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.
If you are looking for a mobile phone that offers the most commendable of features while in itself an impressive aesthetic work, then Motorola A1200 or most popular on its other name, is the most recommended product for an important wrap of fashion and function. This smarphone of stunning beauty is the fourth generation of Motorola’s Linux devices. It is armed with Bluetooth, a document viewer, FM radio, music player, and a business card reader.
Love at first sight would always bring a prospective buyer to the Motorola Ming. Boasting a sophisticated clamshell design in colors blue, red or black, it has a dimension is 95.7 x 51.7 x 21.5 mm and weighs 122 grams. Ming’s screen is unusually and interestingly located at the bottom of the flip-top. The top portion is made of plastic to serve as the touch screen’s
protection from dust and scratches. Touch screen haters need not attempt to buy this product because there are no keypads in this unit, with all your inputs totally dependent to the touch screen, a TFT Color type of display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 262,144 18-bit colors. It is also equipped with handwriting and speech recognition, both in English and in Chinese. There are three vestigial buttons in the phone’s front part. And despite the relatively smaller dimensions of its touch screen, it is easy to work with.
Battery life is impressive at 7.4 hours talk time and 7.1 days standby time. It has a card slot for a micro SD card that can store up to 2 GB size of files. It has 8 MB built-in user memory and 3.5 MB phonebook memory and has an Intel XScale 312MHz processor. Ming has a built-in mini-USB connector as well as Bluetooth connection which support a variety of profiles: HSP, HFP, AVRC, OPP and a lot more.
Messaging with Ming can be done via Email, MMS and SMS, while one can choose to make or accept voice calls via the speaker phone or a headset jack. Additional features include FM radio, Real One Player that supports MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC+ and AMR music formats and video files, a 2.0 megapixel camera, and a video capture with a maximum length of two hours. The camera produces a decent photo quality with noticeable flaws especially in the oranges and reds which usually appear very unnatural.
It also includes a talking dictionary and one game, Extreme Air Snowboarding, although you are free to download more games and applications in your convenience, Despite the beauty Ming possesses, a lot of enthusiasts have been disappointed with the absence of 3G and Wi-Fi, and the low internal memory.
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.
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.
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 HTC Advantage X7501 is a handheld computer that is also a mobile phone. It has a quadband GSM and a triband HSPDA for network connection and a great speakerphone for making calls if the user forgets their wired or Bluetooth headset. It measures 5.25 x 3.85 x 0.63 in inches and weighs 12.66 ounces.
Its transflective VGA screen is quite big at 5 inches and so are the icons and fonts on it, making reading, viewing and operating it with one’s fingers very easy. Users can also activate the VueFLO which enables users to scroll sideways when the Advantage is tipped to its side or vertically when it is tipped up or down.
You can use the Advantage like a slate tablet computer which makes both wide and tall orientation possible, or in a clamshell mode. The 3mm thin keyboard gets clamped to the Advantage with a magnet, which is so strong that credit cards and those with pacemakers must be kept at a certain distance. The keyboard also is used as the Advantage’s cover when carried around. The keys are well-spaced, large and sensitive enough for thumb typing if one needs to. The enter key, letters, space bar and other keys are in their standard places. There’s a control key for easy editing and four arrow keys that can also be used pulling the page up or down.
The power button can also put this PDA on sleep mode or turn the Advantage off. There’s a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, SIM card slot, speakers, VGA/USB host 1.1 port and a stylus. Owners can hook the Advantage up to a monitor or projector for doing presentations using Excel, PowerPoint and Word, or to a television.
The Advantage makes use of the Intel PXA270 processor at 624MHz with 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM. There is also 83MB of free RAM and a SDHC compatible miniSD expansion slot. These give the Advantage plenty of file space.
The Advantage has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection and runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition, with Acrobat LE, eReader, Internet Explorer, mobile Outlook, Office Mobile, Opera and Windows Media Player Mobile. It also has a 20-channel GPS. As a phone the Advantage’s call features and quality are better than most. It has call barring and forwarding, conferencing, smart and voice speed dialing and dialing over headset, even Bluetooth and car kit types.
X7501 also has a 3-megapixel camera with an auto-focus lens, 8x digital zoom and a flash. It takes 2048 x1536 pixel photos. It can also be used as a camcorder with audio saved as an MP4 file. The Advantage uses a 2200 mAh Lithium ion battery that allows 11 hours of MP3 playing or one whole day of business multimedia use.
A purchase of an HTC Advantage includes the unit, detachable keyboard, 3.5mm stereo headset with mic, brown leather case with magnet locking mechanism, manual and start guide, screen protector, software CD with ActiveSync, two stylus, USB sync and charge cable, VGA-out cable and world charger.
The HTC Vox S710 is a compact smartphone with a slider design that offers a full QWERTY pad and alphanumeric dialpad. Its keyboard is roomier with square buttons that are well-spaced for ease in typing-in texts, notes and emails.
It’s a comfort to hold at only 3.9 x 1.9x 0.6 measurement in inches. This, of course, makes the S710 light to carry at 4.2 ounces. The right spine is where the camera key is together with the microSD slot. In the left is found the volume rocker and the switch for voice command/recorder. You can locate the SIM card slot by opening the phone and looking at the back side of the front cover. Like the best of smartphones it runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition, and has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for connectivity. It has a Microsoft Office Mobile Suite that enables owners to use Excel and Word, and view PowerPoint. This smartphone also has an Audio Manager application, Windows Live Integration and Windows Media Player Mobile, though the Vox S710 doesn’t include 3G feature.
