Making mobile phone news with its super slim classic design is the Samsung Lucido S7220. When looking at it, the Lucido S7220 is similar to the Tocco Ultra slide-out, brushed black finish, edged in hot red; but this phone is not a touch screen. The screen is AMOLED and 2.2 inches in size. The phone is one of the lightest around, at 90 grams, and, it’s only 11.8 mm thick, fitting perfectly into a trouser or jacket pocket.
The camera is 5 megapixels and comes with GPS tagging, panoramic mode, face detection, and smile shot. It also includes anti-shaking which can be turned on or off whether in still mode or shooting video. The phone features EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth, and HSDPA. It also has a decent audio/video player.
This phone also has a couple of safety features: Assign “fake calls” it to a shortcut key and, when in that awkward or uncomfortable position, you can fake a phone call to yourself. For a realistic effect, you can also record audio to speak to you, ensuring the call is believable. The “SOS” feature will text pre-assigned numbers and the mobile tracker will use the GPS to show those numbers where your phone is.
There isn’t much negative to say about the Samsung Lucido S7220 – the keypad layout is a bit uncomfortable, but that’s about it. All-in-all, the Samsung Lucido S7220 is one of the best mid-range phones on the market. For mobile phone deals for this phone please contact your provider.
The HTC Hero is a smartphone similar in design and function to an iPhone. The HTC Hero has won multiple awards, including the Stuff Awards 2009 Winner of Gadget of the Year, Mobile Choice Consumer Awards 2009 Phone of the Year, T3 Gadget Awards 2009 Gadget of the Year and T3 Gadget Awards 2009 Phone of the Year.
The HTC Hero allows users to personalise their mobile phone to a great degree. Widgets can be placed on the home screen, instead of having to access content through a number of menus, according to a variety of designs and sizes.
The HTC Hero is 4.41 inches long, 2.21 inches wide and 0.57 inches deep. It weighs 4.67 ounces (with battery). Its display screen is a 3.2 inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 320/480 HVGA resolution. It handles up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link through its network connection. It comes with GPS, 5.0 megapixels colour camera with auto focus, MP3 and Windows Media players, a G-sensor and digital compass.
Aspects of the mobile phone that are praised in the HTC Hero reviews are the size and sturdy feel of its screen and the ease with which the on screen keypad can be used. Twitter, Facebook and Gmail contacts are automatically added to the address book. Criticism of the HTC Hero is that its operating speed is not as fast as could have been expected.
There are over 3,500 HTC Hero deals on offer from the major networks.
Joining the touchscreen fray has been a bit of a challenge for RIM and the BlackBerry. While the first Storm model couldn’t live up to the performance of some of the latest mobile phones with touchscreen technology, the new Blackberry Storm 2 9520 aims to be an improvement.
Pros
The Storm 2 feels solid and looks chic. Curved edges, metallic accents, and a more sophisticated key layout give the phone an overall elegant appearance.
The clickable touchscreen marks a vast improvement over the first BlackBerry Storm. The Storm 2’s capacitive technology feels significantly more reactive, and the typing experience is enjoyable.
Email functionality is in line with the latest mobile phones. The touchscreen makes scrolling through emails super fast and easy, and the rapid portrait to landscape rotation is a marked improvement over the Storm 2’s predecessor. There’s also 256MB of internal memory included and support for a 2GB microSD card.
Cons
The touchscreen on the Storm 2 still seems to be lacking. The clickable screen interface can be frustrating, particularly for users familiar with other touchscreen phones.
The media suite is also a bit thin. RIM has been putting a lot more focus on developing other BlackBerry mobile phones, so apps for the touchscreen line are disappointingly few. Hopefully this is something that will remedy itself in the future.
Conclusion
The Storm 2 is an adequately refined version of the original BlackBerry Storm. While users won’t get an iPhone experience, there are still plenty of features and performance benefits that will help this model stand up favourably, when users compare mobile phones.
The Nokia E71 is a slim, extremely handsome phone, encased in attractive metal and if you like typing long messages, emails or chatting using a mobile IM service then you’d be hard pressed to find a better phone. If you do like this phone but want to compare it to others with similar features and in the same price range then check out the Sony Ericsson W705 or the LG Prada 2 KF900.
