Mobile Phone Reviews : The Regulars

For individuals looking for cheap mobile phones, the Nokia 6700 Slide is a combination of smartphone and feature phone in one.

The phone is nice to look at, featuring a slide opening design with touch screen. When closed, the phone measures 9.52 cm tall by 4.61 cm wide and 1.59 cm deep. The weight with battery is 100 grams. The touch screen is a 2.2-inch TFT screen displaying 16 million colours. Beneath the screen is a series of external keys which are spacious and easy to use.

The phone feels sturdy and the slide action is nice and smooth. When first turned on, the Nokia 6700 Slide walks you through a set up to help personalise your user experience. This includes importing contacts and personalising wallpaper and ringtones.

As to the touch screen, home screen widgets include Nokia Ovi Store and shortcuts to Facebook Mobile and email. Email is quick to set up and general browsing is fairly quick, although there is some lag when trying to connect to the Ovi Store.

The phone includes a 5 megapixel camera which supports high quality Carl Zeiss optics.

Overall, while the Nokia 6700 Slide isn’t an advanced smartphone, as a feature phone it isn’t bad. Best for the user looking for a basic mobile with a few extras, this phone is great for casual photography, the odd short text message, checking email, and occasional web browsing.

For mobile phone deals on the Nokia 6700 Slide, carriers include T-Mobile, Orange, 3 Mobile, Vodafone, O2, Virgin, and Talk Mobile.

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 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.

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.

One of the latest mobile phones to be released by Nokia is the 5230. This is another of the new mobile phones to opt for touchscreen technology so you wont find any form of keyboard or number pad here. It comes with a built-in stylus for those that prefer them, but lots of people find that a fingertip manages most functions. Not a great deal is known about this handset at the moment, but the latest mobile phone news suggests that this a multifunctional phone that is targeted at the mid price contract mobile phones band, about £18 a month, but with a 18 month contract. 

As one of the latest mobile phone deals the Nokia 5230 does not disappoint, and feature all the toys one would expect to find. There is a camera, which can take still pictures as well as video footage; it doesn’t have flash so use will be limited to suitable lighting conditions. The built in WiFi is always pleasing to see, meaning that you can hit WiFi hotspots when you are out and about to access the internet for free, plus with added GPS you will never be lost, as the phone will know exactly where it is. The mobile phone reviews we have seen tend to agree with us that this is another excellent handset from Nokia, which also sensibly includes the all important SD slot, allowing you to expand the memory or have a different memory card, depending on whether you want to listen to music or store files.

The Nokia 6600 Fold is a smart phone to look at but not particularly smart when it comes to high tech features.  It’s a good looking product with an expensive and long lasting appearance but is definitely lacking in high-end features.

The handset is available in either Mysterious Black or Sophisticated Purple, smooth and elegant with a shiny metallic finish.  The quad band flip phone comes with two OLED display panels – the main screen and an exterior screen.  You can read the time, the battery life and the signal strength on the exterior screen and then make it disappear with a flick of a finger.

The main keypad is good to look at and has good touch making typing messages simple and accurate.  Texting is made even easier because the middle row of keys are coated in a different finish from the rest of the phone so that you can distinguish between keys and just concentrate on typing your message.

The camera is a bit disappointing coming with only 2-megapixels but it does have a video camera and player that support MP4, H.264, H.263 and 3GP file formats.  Pictures can be taken in the dark or poor lighting as the phone has a LED camera flash.

The audio player supports all the major file formats and there is also an FM radio; alas there is no 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Disappointingly for such a smart looking phone there is no Wi-Fi or HSDPA but there is 3G and GPRS.

The N97 Mini is one of the latest mobile phones to be introduced by Nokia. The original Nokia N97 generated plenty of mobile phone news and its successor, the Mini, is doing the same. Users will notice that this new mobile phone comes in a smaller package, but there are a few tradeoffs that have been made.

With the Mini package, users will get a 3.2 inch touch screen that supports 16 million colours. A full QWERTY keyboard slides easily from within the body of the Nokia N97 Mini. The built in accelerometer sensor transitions the screen from landscape to portrait based on the mobile phone’s position.

