Celebrating the likes of the Motorola’s Q series (e.g. Q9h and Q9c), the Q9m is a refreshing smart phone that offers a QWERTY keyboard (a newly-designed ones) and also runs in the Windows Mobile 6 Operating System. Q9m boasts a lot of improvements as compared to earlier mobile phones. Basically, it is the first Smart Phone to have to separate home screens for standard and multimedia, whereas the multimedia screen which allows easy access to music, videos, camera, pictures and others. Easily put, the Motorola Q9m is the perfect mobile phones for the young professionals, those who want to look for a way to detoxify with multimedia havens.
Weighing at 135 grams, with dimensions 4.64 x 2.63″ x 0.47 inches, the Q9m is slightly slimmer yet heavier than the Black Berry, the unit where the Motorola Q series is much compared to. The Q9m’s design has been judged as more professional-looking as compared to earlier Q models. It is constructed with a combination of metal, glass and plastic materials with red striping traveling around the perimeters and the sides of the keyboard of the phone. The lithium ion battery of Q9m can stand the test of time 212 hours untouched, while 4.55 hours in talk time.
Q9m has a standard 65K Color 320×240 Pixel QVGA Display. Just like Q9h, it also features a landscape display for better viewing of websites.
The screen is 2.4 inches, quite larger than the displays of normal cell phones. It’s quite problematic to use it in direct sunlight and there is no setting to adjust its contrast and brightness levels. The camera, although, was quite downgraded from the 2.0 mega pixel of the Q9h, to 1.3 mega pixel. It also includes a large-sized 5-way navigation D-Pod for answering. And although the keypads are smaller than earlier models, it is rounder and much easier pressed.
The phonebook is also an impressive feature, giving its users the chance to store a number of information for a contact. With this, you can input as much data to a single person (First Name, Last Name, Work Phone, Mobile Phone, Home Phone, Custom Ringtone, Picture, E-Mail, IM, Work 2, Home 2, Company Phone, Categories, Pager, Car Phone, Work Fax, Home Fax, Assistant Phone, Radio Phone, E-Mail 2, E-Mail 3, IM2, IM3, Web Page, File As, Company Name, Department, Job Title, Office Address, Home Address, Notes, Nickname, Birthday, Anniversary, Manager, Government ID, Account Name, Customer ID, Spouse, Children, and Assistant). Aside from the phonebook, it also includes the following features: alarm, calculator, calendar (Organizer), To-do list and voice recorder.
Q9m also features Bluetooth 2.0 and supports hands Free, personal network, stereo headset and keyboard input. An Internet Explorer program is preloaded in the program and it’s the only way of accessing the Internet. It also includes the Windows Media Player that can play MP3 and WMA audio files, as well as videos and the quality of music is impressive.
As a general conclusion, the Q9m is definitely one of the best smart phones available and its probably one of the most innovative ones, especially with the availability of the Multimedia Home Screen. Definitely, this is a must-have for multimedia lovers.
The ever-growing and evolving mobile technology has been trying to surpass every mobile unit out in the market and offer something new, with the goal of advancing each new product release an innovative functionality and slowly stuffing out all the features of the bulky personal computer into one small mobile phone. With this emerge the popularity of such mobile havens like the Blackberry which gave rise to the popularity of pocket e-mail. Recently, Motorola has introduced what others have been declaring as Blackberry’s competitor, the Motorola Q9h. Just like other Motorola phones, the Q9h is well-known for its style and design, sporting a slick slim look. It was formerly known as Q Q9, a 3G HSDPA GSM phone but with a few change and improvement in specifications, it was then renamed into what it is more popular name.
With dimensions 4.64″ x 2.63 x 0.46 inches, Q9h is slightly slimmer than the Black Berry, but is heavier at 134 grams. Equipped with a spacious QWERTY keyboard, the Q9h is one great text messaging device. The keyboard of the Q9h has been hailed as one of the market’s best as typing has been a very convenient task to do with it. It can send text messages and MMS as well, and it also includes the predictive text entry feature. Its lithium ion battery is impressive for standing the test of time at 480 hours or 20 days (standby time) and 6.5 hours (talk time).
