Mobile Phone Reviews

Archive for the ‘Music Phones’ Category

Android now controls slightly over 50% of the Smartphone market because any company can legally manufacture Android smart phones. Unfortunately, this means many different devices are seen running the same firmware, which negatively affects the sense of individuality for each particular phone.

What exactly is HTC Sense? High Tech Computer Corporation, one of the leading manufacturers of Android smart phones including the inaugural HTC Dream, developed their very own overlay for Android to set them apart from this huge pack. This overlay is HTC Sense.  It is essentially set of modifications to the stock Android operating system, adding  a different look to the menus, two extra home screens as well as a multitude of built in widgets and apps to play around with. These include a bookmarks widget, HTC’s very own Twitter client called Peep, Facebook chat as well as weather widgets and many more. HTC Sense debuted on the HTC Hero in October 2009.

Android isn’t the only platform that HTC modified. Before Windows Mobile was discontinued, HTC was one of the leading manufacturers of handsets with that interface as well. The Windows Mobile version of HTC Sense is essentially an update from TouchFLO 3D and made a few visual modifications to Windows Mobile’s Today screen, including a widget that showed how many text messages or emails are unread, as well as HTC’s own media app replacing Windows Media Player. The first Windows Mobile phone to feature HTC Sense was the HTC HD2.

While the Windows Mobile version of HTC Sense has been discontinued along with the platform itself, the latest version of HTC Sense for Android is 3.0, featured on some of the later HTC smart phones, such as the HTC Desire Z, HTC Incredible S and the HTC Sensation.

Nokia mobile phones have been market leaders for almost as long as mobile phones have existed.  The company produces good quality handsets that are an excellent value for the money and they are always at the forefront with the latest technology.  Stiff competition from other manufacturers means Nokia always goes that extra step to ensuring their customers are happy with every purchase.

The Nokia X3 is no exception.  It is one of the most affordable handsets on the market today, and while easy on the wallet, it does not compromise on features.  While some may consider the keyboard not quite up to standard, many people agree that the Nokia X3 is a good phone that comes at a very reasonable price.

The Nokia X3 has several attractive features and functions.  Mobile phones come in all shapes and sizes and the Nokia X3 is considered one of the more basic looking of Nokia’s models.  This model includes a 3.2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, which is on par with high quality cameras included in other new handsets being released at the moment.  The phone also has an FM radio, integrated stereo speakers and a music player, so users can listen to all their favourite tunes while on the go.

The phone also allows the use of voice commands for making phone calls – a technology that even some of the more expensive mobile handsets still do not have – and a voice recorder. The Nokia X3 also comes with flight mode so that it can be used safely on board aircraft.

Motorola is once again appearing in the mobile phone news circuit with its newest Android phone, the ATRIX, which will be available in the U.K. sometime during the second quarter of 2011.  The Motorola ATRIX is a slim, quick, Android phone with a built-in FM Radio, a 4-inch touch screen, 5 megapixel camera with LED Flash and video recording capabilities, a biometric fingerprint reader, and integration with MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook.  This phone is chock-full of cool stuff!

New mobile phones always come out with a bang, especially phones with Android technology, and the Motorola ATRIX is no different.  There is a lot of hype growing in anticipation of this incredible new mobile phone, and with good reason. Taking a look at the nuts and bolts of this beauty, it has 16 gigabytes of memory with a memory card slot to hold even more, 1 gigabyte of internal RAM, GPRS and Edge technology for high-speed data transfer rates, Bluetooth technology, USB ports, Wi-Fi technology, a built in biometric fingerprint reader and this android phone supports assisted GPS navigation. A full battery should last about 9 hours on a 3G network or about 8.7 hours on a GSM network.

As for the fun stuff, owners will have access to the thousands of free and paid for apps and widgets.  You will be able to enjoy video and audio playback in a variety of formats, a highly manageable phone book, messaging service, emailing service, and a huge amount of memory to keep things running smoothly. Social networkers will love the integration with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, with super quick and easy access.

The Samsung Monte is a great mobile phone at a great price.  This handset can be used on a monthly contract or pay-as-you-go plan, making it very versatile as well as affordable. When you first set your eyes on this mobile phone, you will notice its shiny black design that is smaller than many other Smartphones.

