Samsung U900 Soul: Great touchpad and minimalist chic design!

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Samsung
• Date: Feb 22,2008

Unlike most of Samsung’s phones which just contain the model number and are devoid of a name the Samsung U900 Soul is markedly different. Samsung has not just named this phone but has also gone ahead with a major marketing drive. So is this hype warranted?

Design aspects

In terms of design the Samsung U900 Soul is slim and trendy looking and has the slider mechanism as found in most of their phones. The uncanny resemblance to the LG KF600 cannot be ignored. The sliding mechanism is pretty high end what with slick movement and ease of use. In addition the phone’s design is nothing to rave about although it does have an intuitive Touchscreen interface. Encased in a complete metallic body the phone presents the image of minimalist design with an ultra chic element to it.

Feature rich phone

The Samsung U900 Soul comes with an inbuilt camera with a capacity of 5 megapixels which is much better than most of the phones today. However the camera is devoid of the zoom feature. The phone comes with HSPDA 3G connectivity of around 7.2 Mbps. This again is much above average as compared to several other Touchscreen phones of today. The built in FM radio player also has RDS support. The highlight of the Samsung U900 Soul seems to lie in its interesting and easy to use touchpad. The contextual touchscreen is an added advantage in the phone and it is extremely easy to browse through playbacks, menus and navigate through the various controls on the touchscreen.

Performance aspects

The Samsung U900 Soul has several high end aspects such as the 5 Megapixel camera and fast networking of 7.2 Mpbs HSPDA. These features make for a phone that has above average performance. While browsing through controls and navigation is easy there is still a certain level of innovation left to be desired in the phone. The improved touchpad mechanism is a definite plus in the Samsung U900 Soul which again offers enhanced user friendliness. The phone lacks WiFi but this can be ignored once you consider the superior camera performance and fast connectivity speeds. While the phone does look chic enough when compared to other phones in the market it lags a little behind. Battery life can be expected to be much above average as all Samsung phones are known to have superior battery quality. The great thing about the Samsung U900 Soul though is that when you consider the various features it has and the price of the phone it works out to be a very good deal. Maybe that is the reason why people are so eager to purchase the phone already!

Overall outlook

Going by the looks of it the Samsung U900 Soul seems set to conquer the market. Its relatively good features coupled with the low price it comes at makes for a large consumer base. Besides this the innovative and improved touchpad aids in the navigability factor. On the whole the Samsung U900 Soul can be great to have if you are part of the fashion market!

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tagged: LG, Touchscreen, 3G, Touch, PDA, Samsung, 5 megapixel, KF600, Soul, U900, HSDPA, Autofocus

The Moto Q 9h: Motorola Venturing into the Unfamiliar

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Motorola
• Date: Feb 22,2008

Wonder how it would be like if your Keypad became a Keyboard? Wonder no more, the Moto Q 9h is here. It is about time that Motorola veered into the unfamiliar. For years now, it has produced phones solely based on the RAZR V3, which is its best seller. But Motorola seemed to go towards the really unfamiliar clamshell design-less path with the Moto Q 9h. Why? Read on and find out.

Motorola is introducing a handset with a QWERTY keypad with the Moto Q 9h. It is actually a smart phone which is design for those who heavy text and email users. This is not the first handset equipped with this type of keypad, but it is by far the easiest to use.

As in BlackBerry handsets, the Moto Q actually has room for a QWERTY keypad. With its 4.7 x 2.6 x 0.5-inch and 4.7-ounce dimensions, it is to a large extent wider, taller, and heavier than most usual phones we know. However, it is still thin enough to be pocket-friendly.

The QWERTY keypad is great and tactile, though it can take a little getting used to. The keypad is seemingly designed to match the movement of the thumbs. The colour screen is large enough, though there might have been a little more room to make it wee bit wider. It does not have a scroll wheel to help skim through emails easier, but it does have an up and down select button on the right side. We figure not all users will appreciate this.

The Moto Q runs on the Windows Mobile 6 standard. It supports email sending through Exchange Servers and access to your Hotmail account. You can also access your mails through a server supported by BlackBerry. One thing we like about the Moto Q is that it provides a 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for pre-installed Internet Explorer and Opera browsers. It’s unfortunate that it does not support WiFi.

The Moto Q 9h is not just for business use. It also features a Windows Media player which enables watching online videos and play music files, among a few others. At the back is a 2-megapixel camera which is great for taking snapshots and for sending MMS. It also supports quad-band connectivity, a microSD expansion slot which can hold 400 songs and a few hundred photos.

