Mobile Phones

Nokia’s quirky 5300 XpressMusic phone provides thumping tunes without bashing your wallet or stretching your pocket.

For all the mobiles out there that can play digital music, if you really want a device that can double as a dedicated music player, your search isconfined to a small (but growing) selection of specialist music phones.

The Nokia 5300, with its dedicated music keys, boxed music software and free 256MB microSD card, aspires to be such a handset and, along with the 5200, forms Nokia’s growing XpressMusic range of phones.

But, while it’s certainly packaged and promoted as a handset for music lovers, does it have the technological talent to be considered alongside the top Sony Ericsson Walkman or Nokia Nseries phones? Or is the 5300 simply a natty little handset that can carry a tune?

When reviewing a phone which boasts a certain killer feature or application, we are often presented with the dilemma of measuring form versus function. For example, there is no doubt that the new 8GB-endowed Nokia N91 is a hugely capable music device with impressive storage space. However, it is also very bulky by modern mobile standards, which will put many people off. The same could be said of the Sony Ericsson Walkman W950i, which excels as a music player, but struggles as a phone and is also a little larger than your average mobile.

Source and more info: 3g

2007 promises to be an exciting year on the broadband front as mobile operators Vodafone, O2 and 3 enter the fray and take on the established, but plodding, fixed-line order.
The torpor currently understood to be affecting the Irish housing market is nothing compared to the sluggish inactivity of the Irish broadband market which, even at an estimated 430,000 connections, is far behind the international standard.

The arrival of a third-generation (3G) mobile technology called HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) is believed to be the calling card for the mobile industry to reverse this lamentable trend.

HSDPA modems and phones promise to give broadband speeds to laptop users of anything between 1.4Mbps to 3.6Mbps and the respective networks each cover between 70pc and 80pc of the country.

Will this make a meaningful difference to the country’s broadband performance? It ought to but as the dawn of 2007 gives way to elevenses, I’m not so sure mobile operators are going to approach it in the right fashion.

Source and more info: siliconrepublic

Release of HTC Athena must be close (probably middle of next month when 3GSM 2006 conference takes place and where HTC is present) because information about T-Mobile incarnation of HTC Athena - T-Mobile AMEO has leaked and because apparently some people already have tested HTC’s own incarnation of this phone - HTC X7500 and they even reviewed it! Here comes first real-life review of HTC Athena! This review contains several interesting photos, like this one that compars HTC Athena (here: HTC X7500) to HTC Hermes (here: HTC TyTN)

Source and more info: msmobiles

The T-Mobile Dash is a slim, sleek Windows Mobile Smartphone. Despite its svelte exterior, this device offers many of the features advanced users are looking for in a smartphone, like a Push Email, a built-in keyboard and Wi-Fi.

Look and Feel

The Dash uses the same general form-factor that several of its competitors do, but the Dash uses it better than most.

It rides very comfortably in a pocket, and sits easily in my hand. This isn’t surprising for a device as small as this one: 4.4 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches.

Plus, the Dash’s casing has a slightly rubberized feel, so it’s not slick and you feel confident that you’re not going to drop it.

For the most part, this smartphone has a minimalist look. True, it includes a full QWERTY keyboard and a set of function buttons, but these are all grouped on the front. There are no side buttons at all, and the synchronization port and headphone jack can hidden behind a plastic door.

In a way, though, I think the Dash is almost too minimalistic. I said it has no side buttons, but it does have a touch strip just to the left of the screen. This is the Dash’s volume control, and it just feels gimmicky. I also had to get used to its quirks, something I’ve never had to do with a simple pair of up/down buttons.

Source and more info: brighthand

Watching the iPhone keynote, there were a few things that surprised us. We were surprised at how slick the interface was, when all speculation leading up to the event seemed to be focused on the hardware. We were surprised at how excited the audience was about Google Maps, when Google Maps for mobile phones has been out for some time. But of all the innovations, the following are the five that we think will lead competitors to rethink their phone designs, and may end up changing the course of the phone industry.

