i-mate Ultimate 8502 Review

Look and Feel

It’s not the prettiest smartphone we have ever seen, but the offset mini joystick on the front fascia does give it an air of individuality.


Ease of Use

The QWERTY keyboard is tiny, but its keys are nicely raised from each other so they are reasonably easy to hit.


Features

There is no GPS, but it does have HSDPA and Wi-Fi, and you can send the screen’s contents to a TV or projector via a provided cable.


Performance

There were no performance issues noticed during testing. It is easy to navigate using a combination of mini joystick, side-mounted scroll-wheel and touch-screen.



Battery Life

The battery life is quite strong for a Windows Mobile Professional device. You should get a couple of days between charges unless you thrash the Wi-Fi and 3G.

news source : http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/Phone-review?product_id=349

Nokia 5220 XpressMusic Unveiled with New Asymmetrical Design

Nokia today announced the 5220 XpressMusic, an affordable music phone with a unique, asymmetrical design.

Compatible with the recently launched Nokia Music Store, the 5220 XpressMusic offers easy music side-loading. With Nokia Music Store, consumers can choose from more than 2 million tracks from both major and independent labels; international and local artists and browse, download, stream and sync either to a PC or side-load directly to the 5220 XpressMusic.

Additional features on the 5220 XpressMusic include up to 24 hours playback time, dedicated music keys and a 3.5 mm audio jack. A built-in lanyard makes the it easy to carry.

"Our XpressMusic range of devices continues to deliver the combination of superior music experiences and fresh, innovative designs," said Jo Harlow, Nokia Vice President. "Today's additions to the XpressMusic range up the ante with new ways for consumers to access their media as well as interact and share content with friends and communities anytime, anywhere."

The Nokia 5220 XpressMusic is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated retail price of 160 EUR ($250 USD) before taxes and subsidies.

news source : http://www.mobiledia.com/news/65930.html

Samsung miCoach Review

Look and feel

The Samsung miCoach is a lightweight slider phone with a robust plastic casing and a patterned grip-finish on the rear casing and around the joypad, designed to assist grips as you build up a sweat.

At 80g and similar in size to an iPod Mini, the phone is a good weight and shape to be held comfortably while you’re running and also tucks comfortably into one of those little Velcro arm straps. A volume control on the right-hand side of the phone is similarly grip friendly and the important key functions are clearly signposted with relevant icons like a runner and a music symbol.



All in all, the phone is as attractive as it needs to be. The Samsung branding is clear yet relatively subtle, and the phone feels sturdy enough to survive being dropped as you take the steps of your local municipal building two at a time as you reach the crescendo of your workout.


Features

Although many of the features, like the camera and data speeds are bog standard, the phone’s fitness function is first rate.



Samsung’s miCoach can be set to monitor a workout that suits your needs, whether you’re a serious athlete or a part-time jogger. And not only do you get running commentary on the progress of your workout at the press of a button, you can even choose the type of voice that delivers your stats. On top of that, the excellent music player is beautifully integrated with the phone’s fitness function.


Ease of use

With two well signposted keys providing instant access to the Workout and Music functions and an easy icon-based main menu, the miCoach is an easy phone to get around.



It’s also very easy to access and control the fitness and music functions while you’re mid-run with single or double key presses usually doing the trick.


Performance

Putting the phone’s average camera and web browsing abilities to one side, the Samsung miCoach is an excellent fitness-tracking tool.

Everything about the phone just works. It’s simple to set up and, once you’ve done so, provides very accurate data. The music player is great too and integrates beautifully with the phone’s fitness function.


Battery life

Although the miCoach is designed to offer low battery consumption, the battery is quite weak with only 150 minutes’ talktime and 250 minutes’ standby. Compared to the 500+ minutes that most Sony Ericsson phones offer, this is a little disappointing.


news source : http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/Phone-review?product_id=333

Samsung's Belle phone comes with matching nail polish

Apart from stylish features, graphics, and color changes, phone makers have included plenty of other gimmicky functions in order to attract the fairer sex. In case you missed it, there are plenty of novelty phones out there with ovulation calendars, rape alarms, recipe databases, and weight management functions, but the latest trend on the radar is matching your nail polish to your phone.

Mobileburn.com says that in order to find the matching shade for the exclusive G600 Belle mobile, Samsung partnered with Nails Inc. in the UK who will be introducing the complimentary purple lacquer, along with two other bottles. Compared to the other genius female-centric features, nail polish will at least come in handy in my book, so I won't complain as long as they don't expect me to pay extra for it.

Apart from the matching nail polish token, the slider phone itself isn't so bad either. It includes a 5-megapixel camera, music player, supports microSD cards, and has a large display to surf the Web. Samsung's G600 Belle will be available exclusively through Phones 4u in the UK starting next month.

Ladies, do you think matching your nail polish with your cell phone will be a hit or a miss?

news source : http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/25186

Samsung SPH-M520 Review

Surprise won’t even begin to describe costumer’s feelings when they’ll see the new Samsung SPH-M520 for the very first time. A lot of us have been asking for something innovative, something different, from one of the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones - but they failed to do it with this one. Although the SPH-M520 remained true to Samsung’s slim slider phone’s, it won’t overly impress users already influenced by devices such as the iPhone or RIM’s Blackberries.

Having said that, I’d like to soften my criticism a little by saying that the phone in itself isn’t really that bad. As with other mobile devices , it has it’s good points that some users will be comfortable with.

Starting of with its design, the SPH-M520 remains true to Samsung’s popular form. But I’m just wondering, when will Samsung try something new? A candy-bar type phone would be a breath of fresh air when we are talking about all the slim sliders that Samsung has produced.

