The Google Nexus One is now available SIM free at Pixmania for £599 plus delivery.
Manufacturered by HTC, Google’s first own-brand mobile phone is undoubtedly a superb piece of engineering. Ergonomically, it just slips naturally into the hand with its all-round soft curves rather than the hard edges of, say the Motorola Milestone. At 130g the Nexus One is lighter than an iPhone (136g) and Milestone (170g) as well as being narrower and thinner (at 11.5mm) than these two most striking competitors.
It has a fantastic 3.7 inch widescreen, AMOLED display, delivering 720×480 pixels resolution. Arguably crisper and clearer than any other display on the market, it delivers touchscreen responsiveness definitely in the ballpark of the iPhone and, moreover, it is fast. The combination of Android 2.1 sitting above a Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1GHz with 512Mb of RAM and ROM really does enable you to zap through opening up applications and then moving between them.
Its multimedia credentials, are quietly competent rather than superb - such as the 5 megapixel, autofocus camera with LED flash and its 32GB memory card capacity. Where the Nexus One really impresses, though, is in what could be called its charisma, if it could walk into a crowded room, heads would most definitely turn. Its Teflon-coated back and sides are simultaneously rubbery and tough yet soft and almost sensuous, a strangely compelling tactile experience.
A nexus is a link or means of connecting things; it can also mean the core or centre of something. So the first significant mobile event of the new decade: the launch of Google’s initial Android phone - the eagerly awaited Nexus One - pieces together almost all that is great and good in the mobile device world. This is undoubtedly a superb piece of engineering. The bar gets raised yet again and we’re hardly out of the starting blocks for the year!
Ergonomically, the Google Phone as it is being called, just slips naturally into the hand with its all-round soft curves rather than the hard edges of, say the Motorola Milestone. At 130g the Nexus One is lighter than an iPhone (136g) and Milestone (170g) as well as being narrower and thinner (at 11.5mm) than these two most striking competitors.
All the boxes of a futuristic smartphone are ticked - albeit with a few compromises and zigs where some people would prefer to zag. Not least is the fantastic 3.7 inch widescreen, AMOLED screen, delivering 720×480 pixels resolution. Arguably crisper and clearer than any other display on the market, it delivers touchscreen responsiveness definitely in the ballpark of the iPhone and, moreover, it is fast.
The combination of Android 2.1 sitting above a Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1GHz with 512Mb RAM and ROM really does enable you to zap through opening up applications and then moving between them, even on EDGE, where 3G is unavailable.
Its multimedia credentials, are quietly competent rather than superb - such as the 5 megapixel, autofocus camera with LED flash and its 32GB memory card capacity. Among the bells and whistles is an interesting Android application called Google Goggles: it tries to recognize what is in photos then generates search results about them. Goggles can currently recognize landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, places, wine and logos at the moment and Google is apparently aiming to add other types of objects, such as plants!
A lively little feature that has certainly captured the blogosphere’s attention is what are called “live wallpapers”, already featured on Motorola’s Droid. Nexus One has a choice of 10 such animated images that can evolve throughout the day, for example. Probably more significantly, it offers excellent noise cancelling, a proximity sensor (so you don’t accidentally press buttons when it is up to your ear) and a highly effective speakerphone.
Where the Nexus One really impresses, though, is in what could be called its charisma – if it could walk into a crowded room, heads would most definitely turn. Its Teflon-coated back and sides are simultaneously rubbery and tough yet soft and almost sensuous – a strangely compelling tactile experience.
The Nexus One has scrambled up to the top of the greasy pole for now. We await what Samsung’s new Bada operating system will deliver in the Spring or early Summer. So 2010 looks set to be, if not exactly a space odyssey, then a fascinating journey though all that is faster, snappier and wow-ier in the mobile device world.
The Acer neoTouch F1 runs on the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS and with a Qualcomm 8250 1GHz processor it is a super fast smartphone. It can easily cope with a number of demanding applications running at once, without slowing down. Watching videos and browsing the web is fantastic on the sharp and bright 3.8 inch WVGA screen. Users can customise their interface and homescreen with widgets and shortcuts. The neoTouch F1 has the latest version of Internet Explorer which lets users run multiple tasks and with HSPDA plus Wi-Fi, web browsing is fast.