This slim Windows Mobile smart phone is very distinguishable with its landscape-oriented display, the larger width making it a more convenient tool for texting and Internet browsing. The colored LCD display has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and has 65, 536 colors. Q9h’s 2.0 mega pixel camera features fixed focusing and an LED flash. You can also capture video clips at a resolution of QVGA (320×240 pixels. The phone also includes a music player that supports MP3, AAC, WMA and MPEG4 and video streaming as well. It also includes GPS navigation. And just like other smart phones, the Q9h also offers the following tools: alarm, calculator, calendar, To-Do list and voice recorder.
Q9h is a quad-band GSM that makes it work in networks on any continent. It 3G support on the other hand is limited depending on the version. It’s just a shame that Q9h doesn’t have WiFi or wireless LAN. The phone has Bluetooth and can support HFP, A2DP, AVRC and other list of profiles. It can also play Java applications. One can visit the Internet via Opera 8.6 web browser. And unlike other Windows Mobile 6 phones, Q9h is equipped with “Documents To Go” applications instead of the Microsoft Mobile Office applications which is used to open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files although they are not that good as compared with the Mobile Office.
As long as performance is at stake, the Q9h can be a commendable one, both as a computer and phone although it has been flunked by other users for the lack of WiFi. The only sure thing is that, Q9h is the phone that emerged as a rival for the BlackBerry phones.
With similar styling to the MOTORAZR, the Motorola Q9c is a Windows Mobile 6 Smart phone, and is the second generation Motorola Q. It was out in the market in November 2007 and has been hailed for being a more ergonomic version of the Q series. Basically, the slim Q9c is a big improvement of the earlier phones of its line.
The phone itself embodies a sophisticated slick appearance, sporting a black casing with nice chrome accent, and incorporates a slim dimension of 4.61 x 2.56 x 0.47 inches, Q9c weighs 135 grams. It doesn’t have a touch screen unlike other smart phones in the market, featuring a full QWERTY keypad instead, as well as side keys. It also includes a 2.5 mm headset jack for those who prefer accepting calls via the headset and microphone. The life of its Lithium Ion battery is somewhat impressive, with 212 hours of standby time and 4.5 hours of talk time. It also has an internal antenna.
The TFT LCD-type display boasts a 16-bit 65,536 colors and has a resolution of 320×240 pixels. The camera is able to take 1.3 mega-pixels photos and also includes an LED flash. In addition, it can also capture videos with 30 seconds the maximum length. Qc9 is also enabled with video streaming.
Data messaging with Qc9 includes SMS, MMS and E-mail and it also has support with AIM, Yahoo and MSN. It includes a music player which supports MP3, AAX, AAC+, WAV, XMF and Real formats and an external speaker. Application in Q9c enables its users to view and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents via the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite. Other essential business features included in the Qc9 are the following: calendar, contacts, to-do list, alarm, calculator, voice recorder, and task and memory managers. The phone book includes features such as ringer ID, ringer profiles, voice dialing and photo caller ID.
An EV-DO handset, the Qc9 lets its users to enjoy data speeds as fast as 2.4Mbps. It offers Sprint TV support which enables you to watch live TV like CNN. Comedy Central, Sprint Exclusive Entertainment and the NFL Network, as well as live streaming music radio from MTV Mobile and VH1 Mobile. However, these services aren’t free and will require you to subscribe at $20 per month if you want to avail the service.
Just like other smart phones, it is Bluetooth and GPS enabled. The former wireless connectivity option can be used with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, objects exchange, file sharing and dial-up networking. The latter one can turn the phone into a handheld navigator which is very usable during business trips and other travels. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t have an integrated WiFi, although one can attach a miniSD Wi-Fi card.
Although the phone has been praised by critics and ordinary users alike, the phone has been quite stashed out by the bulky extended battery and its stiff keyboard. With such minor glitches, the phone is still highly recommendable for its impressive performances.
