Online Phone Shop

Archive for May, 2010

The HTC Legend is the successor to the very popular HTC Hero mobile phone. It is the first HTC handset to come in a unibody aluminium casing. The HTC Legend is an Android smartphone. Android mobile phones, developed by Android Inc and Google, use open source software to allow users to create and share mobile phone applications.

The HTC Legend is 4.41 by 2.22 by 0.45 inches. It weighs 4.44 ounces. Its battery life is an impressive 8 hours of talk time, 18 days (440 hours) of standby time. The main display screen of the HTC Legend is 320 x 480 pixels in resolution, is 3.2 inches in size, uses capacitive technology and is multi-touch.

The HTC Legend’s camera has 5 megapixels resolution, and the inbuilt camera has LED flash, autofocus and geo tagging. The video player has MPEG4, WMV, 3GP and 3G2 capability. The music player supports files in MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, M4A (Apple lossless), AMR, OGG and MIDI format and has FM radio.

The operating software is relatively new: Android 2.1 following on from Android 1.5 (also known as Cupcake). Internet browsing is through HTML or flash and the HTC Legend has microUSB, Wi-Fi and 2.1 Bluetooth.

The unibody casing looks and feels great. In this respect, the HTC Legend is rather minimalistic and sophisticated. The screen is highly responsive and multi touch, allowing for multiple home pages to be scanned quickly. Sound and picture quality are good if not excellent.

If you are new to the touch screen concept and are looking for a budget range mobile phone which can offer you that first time experience, then the Samsung C3510 may be for you.

When this phone first made mobile phone news, it was obvious that Samsung was giving a much-appreciated nod to the low-end, pre-pay user – or the younger people who are looking for their first prepay phone. But this is no ordinary cheap mobile phone. It is compact and lightweight and sports a smooth, rounded look. The touch screen is 2.8 inches and supports a resolution of 240 x 320. The phone itself comes in black, blue, pink, and white.

While the phone doesn’t come with a lot of features, the ones it does include are essential and well-designed: an MP3 player for music-listening, FM radio, integrated web browser, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, and integrated social networking.

As would be expected in a cheap mobile phone, connectivity is restricted to Class 10 GPRS and EDGE, there is no HSDPA or 3G, but there is Bluetooth 2.1 included, and A2DP is supported for stereo Bluetooth transmission. Our final thought on this phone: while intended for the young, prepay set, Samsung has stepped away from the crowd with the C3510 GenoA, a thoughtful and appealing cheap mobile phone.

The Samsung C3510 GenoA is available through several providers, so if you’re interested in this phone, you may want to compare prepay or contract mobile phone deals from a few different ones.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz features a smart new ergonomic body and HD video capabilities, both exciting new additions.  The 8.1 megapixel camera is a winner, and the 3.5 mm headphone jack sets it apart from most other Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

Pros

The strongest feature of the Vivaz is the extremely user friendly 8.1 megapixel camera.  There are dedicated buttons for video and stills, and on-screen icons and menus that clearly show the camera’s current settings and available options.  An 8 GB memory card is included in the produce packaging, as the HD video tends to use up a lot of internal memory.

Another strong aspect of the Vivaz is the addition of both a mini USB port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.  The music player itself is intuitive and feature-rich – users can view album artwork and create instant playlists.

Other positive features include good video playback, convenient shortcuts to YouTube and iPlayer, a preloaded Facebook app, comfortable design, fine call quality, and a really sharp TFT screen. 

Cons

Like previous Sony Ericsson mobile phones, the Vivaz has a frustrating resistive touch-screen, though it’s admittedly one of the best of its kind.  There is a stylus but no QWERTY keyboard so messaging can be difficult.

Powering the Vivaz on and off is sluggish, and the camera is slow to load.  Locking and unlocking the screen presents a real challenge, as the lock button is also the power button; pushing too hard will turn off the phone. 

Conclusion

For recreational users, this is a fine smartphone.  Users looking for great camera features and media playback would be wise to check out the latest Vivaz mobile phone deals.

Long the domain of the serious business user, BlackBerry seems to be positioning itself to make in impact on the casual smartphone fan.  The BlackBerry Bold 9700 offers a slimmer design and first-rate media features, which will have the consumer market buzzing. 

