Archive for the ‘Mobile Phone Reviews’ Category:
HTC Wildfire S Grey Android Telstra Next G Review
The HTC Wildfire S scraps the optical trackpad that was used on the original model and instead opts for the now standard four touch-sensitive keys — home, menu, back and search. The keys themselves work well, but are easy to press accidentally due to the small screen.
There are no physical buttons on the front of the phone, with HTC opting for four capacitive touch-buttons. These are your standard Android Home, Menu, Back and Search options. They’re responsive, plus HTC has put in a little vibration feedback to reassure your brain that your finger did indeed just hit the right spot.
Cheaper Android phones usually come with some compromises that often revolve around the display, and the HTC Wildfire S is no exception. Though the increased resolution of 320×480 pixels over its predecessor’s 240×320 pixels is welcomed, the display fares poorly in direct sunlight, has mediocre viewing angles and does not render text well. Thankfully, the screen is responsive to touch and this results in a pleasing user experience, though text input is rather cramped given the small size of the screen.
Sony Ericcson Xperia Arc Review
The design is very sleek too – the curved back sloping attractively inwards rather than using the bulbous human curvature design of last year, and sits very nicely in the hand with a width of just 8.7mm at the middle.
The front keys on the phone are thankfully physical, making it easier to hit them without looking, and mixing the design of the original X10 and the Vivaz, again adding to the aesthetic.
Despite the presence of video calling functionality in Google’s Android 2.3, the Xperia Arc is devoid of a video calling function – we can’t say we’re upset, because it’s only in tablets that we think we’ll see the need for proper video calling.
The HDMI-out port is located on the top of the phone too, and while we didn’t get the chance to test out the functionality, we’re promised by Sony Ericsson that HDMI-mirroring will be possible, meaning you can display anything from multimedia content to websites via your big screen.
Sony Ericsson will be bundling a mini-HDMI lead in with each Xperia Arc, meaning it will be easy to perform the connection, although DLNA is also offered if you don’t want to have to sit close to the monitor to show off your holiday snaps.
Tags: 7mm, android, curvature, dlna, google, hdmi, multimedia content, Review, sony ericcson, Sony Ericcson Xperia Arc, Sony Ericsson, vivaz
Nokia N97 Mini Review
The design of the N97 mini is, however, more appealing and dainty than the N97. Moreover, the smaller version of the handset is made from materials with better quality and feels much more pleasing in your hand. To top it off, it´s more compact and carrying it about in the pocket of your trousers or jeans is by no means uncomfortable.
The slider mechanism performs similarly to the one the N97 is equipped with. It´s quite tight and opens sharply, but closes slowly and smoothly. One of the differences to the N97 is the lack of D-Pad built into the QWERTY keyboard and we like that. Despite the smaller dimensions of the handset, the size of the keys remains the same and the space in between is more than enough to prevent erroneous pressing of two buttons at the same time. The keyboard allows for fast and error-free text entry, despite the the fact that keys lack enough travel and doesn’t feel pleasing to use. Anyway, we still like it better than the keyboard of Nokia´s flagship.
The back is similar to the N97 – the lower part is slightly raised and the phone doesn’t tilt to its side when set on flat surface. Unfortunately, the 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar optics and double LED flash seem to have parted ways with the sliding cover that would have protected it against scratches.
HTC Touch Diamond2 Review
The Touch Diamond2 sports a Qualcomm MSM7200A processor running at 528MHz. It has 512MB ROM (317MB accessible), 288MB RAM (192MB accessible), and has a microSD/HC expansion slot for added memory. The resistive touchscreen is 3.2″ and is WVGA 480×800 resolution, making for a pixel density of 292ppi (the Touch Diamond’s screen is 285ppi and the iPhone’s screen is 164ppi). It’s a quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) phone with dualband UMTS (900/2100) with HSDPA and HSUPA. It also has assisted GPS, WiFi b & g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, USB 2.0, FM radio, and an accelerometer for screen rotations in Opera Mobile, while viewieng the photo gallery, and while emailing. The rear camera is 5MP with auto focus and no flash, and the front camera for video calls is VGA resolution. Powering all of this is a 1110mAh battery.