We didn’t have high hopes in this phone’s camera so we were not all that disappointed. The pictures are not crisp and may be a little blurry, but it is good enough as a 2MP camera phone. Audio quality was excellent, without any noticeable muffling or distortions. It is also impressive how the phone can be very responsive, with no amount of lag except when multiple applications are used at the same time. You may need to get yourself an extra battery if you are a heavy data user or talker.

The Moto Q 9h is probably one of the best smart phones we have seen so far. It is surprisingly affordable relative to other smart phones. Though it does not have Wi-Fi or a scroll wheel, all the rest of its features compensate well for it.

The Motorola Q is available for $329.89 at ElephantCellular

tagged: HSDPA, Keyboard, QWERTY, Windows Mobile 6, Keypad, Windows Mobile, Wi-Fi, Moto, Q9h

Sony Ericsson W580i Walkman: For Music Lovers on the Go

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Sony Ericsson
• Date: Feb 22,2008

We have seen how Sony Ericsson has revolutionized the mobile world with its excellent integration of music into cellphones. It may not have been the first to introduce the concept, but the company sure brought best sound quality into the picture. The company has done it yet again with the Sony Ericsson W580i.

The slim W580i is the ideal phone for those who have the passion for music. Its sexy and sleek slider look has been especially designed with high-end walkman features which can give you solid performance however way you want it - whether you are jogging, walking or simply lazing away at home. The W850i is probably one of the most eye-catching headsets we have seen from Ericsson with its nice shape and compact dimensions. This unit measures 99 x 47 x 14mm and weighs only 94 grams, but is packed with the great features you can get out of an MP3 player, a radio and a pedometer.

As to the other features of this phone, the W580i is equipped with a brilliant 240 x 320 pixel TFT screen with 262K 144 colours, which you might find small for the phone’s size but actually easy on the eyes. It is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera which can shoot stills and videos protected within the closed sides. It has all the different shooting modes that most Ericsson handsets have, but without the all convenient flash.

The W580i has an internal memory of 128MB, but in addition to that, the unit also includes a 512MB Memory Stick Micro M2 external memory inside the box. You can choose from either a white, black or gray model. Ericsson has seemed to perfect its slider feature this time, as compared to their previous W850i. It is not easy to open with just one hand but not too loose to cause any worries.

We like the W580i’s well-designed navigation buttons and their buttons and controls are more intuitive. We particularly like the large OK button and the blue backlighting. As in other slider phones, the Keypads are set in so you might find it difficult to press the keys if you have large fingers. This will need some getting used to, but it should not be a problem for most.

The W580i is being marketed as the “Street-Style Walkman Phone” great for active people. It surely fits the advertising message quite well. Its features and design make it stand out from all the other models that Sony Ericsson has came up with before. Aside from being equipped with excellent sound quality MP3 player, camera, camcorder, radio tuner and pedometer, the W580i also has a mobile web browser and can support Java applications, blogs, RSS feeds and voice recognition. The standard applications are all in - alarm clock, calendar, calculator, notes, stopwatch, timer, flight mode, and so on. We find unfortunate though that it only supports EDGE and quadband GSM networks, no 3G.

The sleek and attractive design, its great sound quality, and its compact features make the Sony Ericsson W580i an ideal phone for music lovers on the go.

The Sony Ericsson W580 is available for $269.89 at ElephantCellular

tagged: 3G, Sony Ericsson, Keypad, W580i Walkman, W300

The Sony Ericsson K850i

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Sony Ericsson
• Date: Feb 22,2008

What can we expect from Sony Ericsson next? Following the success of the K810i and the K800i, Ericsson has come up with the K850i which is not really all that different but lives up to our expectations for their new generation of handsets.

In terms of its design, the K850i is obviously an evolution of the earlier Cybershot versions with the large 256K-colour screen (now made bigger by a fifth of an inch) dominating the front. The concept of the K850i seems to be modelled after the digicams we know today with a convenient slider switch for shifting shooting modes.

We were pleased to see how Ericsson has scrapped the mechanical lens covers in their old versions and replaced them with automatic ones with the K850i. There is a catch though, as a layer of fingerprint-prone plastic protects the cover. So, expect to add an unnecessary step before taking pictures - cleaning the surface. You might as well have a soft cloth ready all the time to clean the front and sides as well. Also, reaching out for the dedicated camera on and off button can prove troublesome especially when taking photos in the dark.

