Mobile Phones

If you don’t have a RAZR phone you probably know someone who does - the RAZR was Motorola’s enormously popular and highly influential on phones that followed.

Although the company has made other handsets in the meantime, the KRZR (say cray-zer) is the first of a new wave of fashion phones aiming to be as head-turning as before.

The RAZR’s claim to fame was entirely down to its styling - it was different from anything that had gone before in its shape, its look and the materials it used; exotically billed by Motorola as “aircraft-grade aluminium and magnesium”.

So how does the new KRZR K1 measure up? First, it’s narrower, if a little thicker than its predecessor, but feels better balanced so you can use it one-handed without worrying that it might bounce out of your grip if you’re not careful.

The materials are still glamorous and include a toughened glass front with a deep blue metallic frame behind. Inside, the etched keypad of the original is here too, but with easier-to-identify keys. The screen is impressively large given the phone’s overall dimensions.

Source and more info: vnunet

Since I am a self confessed Chocolate lover, how could I resist the LG Chocolate Phone, otherwise known as the LG KG800. It’s been with me for a week and lets just see if it lives up to all the hype!

Pros: Sexy as hell, intuitive menu, great sound and the IT Factor
Cons: No loudspeaker, Average battery life and Lack of memory card slot

The new LG KG800 Chocolate Phone is one hell of a good-looking phone and the sleek ergonomics will surely get you a lot of attention. Which in retrospect is the main aim of the Chocolate Series so don’t expect any mind-boggling features on this one! My version of the Chocolate Phone doesn’t have a memory card, which I forgive them for as I have an iPod for music but it’s the exclusion of the Speaker Phone, which completely baffles me! Even the lowest handset in the Mobile Food Chain will have a speakerphone and I guess LG themselves bought into the Chocolate Phone hype and thought its okay to not to include a loudspeaker!

Source and more info: mobilewhack

We like the Samsung SGH-i320N’s unique slim chassis with built-in QWERTY keyboard. It has a few useful features for mobile business needs like push mail, a pocket office suite, Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger, but our gripe is that it doesn’t support faster connectivity like 3G or Wi-Fi.

Source and more info: nforcershq

TV on your mobile is the next big thing, or so they say. I’m not talking little clips of this and that, either, but full blown live programmes, just as you’d expect to see on an ordinary telly.

Virgin Mobile is first out of the starting blocks with real broadcast TV to your mobile with its exclusive Lobster 700TV. Inevitably Virgin Mobile has coined the word ‘tellyphone’ though this only covers part of the deal, as TV is coupled with DAB digital radio.

What’s doubly interesting about the Lobster 700TV is that it is a Windows Mobile Smartphone – Virgin Mobile’s first. Now, my initial thought in this respect is that there was a conflict here. Live TV is a consumer focussed offering, while Windows Mobile Smartphones are aimed more at professional users or at consumers who are keen on keeping a handle on their lives with Outlook PC sync.

It seems like an odd marriage but I guess the choice has been driven because Windows Mobile Smartphones tend to have faster processors than other handsets, and therefore are more capable of handling TV data. Additionally, HTC the manufacturer of the Lobster is a Windows Mobile partner.

My second thought about all this is what watching TV on your mobile might cost. If you want to pay as you go then the Lobster 700TV alone will cost you £199, with the first 90 days of mobile TV free then a fee of £5 a month. Contract customers fare a little better but mobile TV is only completely free if you take a contract of £25 a month.

Source and more info: trustedreviews

Nokia tries a lot of variety with its handset design, and in some cases pushes at the outer edges of what we might think of as a mobile phone. The company also, though, works with the more traditional approach, and the N73 is in many ways a welcome breath of candybar fresh air in an arena awash with twisty clam shell N93-a-likes.

At 116g and 110×49x19mm the N73 can’t give some of the more superslim handsets currently around a run for their money, but it does feel tidy in the hand and pocket, and, importantly, shaves precious millimeters and grammes off the dimensions of its forebearer, the popular N70.

The star attraction of the N73 has to be its main camera. A front facing lens caters for video calling, but it is the main camera that grabs the attention.

Carl Zeiss optics are becoming something of a standard for higher end N range handsets, and in this case we have 3.2 megapixel image capture with an autofocus mode, flash, and a mechanical shutter which really does help you get clearer pictures.

Outdoor shots are particularly good, tending to the clear, crisp side of things which means you wouldn’t be embarrassed to show them to friends and relatives or keep them on file. We weren’t over the moon about the indoor test shots we took, but then no handset delivers as well as a digital camera indoors.

Nokia has thought quite hard about ease of use with the camera and for the most part has come up with the goods. The lens is protected by a large sliding cover. Pull it back and the camera software is activated. Now flip the handset into wide mode and use the mini joystick under the screen to make settings for the flash, self timer, exposure compensation, macro and other scene mode selection, white balance, ISO setting and suchlike. You just scroll down a column of icons click, scroll some more, click, and you are there.

Source and more info: 3g