While the majority of the techie-savvy community has been rejoicing to the inclusion of cameras in the modern cellular phone technology, the minority may find the feature automation a limitation of choice. Basically all smart phones have been camera-enabled, as the technology has been subsequently passed to newer cellular phone models, but taking away camera non-enthusiasts’ freedom of choice. In fact, a lot of businesses don’t actually allow the use of cameras during work hours and the incorporation of such technology would mean a much effortless form of violating a rule. The problem has in a way solved when Motorola i920 has been introduced to the market, a camera-less smart phone. The unit has also been Motorola’s first wave of iDEN Protocol-based smart phones, along side Motorola i930.
Motorola i920 sports a dimension of 3.46 x 1.93 x 1.18 inches (or 88 x 49 x 30 mm) and weighs 5.9 oz (or 167 grams). This clamshell-designed smart phone includes a push-to-open spring-loaded hinge and an extendable (retractable) antenna. It has side keys for controlling its volume and voice memo functions and a 2.5 mm headset jack, which has been formerly common only to CD and MP3 players. Offering 4,096 colors, i920 boasts its Color TFT/TFD LCD display technology that showcases an excellent quality of image and response time for the consumers to experience, especially with the phone’s 176 x 220 pixels resolution.
A second display is also included, located in the front part of the phone. Although the phone doesn’t include a camera, music and video enthusiasts can enjoy their own media through the Windows Media Player.
i920 is both enabled with SMS and MMS capabilities, and also features a predictive text entry function which allows users to enter text by pressing only one key per letter as well as text messaging templates. Battery used for i920 is Lithium Ion and has a standby time of 95 hours and a talk time of 2.8 hours, although many criticisms have been bombarded to this model because of its poor battery life.
The phone is powered by the Windows Mobile Operating System, and is enabled with Java applications, E-mail client features and the Pocket Internet Explorer as web browser. Users can also send and receive faxes and data files via the i920, which makes it a very useful business device and can retrieve and save files to and from computer through the USB Port. It also includes an Infrared port.
Motorola i920 has been much criticized for its lack of built-in Bluetooth and its use of the un-upgradeable Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for its operating system rather than utilizing Windows Mobile 5.0. The application locking which doesn’t permit installation of non-smart phone software has also been raised as an issue. However, it the phone is practically hailed for being an “all-in-one” device, containing all essential elements in one sophisticatedly looking package: calendar, contacts, tasks, lists, notes, protected information, media player, recorder and more.
Introducing the LG Voyager in the market proved that the best features can be merged into a single unit. Also known as the LG Voyager VX10000, this smartphone even offers additional multimedia features such as mobile TV and a huge touch screen, earning its prestige being LG’s rival to the iPhone. While the two units’ features are almost in comparison, the Voyager even fared higher with its inclusion of 3G, MMS, stereo Bluetooth and GPS, which the iPhone lack.
Just like the iPhone, the LG Voyager threw away the keypad and incorporated a touch screen. The phone that measures 4.64 x 2.12 x 0.71 inches and weighs 4.69 ounces is bulky and may feel a little bit uncomfortable if kept in the pants’ pocket. Nevertheless, the Voyager will always be lined up among the league of most stylish smartphones.
LG Voyager’s touch screen measures 2.81 inches, supporting 262K colors at a resolution of 400 x 240 pixels. The screen can display sharp texts and vibrant and colorful graphics and animations.
It shows the date, time, and signal strength and battery life in standby mode. It works as a viewfinder in camera mode. The touch screen is easy to use and can access the phone’s different features. Voyager’s screen can be manipulated by tapping or by holding the finger to the screen and moving it around, reminiscent to dragging a mouse in a computer. This action is good for scrolling long articles and web pages. However, the touch screen doesn’t support handwriting recognition, and typing be done with the internal full QWERTY keyboard
Clear key and Talk key are the only navigation controls in front of the Voyager. The left spine of the phone includes the volume rocker, camera shutter and display lock. The right spine includes the microSD card and headset jack. The bottom of the phone includes the charger port and antenna, while the back side is where the camera lens is located. On the other hand, the internal part of the Voyager brings users to an impressive array of mobile aesthetics. It showcases a big screen, sharing the same size of the external screen, between speakers. The screen, however, does not offer touch screen features.
There is also a truckload of features in the Voyager. Phone features include a 1,000-contact phone book, vibrate mode, SMS and MMS, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a stopwatch, a notepad, a tip calculator, and a voice memo recorder.