The neoTouch F1 has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and geo-tagging as well as VGA video recording. For music on the go there’s Windows Media Player an expandable memory up to 32GB using a microSD card. An FM radio is also built in, with RDS and there’s a standard 3.5mm audio jack. For those who love to network from their mobile the neoTouch has Facebook and Flickr widgets for quick and easy access, plus instant messaging and email support for immediate messages.
The new Vodafone 360 service is aiming to combine social networking sites, email, contacts and multimedia on one device. Described as ‘a suite of innovative, new internet services for mobile and PC’, it will support Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk. The Vodafone 360 H1 has been exclusively designed for this new application that will eventually be available on other smartphones.
Designed and manufactured by Samsung, this 3.5 inch AMOLED touchscreen phones runs on the LiMo OS. The Vodafone 360 H1 has HSDPA and Wi-Fi, providing fast web browsing and high speed data transfer. The Opera web browser is pre-installed and you’ll also find Webkit widgets and push email. You can organise all your contacts from MySpace, MSN and Facebook on your mobile by colour. Vodafone expect there to be 1000 applications available to download.
The first impressions of this phone do well to set it apart from its competitors. It’s quite a large phone with a height of 129mm and a width of 70mm, but what makes the TG01 attractive is that it is less than 10mm thick, weighs 129g and has a 4.1 inch Toshiba REGZA touchscreen.
So, what does it have under the bonnet? The thing which is going to make this smartphone different to the competition is its 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 processor which Toshiba claim will allow it to run twice as fast as most other smartphones. Just for a comparison, the iPhone runs with a 620 MHz processor.
The camera is not something that recommends the TG01 but is a decent addition with a 3 megapixel shooter, autofocus and a photo editor thrown in to the package. The the TG01 runs with Windows 6.1 Prof OS and includes Pocket Office so you do your work on the move.
Free on T-Mobile from just £29.36 per month with Web’n’Walk included. Compare all deals on the new MDA Compact V.
The T-Mobile MDA Compact V is the successor to the MDA Compact IV and is almost identical to HTC’s Touch Diamond2, apart from a few cosmetic changes. The phone has a very sleek, professional look which will draw positive attention to itself in any arena. The most striking feature is its high resolution WVGA 480×800 pixel, 3.2 inch, TFT resistive touchscreen which will allow the user to fully exploit the impressive capabilities of the phone.
Another obvious design improvement to the Compact IV is the exclusion of its trackball navigation and the inclusion of touch sensitive zoom control which allows for magnification of photos, web pages, documents and texts. The included accelerometer is also a quirky addition. The phone comes with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional which incorporates pocket Office, comprising Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and PDF view. All of these features help make the device a very desirable prospect in the business marketplace.
The T-Mobile MDA Compact V comes bundled with a very respectable 5 megapixel camera which has auto focus for good quality image capture. As expected with most Smartphone’s the Compact V has Wi-fi, HSPDA (up to 7.2 Mbps), GPS and Bluetooth. Other features include the TouchFLO finger swipe navigation, touch sensitive navigation controls, handwriting recognition, a very good web browser, FM radio with RDS, a VGA videocall camera, the list goes on and on!
Could the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic be a real alternative to the Nokia N97? It’s an S60 smartphone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a huge specification. Free on Orange for just £25 per month.
Nokia have included the Say and Play feature, this means you only have to speak the name of the artist or the track and it will play automatically. It has a 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth and dedicated music keys. There’s an 8GB memory card included, enough to store around 6,000 songs, and this can be upgraded to 16GB if you need more.
The Nokia 5730 supports Ovi Share, giving you access to thousands of applications and widgets. It has 3G and HSDPA for fast data downloads plus Wi-Fi, which is a nice addition.
The camera is 3.2 megapixels with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and an LED flash. There is also a VGA video call camera. GPS is also present allowing photos to be geo-tagged with their exact location. The GPS can also be used with sat nav applications and Nokia Maps.
Free on a £30 per month tariff. Stock due next week. Order today and be first to own one.
The Samsung i8910 HD is an impressive addition to latest collection of Samsung touchscreen phones. It’s a trendy, sleek, professional Smartphone with a huge 3.7 inch HD display. Capable of recording HD video at an amazing 720×480 resolution and 30 frames per second. The i8910 HD is the most advanced video recording phone available.