1. The overall visual flourish

For years (and especially since the release of OS X back in March 2001), Mac users have been familiar with the idea of a slick interface, even at the cost of processing resources. Mobile phones, with some minor exceptions, have been utilitarian by comparison, especially when it comes to smartphones. Apple’s iPhone brings some eye-popping effects and tricks to the UI that will make the entire experience more, well, loveable. Cover Flow is hardly useful, but watching your album art fly by is reminiscent of the old days of flipping through albums, and the tactile experience is quite enjoyable. We liked the rubber-band effect on scrolling lists, where a list moves a little too far beyond its endpoint and snaps back into place. We enjoyed watching icons explode off the screen and recompress as Steve Jobs navigated to and from the home screen. Apple owners, iPod users and Macintosh users alike can certainly attest to the idea that a good, pleasing interface can trump even a powerful new feature.

Source and more info: infosyncworld

Design:

The Pharos GPS Phone 600 is a relatively slim block of brushed metal with a large touch-screen face. Physically, it looks similar to the Cingular 8525, though without the slide-out keyboard it manages to be about a quarter-inch thinner. The design suffers from a few miscues that will stymie users familiar with the Pocket PC variety of Windows Mobile, or smartphones in general. First of all, the stylus slots into the bottom of the phone, which is neither here nor there except that the stylus is completely blocked when the Pharos is holstered into its car charger. At the top of the phone are buttons marked with a satellite for GPS, and a poorly placed “Home” button that actually functions as the Windows Mobile “OK” button. At the bottom are two soft keys between the “send” and “end” keys, though because the soft keys are placed too close to the middle of the screen, they rarely line up with the menu function to which they correspond.

Calling - Very good

The Pharos GPS Phone 600 comes unlocked, so we popped in our Cingular SIM for GSM coverage. Generally, reception was very good, up to four bars in lower Manhattan and Northern Jersey. Call quality was average, with a slight tunnel effect in some areas while we traveled, but calls sounded clean for the most part. The phone features a bevy of calling options, including Bluetooth, a fairly loud speakerphone and speaker-independent voice dialing. The robust address book is buoyed by the venerable Microsoft Outlook, which allows for ActiveSync syncing with your desktop and live, while-you-type searching. Conference calling functions similarly to other Windows Mobile PPC phones, which is to say it requires more menu drilling than we’d like, but otherwise works fine. Without Wi-Fi, GPS, or Bluetooth turned on, we got about four and a half hours of talk time, which is pretty good, only a half hour shy of what Pharos promises.

Source and more info: infosyncworld

In Nokia’s defence, the 8800 is up there strutting its stuff on the mobile phone catwalk. With its high-shine stainless steel case hiding the keypad away, the overall appearance is one of high-class sophistication. The downside to the attractively shiny design is the weight. You can forget using the ‘a magpie stole it’ excuse when claiming on the insurance, because a magpie wouldn’t have a hope in hell’s chance of lifting this heap of metal. Another one to watch is the linen trouser or jacket pocket – the 134g would cause destruction for sure. On the plus side, the weight makes the Nokia 8800 good to hold with a sturdy feel. The sliding mechanism is an obvious area of expertise for Nokia, and this time they’ve got it spot on. You only have to stick your thumb in the grove and flick it upwards slightly before the spring mounted mechanism kicks in. Once open, the keys are rather boring and 2D, but they’re agreeably responsive. The length of the phone goes from an average 107mm when closed to an extended length of 140mm when open. When the phone is closed the two keys modestly situated below the screen allow you to answer and hold calls. The only other button on the casing of the Nokia 8800 is the discrete power button located at the top.

Once the phone is open you will see the camera lens on the underside of the upper casing. The camera offers a maximum image resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and lacks a flash or a self-portrait mirror – this left us wondering what we do get for our £600? The scratch-resistant screen is surrounded by a grey panel which reaches down to house the soft keys below. It also provides a clear and bright display with its 262k colours. A favourite feature of ours which is worthy of a few quid is the included desk stand which is also stainless steel and has a slot for charging the spare battery as well as the one in the phone.

Source and more info: unbeatable