Mobile Phones

The Samsung P300 was both innovative and successful, but now Samsung has now gone a step further and taken the lead with the Samsung SGH-X820, which at 6.9 mm is the slimmest phone in the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if other manufacturers go down this path and manage to spur Samsung on to even greater achievements. You cannot believe how thin the Samsung X820 is until you have held it. Next to the slim design, Samsung has managed to boost the X820 with a 2 Megapixel digital camera, with a maximum photo resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. I tried the Samsung SGH-X820 out for a while and will discuss its functions and characteristics in the following mobile phone review.

Source and more info: photokina-show

For a country rich in historical uprisings, culture and social change, France seems to have been slow to join the mobile race to attract women. With pink, blue, orange, green (the list goes on) handsets and most recently flower-flaunting phones gracing the pages of fashion magazines, it’s never been a better time to be a lady, with all the major manufacturers exploiting this new-found audience.

With all this attention lavished on the girly girls, it seems surprising to see French handset manufacturer Sagem continue to design quite sedate but smart-looking phones. Its recent phones have assumed a slimline form – the my401x clocked in at 14mm – but lack true chic to catch the eye. Well, now Sagem has finally joined the girly world of the pink flower phone with its latest handset, the my700x, banishing its cautious approach in one fell swoop.

From the front, the my700x closely resembles Sagem’s recent my300/400 series of candybar phones, but differentiates itself with a new keyboard design motif. The five-way navigation pad and middle row numbers – 2, 5, 8 and 0 – are encapsulated in a circular repeated pattern. While the keypad design hints at a new direction, the my700x’s real personality is revealed on the back, where a floral motif gives away its girly fashion aspirations.

Source and more info: 3g

The LG Chocolate VX8500 debuted in the United States to much fanfare. Verizon pushed it as the next big thing in mobile entertainment phones, and even went all out with a television commercial campaign. Focusing on a cool music playing experience along with V-Cast entertainment over 3G EVDO, the hype machine seems to have paid off, as quite a few people that we know have ended up with an LG Chocolate phone. We took the VX8500 for a spin, and report back with our full review which you can check out after the break.

Source and more info: gearlive

Recently T-Mobile silently released another new addition to their ever growing selection of handsets, the Samsung SGH-T619. This mid-range clamshell device supports quad-band GSM/EDGE frequencies, allowing users to roam to any country that supports GSM, and comes with today’s most common features.

The T619’s 1.3 megapixel camera lets users take photos and share them with friends easily with T-Mobile’s picture messaging service or send them wirelessly through Bluetooth to their PC. The device also allows for video capture and playback of short clips. For the users that like the idea of a handsfree phone, the T619 offers voice-activated dialing and a speakerphone. Messaging support for all of the major IM clients, including AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ, can be found on the T619, along with typical support for SMS. Other features of note include voice notes, and games, and a built-in music player that supports MP3/WMA/AAC formats.

The T619’s battery should provide up to 4 hours of talk time, or 8 days of standby time. The Samsung T619 is available now through T-Mobile retail stores and T-Mobile.com for US$199.99, or US$79.99 after instant discount with a two-year agreement.

Source and more info: mobileburn

The P990i is the latest in a line of P series smartphones from Sony Ericsson. Previous smartphones in the range have been met with almost obsessive loyalty, making them a hard act to follow, and even today, when there are plenty of smartphone choices around the ‘P’ has a loyalty many others would love to emulate.

Announced last October it is in some ways a shame that the P990i appears just after Sony Ericsson’s M600i and just before its W950i. All three handsets run Symbian 9.1 and UIQ 3. We’ve already looked at the M600i, and will review the W950i as soon as we get our hands on one.

The handsets are aimed at different markets - the M and W share very similar hardware design, but the W has a rather nifty 4GB of internal memory and is aimed at music fans.

The point is that in the past the ‘P’s have gone it alone as Sony Ericsson UIQ handset, and the new P is part of a range. Does the P990i stand tall against its new competitors?

Certainly as far as size goes the P990i is a giant both in comparison to the W and M and also in comparison to other smartphones. Weighing in at 150g it is quite an ask for the everyday pocket, and measuring 114 x 57 x 25 mm it isn’t exactly the Tiny Tim of the smartphone world.

Source and more info: 3g

From budgeteers to the more sophisticated music handsets, it’s fair to claim Sony Ericsson has yet to launch a duffer in its Walkman phone range. The new 3G-skating W850i is the next member hoping to maintain the manufacturer’s string of hits.

The new Sony Ericsson W850i heralds the next phase in the Walkman phone evolution. As the eighth member of this successful musical family, this handset not only sports a Sony Ericsson first but also a more advanced Walkman player that hints at a far more exciting and enhanced experience for the mobile music fan.

The W850i is essentially the successor to the W900i. While we liked the W900i at 3G, there were some discrepancies that, thankfully, its inheritor has ironed out, and even ditched. Firstly, the W900i arrived from the old school 3G-camp; its hulking chassis meant it wasn’t matey with the trouser pouch. The W850i is far more compact, closely resembling the Nokia 6280 in size and weight.

The W900i also swung into action using a 180° swivel technique that revealed an ergonomic faux pas where the phone’s position finished upside down after opening. Not the most seamless of moves. The W850i, however, finds Sony Ericsson in unknown territory, becoming its first handset to vaunt a slide action. Having plied its stock mainly in candybars, it’s strange to see a slider bearing the Sony Ericsson name, but despite the manufacturer’s relative inexperience with the form, its first attempt is commendable. Although it’s not the most graceful spring-assisted action we’ve seen, it’s responsive nonetheless.

Source and more info: 3g

O2’s Ice is an exclusive handset, and it represents an attempt by the operator to cast its 3G net out into the fashion sector. The Ice is a slender, white mobile that certainly has the looks to appeal, but does it match these with features?

Up to a point the answer is ‘yes’. If you don’t need anything too sophisticated or fancy then the Ice has the bases covered. As far as its 3G capability is concerned there is a front facing camera, which is not something we can say of every 3G handset.

Making video calls is therefore no problem, though if our experience during testing is born out in the wider world you will need to contend with slightly dark images and not altogether smooth video. Switching to the back camera, you can show the people you are talking to what you can see, which is nice.

Shooting stills and movies is again achievable, though you have to be content with 1.3 megapixel images – that’s a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024. We found a bit of shutter lag during testing meant sometimes blurred images, and, because the Ice lacks a flash, indoor shots weren’t always wonderful. On the other hand, you can control the white balance easily via the handset’s navigation button, so it is not too difficult to tweak image brightness.

Source and more info: 3g