The 8 megapixel camera also has autofocus, face and smile recognition along with panoramic features and geo-tagging. As well as being a superb camera phone with exceptional video capabilities, the i8910 HD has plenty of other features to make it an all-round, high class mobile device.
The Samsung i8910 HD has GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA and of course Bluetooth. The 3.7 inch screen is impressive, whether you’re browsing the web, reading emails, playing games or watching widescreen movies in hi-def. With such a big display the phone is inevitably large yet it never feels too chunky. It’s slightly longer than an iPhone, but distinctly narrower.
The Symbian S60 OS with touch interface makes for easy use and allows you to multitask by running your favourite applications all at the same time. A wide range of useful applications are built-in and many more can be downloaded, such as Skype and Google Maps.
Some new deals this week with the Titan Black version of the LG Arena, exclusive to T-Mobile. You can get it free on Combi 25 (18m) with 12 months half price line rental. You’ll pay just £24.47 per month and you can claim £146 cash back. Combi 25 gives you 300 xnet minutes and 300 texts per month.
The KM900 Arena is the new and exciting touchscreen phone from LG. It devotes most of its front face to a 3 inch screen which makes it great for reviewing pictures, watching videos and internet browsing. It’s very sleek and it feels good in your hand, drawing attention for all of the right reasons.
But, play with it and it really comes to life! It has a new 3D touch user interface named S-Class, which is simply stunning. The touchscreen is amazingly sensitive with fluid menus and no lagging. The hardware graphics acceleration gives it some serious power and initial reports claim that this is the most impressive touchscreen phone since the iPhone was launched.
Under the skin of the LG Arena you’ll find a very respectable 5 megapixel camera with the esteemed Schneider Kreuznach lens and auto focus. It can record DVD quality video and it has DivX playback too. To save all those videos and photos there’s 8GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 24GB by adding a 16GB microSD memory card. Other noteworthy features include Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA, A-GPS and a standard 3.5mm audio jack.
Free on Orange 12 month contracts with cash back. Stock is expected at the end of next week.
The Nokia E75 is a high-end, high quality E-series smartphone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The E75 is a compromise between utility and size. It is not as slender as the Nokia E55, nor as slim as the E71 - with which it shares a similar specification and could be considered a direct alternative - but the E75 packs in an all-important full QWERTY keyboard. Considering this, it’s relatively slim and compact, just 14.4mm thick. The steel plated back of the phone oozes quality and style. Sadly this doesn’t continue around to the front of the phone, which is the same glossy plastic found on the Nokia N85 and N96 and may not be to everyone’s taste. The slide out keyboard is in a different class though, it is framed with chrome, very solid and is a joy to use.
The Nokia E75 undoubtedly appeals to professionals on the move, with its business-oriented software and Symbian S60 OS. The 2.4 inch screen is among the best on the market and remains legible in direct sunlight. There are a whole host of email clients supported. With 3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi, this is a very handy device to have outside of the office. GPS is also present and a 4GB memory card is included.
Symbian S60 Feature Pack 2 is included, which means numerous software updates, making the E75 even better than the class-leading E71 when it comes to messaging and organisation. The camera and multimedia functions are not the main features of this phone; however they are still reasonable with a decent music and video player, FM radio and a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash.
If you’re looking for an attention grabber in the music phone market then the Sony Ericsson W715 is certainly for you. This is a slick, sleek and stylish Walkman phone with an elegant slider to cover the keypad.
As it is marketed as a Walkman phone it is hardly surprising that it comes bundled with all the latest music software that Sony Ericsson provides. This includes a highly functional music player, intelligent Track ID, SenseMe and shake control. There’s also Bluetooth A2DP support for stereo headphones. Connectivity options are good too, with HSPA (3.5G) and Wi-Fi for fast data transfer. It’s also Quad-band, which means it can be used almost anywhere in the world.
The Sony Ericsson W715 also has GPS and photos taken with the 3.2 megapixel camera can be tagged with their exact location. Although the camera isn’t in competition with the high end camera phones, it doesn’t disappoint. With a weight of just 98g and a look of sophistication, it’s no wonder this Walkman phone is a major player in its field.
Out now and less than £30 per month on T-Mobile Combi 30 (12m), plus you can claim £90 cash back.