Pros

Like previous BlackBerry mobile phones, the Bold 9700 shines in mobile email applications and has a fantastic battery life.  The handset is slim yet solid and feels comfortable in hand.  The original Bold rollerball has been replaced with a brilliantly responsive optical trackpad.

The keyboard is a pleasure to navigate, with solid and evenly spaced keys.  Users will never miss a trendy touchscreen.
Aside from mobile communications, the Bold 9700 also functions admirably as a music and media player.  The display screen is crisp and detailed, perfect for high resolution video playback.  They music player interface is comprehensive, audio quality is good, and the 3.5mm headphone jack is a nice touch.

The camera has an autofocus system and produces decent quality images, making this a passable alternative to a digital camera in a pinch.

Cons

New BlackBerry users will need some time to learn the confusing text-based menus.

The enter key doubles as the send key in SMS messaging mode and is positioned very near the delete button, which could lead to some embarrassing slip-ups for careless texters.

Conclusion

With the Bold 9700, BlackBerry takes a strong step into the broader consumer market.  Balancing work and play with ease, it holds up well against the latest mobile phones from competitors.

There are a number of ways that a mobile phone can be traded in.  Companies such as Tesco and British Gas now offer rewards for customers who recycle handsets through them.  There is an ever growing list of dedicated mobile phone recycling firms that offer cash for mobiles.  Many charities now also take handsets to raise funds for good causes.

Mobile phone recycling firms include Envirofone, Mazuma Mobile, Fonebank and Mobile Phone Exchange.  There are many more, and if you are planning to trade in your mobile phone it is worth making use of a comparison website that can show you the potential payouts from several companies at once.  This is a good way of ensuring that you get the best deal available. The website www.mobilephonerecycling.co.uk will show the prices from seven potential buyers.  

Many people will have an unused handset gathering dust somewhere.  Those who regularly upgrade their phones may have several.  With many of these firms paying out for older models and even non-working handsets it is worth a try.  The current economic situation means that extra cash is always welcome and there is no better way to earn it than by simply getting rid of something you no longer use. 

There are of course other options for getting rid of a mobile handset.  Recent models can usually find customers on sites such as eBay and there is always the potential to earn more there, but a sale is not guaranteed and the whole process is much quicker with a mobile phone recycling firm.

Motorola claims that the MOTO W233 Renew mobile phone is the world’s first carbon neutral mobile phone. The outside casing of the phone is made by using recycled plastic from bottles and the instruction manual is even printed on recycled paper. The packaging is minimal and designed to make use of as few natural resources as possible.

Apart from these ways of reducing this mobile phone’s carbon footprint, Motorola has invested money in renewable resources and in planting trees to offset any carbon emissions which may be released during the manufacture of this phone. These efforts to help the environment have won this particular phone an award as a carbon free product. It has been given a carbon-free product certificate award from Carbonfund.org.

All these things make this the most environmentally friendly of Motorola phones and it is a phone which will appeal to those who are concerned about the impact that a mobile phone has on the environment.

Users who just want to be able to make calls and send texts will find this model to be one of the best mobile phone deals around. There are no frills and it has no GPS and no built in camera, but it does offer the user nine hours of talk time between charges and has very good, clear sound quality produced by its Crystal-Talk noise reduction system. This is a straightforward carbon neutral mobile phone which will appeal to those who want the basics and to do their bit for the environment.  

The Samsung Monte is one of Samsung’s latest mobile phones. With a mid-range touch screen, this phone puts the emphasis on social networking – with dedicated applications to Facebook and MySpace already pre-installed, along with Twitter and Bebo widgets.

Externally, the Monte is a good-looking phone with a simple and sleek design. It comes in three different colour combinations: graphite and black, black and orange, and white and red. It is 108mm x 53mm wide, 12mm thick, and weighs 92 grams. The camera is a 3.2 megapixel camera with face detection, smile shot, and panorama. However, there isn’t a flash.

Internally, the phone features 200MB of onboard memory with expandability to 16 GM through a MicroSD slot. The phone features Wi-Fi and HSDPA, which really enhances web browsing and interaction with your social networking sites. Other great features include a capacitive (versus Samsung’s usual resistive) 3-inch TFT touch screen which makes using this phone a much more pleasant experience. The interface is still TouchWiz however. There unit also has a 3.5mm headphone connector, video calling, and push email.

