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Archive for the ‘Touchscreen’ Category

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.

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.

The Samsung S8500 Wave is a phone that is a perfect shape and size for operating and for carrying around, in a pocket or in a bag.  It’s 11.8 cm by 5.6 cm by 1.09 cm.  It is extremely classy looking, the brushed effect casing adding a sophisticated touch.

It is a touch screen phone displaying almost 16 million colours on a high resolution AMOLED screen, a screen that measures 3.3 inches across.  The Wave has a built-in automatic rotation function enabling you to turn the handset switching from portrait to landscape.

You can text using the touch screen or by using the keyboard – the keyboard usually being the faster method.

The camera is five megapixels and can take videos as well as still life images.  It has enhancements such as smile detection, automatic focus and flash.  AGPS navigation allows you to geo-tag your pictures, saving the location of where your photo was snapped.

There is a music system that supports MP3 and other popular music file formats and an FM radio that shows the track and artist being played.  It also comes with Java and that means you can download games onto your handset.

The phone has Wi-Fi allowing you access to the web, and data transfer is high speed as it has 3G video-calling support.  The Wave comes with either two or eight gigabytes of internal memory that can be increased with an external memory card.

This updated version of the BlackBerry Storm boasts several improvements on the original model and some really great features. The Storm 2 9520 comes with a Wi-Fi application that makes connecting to the internet while on the go even easier. Its sturdy and stylish design makes it the perfect accessory from boardroom meetings to shopping with friends.

The Storm 2 has a clickable touch screen with little to no lag behind while typing which is a big improvement on the original model. The rotating screen is another feature that is popular with some users allowing the change of viewing from portrait to landscape with just a turn of the handset. Memory capacity is smaller than some at 256MB but the phone supports SD memory cards with up to 2GB capacity.

There are many new mobile phones on the market at the moment, but the BlackBerry mobile phones are still a very popular choice. When you compare mobile phones against the Storm 2 you may find that this particular model is not as strong in some areas, such as with the lack of media apps available. Also, the battery life appears to be shorter than with other mobile phones and charging with the USB cable is very slow.

The clickable screen may be awkward to use and confusing for those trying to navigate round it for the first time but is very easy to get the hang of after a few tries and some may find the placement of the headphone jack awkward as it is located on the side of the handset and might be better placed at the top.

The LG Viewty KU990 is the company’s high-end touchscreen phone that is available in a variety of colours including the standard black and metallic finishes.  It comes with a 3-inch LCD display and a 5-megapixel camera with a built in xenon flash.

The camera takes good clear photographs but even with the xenon flash, the Viewty performs very poorly in poor lighting conditions.  The flash is not particularly bright and pictures taken in darkness do not come out.  Using the camera regularly quickly drains the battery; so if you take a lot of pictures, be prepared to pack your charger.

The camera feels and looks like a proper digital camera when you’re snapping your pictures and because of the HSDPA (3.5G) you can upload them straight to the web.  You can do the same for videos, which you can record and upload straight to YouTube.

You can video fast action scenes using the slow-motion video at 120 frames per second.  While you may not use this option every day it is fun to use and useful for shooting quick moving incidents.  As with the camera, the video works best in brighter or daylight conditions.

The touchscreen on the Viewty lets it down as it is tricky to use and scrolling through menus is sometimes clumsy.  Compared to, for example the iPhone, the interface is basic and doesn’t allow an application store.

Check out the Samsung Soul and the Samsung Jet for similar phones.

A T-Mobile Pulse review reveals an excellent cheap mobile phone and for its price it represents great value for money, especially on a pay-as-you-go contract. The Pulse is an attractive phone with one of the largest Android screens on the market. At 3.5 inches, it gives you enough room to watch video and surf the net effectively.

This T-Mobile phone is slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy but it still has a nicely rounded, slim line shape, designed to fit neatly into your hand. The look is improved by its “Canvas” skin system and the analogue clock face definitely gives it an elegant look. The phone comes with a choice of six skins, three more than the normal Android and you can add more if required.

The Android system is fast and easy to use and Google have lots of apps lined up for downloading. Running all these systems might be a drain on a lower end phone but T-Mobile have ensured it has a good battery life, which is essential for keeping this big screen lit up.

The screen resolution is perhaps not as good as it could be and there are definitely better models on the market, and the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack is a bit frustrating, as is its 3.2-megapixel camera without flash.

When all things are considered the T-Mobile Pulse is aimed at the budget market and on those terms it is excellent value for money when compared to other similar mobile phones.

The HTC Legend is the successor to the HTC Hero and it is the first handset by HTC which has a ‘unibody’ casing made from aluminium.  The casing gives the phone a smooth sleek look and gives it a touch of class that a plastic phone does not have.  At the same time it manages to look simple. 

The handset has a 3.2 inch screen which gives a sharp image and responds well to the touchpad function; the trackball feature from the Hero has been replaced with an optical joystick.  It is an Android phone and has the Sense interface.  Sense offers a number of useful applications which give the user easy access to a lot of information, such as contact lists and weather forecasts.  Users can also easily customise the home page.

The HTC Legend makes social networking much easier with a feature called ‘friend stream’, making different networking sites easy to view.  The web browser also allows easy access to other internet sites and text from sites can be copied without difficulty.  The Legend also responds to the way the user is holding it and the screen will move from portrait to landscape modes when the phone is turned and the sensitive touch screen keypad makes mistyping less likely. 

The phone has a 5-megapixel camera though picture quality is not always great and occasionally the Wi-Fi reception is not very strong.  There are not as many Android applications as other operating systems have but new ones are being added all the time. 

The Samsung Pixon 12 is a highly sophisticated phone designed with a stylish black casing.  The handset has a 3.1 inch screen which displays 16 million colours on the larger than standard screen.  It has a resolution of 480 pixels by 800 pixels ensuring high quality images.

This phone is suitable for those who prefer to choose options on their mobile by using the touch screen.  Another similar phone is the Pixon M8800.

The camera on this phone is worth a mention; it has a 12-megapixel camera lens and an automatic focus feature allowing the user to use the touch screen to automatically focus on the preferred subject.  It also has GPS navigation which means that the camera will tag the date, time and location of the photograph.  It also has a smile detector ensuring that the subject will be snapped at the right time.

The Pixon 12 also allows the user to take part in video conferencing with other 3G compatible users; whether the user is in communication with a contact through video conferencing or watching a video from the phone function, the quality is extremely high.

The phone supports WLAN Wi-Fi technology so that connection can be gained from nearby WLAN and hotspots allowing access to the internet.

The inbuilt GPS also allows the user to navigate to the nearest fuel station or hotel.

The phone has a document function enabling the user to store documents, and to read them in popular formats.