The Diamond2 is undoubtedly a sweet looking device. It uses a mix of metals and plastics, which gives it a high quality look while saving on weight. You may agree that the Diamond2 lacks the stunning visual appeal that the original had. Missing is a D-Pad, but the interface on the Diamond2 is finger-friendly enough to where the D-Pad isn’t missed. The 3.2″ screen is larger than the original Diamond, but really, the screen is just taller.
BlackBerry Bold 9000 Review
The New Definition of Professional Looking
RIM has dramatically improved the looks of its devices in recent years, and the Bold is a new high point. Its rounded corners and leather-textured back make it somehow both professional and sexy.
And the higher-resolution screen is great, too. The Bold has a 320-by-480-pixel display, which is at least twice the resolution of the earlier RIM models, like the Curve. This is a beautiful screen that makes everything you do with the Bold look great, but especially watching movies.
This smartphone is wider than many of its competitors, but it’s also relatively thin. And its width allows the aforementioned screen to be larger, and also makes room for a bigger keyboard. This isn’t as wide as the landscape-oriented keyboards you’ll find on some smartphones, but it’s large enough to be comfortable to type on. There’s no separation between keys, but each key has a raised area that makes it easier for you to be sure you’re hitting just one at a time. Sadly, the Bold doesn’t fix one of my biggest complaints with BlackBerry keyboards: there are no keys dedicated to the most frequently used punctuation marks, including the period and the comma.
Between the screen and keyboard is the trackball. As the Bold doesn’t have a touchscreen, you’ll do much of your interacting with it through this, and it’s up to the job. After a couple of days of use, I began to think that a trackball is a better option than a D-pad and definitely superior to the old BlackBerry track-wheel.
There are programmable keys on both the left and right sides of this device, which is another thing I’d like to see on other smartphones.
There’s also a button on top you can use to mute incoming calls. This doesn’t answer the call or send it to voice-mail, it just quickly shuts off the ringing sound. You can use this same button to put the Bold in standby mode, which locks the keys and turns the screen off until you hit this button again. It will still take calls, so it’s a good way to carry your smartphone around.
HSDPA, At Last
The BlackBerry Bold is the first model from RIM with HSDPA, the latest version of high-speed wireless networking used by GSM carriers. This is welcome news for AT&T customers, but isn’t going to impress Verizon or Sprint users, as their BlackBerries have had equivalent data transfer speeds for a long time. But like I said, AT&T customers are going to enjoy a noticeable speed increase when accessing web sites.
And the Bold’s web browser is a pleasant surprise. I’ve used some miserable browsers on BlackBerries over the years, but this one is significantly improved. It’s not amazing or even cutting edge by any stretch, but it’s more usable than the browser on any BlackBerry I’ve seen before.
This smartphone is also one of the first from this company with Wi-Fi, which can be used to speed up your browsing when you’re in range of a hotspot.
It also has Bluetooth. This is primarily intended to let you use wireless headsets and car-kits, and it does this job nicely For any of you who aren’t familiar with this term, it refers to the ability to make your phone act as a wireless modem for another computer.
What separates a smartphone from an ordinary mobile phone is good software. Fortunately, the BlackBerry Bold is well supplied with this.
Like all RIM’s models. this device supports push email. Messages can come from a company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server, but AT&T also offers a version of this service for consumers, too.
One of the best new features is the bundled version of DataViz Documents To Go. This is a suite of applications for working with Microsoft Office files. It does a decent job of letting you see files in their original format, and edit them, too. It doesn’t support all the formatting options Word does, but if you edit and re-save a document with formatting DocsToGo can’t display, the unsupported formatting won’t be affected.