While some have dismissed that the Nokia E series is a mediocre line of mobile phones as compared to the N Series, the emergence of the Nokia E71 might have toppled the stereotype on the E-series a bit, especially that the bulky design was cut off to a compact and solidly-built QWERTY device, measuring to 4.4 x 2.2 x 0.4 inches, weighing 4.4 ounces. The phone also showcases a solid performance, with strong messaging and productivity features.
The front panel consists of a 2.36-inch QVGA non-touch display with a 16-million-color output and 320×240-pixel resolution. Texts and images look sharp in the E71 and it is equipped with a light sensing technology which adjusts the display’s brightness depending on the environment. It also included a Business and Personal home screens which allow users to toggle between two different home views. The Business screen gives users access to work tools, such as e-mail, the Web, and the file manager while the Personal screen serves access to music and photo gallery, and switching screens is very easy. The standard navigation array is located below the display and it has two soft keys Talk and End buttons, and a four-way toggle with a center select key.
There are four shortcuts as well: the Home screen, Calendar, Contacts, and Messages. The QWERTY keyboard is a bit cramped as it has a smaller compact body, but is still easy to use. The left spine of the phone is where the microSD slot and a micro USB port are located while the right side has the 2.5mm headset jack, a volume rocker, and a voice command activation key. Located on the top is the power button while the power connector is on the bottom of the unit and the camera, flash, and self-portrait mirror are on the back.
E-mail solutions in the E71 includes supports with Microsoft Exchange Server, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP accounts and has a full attachment viewer, as well as compatibility with push e-mail solutions such as Intellisync Wireless E-mail, Visto, and Seven Always-On Mail, but it didn’t include preloaded instant messaging clients but software can be downloaded. E71 runs on Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 3.1 edition and it comes with the Quickoffice suite which can open Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. It is also equipped with the Nokia Web browser with support for Flash. Productivity tools include Adobe Reader, a Zip Manager, a calendar, notes, a calculator, a clock, a voice recorder, and a currency converter.
Connectivity features of the Nokia E71 includes Bluetooth 2.0, which supports profiles such as mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, dial-up networking and file transfer and Wi-Fi. E71 is also equipped with GPS and preloaded Nokia Maps 2.0 application for navigation.
Among the multimedia features of the E71 are the built-in music player, that supports MP3, WMA, W4A, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+ files, as well as OMA DRM 2.0- and WM DRM-protected songs, RealPlayer, that supports 3GPP and MPEG-4 files and the 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities. The camera has auto focus, an LED flash, exposure compensation, and digital zoom, although the picture wasn’t great because of the grainy product.
An addition to the Nokia E-Series family and a highly-recommendable business phone is the Nokia E66. This phone has managed to incorporate cool features in a slick slide-design with a body dimension of 4.21 x 1.93 x 0.51 inches and weight of 4.27 ounces. It is wider as compared to other sliders but the extra width and weight just secured a strong foundation. It features a brightly colored screen and an easy to use and comfortable numeric 12-key keypad. It also features a 2.5mm headphone port and a microSD card slot.
This Symbian S60-powered smartphone has a number of new design tricks. An accelerometer redraws the screen in portrait or landscape mode, depending on how the device is held. It also included a new interesting set of dedicated keys around the four-way button which are easily-recognizable.
First and foremost, the gadget is a phone, so its important to take note on the quality of calls in Nokia E66 which doesn’t fail in this case especially with indoor calls. Outside calls may produce a little trouble especially if the background is very noisy.
Phone features include a nice address book features which can also be synchronized with the Outlook Contacts using the Nokia PC Suite. Nokia E66 can also handle Exchange servers for e-mail, contacts and calendar entries. Additional calling features include voice recognition, conference calling and the speakerphone.
In terms of e-mail features, the Nokia E66 doesn’t fail, especially that the phone’s selling point is on its business-class e-mail applications. Typing long message is good despite the absence of the QWERTY keyboard, thanks to the soft keypad. However, it could have been better if the E66 included a pre-loaded instant messaging clients, especially if that this phone targets business people. Real-time messaging is important and the incorporation of either MSN or Yahoo Messenger application could have been very helpful. The Nokia E66 is also a very good scheduling tool with the help of Exchange ActiveSync support and some good synchronization software. It also included the Quickoffice for reading and creating office documents and presentations.
Web browsing is also very good in the E66. It features the Symbian S60 browser which can load pages in a faster rate with the help of an EDGE connection. Layout is superb and scrolling around is quick. With the GPS, navigating around is a task made easier in the E66. The sensor is sensitive and it include the Nokia Maps 2.0 software. Connectivity features included Bluetooth with a variety of supported profiles, Infrared, USB and Wi-Fi.