Connectivity features include USB mass storage, instant messaging, integrated 3G, Bluetooth 1.2 for headsets, dial-up networking, file transfer, object push, and A2DP stereo sound. The only disappointment of the Voyager is that it lacks Wi-Fi. The 2.0 megapixel camera may appear to be a disappointment for camera phone aficionados, but it remains commendable to some and may appear to be a very minor misdemeanor.
The inclusion of 3G makes another feature of the Voyager at its best: the music player and the Mobile TV. The Mobile TV brings users to a wide variety of channels including CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go, and Nickelodeon. However, users are required to pay a monthly fee to acquire such services.
Voyager offers 180MB of internal memory, quite big as compared to other smartphones, although it’s always advisable for users to expand their memory up to 8GB with the microSD card.
Continuing the LG phone craze is the LG Venus VX8800. The LG Venus is a beautiful phone that showcases innovation in design, featuring a touch-screen dual screen, 2-megapixel camera and a lot more. Additionally, this smartphone is relatively cheaper as compared to other units in the market.
LG Venus is a sleek, slender phone measures 4.0 x 2.0 x 0.62 inches, offering comfort to users through its curved corners and leather covering on the back. LG Venus is easily comparable to the LG Prada, with the emergence of at first glance a 3-inch display, which is actually two separate screens: a regular QVGA display on top and a touch screen on bottom. The top primary display measures 2 inches and displays 262K colors. Texts and images are displayed brightly and legibly.
The lower screen measures 1.5 inches and serves as a navigation interface, displaying touch-sensitive navigation controls according to applications such as the menu button that offers shortcuts to message, calls and contacts, music player, camera and more.
Although the new navigation technique is an innovation on its own, a number of critiques have questioned its usability concerning the sensitivity of the touch screen, the use of the unlock button, among others. A number keypad, which includes Send, Clear and End/Power buttons, can be revealed by slide opening the LG Venus handset. The alternating colored-keys are well-spaced which made pressing easier. The left side of the LG Venus is where the volume control, voice recorder button, headset and charger jacks while the right side is where the microSD card slot, music player key and a camera key. The camera lens is on the back side.
While LG Venus’ design has enamored a number of users, the phone’s list of features is truly lovable as well. Among the phone capabilities include a 1,000-entry contacts list, vibrate mode, speakerphone, SMS, MMS, alarm clock, notepad, voice recorder and a lot more. The list of connectivity options showcases USB, e-mail, web browser, stereo Bluetooth. It also comes with 3G and built-in GPS.
An important multimedia feature that will never be absent in the Venus is the music player. The player has a simplistic and nice interface with easy-to-use controls. Users can easily sort songs according to artist, genre ot album and they can also create their own playlist which can be controlled via the shuffle and repeat options. Multitasking is also an important feature of the music player, allowing the player to continue even while doing other tasks such as text messaging and web browsing. Supported formats are MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+. With an internal memory of 64MB, users can add up an additional 8GB with the microSD card.
The camera phone can take pictures in four resolutions and offers settings for brightness and night mode. It also takes videos in two resolutions with editing options, although 30 seconds is only allowed for video recording. While the camera can take commendable pictures, the video is shaky, blurry clips. Such mediocrity aside, the LG Venus remains a beautiful slider phone.
LG’s second Prada phone, the KF900, is a SIM-free touch-screen gadget that will invade the wallet of fashion savants out there. It has resemblance with the first Prada phone, with the Prada brand lettered atop the screen with a short silver bar beneath it on the black front casing. This bar houses the Call, Clear and End buttons, wherein the latter also acts as on/off switch.
The LG Prada II sports a 3.0-inch screen with 240 x 400 pixels, just like original Prada. The keyboard separated the resemblance of the two, wherein the Prada II has a slide-out keyboard design. This feature added some bulk, with the dimensions pushed to 104.5mm x 54mm x 16.8mm and weight to 130 grams.
The keys are well-spaced and raised that make an enjoyable texting experience. Sliding the keyboard automatically puts the screen into wide format and reveals a carousel menu of functions.User interface is an enhanced original Prada, and is reminiscent of the Cookie and Renoir. The main menu system is composed of Communicate, Entertainment, Utilities and Settings, which are all located on the right side of the screen.