We also like the K850i’s unique battery compartment. Unlike most handphones, this Cybershot features a convenient sliding door which allows you access not only to the battery but the SIM and the expansion card slot (which by the way can accommodate microSD pr M2). Also, this new handset features what they call as the D-pad (actually encloses the 2 and 5 keys) which works just like a navigation pad. If you ask us, this novel idea of joining the Keypad and navigation key in one is very creative.

In terms of functionality, the K850i is filled with cutting edge features - HSDPA 3G, GRPS, Edge, Bluetooth 2.0, an FM radio, a wireless stereo playback. It lacks Wi-Fi, which we had actually expected since it is not a smartphone in the first place.

As far as features are concerned, the K850i doesn’t really bring that much new stuff. Its interface is much like that of its predecessors. We noticed how it has added a novel way of managing multimedia files, though we are not pretty sure if it is even worth noting. The K850i is equipped with an accelerometer as an evolution to the pedometer of the W580i. However, it only functions solely to determine display orientation (changes to landscape when the handset is turned sideways). The sensor can also be used in playing one pre-installed game, Marble Madness 3D, which we surprisingly enjoyed playing.

The K850i offers an all-in-one media player which enables you to manage music, videos and photos conveniently. Its digital imaging feature is actually good enough - comparable to mid-range digicams today. Its autofocus, Xenon flash, second LED, and shooting modes and options all contribute to very satisfactory photos.

The Cybershot K850i has lived up to our expectations for the next batch of Sony Ericsson phones. It has a great well-built design, convenient ergonomics, and all the important features you want from a high-end phone. But still, wouldn’t it be great to have a camera with Wi-Fi and 8GB on-board memory? Though that might be something to drool over, the K850i deserves being a close second choice.

The Sony Ericsson K850 is available for $446.00 at ElephantCellular

tagged: 3G, HSDPA, Sony Ericsson, Keypad, Wi-Fi, K850i, 5-megapixel, K800, K810, Xenon Flash, Autofocus, Cyber-shot

The Nokia E51: So Much More than What Meets the Eye

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Nokia
• Date: Feb 22,2008

We fell in love with the E65 instantly, and for a time, we believed it to be the best smart phone Nokia has ever produced. This was not until the release of the Nokia E51. If you would like a smart business phone which provides almost all the perks you need to get life rolling, then the Nokia E51 is worth looking into.

The Nokia E51 looks downright ordinary. Its candy-bar design, relatively leaner built, and compact feel does not make it extraordinarily special. The phone is relatively tall, has a good and tactile Keypad, and has a wonderfully sharp and clear display. The fact that it sports a good number of dedicated and customizable buttons is very noticeable. This makes the E51 all the more convenient. Truth be told, Nokia did not seem to come up with any new design concept for this particular handset. However, in terms of features, the E51 offers so much more inside its deceptively ordinary casing.

The E51 is a quad-band GSM phone equipped with HSDPA and 3G connectivity. It supports Wi-Fe and SIP meaning that installing a special software can allow you access to VoIP. It has a 130MB internal memory, which we find fairly satisfactory with micro-SD extension slots. Of course, Bluetooth and Infra-red are both present. In the E51, there is a basic multimedia software and document readers. Nokia has added a little kick into this handset with its built-in FM tuner. At the back of the E51 is its 2-megapixel camera and its onboard speakers. Though the camera is good enough for the most basic snapshots, you shouldn’t expect to get high quality prints.

We believe that the E51 already has all the necessary features to get you through on a daily basis. As in many other Nokia units, this handset is prone to fingerprint smudges which we found a little troublesome. It also does not have a front-facing camera making video calls futile.

We noticed how the E51 can be very responsive; the menus and applications were activated almost instantly. We did experience some lag time when multiple programs were opened simultaneously, which should be normal. Call quality is decent enough, though the sound became a little hollow on loudspeaker mode. There was also some slight muffling since speakers were located at the back.

The 2-megapixel camera in this handphone can be disappointing. Though picture quality enough to be considered satisfactory, shooting photos while on the move is hardly possible. The photos that came out were not as great. We believe Nokia could have done better on this aspect, though we still loved the E51 despite this weakness.

Despite its shortcomings, it can be very easy to fall in love with the E51. It is easy to use and offers a great load of features. The slim profile, the dedicated buttons, the convenient tactility, the Wi-Fi connection - these are but some of the features that you would like most in a phone. This ordinary looking phone has so much more to offer than meets the eye.

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tagged: 3G, HSDPA, Keypad, Wi-Fi, Nokia, E51, Symbian, Smartphone, E65