Hottest Mobile Phones this Summer
Laptop Magazine previews and reviews five mobile phones they consider to be should-buys this summer, and they are as follows.
The Motorola Q. It’s a smartphone, and it says Windows Mobile 5.0 (up to you if that’s good or bad). Personally, I think this is cool, as you can do all sorts of wonderful stuff on a Windows Mobile powered smartphone, and I’m a fan of being able to seamlessly sync with Outlook. It’s like having a full-fledged Windows-based PDA in a mobile phone form factor. The phone even supports EV-DO connectivity, and has a 1.3 megapixel camera. Memory is also expandable via Mini-SD. Only disadvantage, though, is that the Moto Q doesn’t have touchscreen.
Retail price: $199 with 2-year contract.
Palm Treo 700P. It’s PalmOS-based so whether it’s good or bad depends on your OS preference. But Palm still lives by the KISS principle–that is, keep it simple, stupid! You get blazing power in your hands but with a simple and no-nonsense UI. You can connect broadband via Sprint’s EV-DO service or Verizon’s Wireless broadband service. The Treo 700P also sports a 1.3-megapixel camera for those days you forget to bring your real digital camera with you.
Retail price: $399 with 2-year contract and after rebate.
Sony Ericsson W810i. It’s a SonyEricsson, so the interface and operating system are proprietary. If you can live with that, consider that this, being a W-series phone, is a Walkman, and actually has strong portable music player features. You can even use your own earphones or high-fidelity noise-cancelling headphones as the phone uses a standard 3.5-mm stereo jack! It even has a 2-megapixel camera. Again, I’m not a fan of these itty-bitty things that take poor pictures, but it’s a convenient feature to have.
Retail price: $399.
Samsung SCH-a930. The a930 clamshell looks more like an MP3 player than a phone. But you might be able to forgive the design shortcomings considering the low price. For this price, you get dedicated music controls and a dedicated external screen for displaying track information. Memory is also expandable up to 1GB via MicroSD. You also get access to Verizon’s V CAST music service. Hey, you also have a 1.3-megapixel camera. IT rotates, this time, whatever you’d need that for (perfect for voyeur photography, I guess).
Retail price: $99.99 (after $50 rebate).
LG Fusic. Fus-what? Strange name aside, the Fusic looks interesting, but lacks appeal in design. It has that control wheel reminiscent of the iPod’s, but sports a protruding antenna, which I find un-cool. The Fusic works with the Sprint music store, or you can transfer MP3s and AACs via USB (sounds familiar). It also has Bluetooth stereo support and–yes–a 1.3-megapixel camera. What’s great is you can plug in the phone into your laptop for use as an EV-DO modem. I’m foreseeing a visit from Apple’s patent lawyers, though, with the way the Fusic mimics the iPod’s control wheel.
Retail price: $179 with 2-year contract.
Looks like it’s smartphones and MP3-playing phones for Laptop Magazine this summer.
Samsung A990
Popgadget takes a look at the Samsung A990, a clamshell camera phone that Verizon Wireless supports. While it is not really a review, they do put forth some interesting thoughts on the device.
My favorite new Samsung default feature is a translational text mode for business cards. Just shoot a photo of a business card and the phone’s software is able to interpret the text to automatically add a new entry to the phone’s contact list.
Verizon definitely has the right idea. The company has also been making a push to educate consumers on their VZ Navigator system that uses GPS chips in the phone to provide real-time driving directions. Seeing as how a single device is now able to provide a telephone, a high quality camera, mp3’s, web access, and driving directions, there may not be many other devices that I need to buy. Mark my words: the company that is able to reduce the number of devices I carry to exactly one will be the winner of the technology wars.
The A990 is a 3.2 megapixel digital camera slapped inside a small clamshell body. Currently, it is one of the highest, if not the highest, resolution you can get in a camera phone in the American marketplace. It also supports MP3 playback, basic video recording, and web access. It supports microSD and TransFlash memory cards.
Samsung’s 6.9mm Thick SGH-X820
The SGH-X820 was recently revieled in Seoul, Korea by Samsung. The X820 is currently he world’s thinnest phone at 6.9mm (0.27″) thick.
The phone includes a 2 megapixel camera, supports GPRS/EDGE data on 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz GSM bands and a 1.9″, 176×220 pixel display that is capable of 262k colors and can be viewed in landscape mode for some functions.
Other features include Bluetooth and USB support, a media player that supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and WMA music files, 80MB of built-in storage, and a TV-out function for viewing photos and videos on your television.
Samsung expects the SGH-X820 to hit the Russian market in June of 2006, followed eventually by European markets.
T-Mobile World Cup Branded Samsung E370
Pocket-lint has the scoop on a World Cup branded Samsung E370 being produced for fans of the England team.
So you think you’re a big enough fan of the World Cup and in particular England? Well T-Mobile is hoping you are, with the launch of the T-Mobile official England team handset.
Keen footie fans will be able to get their hands on a branded Samsung E270 handset preloaded with a video of Geoff Hurst’s 1966 winning goal for inspiration, as well as other classic video clips and exclusive content. For a truly English World Cup flourish, the black compact slider is embossed with a “Three Lions” logo.