Each group has eight options ranged on the touchscreen and they are very easy to navigate with. The main screen is multi-layered, showcasing a row of four shortcut buttons to number dialing, contacts, messaging and the main menu. Info and shortcuts to music player, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can be accessed by tapping the status bar. The touch mechanism is very iPhone-like, supporting finger-panning and pinch-to-zoom for web browsing and image viewing.
LG Prada II’s built-in internal memory is a disappointing 60 MB, and the microSD is has support only for 1GB cards. The good news is, it is SDHC compatible which supports a 16GB card, but you must suspend excitement again as the LG’s specs only have 8GB limit.
This quad-band GSM handset has HSDPA which can shoot up to 7.2Mbps, an enhancement to the previous model’s tri-band GSM capability. It also sports a front camera for two way-video calling and a Wi-Fi but no GPS. It includes a 5-megapixel Schneider Kreuznach with flash, autofocus and macro mode and a panorama mode. It also manages 720 x 480 pixels video capture. Battery life equals three hours of talk time and 400 hours on standby.
Other interesting applications include Muvee Studio for image editing, built-in games that support the accelerometer, alarms, to do list manager, memo maker, voice recorder, calculator, converter and stopwatch.
From mobile phone and electronics manufacturer LG Electronics comes LG enV, the company’s first foray into smartphones. The phone was initially designed and advertised as a long-awaited successor to the brand’s successful The V by LG. As such, LG enV is equally fun and functional at the same time.
Physically, LG enV is stylish and can never be left out by the current array of fashionable smartphones in the market. The design is simply exquisite. You may not readily notice it but the mobile phone is equipped with an internal antenna that makes signal reception strong and ideal. Each phone weighs about 4.60 ounces, which is rather light in comparison to competitors. LG enV stands 4.64 inches in height, 2.08 inches wide and 0.78 of an inch in dept.
The smartphone comes in a slide-out QWERTY keypad that enables easier and more convenient access to various calling, features and messaging applications. The screen is outstanding with internal LCD that has 262K color at 240 x 320 pixels, supporting 11 lines.
The more visible external LCD has a 65K color capacity, with 128 x 160 pixels, supporting 8 lines of text.
LG enV uses the standard CDMA technology, making it universally useful almost anywhere in the world where there are appropriate and supporting carriers. Bluetooth capability is superb, making the smartphone accessible and compatible with other devices that support hands-free file transfer. The connectivity feature also supports a serial port, facilitates the functioning of an audio/ video remote control, connects with the printer and acts as a human interface equipment.
LG admits that the best features so far identified with the smartphone are the mobile entertainment characteristics. First, the gadget’s Wireless Sync application facilitates a proprietary e-mail solution if provided by a mobile carrier. This feature enable users to synchronize the phone with an office of home personal computer so there would be instant access to e-mail, contact, calendar and task information.
A 2-megapixel camera is auto-focus at the same time, complete with a flash and a camcorder capability. Protective camera lens cover is integrated to provide protection and added stylishness to the device. The embedded video player supports 3GP, MP4, WMV and 3G2 formats. The videos can even be set as wallpaper. You can actually record a video lasting up to an hour.
As for music features, LG enV has a V CAST Music download feature that allows users to download songs and transfer the files onto a removable memory card, which is expandable to accommodate more songs. The music player has audio effects that are customizable, using interface player themes supporting WMA and mp3 formats.
LG enV uses 950 mAh lithium-polymer standard battery. As such, the phone is able to provide a standby time of, brace yourself, 19 days and 4 hours. The battery will support a continuous call usage time of up to 4 hours and 30 minutes.
LG is the new Nokia, or at least keeping up with Nokia in terms of introducing new mobile phones in the market. After the release of its Prada II and KC780 welcomes the LG Arena KM900, another of those touch-screen handsets, but it features a 3D user interface which has never existed in other mobile phones. LG’s latest also plays DiVx and Xvid videos to be catered by the 8GB built-in memory that can be expanded through the SDHC-compatible microSD card slot.
