

Video Review

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