The E66 is not a multimedia phone but it has a few good features in this category. It has FM radio and an impressive music player that supports the following formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA. The player allows users to create playlists and to the customize EQ settings. The 3.2-megapixel camera sadly, doesn’t perform well. It has auto focus lens but images it produced weren’t good at all as they lacked detail. However, as said earlier the E66 is more focused on its business features, so this aspect remains forgivable.
When lightness became a positive trend in mobile phones, Nokia took the term literally and pulled down a set of units to oblivion. The Nokia 7210 Supernova is a small, lightweight and budget-friendly cellphone that most of us aspire for. Pardon the weightlessness; the 7210 Supernova might have unloaded a number of features from what we consider a typical modern phone. However, does it always mean that a lack of features make the phone unworthy of praise?
Nokia 7210 Supernova’s design is one of its highest points, exhibiting a neat exterior. It measures 106 x 45 x 10.6 mm and weighs 70g. Available in blue, pink and gray, the 7210 phones have white, gray and black shades that add life to the color scheme. However, functionality seemed to have been neglected. The flat number pad is flat, requiring users to press harder just to make contact with a key. This means, that text-crazy people are in trouble.
The 2-inch screen is small, but its 240 x 320 pixels resolution makes it look sharp. The problem with small display nowadays is that web browsing became a challenge. Imagine scrolling up and down, left to right, which make reading contents seem to last forever.
The sad thing is, you may not want using its web capabilities, as it is a tedious activity in itself (read: waiting time plus un-inspiring web browser). Don’t expect much with the camera too, despite boasting a 2MP one. The resulting images are very entry level and there are no self-portrait mirror, no auto focus and no dedicated side-button for starting its software. To activate the camera, you need to push up the D-pad. Shoot images by pressing the select button in the center of the D-pad. The camera isn’t actually a product from hell, as it features self-timer, white balance settings and effects like grayscale, sepia, solarize, negative and false colors. At least you have something to experiment with. You can also upload your images straight to Flickr.
Remember to delete and/or save your images in other device as the phone is only equipped with an in-built 30MB memory, although there is a card slot that can store up to 2GB only.
While there is a number of features in the 7210, most of them are in the losing side. Music playback is acceptable although it lacks support for album art and sports a 2.5mm headset slot rather than the 3.5mm one. The Wi-Fi and GPS were added to bulk up the brochure, without actually giving something phenomenal. And there are problems with mobile email as well.
Other features of the 7210 Supernova include a voice recorder, alarm clock, calendar, to do list, notes maker, calculator, countdown timer, stopwatch and, in the apps folder and a number of games. If you’re looking for a phone simply for calling and texting, this is the perfect one for you.
If you’ve seen the Academy Award winning superhero movie The Dark Knight, you might have at least experienced a visual taste of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Yes, you got it right, the 5800 made a cameo as Batman’s phone, as a sonar imaging device. Lest, before we became overhyped with this metal fella, also known by its nickname, The Tube, as the sonar thing is a little too much for a commercial phone. Nonetheless, the 5800 has a strong connection with sonar as it is a wonderful music phone.
So this is Nokia’s attempt to bring down the iPhone, again. It features a good range of multimedia features, slim packaging and touch screen. It offers an easy to use design, not to mention a very attractive with some characteristics from the iPhone and Samsung Omnia. It sports a dimension of 4.37″ x 2.04″ x 0.61, with a weight of 3.84 oz. The build factor is also impressive and its very comfortable to hold in the hand. Nokia 5800’s touch screen is as big as the iPhone’s 3.2 inches, supporting 16M colors and an aspect ratio of 16:9. The result is a screen offering bright and vibrant colors and sharp graphics and photos. You can even change brightness, font size and backlighting according to your preference. The lighting adjusts automatically to different lighting conditions.
It features a responsive screen, whether you use your hands or stylus. Tick on the items and they will open quickly, no need to press too hard, although some may find it hard scrolling through long lists a little daunting but users will surely get used to it. The display is also equipped with a vibration feedback.
Aside from the touch screen, user can also type using the spacious QWERTY keyboard. Numbers and symbols have a separate keyboard and switching language alphabets and writing languages is so easy with the touch of a button. The dedicated shift keys, large space bar and back and return controls are also delighting in the typing features.
The thin yet tactile Talk and End buttons and menu control are housed below the display. The volume rocker, handset-locking switch and camera shutter are on the right spine while the SIM card and microSD card are on the left spine. Atop the unit is a dedicated power switch along with the 3.5mm headset jack, a micro-USB port, and the charger port. It is composed of two camera lenses, a 3.2MP and a VGA lens located on the back and above the display, respectively.
Features in the 5800 include vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a calculator, an alarm clock, a world clock, a notepad, a currency and unit converter, a voice recorder, a speakerphone, and a notepad. We also found full Bluetooth with a stereo profile, file and application managers, speaker-independent voice commands, PC syncing for music and photos, instant messaging, USB mass storage and a file manager. It also includes a Wi-Fi and GPS support.