The E71 has a screen that is bright and clear and a QWERTY keypad that is well designed; in fact one reviewer even went so far as to say that the QWERTY keypad on the E71 was the best he had ever used in his mobile phone review.
Every key on the keypad is of the right size and only requires the gentlest of presses to register easily and accurately. In fact it makes emailing and texting a complete pleasure.
Even though the E71 is slim, Nokia has managed to fit in HSDPA (3.5G), Wi-Fi and GPS, which means that applications such as Google Maps will be easily downloaded and can be used to navigate around the country.
There are a couple of negatives with this handset. The 3.2 megapixel camera’s shutter lag is a bit long, meaning that you have to hold the phone perfectly still unless you want your photographs to come out looking blurry. There is also no standard 3.5 mm headphone jack.
The main niggle though is the lack of folder support for Microsoft Exchange.
But apart from these slight problems, this is a great phone.
The HTC HD Mini is a Windows Mobile phone released in 2010. It is a touch-screen smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. Especially designed to be small, as its name suggests, it is marketed mainly at business people on the go.
The HTC HD Mini measures 4.09 by 2.27 by 0.46 inches. It weighs 3.88 ounces. Its battery life is an impressive 7.25 hours of talk time, 14 days (340 hours) of standby time. Its main display screen is 320 x 480 pixels; it is capacitive and multi-touch.
The HTC HD Mini’s camera has 5 megapixels resolution. Multimedia features are a video player supporting files in MPEG4, WMV, AVI, 3GP and 3G2 formats and a music players supporting files in MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, M4A (Apple lossless), AMR and MIDI formats. It can access FM radio.
The HTC HD Mini’s memory space is 348 MB RAM/512 MB ROM. It accesses the internet in Opera Mobile or HTML. It has a microUSB, Wi-Fi and 2.1 stereo Bluetooth. It has A-GPS and GPS.
The major benefit of the HTC HD Mini is its small size coupled with a superlative screen quality. It successfully distinguishes itself from other touch-screen mobile phones by being easier to handle. The sound quality when listening to music is generally good. As the HTC HD Mini runs Windows, it has straightforward access to emails over Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.
HTC HD Mini deals are still widely available, mostly on a fixed contract basis.
The Aura handset from Motorola is immediately noticeable as being very different. It has a circular display a bit like the face of an expensive Swiss watch. It is claimed to give a very special sensual experience, second to none. Its main components are Swiss made and it needs more that two hundred parts just for the mechanism that opens it.
It also has an excellent screen with a specially installed 300 dpi resolution 16 million colour liquid crystal display which is circular in shape. It’s one of those things that you either love, or hate. A circular display takes a bit of getting used to.
This is, however, a very durable phone with its scratch resistant sapphire crystal lens covering the 320 by 240 display screen. The casing in made from stainless steel which has a pattern on it and the manufacturers claim that it takes two weeks to make the keypad. The Aura comes with Motorola’s CrystalTalk which gives excellent sound when using the handset to make calls and it supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so that it can be used with a compatible headset or earphones.
It also comes with a micro SD slot and is available with or without a camera so that it can be used in secure areas.
The Motorola Aura is a luxury handset designed to be robust, serviceable and look good but the actual mobile phone has few extras, making it ideal for users who want something that looks good and will make calls and send texts. Personally I found the circular screen quite strange and never got used to it but this particular handset has had some good mobile phone reviews and there are some good deals available.
The Samsung S7330 is a middle range offering from Samsung, styled on the highly-successful Samsung Soul and featuring touch-sensitive navigation.
Aesthetically, the S7330 is a stylish phone – exceptionally nice looking for its price range. Sporting a plastic and metal combination casing, the phone feels solid and sturdy when using it and the slide is quite nice. Then there is the touch-sensitive navigation pad, which offers additional depth to the exterior.
A 3.2 megapixel camera takes fairly good shots, with auto focus, self portrait mirror, and an LED flash. The music player is also good. Other features include video recording, MMS, SMS, and email facility. Web access is via HSDPA and a microSD slot offers the capability to expand on the 30 MB internal memory. Connectivity is via USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0.