Measuring at 105.9mm x 55.3mm x 11.95mm thick and weighing at 105 grams, the LG Arena is a good-sized phone although it is too light that some may suspect that it is a cheaper handset (which is actually in the contrary). There are almost no side buttons except for the camera button and a volume rocker and the on/off switch on top. A sliding cover protects the power connector, which is also keeps the phone from absorbing dust. There is also a 3.5mm headset connector on the top edge. The LG Arena gives a kick-off design with mercury grey titanium backplate and a silver outer frame and black inner frame. It also features a fingermark magnet glass covering, but adds extra durability to the phone.
Generally, the Arena almost has the same look and feel compared to most full-face touchscreens (read: iTouch). It features a 3-inch screen with 480 x 800 pixels. Call and End/back buttons and a button that calls up the 3D user interface are beneath it.
Talking of 3D, this is the biggest buzz on this LG gadget, which is a victim of high expectations. Press the center button and a cube pops up in the middle of the screen that represents four home screens: shortcuts screen for the nine most used apps, a multimedia screen, a contacts screen and a customizable widgets screen. Tap a screen and it animates up into a full screen. A word like “3D” is a little heavy sounding feature in that LG’s attempt to showcase through a meager flicking cube is a little disappointing and anti-climactic.
Type texts and dial numbers using either the QWERTY keypad (in landscape) the mobile phone layout in portrait mode. Using the QWERTY is a little struggle. It also included an accelerometer for automatically changing the view according the way you hold the phone.
Connectivity options are promising for the Arena. It has 3G with HSDPA to 7.2Mbps. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS as well. The camera in front is designed for two-way video calling. Browsing on the large screen is easy with full page rendering, finger panning and pinch zooming possible. It is also equipped with TV-out capability.
Other impressive features in the Arena are music playback from Dolby Mobile, 5MP camera and software like Google Maps, G-mail, YouTube and Blogger, LG’s M-Toy tool, Movie Maker, alarms, a calendar, memo pad, stopwatch, voice recorder, calculator, world clock and unit converter.
The XV6900 is a smooth and sleek smartphone that measures 3.9 x 2.3 x 0.5 in inches and weighs 3.9 ounces. It has a 2.8 inch diagonal touch screen that offers a resolution of 320 x 240 pixel and 64,000 color display.
XV6900 utilizes HTC’s TouchFLO interface technology that lets users go to their Communications Manager, contact list, email, multimedia file, the web and other applications by just dragging their fingers or swiping them across the screen to access the corresponding icons in the menu.
Below the touch screen, users will only find a square navigation toggle between the Talk and End keys. The left spine is where the volume rocker is, while the right side contains the camera and capture key, microSD expansion slot and stylus. The power button is located on the top spine and the reset button and port for the mini USB are at the bottom.
The camera lens, self-portrait mirror and speaker are found at the back. Users can also opt to use the QWERTY keyboard, a 20-button copy of BlackBerry’s SureType keyboards. Its keys are large enough for thumbs to be used in keying in. The XV6900 also has an alphanumeric pad.
The XV6900 runs the Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition operating system. It has an Office Mobile Suite for using Word and Excel and for viewing PDF and PowerPoint documents. Its Windows Media Player 10 Mobile allows users to listen and view music and media files in AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV and WMA among others.
It is also bundled with Direct Push Technology for real-time emails and synching with Outlook applications through Exchange Server. Emails can be viewed whether they are POP3, IMAP or HTML.
The XV6900 also includes integrated Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, though without object transfer support, and is EV-DO capable, that gives a speed of up to 600 Kbps. In some cases, speed can reach 2.4 Mbps allowing for incredibly smooth media streaming, downloading and web browsing.
This phone’s call features include a caller ID, call forwarding, smart-dialing, text and multimedia sending and receiving, three-way calling, voice command and speakerphone option. Its 2-megapixel, auto focus camera has an 8x zoom, which can shoot pictures and videos. For memory space, this smartphone has 70 MB for program storage and 140MB for user available storage. It has a RAM of 128MB and a ROM of 256MB. A purchase of the XV6900 will include an AC adapter, extra stylus, soft pouch, software CD, USB cable and splitter and reference material.
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