Of course, this won’t be called the XpressMusic, without the music feature that makes this gadget special. It offers a great sound, whether you go the headphone of speaker route, which can be further enhanced with the equalizer.
The reinvented sliding design that Motorola RIZR Z8 possesses is what it boasts for. This smart phone model, pronounced as “riser,” also goes by the much simpler name, MOTO Z8, has its sliding design feature a combination of aesthetic and great function, allowing the phone to curve on itself to conform to the user’s face when he/she talks on it. Definitely, the availability of the clamshell design of previous RAZR models are always in the run for comparison, but MOTO Z8 deservingly rise itself as a hipper, more stylish way to communicate. Before RIZR Z10 was released, Z9 has been Motorola’s flagship phone.
Owning a dimension of 109 x 50 x 15 mm and weighing 112 grams, the MOTO Z8 boasts its 2.2 inch, TFT-type 16 million-color QVGA display (240 x 320 pixels). It also includes a 2.0 mega-pixel camera, screensavers and wallpapers, although users can also download new ones. Just like other smart phones, it also features ring tones, both polyphonic and mp3 formats. It also includes a card slot for microSD although it already has a 77MB internal memory. Its battery life is impressive as well, with five hours (talk time) and 380 hours (standby time).
Its phonebook is practically unlimited, as well as its call records, so storing your friends’ contacts, definitely if you have lots of them, will never be an issue anymore.
And just like other recent phones, it features photo caller ID, ringer ID, ringer profiles and voice dialing. Other add-on features are alarm, calculator, calendar, to-do-list and voice recorder.Messaging capabilities of MOTO Z8 includes SMS (text messaging) MMS, and E-mail clients, as well as the predictive text entry feature and text messaging template. It also features 3.6Mbps HSDPA providing mobile broadband and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, AVRCP, DUN, HFP and SPP, and fax capability. The phone’s software is being run by the Symbian UIQ operating system and can be connected to the Internet via the WAP 2.0 web browser. As it was designed in the newest 3G GSM network, MOTO Z8 is very much commendable in all types of data and voice transmission.
As like other seemingly perfect phones, the MOTO Z8 wouldn’t pass the perfect remark. One of the greatest issues the it is facing is the lack of protective casing that shall cover the display of the buttons, making it prone to scratches that may damage the phone. The other big problem lies on its choice of backend operating system. Although the Symbian could be a promising choice, a question in stability has always been brought up and it could affect the speed and usability of the phone. Nonetheless, the MOTO Z8 is a beautiful catch, especially if you are looking for a phone that you think will give you the edge in the world of fashion and convenient living in the now-growing sophisticated communication world.
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.
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.
When LG released the first Rumor in the last half of 2007, it has offered a very good messaging device with its roomy QWERTY keyboard and other respectable features. History seems to repeat itself with the LG Rumor2, which has promised to add more to the previous unit’s greatness.
Just like the original Rumor, the successor is a very easy-to-use phone, still offering a spacious keyboard, intuitive messaging application, superb call quality. While this is supposed to be the best chance to improve the 1.3MP camera, LG decided to retain the feature, which is a little disappointing. The only add-on is a noteworthy feature, an access to Outlook and Lotus Notes corporate e-mail. Does this make the LG Rumor2 a new phone? Yes, in a technical sense, but essentially, it’s jus a mere improvement.
Rumor2 gets the design tracks of its predecessors, and try to place them side-by-side and it’s hard to find the difference. They share a candy bar shape accented with smooth line and rounded corners. Sliding the front face to the left will expose the keyboard.
Rumor2′s distinctions to the Rumor are its basic black color, glossy skin, bigger dimensions (4.4 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches) and more weight (4.2 ounces). The display experiences an improvement, with higher resolution (240 x 320 pixels), brighter and more vibrant colors, sharp graphics and navigable menus. Font size and backlighting time are modifiable. The display also shows photo caller ID.
A sad thing happens to the redesigning of the navigation array, which replaced Rumor’s circular toggle, opting for a square one. It feels more cramped, affecting the controls surrounding it. The numeric keypad, on the other hand, is easy to use and there are no problems during dialing. Texting is definitely not an issue, thanks to the raised and backlit QWERTY keyboard. Other controls and ports in the Rumor2 are a volume rocker, camera shutter, microSD card slot and headset jack.
Basic features in the LG Rumor2 include text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a voice recorder, voice dialing, wireless phone book backup, a unit converter, and a notepad. It also has PC syncing, USB mass storage, a memory card manager, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, and instant messaging.
The major delight on the LG Rumor2 is its support for Microsoft server and Lotus Notes which allows you to receive work e-mail right on the phone just like as POP3 accounts. Basically, this phone is perfect for the corporate world.