Very interesting, I wonder if niche handsets are going to grow in popularity over the next few years, as a status symbol much like wearing a team jersey.
Samsung Develops 2GB Memory Card for Mobile Phones
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has developed a 2GByte MultiMediaCard (MMCmicro(TM)) that combines four 4Gbit NAND flash devices. This is the smallest, fastest and highest capacity memory card for mobile phones, developed only three months after Samsung led the industry by launching a 1GByte MMCmicro.
“The 2GByte high-performance MMC is a powerful indicator of Samsung’s expanding efforts to embrace the widest possible range of multimedia applications including mobile video,” said Don Barnetson, Director, Flash Marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.
Despite being the size of a fingernail (12mmx14mmx1.1mm), the new MMCmicro will provide the highest transmission speed of any removable memory card, transmitting data 3.5 times faster than other cards. The card can store 12 hours of mobile video and is fast enough to download three hours of it in under two minutes. An adapter allows the card to be plugged into any multimedia card slot.
The 2GB MMC can operate at either 1.8 volts (V) and 3.3V, making it an even more viable solution for mobile phones.
The new MMC, in a format standardized by the MultiMediaCard association (MMCA) and being standardized by JEDEC, can be obtained by manufacturers without royalties or licensing fees.
The 1 GB MMCmicro will be commercially available later this year.
According to Dataquest, a semiconductor market research firm, as the global memory card market will grow five percent between 2005 and 2010, the multimedia card market will grow 17% and the MMCmicro market by 95 percent during the same period.
Samsung SGH-Z320i 3G i-mode Review
Pocket-lint reviews the Samsung SGH-Z320i, a 3G slider design cell phone.
But that’s partly the point of the Z320i, because considering all the connection options this handset has to offer - to which you can add Quad band functionality and Bluetooth - it’s small and very neatly put together. It may not be as slim as the LG U880 or RAZR V3x, but with its neat sliding mechanism and short stature it’s more pocketable than most 3G handsets.
It also manages to squeeze in a 1.3 megapixel camera for snapping your mates and there’s the option of video calling too - there’s two cameras on board, an option I prefer to the single swivelling lens.
In the end they give it an eight out of ten, while so far readers have given it a nine point two out of ten. Pocket-lint justifies their review due to the lack of expandable memory and the small screen that the Samsung SGH-Z320i comes with.
Samsung’s SGH-P300 Review
Mobile Burn has a review of the SGH-P300 from Samsung, a credit card sized cell phone, that is almost too small.
The biggest draw of the SGH-P300 certainly has to be its physical being. It measures only 88mm x 54mm x 9mm (3.5″ x 2.1″ x .35″) in size, and weighs in at 83g (2.9oz). That is a small, compact mobile phone. If you are willing to deal with increased size and weight, Samsung ships the P300 with a very slick leather case that includes its own battery, which boosts the phone’s battery life by about 50% - and looks good while doing so. The case is good for every day use, and can be quickly unclipped to give you the smaller package for that night out on the town. A very nice design.
The phone gets a recommended rating, thanks to the compact size, the great UI, and is fully featured despite its size. Some of the negatives of the phone is that it has poor audio quality, and no memory card slot.
Samsung SCH-W399 with GPS
This is really neat, a cell phone that will shout out directions via GPS to help you find where you are going.
Samsung’s new SCH-W399 is the first that I have heard of to have voice guided directions via GPS.
Other features on this tri-band GSM / CDMA 1x clamshell include an integrated 1.3 megapixel shooter that swivels a full 180 degrees, a decent sized 2.2-inch 260k color LCD display (176 x 220), and Bluetooth connectivity. Although the SCH-W399 does have music playback (as well as a loudspeaker), there is only 57MB of on-board memory with no expansion slot in sight. The keypad has a similar “touch pad” text recognition functionality to it as that found on a few Motorola phones.
This 90 gram GPS-enabled cell phone should retail for about $600 USD and available now… in China.
Via Mobile Mag.
Samsung SGH-Z400
MobileWhack has some details on the Samsung SGH-Z400, a business phone.
This is a 3G phone, supporting UMTS 2.1 GHz, as well as GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz networks. Touted as a business phone, the phone comes with built-in document viewers.
The phone sports a bright 2″ 240×320 pixel resolution (QVGA) LCD TFT display capable of outputting 262k colors. User-accessible memory, while limited at 30MB, can happily be extended using a separate microSD memory card - ideal for storing photos from the 2-megapixel camera or your favorite songs.
Samsung SGH-Z550 UMTS Slider
The people over at Mobile Burn took a quick look at the Samsung SGH-Z550 while at CeBit 2006, and they loved how it fit in the hand.
Here are a couple of specifications they mentioned in their article about the new slider phone:
The Samsung SGH-Z550 sports a 2.05″ QVGA display up front, and a 2.0 megapixel snapper at the rear. To support the camera and MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+ compatible music player, the Z550 has 138MB of on board storage, with a microSD slot for memory expansion. Dual speakers and a Digital Power Amp are also featured, as are Bluetooth and a Document Viewer application.
Is it just me, or are cell phones getting closer and closer to being that “one device” you will use for everything?
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