The Samsung S8300 Tocco Ultra (or Ultra TOUCH) is a high end, high spec phone which is set to be a popular addition to Samsung’s range of touchscreen phones. This is a slim professional touch screen phone. Just 12.8mm including an attractive slider, which reveals a useful keypad. The anti-scratch TFT touch screen is an impressive 2.8 inches, which is great for navigating menus, browsing the internet, playing games or viewing photos and videos taken by the Tocco Ultra’s sexy 8 megapixel camera.
The camera can take photos with a resolution up to 3264×2448 pixels. It has auto focus, a dual LED flash and it can record video at 30 frames per second. Geo-tagging, image stabilisation, face and smile recognition are all great features that assist with taking perfect snaps.
The Tocco Ultra includes GPS, which means you will never get lost when you are out and about. The only downfall is the failure of Samsung to include Wi-Fi; however it does come bundled with 3.5G HSPDA and UK mobile networks let you add mobile internet to your package from as little as £5 per month. In summary, you won’t go far wrong with the Tocco Ultra, it has almost everything you’ll need, plus more.
Now available to order, the KM900 Arena is the new and exciting touchscreen phone from LG. It devotes most of its front face to a 3 inch screen which makes it great for reviewing pictures, watching videos and internet browsing. It’s very sleek and it feels good in your hand, drawing attention for all of the right reasons.
But, play with it and it really comes to life! It has a new 3D touch user interface named S-Class, which is simply stunning. The touchscreen is amazingly sensitive with fluid menus and no lagging. The hardware graphics acceleration gives it some serious power and initial reports claim that this is the most impressive touchscreen phone since the iPhone was launched.
Under the skin of the LG Arena you’ll find a very respectable 5 megapixel camera with the esteemed Schneider Kreuznach lens and auto focus. It can record DVD quality video and it has DivX playback too. To save all those videos and photos there’s 8GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 24GB by adding a 16GB microSD memory card. Other noteworthy features include Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA, A-GPS and a standard 3.5mm audio jack.
The new Sony Ericsson W705 is free on Orange with 9 months half price line rental on Dophin 30 (12m). If you’re after a new mobile this one is definitely worth a look.
The Sony Ericsson W705 is a Walkman slider phone with a smart look and great music features. Weighing 98 grams, it’s an elegant slider, albeit a little chunky with a depth of around 14mm. But the overall style compensates for the lack of a slender build. As you would expect from any Walkman phone, it comes packed with all the music features that give it its status. It has TrackID intelligent audio recognition, SenseMe mood playlists, Shake control, an FM radio, stereo Bluetooth and YouTube service built in. You would be hard pressed to be disappointed with respect to the phones audio capabilities.
With both HSDPA (3.5G) and Wi-Fi, the W705 has high speed data transfer whether you’re at home, in the city or on the move. Equipped with a decent 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, cell-ID geo-tagging and video record, the W705 is also a capable cameraphone. The 2.4 inch screen has an accelerometer, which allows the display to automatically rotate when the phone is turned on its side. There’s 120MB of internal memory and a 4GB memory card in the box. This should be adequate to store a good number of images and music tracks, if you need more the memory card can be expanded up to 16GB. The Sony Ericsson W705 is ideal for people who like music and entertainment. It’s an ideal package for those looking for a good value, high quality, music phone with a slider design.
The new Sony Ericsson C510 is out now and it’s free on a 12 month contract with up to 8 months free line rental.
The Sony Ericsson C510 is the latest in the popular Cyber-shot range of cameraphones. The C510 is crammed with plenty of technology and is everything you would expect from Sony Ericsson. It comes nicely packed with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, which affords a sharp, clear image; and is stylishly protected by an elegant and tasteful sliding lens cover. Of course the C510 comes with all the latest high quality imaging technologies that we have become accustomed to from the Cyber-shot range including autofocus, autorotation and face detection, all of which allow for the impeccable snapshot. Along with all this the Cyber-shot’s ‘Smile Shutter’ technology detects a smile and takes the shot at the ideal moment for a perfect photo.
With its 2.2 inch QVGA screen (240×320 pixels), which makes for pleasant viewing, the C510 makes the most of its innovative camera technologies. Its uncomplicated layout and simple display ensures the phone is very user friendly. The Sony Ericsson C510 is elegant, stylish, slim and light (only 92g), but with all this it doesn’t have the fragile feel that besets some phones. This combined with a standby time of up to 400 hours and call times of up to 10 hours, means the Sony Ericsson C510 will be difficult to put down.