If we were to compare mobile phones, the closet competitor would be the LG Optimus, which has similar spec, but weighs more, has less internal memory and no Wi-Fi. This latest mobile phone offering from the Samsung mobile phones range is impressive, incorporating pleasant design and user-friendly functionality with plenty of features.

The Samsung Monte is available on contract mobile phone deals through most UK providers, including Vodafone, O2, and T-Mobile.

Companies throughout the country use mobile phones across their organisations to help them carry out their work.  Sometimes they will get through large amounts of handsets due to their constant use, and they may just throw away the old mobile phone once a new handset has been purchased.

However companies should consider the benefits of recycling their mobile phones, especially if they are using large amounts of handsets.  The benefits are both financial and environmental, and there are several services available to help in the recycling of mobile phones.  Envirofone and Mazuma are both online companies who provide mobile phone recycling.  People (and organisations) are able to send off their mobile phones to the service and receive a cash payment.  To find out how much your mobile phone is worth you can go on their websites and type in the name of the mobile phone that you wish to sell.  If you are happy with the amount, the service will send you a padded bag to return the mobile phone to them, and after it is tested you will be paid. 

If you are a company with a large amount of mobile phones to recycle then the financial rewards from selling the handsets through these services could potentially be quite large.  Recycling mobile phones in this way is also beneficial to the environment, and you will be saving landfill sites from potential contamination (caused by leaking mercury from the mobile phones battery).

The LG KF300 is a baseline, barebones mobile telephone with a focus on ease of use, and simplicity.  It is a standard compact, flip phone, featuring large, legible keys on the numeric dialling pad, making this an easy phone for those with poor vision or shaky hands to dial, or to send text messages with.  While this phone has few additional features, it can be purchased very cheaply, and is an excellent choice for a minimalist, or for someone who simply needs a mobile for the sole purpose of making telephone calls.

While this is a baseline phone in every respect, it’s important to note that the LG KF300 does have some additional features.  For one, there is a secondary display on the outside of the phone.  This is typically used to display the time however it can also be set to notify the user of a missed call.  In addition, the phone sports both an MP3 media player, as well as a built in FM radio.  The built in camera takes pictures at a meagre two megapixels, has no flash and a rather slow shutter speed.

While this phone is quite easy to use, and can be purchased cheaply, it’s important to note that it supports just 200 minutes of talk time on a full charge, making a car charger an absolute must buy. This handset, while bare bones and lacking features, is more than sufficient for many users, despite the rather poor battery life.  The KF300 does what it’s supposed to, and does it in a way that’s ergonomic, and easy to use. When considering cheap mobile phones, the KF300 cannot be omitted.

The BlackBerry 7100x was one of RIM’s earliest attempts at a more phone-like device.  Introduced in 2005, the 7100x was one of the BlackBerry mobile phones that aimed to combine messaging features with call quality.

Pros

Mobile email access is strong on the 7100x, with support for both corporate and internet accounts.  Users can install up to ten webmail accounts and there’s a maximum of 5MB of data storage integrated into the device.  Microsoft Office attachments open on the 7100x, and there are several useful apps preloaded to help business users manage contacts and appointments.

Even with its rather primitive technology, the 7100x is capable of displaying basic websites adequately, pulling up pages relatively quickly.

Cons

The email system does not preserve formatting on attachments, which could pose problems for heavily designed documents like Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentation.  Also, there’s no support for PDF files.  The low resolution screen (240×260) makes it difficult to properly view large or complex documents.

The 7100x is one of the few BlackBerry mobile phones without a full QWERTY keyboard, so some users may experience initial frustration in trying to learn the key positions.

The web browser functions passably for a phone without Wi-Fi or 3G, but sites with loads of graphics tend to load impossibly slowly and with poor image quality.

Conclusion

The 7100x contains many proprietary features, as it was developed for O2 customers.  Though most of the functions have been replaced by new mobile phones with better technology, the 7100x is still one of the best mobile phone deals for O2 fans looking for a low-tech handheld device. If the features do not meet requirements, then browse mobile phone reviews and mobile phone news sites for a suitable alternative based on desired specs.