Dimensions for the Samsung S7330 are 49 by 104 by 14 mm and the weight is 110 grams. Talk time is purported to be up to five hours, with 400 hours of standby time.
One feature to potentially let this phone down is the keypad; it is flat and the keys are set too close together, making texting difficult.
All-in-all, for individuals interested in Samsung mobile phones, the Samsung S7330 is a good choice for a middle range offering, even though it isn’t quite the quality the Samsung Soul is. If you’re looking at contract mobile phones, this one is available on 3 Mobile, who also offers the phone as a pay-as-you go handset as well.
The mobile phone news pages were buzzing when Nokia released one of its latest mobile phones, the Nokia N900. Billed by the company as a PC in a mobile phone case, everyone in the industry wanted to see if such a claim could possibly be true. This is definitely a contract mobile phone; no one would want to spend the money getting this as pay as you go. The N900 is a touchscreen phone, but turn it on its side and find the surprise, a full QWERTY keyboard built in, although the keys are small and possibly tricky for those with larger hands.
When you compare mobile phones, you will immediately notice that this is one of the largest handsets on offer and those who remember the 1980’s style bricks may feel that this is a step backwards. To be honest this is always a risk when concealing a keyboard, as it will inevitably lead to a certain amount of added depth. However, in terms of performance, we really were impressed, the Nokia N900 offers some pretty good competition to the PC. Clearly, you wouldn’t want to use something so small to do much in the way of serious work, but if you are away from the office you are going to find that the surfing capabilities are seriously impressive. The speed is what impressed us; the Nokia N900 was loading pages as quickly as a net book, even when connected via the phone lines rather than using WiFi to hop onto a broadband connection.
If you’re in the market for cheap mobile phones, then Samsung mobile phones are always worth considering. Let’s look at the Samsung B3310; quirky, straightforward, and fits into the smallest of budgets.
Firstly, let’s look at design. This phone looks odd, but it grows on you. There is a number pad running up the left side of the handset and it is quite bulky. The front of the phone is black and the back is silver. The phone is easy to use – with social networking widgets and easy-to-set-up email. The two megapixel camera is also simple to use and includes a dedicated camera button for quick snaps. Picture quality is okay when you’re looking at it on mobile screen, but once transferred to the PC, the images become little more than thumbnails.
Serious music lovers might be disappointed with this phone, but for the less picky, it’s not that bad. The music player is basic, with repeat, shuffle, and playlist modes. There is also an FM radio which works when headphones are plugged in. However, the phone headphone connection isn’t 3.5 mm, so you would need an adaptor to use good headphones.
Instead of the frustrating Samsung touch screen found on so many of their phones, there is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; which makes this phone excellent for texting. As far as cheap mobile phones go, the Samsung B3310 is fine for the basics – telephone calls, texting, and listening to tunes as you go. If you want more, you should look elsewhere.
The Nokia 6303 Classic is a phone that is for those people who really only want to make calls and send text messages.
The 6303 has several extra features compared to its predecessor the 6300 including the inbuilt LED photo light and the addition of a 3.5 mm headphone jack, so you can listen to your favourite tracks on the audio player or the FM radio on your favourite headphones.
The phone has a talk time of seven hours and a standby time of up to 450 hours.
The phone looks like the 6300, classy but simple with easy navigation menus but still with that reliable reputation, although the inclusion of 3G would have made it much more attractive to a wider market.
The major networks have thousands of deals on the 6303, offering a free handset and a range of different contracts.
Vodaphone is offering a great deal on this phone offering a 24-month contract with 300 minutes and unlimited texts for only £15.00 a month.
O2 are offering an 18-month contract with 50 minutes, 3000 texts and £30.00 auto cash back for only £15.00 a month.
Virgin’s deal is 100 minutes with 100 texts for £15.00 a month, while T-Mobile are offering the same but for £20.00 a month but are also giving £160 auto cash back.
If you think this phone is for you and want to compare it to other similar phones, then check out Sony Ericsson’s W395 or the Samsung Tocco Lite Pink.