The Nokia N97 Mini is substantially smaller than several comparable mobile phones. This device is 113 mm long by 52.5 mm wide and it is just 14.2 mm thick. The Mini weighs in at 138 grams. The battery provides users with more than 7 hours of talk time or 320 hours on standby.

Users will enjoy the impressive 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics that has been integrated into the N97 Mini. The camera features a dual LED flash and auto focus. There is a secondary camera included in the Mini that is used for video calling. Users will have the ability to geo-tag their photos.

There is plenty of memory included with the Nokia N97 Mini. There is 8 megabytes of internal memory that can be expanded up to 16 gigabytes with the help of the microSD expansion slot.

If you are looking for new mobile phones, the Nokia E72 is a great option. This feature-packed device provides users with the functionality they need to stay organised while also keeping in touch with others. This phone is suitable for both personal and professional use.

The Nokia E72 is equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard. To accommodate the convenient keyboard, the overall dimensions of this device are greater than many of the other Nokia mobile phones on the market. The E72 is 114 mm long by 58 mm wide with a thickness of just 10 mm. This mobile phone weighs 128 grams.

The Nokia E72 includes a nice 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash. The camera is also capable of capturing video clips. In order to use the Nokia E72 for video conferencing, an integrated secondary camera is available.

Users will appreciate the messaging capabilities of the Nokia E72. This mobile phone can accommodate SMS and MMS messaging, as well as instant messaging. The Nokia E72 also allows users to easily check their email on the device. For browsing the web, this mobile phone utilises a WAP 2.0 browser.

Other useful features that have been incorporated into the Nokia E72 are a digital compass and ‘push to talk’ technology. This Nokia mobile phone also includes a document editor that allows users to view documents in several formats, including PDF and Word Docs. Users also have the capability to download games to their Nokia E72 mobile phone.

This new mobile phone from Nokia is an upmarket and compact smartphone, which is set to replace the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The Nokia X6 features the new capacitative touchscreen and comes equipped with 32GB memory, plus the impressive 5-megapixel, Carl Zeiss opic camera, video calling, HSPDA and a 3.5mm jack point.

The X-series has redesigned the casing and essentially based it around the 5800 but increased the specifications tremendously. This phone is slightly slimmer but crammed with technology giving it a comforting solid weight. The 3.2 inch screen is very responsive and has good high resolution. It is not the biggest format but sufficient for the virtual keyboard or keypad set up.

Coming from the XpressMusic series, you would imagine the sound system is good and it lives up to its billing. It includes a good quality music player supporting most common formats, FM radio and the dedicated audio chip pumps out a high quality sound.

The camera is also as impressive as you would expect of a top of the range phone. It features LED flash, auto focus and functions very well as a stills camera, or 30 frames per second video camera.

Systems and apps include GPS, which works really well with the new Ovi Maps, good connectivity, fast data transfer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB connections and good quality web browsing.

The Nokia X6 comes out on top across the board in various mobile phone reviews, but this all comes at a price and the X6 is not a cheap mobile phone, but is a high quality and versatile one.

The Nokia N95 has been lauded in mobile phone reviews as a great smartphone, so can the new Nokia N95 8GB build on that? More than that, is it a major revamp of a classic or just an upgrade?

It’s a bit of both, really. The biggest difference is the increase in memory, now with 8GB on board, although sadly there’s no card slot to let a user to add to that, which seems like a major omission in today’s market, where features demand a lot of memory.

What else is new? The battery is much better. The original N95 wasn’t too good on battery life, but this is greatly improved, allowing users to take full extended advantage of all the smartphone capabilities.

About the only other difference is a slightly larger screen. That’s an advantage for both pictures and video, although it’s really just a case of keeping up with the competition. So it’s really more a case of tweaking the phone than making any radical alternations – and given the success of the N95, perhaps that’s all that’s really necessary.

Those who love the old N95 and are looking to replace it will be very pleased by the Nokia N95 8GB. Others, however, might not be as easily convinced. It’s a good phone, and does everything well, but it’s been outdistanced by offerings from other handset manufacturers. With just a little more work, especially offering a card slot for more memory, it could have been a really outstanding offering from Nokia.