LG Rumor is praiseworthy on the design school, trimming down the interface complexity of usual smartphones into a more user-friendly hype, with the approximation of the QWERTY keyboard and navigation controls as important improvements. Another cool add-on with LG Rumor is the accessibility to social networking sites such as Facebook, which we can lead to thinking: probably the reason why the unit was named like LG Rumor.
One thing about the LG Rumor is that it’s bulky, having a dimension of 4.3 x 2 x 0.7 inches and weight of 4.13 ounces. It may fit in the pants pocket but it could be uncomfortable for users. The reason for such bulk is an innovative slide-out QWERTY keyboard which can be revealed by sliding the phones front face to the left lengthwise. This will automatically shift the screen orientation from portrait to landscape. The phone looks sophisticated with such style, with its curved corners and clean lines bring comfort to the hands.
Just like other LG phones, LG Rumor’s display is quite disappointing with a size of 2 inches at a 176×220 pixel resolution. The colors aren’t bright, with images appearing to be washed out especially on direct sunlight.
This misdemeanor proved to be much exhausted with the absence of brightness and contrast adjustments. LG Rumor consists of five-way navigation toggle which also acts as shortcut keys (new text message, music player, My Content folder and calendar). There is also a dedicated speakerphone key located in two sides. The left side of LG Rumor is where the volume rocker and dedicated camera key are located and the right side is where the headset jack and microSD card slot. The back side gives space for the camera lens.
Multimedia features in Rumor is commendable despite the absence of the EV-Do and Sprint Power Vision. Rumor’s standard music player can create playlists and put it into shuffle and repeat mode. Downloading songs from PC to the Rumor is only possible using the Sprint’s Music Manager Software via the microSD card. Rumor also includes a 1.3-megapixel camera which can take pictures in three resolutions (1280×960, 640×480, and 320×240), three quality settings, and four color tones. It can also record videos. The problem with the camera is that the image and video qualities aren’t really that impressive.
Basic features like phonebooks and support for text and multimedia messaging. Productivity tools include alarm clock, calculator, currency and unit converter, notepad, stopwatch, and voice recorder. Connectivity options in Rumor are stereo Bluetooth, a wireless Web browser, e-mail, instant messaging (supports AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo) and GPS navigation via Sprint Navigator. Of course, it boasts the inclusion of an application called the Social Zone, which provides users the access to social networking sites like Facebook, Vox, LiveJournal and Xanga.
Call this the touch screen gadget of the masses as this is probably the cheapest of its kind in the market to date. Sporting a fancy interface, the LG Cookie KP500 promises more than well, fanciness, but a phone that meets into any lifestyle’s needs and caprices
In the design arena, the LG marks a high-five. It has a understated but smart-looking slim, matte black casing with a large touchscreen and 3-megapixel camera on the back. The non-glass touchscreen is a little disappointment though as it stepped out of the norm but the resistive technology, which requires its users to apply more pressure in every press, is more responsive yet little slower for testing and dialing.
Comparison with the iPhone 3G should stop at this point, especially with design, as the LG Cookie sports three mechanical buttons underneath the screen compared to the iPhone’s one. These buttons are comprised of a send key, an end-call key and an application shortcut key. It also includes a stylus tucked inside the bottom right panel, best for touch-haters. This provides more accurate drawing and hand-writing recognition.
On the top-right side is where the microSD slot resides, that’s if you need extra memory, which might surely require you for your music needs. Being the cheap iPhone counterpart, groundbreaking features do not storm the LG Cookie. There’s no 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS, so much for your connectivity bulk. However this doesn’t mean that LG Cookie is a heap of metallic trash.
Going back to the interface, it offers an easy-to-use homescreen with widgets that includes a calendar, a clock, different shortcuts to your pictures and music player. You can even move them widgets according to the most used one. The finger-friendly icons menu is similar to Viewty or Renoir’s, but just like them scrolling is a little painful and annoying. Texting and dialing numbers via the QWERTY keypad layout is the best way to input messages, aside from the handwriting recognition, which is a little frustrating at first usages.
The 3-megapixel camera produces commendable still shots and videos for MMS and social networking, but the absence of LED photo light and flash makes this thing very limited. The misdemeanors of the camera must be separated from the photo viewer, which in the contrary, a favorable feature. Skim through your photos effortlessly with a flick of a finger and feel free to add minor edits, texts and funny effects.
Of course, you can make phone calls with this one. But if you want to transform this into a mini netshop, then you have to think twice because the Web browser is a disappointing thing. Imagine being depressed during the WAP days. I know you don’t want to be chased by nightmares. Overall, this phone remains a good choice for people who demand aesthetics more than the actual performance. Well, this isn’t as expensive as the iPhone, but its form factor will surely turn casual users’ heads.
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