Thursday, November 23, 2006

We have moved!

The mobile phone review site is moving, we will from now on be posting all our mobile reviews at

http://www.thedesktopshop.co.uk

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Apologies

It seems that a large amount of the pictures on this site have gone down, we apologise profusely for this, and will hopefully be replacing them in the near future!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Samsung SGH-A930

The new Samsung, with a not so memorable name is one of the
latest releases from Verizon it does seem to be a fairly solid phone, sporting a blue lcd display on the front showing phone status & music status, as well as a few music control buttons below it. While the onboard memory seems to be lacking this phone does allow MicroSD expansion, meaning you can easily upgrade the space on here to take advantage of the available music options on this phone.

The camera is a standard 1.3 megapixel joby, and seems to use the standard Samsung controls and features.

All in all I think the Samsung SGH-A930 is a fairly nice looking phone, with a good range of features. Though it is not as nice looking as phones such as RAZR or SLVR I still think that has a quite nice durable look to it.


The major acking in this phone is its lack of Java support, for something that is
standard on phones nowdays, it is quite intresting that Samsung decided to leave it out on the SGH-A930.

The biggest pro? Its price I would say, at $99 and about £60 the phone is dirt cheap, especially if your looking for a bog standard flip camera phone.


Specifications for the Samsung SGH-A930

Band
CDMA 850/1900MHz
Data
EV-DO
Size
91mm x 48mm x 25mm (3.59" x 1.89" x 0.98")
Weight
113g (3.98oz)
Battery Life
200 hours standby time
3.5 hours talk time
Main Display
262k color TFT lcd 176x220 pixel resolution
Sub-Display
4 shade blue OLED, 176x16 pixel resolution
Camera
Yes, 1.3 megapixel resolution
Video
Video capture/playback
Messaging
MMS/EMS/SMS
Email
Yes
Bluetooth
Yes
Infrared
No
Java
No
Polyphonics
Yes (64 voice)
Memory
Unknown on board memory, microSD expansion
Availability
Now


Tuesday, June 06, 2006

New Take on the N91

I have just taken a look at the new Nokia N91, and though I hate to say it it differs a lo from teh prototype I saw and the adverts I have seen. The back sports quite a large outwards bulge, very ungainly, and the phone itself is bigger than expected.

Despite its impressive specs I cannot see this phone taking off in the near future.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Sony V630i


Sony have release a new phone into the market, going by the name V630i. Quick word of warning this phone is on Vodafone only!

There are quite a few nifty features in this phone, including mobile TV and Radio DJ. Radio DJ is an idea that has been previously pioneered on the internet and is a fairly useful tool. The radio function will start off by playing you random songs, which you can rate, as you rate more and more songs the music you listen to becomes more and more personalised to suit your taste, a fantastic feaure in my opinion!

It also sports a 2 megapixel camera and Sony's fantastc user interface!

The Sony V630i is due for worldwide release in June this year.



Specifications for the Sony Ericsson V630i
Band
GSM 900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 2100MHz
Data
GPRS/UMTS
Size
102mm x 45.7mm x 16.9mm (4.0" x 1.8" x 0.7")
Weight
91g (3.2oz)
Battery Life
350 hours standby time
2.3 hours UMTS talk time, 7 hours GSM talk time

Main Display
1.9" 262k color TFT LCD, 176x220 pixel resolution
Sub-Display
N/A
Camera
Yes, 2.0 megapixel resolution
Video
Video capture/playback
Messaging
MMS/EMS/SMS
Email
Yes
Bluetooth
Yes
Infrared
No
Java
Yes
Polyphonics
Yes (72 voice)
Memory
10MB on board memory, Memory Stick Micro (M2) expansion
Availability
June 2006
Other
Vodafone Exclusive

Friday, May 19, 2006

O2 XDA IQ

I have just had my hands on the XDA IQ, it is a light,
comfortable phone that fits into you hand like a glove fits over.

Powered by Windows Mobile 5.0, O2's XDA IQ business phone cues up out-of-box support for push e-mail, a 2.2-inch high resolution screen, Bluetooth 1.2 support and a 1.3 Megapixel camera, this PDA like phone offers a powerful punch.

It also supports WiFi technology, a great addition to any mobile phone, though I had no opportunity to test this I would presume it would offer great web browsing advantages.