Its Direct Push technology will enable users to send emails in real-time and synchronize the S710 with Outlook through Exchange Server. It has a task manager and can also open POP3 and IMAP accounts, as well as view HTML formats.
What others are raving most about is the call quality it offers with a talk time of 7 hours, on top of the full Vox S710 tools that keeps in mind all the mobile necessities of a business professional on the move. You can bring it along anywhere as it is a quadband. It has the standard call features of smart and voice dialing, text and multimedia sending and receiving, and voice command.
Though it’s not a touch screen, it offers sharp texts and vibrant images on its 2.4 inch screen. It’s great on the reader’s eyes because it has a resolution of 320 x 420 pixel and can show 65, 536 colors. Users can adjust the backlighting and customize the screen background image, color scheme and home screen lay-out.
The Vox S710 has a 2-megapixel, no-flash camera that can shoot still and videos. It has standard options for picture-taking adjustments. Users can also shoot videos in H.253, Motion JPEG or MPEG4, and can include sound. This smartphone uses a 201MHz Texas Instrument OMAP processor and only has a program memory of around 24MB. A purchase of the S710 comes with an AC adapter, manual, software CD, USB cable and wired headset.
The HTC Touch Dual joins the class of slider phones, with its own slide-out 20-key keypad tucked in its compact frame. It is taller and thicker than its predecessor, but retaining the minimalist look of just having the touch screen, 5-way navigation pad, camera and power buttons, call answer and end keys and volume control visible. The stylus is hidden on the top-right side and the microSD expansion slot at the bottom. The SIM card slot can be accessed by taking out the battery first.
It measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.6 in inches and weighs 3.9 ounces. The Touch Dual’s screen is smaller, however, at 2.6 inches. It has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixel and 65,536 colors. Like the original Touch, it has the HTC TouchFLO user interface which is paired with the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system. It utilizes Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE, GPRS, HSDPA and UMTS, but lacks Wi-Fi capabilities and GPS.
The interface now has bigger-sized menu icons and virtual keyboard keys, a new getting started menu, a sound mode tab, phonebook with alphabet-access to contacts and a task manager with memory information. These changes allow users to have a better “touch” experience with their fingers, minimizing the use of a stylus.
TouchFLO technology makes the screen sensitive to the commands of the user given with the tap and swipe of their finger. Users can also make use of the Block Recognizer and the Transcriber to speed up doing inputs. To get to the QWERTY keypad, users just need to slide up the front cover activating a new task page on the screen which is a short cut to making text and emails or noting in appointments. The QWERTY keypad has a Blackberry SureType feel to it.
The upgraded version of Windows Mobile gives the mobile Internet Explorer zooming capabilities which decrease the need to scroll. It is still bundled with Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for using Word and Excel and viewing PDF and PowerPoint files; Direct Push Technology for real-time email and Outlook synchronization via Exchange Server; and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for music and video streaming.
Touch Dual’s 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM 7201 processor has 128MB of RAM and gives a snappier user-experience. It makes use of a 1, 350 mAh lithium ion battery with five hours of continuous GSM talk-time and 3.2 hours of continuous 3G talk-time.
This smart phone is a quad-band with call features that include an address book, speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging and voice dialing and command. Touch Dual has two cameras, a 2-megapixel one with an 8x zoom for taking photos and videos and another one for video calls. Like the Touch, it has no flash thus taking photos or videos at night are not recommended. A purchase of the Touch Dual comes with an AC adapter, carrying case, extra stylus, manual, mini USB cable, pair of earbuds and software CD.
The Apple iPhone, which combined regular mobile phone capabilities with Apple’s iPod high quality MP3 player, has created hype in the world of smartphone fanatics with its sophisticated and sleek design. Yes, it looks a bit broad in its candy bar style and QWERTY keyboard layout. And looking bulky at 2.4 in x 4.6 in x 0.7 in and heavy at 4.8 oz. However, it surprisingly fits just perfectly nice in the hand. It is antenna integrated. It boasts of a whopping 3.5-inch glass touchscreen, which has a resolution of 480×320 pixels and 32-bit (128 colors) that gives a stunningly vibrant user interface.
As a full iPod Nano, it contains all the 5G iPod features, such as high-quality videos, iTunes music and podcasts. Moreover, it allows you to browse music from album to album, with cover in pretty artworks as you choose the song you want to listen to. It uses 4gb or 8gb flash memory for bigger audio and video storage capacity.
As a phone, it asserts to have 8hrs talk time and 250 battery hours on standby. It has all the essentials of a mobile phone such as automatic redial, call divert, call hold, call timer, caller ID, call waiting, volume control, ringer control, conference call capability, computer link, call transfer, speakerphone, polyphonic ringer, voice mail capability, multimedia messaging service (MMS) and short messaging service (SMS). Of course, it also has a digital camera and digital player.
As for connectivity options, iPhone features WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0. It also offers full internet browsing and push email options, which include IMAP and POP3 exchange services of Microsoft, and Push-IMAP or Push extensions for Internet Message Access Protocol. It uses GSM (Global System for Mobile communications, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) for cellular enhancement protocol.
iPhone operates on Darwin, a Mac OS X version open source linux computer operating system; and is also quad band calling supported, with GSM) 850, 900, 1800 and 1900, taking you to more places around the world.
On top of all these a new, and rather ingenious feature called accelerometer, would surely impress you with its capability to recognize which way up the phone is, automatically reorienting itself when you flip the unit from portrait to landscape. The same feature, which uses motion/proximity sensor, also switches the screen off during a call to avoid accidentally pressing the buttons on the screen.
The iPhone services are provided by AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless.
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