At 4.01 inches by 2.04 inches by 0.5 inch and 2.75 ounces the SPH-M520 is neither too big nor too small; it slips easily into a pocket and it won’t weigh you down. The slider mechanism is sturdy enough, but also sensitive enough to allow users to pen and close the phone with one hand.

The SPH-M520’s 262,000-color display measures a generous 2.1 inches (176×220 pixels). Like many Samsung displays, it’s bright and colorful and shows just about everything well. You can change the brightness, the backlighting time, and the dialing font size and color.

Samsung added a new layer to the standby screen. Now, you can find shortcut icons to seven functions that is, in my opinion, very convenient. You can cycle though the options while pressing the navigation toggle and make your selection with the OK key. It’s a convenient arrangement but you can turn it off and use the traditional toggle shortcuts instead.

Another positive aspect to the SPH-M520 is its well-designed navigation controls. It’s much better than what we see in most of today’s slider phones. The square toggle is large and is raised above the surface of the SPH-M520 and gives you no problem thumbing through the menus and selecting options using the tactile OK button.

The phone’s features basically contains the standard 500-contact phone book with room in each entry for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a Web address, a nickname, and notes. You can save contacts to groups and pair them with a photo and one of 19 (72-chord) polyphonic ringtones for caller ID.

Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a file manager, a speakerphone, a calendar, a scheduler, a voice recorder, an alarm clock, a memo pad, a calculator, a countdown timer, a task list and a world clock. You’ll also find stereo Bluetooth, USB mass storage, GPS support with Telenav access, voice dialing and commands, wireless backup for your contacts, modem capability, e-mail and instant messaging and PC syncing. The SPH-M520 also offers audible caller ID that will route through to a Bluetooth headset.

The SPH-M520 also has a 1.3-megapixel camera that takes pictures in four resolutions - 1.3-megapixel, high, medium, and low. Other options include a self timer, five fun frames, five color tones, brightness and white balance controls, a night mode, a 2x zoom and four shutter sounds. It can also act as a camcorder and shoots clips with sound and a set of editing options similar to the still camera. After doing so, you can save your work in its memory. The SPH-M520’s internal memory, however, is small at 16MB, but you can use the microSD card slot for more storage.

You can personalize the SPH-M520 with several of clock styles, themes, and screen savers. If you want additional options beyond what comes on the phone, you can download them using the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser.

The SPH-M520 has a rated battery life of 3.5 hours talk time. According to FCC radiation tests, the Samsung SPH-M520 has a digital SAR rating of 0.761 watt per kilogram.

news source:

http://www.camera-core.co.uk/19-03-2008-samsung-sph-m520-review.html

LG KF600 Review

Look and feel

With its smoked glass and chrome finish, the KF600 is a striking slider phone that’s well built, feels good and looks original. We also think the InteractPad user interface looks great, even though only a section of the screen is touch-sensitive.


Features

The InteractPad is a quirky feature that’s integral to the handset’s usability. Elsewhere, the feature set is distinctly mid-range. The three-megapixel camera is a plus, but the lack of 3G is a shame. Although the display is large and undisturbed by any unsightly keys, a good third is taken up by the virtual InteractPad.


Ease of use

For a touch-screen phone, the KF600 is easy to use, but it achieves this by mimicking a regular phone interface. As a result, you don’t get the large display benefits of other touch-screen phones. It’s still good fun though, and well thought out.


Performance

Aside from the slow data speeds for web browsing, the KF600 is a good all-round performer and the camera takes decent snaps.


Battery life

As with the feature set, the battery life is satisfactory without being overly impressive.

news source : http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/Phone-review?product_id=311

Nokia's N96 REVIEW

Nokia’s upcoming flagship handset, the 16GB N96, will arrive in the UK in August, according to retailer Carphone Warehouse.

Carphone Warehouse’s website has been updated to reveal that the successor to the popular N95 will arrive in the summer. Until now, Nokia fans had been waiting with bated breath because only a vague, sometime-in-Q3 shipping date had been mentioned by the Finnish handset giant.

Unfortunately, the retailer’s website doesn’t treat us to any other nuggets of N96 news, such as an estimated UK price.

Tech specs for the phone were mistakenly leaked on Nokia’s German website last month, but the handset giant has since confirmed that it’ll sport a 2.8in display, a five-megapixel camera and 16GB of on-board memory.

Users will also be treated to live TV broadcasting, thanks to the DVB-H tuner built into UK models, and support for MPEG 4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video formats. A kickstand lets you sit the phone horizontally for hands-free viewing.

It also features media keys, a 3.5mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers plus the Nokia Maps application with Assisted GPS. It has Wi-Fi and HSDPA connectivity.

news source:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/11/nokia_n96_august_uk_release/

Samsung and Adidas unveil miCoach fitness phone

A new mobile phone which doubles up as a fitness coach has been unveiled by Samsung.

Developed in conjunction with German sportswear giant adidas, the miCoach handset comes with a stride sensor and a heart rate monitor.

Using data from the two sensors, the device is able to create a personalised training program based on your fitness level.

The phone, which features an mp3 player and a 2 megapixel camera, also provides training tips and time updates during workouts.
Advertisement
Click here to find out more!

The handset is the latest in a series of gadgets aimed at health conscious gadget fans, following on from the Nike+ iPod accessory, and Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii Fit computer game.

The miCoach phone is set to go on sale in the UK later this month.

news source:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2008/03/06/samsung-and-adidas-unveil-micoach-fitness-phone-89520-20343638/