Cons

This camera seemed to lag a little bit, so it would probably not be too good for any motion photography, the menu was also a little bit slow at times.

Pros
Wifi
Bluetooth
Full intigration with outlook 2003 for email pushing, fulfilling the role of a blackberry or similar.
Very Stylish,
Supports mini SD

Conclusion

This is a great phone that I forsee becoming a favorite in the business world, while it matches most functions of a blackberry it is packed into a much smaller space, and since it is fully integrated into Outlook 2003 business servers will not need to invest in a seperate blackberry server. The looks and quality will also make managers upwards in a company a lot happier, as lets face it, voice calls over the standard blackberries alwas make you feel foolish, they are too big to talk into!

Sony Release 5 new phones

Sony have unveiled plans to release 5 new phones into the market in time for christmas. The list includes 2 flip phones, 2 walkman phones and a phone which can handle chinese character recognition.

This will include a low budget phone, excercise phones (including a step counter, and rumors of a haert monitor) that will combine your mp3 player phones and step counter, after research showed that the most common time people wanted to listen to MP3s was when exercising.

This seems a positive move for the worlds No 5 phone maker, who create some fantastic mobiles. They have already given a strong show against nokias N91 (4gb hard drive 2 mg camera) with the k750i which can handle memory cards of upto 4gb and is several hundred dollars cheaper.

Nokia currently have 18 new phones on teh market and planned this year, hoping to increase their lead on the mobile phone market by appealing to everybodies taste, unfortunately tehre prices are currently very high, something that I believe will hold them back over the coming years.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

LG Chocolate


The LG Chocolate is a new phone that will be hitting the markets shortly.

I have to say I am very impressed with the style on this phone, as well as the touch sensitive navigation, harder you press the faster it goes I guess! This is a feature that I think will become increasingly common and useful within mobile phones.

It also has a touch sensitive screen, 1 mp camera mp3 player, bluetooth and the usual other features.

Although there is not much information available on the LG Chocolate at the moment I would class it as one of the Mobiles to look out for in the future.

Nokia N91



The Nokia N91 is my most favorite of Nokia's attempts to bring in a new generation of mobile phone. Sporting a 4gb hard drive and a 3.5 ml headphone socket (So normal headphones can be used with it).

My only worry is that this has come too late, phones such as Sony's K750i can hancle Sony Duo memory sticks with upto 4gb and will be nearly £200 cheaper, this is a big difference for a metal case and a decent headphone jack!

Personally I think this is a great phone, and if you have the money it is well worth it, but unfortunately in todays market it is just too overpriced for its specification.

Looks wise it is fantastic, though the buttons are a tad too small, and could be a pain for a regular texter, however if you are going to buy this more for its music playing capability the layout of its music buttons is fantastic, and playlists can easily be created and shared to enhance teh functionality.

The other main feature that I have not yet commented on is that it IS WiFi compatible, and will hopefully support peer to peer transfer of music, playlists and files. it also means that you can hook it upto your home reuter, bringing in the possibility f using this as a VOIP phone when in the confines of your home (Though you may need 3rd party software for this!)



Specifications for the Nokia N91

Band
GSM 900/1800/1900Mhz, WCDMA
Data
GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/WiFi (802.11b)
Size
113mm x 55mm x 22mm
Weight
160g
Battery Life
190 hours standby time
3-4 hours talk time
Main Display
262k color TFT, 176x208 resolution
Sub-Display
N/A
Camera
2mp (1600x1200)
Video
Video capture/playback
Messaging
MMS/EMS/SMS
Email
Yes (POP/IMAP/SMTP)
Bluetooth
Yes
Infrared
No
Java
Yes (MIDP v2.0)
Memory
30MB, 4GB internal hard disk
Availability
Q2 2006 (manufacturer's estimate)
Other
Dedicated music control buttons, MP3/M4A/AAC/AAC+/WMA music support, FM radio, record in stereo from radio or line-in, USB 2.0


Intro

Welcome to the latest Mobile Review Site, in the coming months I hope to review factually and impartially the mobile phones that are on todays market, hopefully other users will leave a comment to provide a complete view of what people thought of the phones, hopefully saving people from wasting hundreds of £'s on a useless phone!