Samsung Monte mobile phone has three homepages, which you can customize with different apps and widgets.  Many consumers love the Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace widgets that let you easily view you and your friend’s status and send updates. The Samsung Monte also has the capability to play iPlayer content over a Wi-Fi connection, which streams wonderfully.  Palringo IM allows the owner to talk to friends with Yahoo messenger and Google Chat. The Monte also has Microsoft Exchange, a camera and a GPS.

Another great characteristic of the Samsung Monte phone is the fun photo editor, with the ability to change colours and add clip art and text to you pictures.  The Samsung Monte mobile phone produces decent photos, but not superior. Google Maps works great with the GPS on this phone.

There are a few things that the Samsung Monte phone could be improved upon, such as lag time with the touch screen responsiveness, which is a bit slow at times; and the 12-key layout makes it frustrating to text on and works poorly with the browser.  The reviewer also received many error messages that said the phone had run out of memory, even though this browser is better than most.

Despite its popularity amongst consumers, the Nokia X6 has never been a strong performer in mobile phone reviews. Although there is no one single fault with the X6, which is the bigger brother of Nokia’s X3 model, there are enough niggling faults with it to paint it in a bad light.

One of the Nokia X6′s strongest points is its music playback, as the ‘Comes With Music’ function allows easy downloading of tunes and a universal speaker output means that any headphones can be used with it. The camera is also of a high quality, with 5-megapixels and a flash option along with the Carl Zeiss lens which Nokia installs on its latest mobile phones. The built in 32 GB of memory also mean that a lot of pictures and songs are needed before space becomes an issue.

However, one place where the phone falls down is functionality. At times, the chassis of the phone feels cheaply made and scrappy, while the small screen means that messages have to be typed horizontally in order to use the QWERTY keyboard.

The home page layout is also cumbersome, with static icons which are far too big for the screen’s size. Even running the programmes can be problematic at times, as the X6 does suffer from a lack of processor power.

The Nokia X6 also doesn’t stand up financially when compared to other contract mobile phones, as the deals on offer tend to be expensive and offer poor value for money.

The Nokia X2 is one of the latest mobile phones in Nokia’s range of cheap mobile phones. It features a sleek candy bar design with a 2.2 inch graphics display and comes in a choice of black/red or silver/blue combinations. The phone is lightweight and slim line, weighing only 81 grams and measuring 111 by 47 by 13 mm.

As far as Nokia mobile phones go, this one is tailored to the music crowd. It comes with an FM radio, 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, and two powerful speakers. One touch keys make accessing music easy and free songs are offered via the Nokia Music Store.

Also included on the Nokia X2 is a 5 megapixel camera (for 2592 x 1544 pixel resolution) with LED flash, digital zoom, and video recorder. Photos can be uploaded via Nokia Ovi Share and email.

Internal memory for the X2 is 48 MB, which is expandable to 16 GB via microSD. High speed USB 2.0 and stereo Bluetooth connectivity make for fast and easy transfer of data. The phone also supports SyncML. Web browsing is via EDGE-enhanced GPRS via the Opera Mini browser.

Other essential applications included with the X2 include a 1000 entry phonebook, calendar, calculator, currency converter, world clock, flight mode, note pad, speaker phone/voice recorder, timer, and vibrate mode. It doesn’t include a document/ PDF reader. Several pre-installed games are also included.

Currently available in India for $113, it is expected to hit the UK soon at a price of around £80.

The Sony Ericsson W705 is available through many internet mobile phone dealers. This is ideal for those wanting to compare mobile phone reviews before purchasing. The deals often include free handsets or even free gifts.

Before you start looking at mobile phone deals you need to work out your average usage and set a budget. Starting out on the wrong tariff can mean either large unnecessary bills if you regularly go over your included free talk time, or alternatively, starting on a higher tariff can mean paying out too much in line rental if you do not use all of your free entitlement.

The good news with the Sony Ericsson W705 is that it is available on all price plans from the lowest and most basic option, like the Virgin Mobile 18 month contract. For £10.00 per month you get a free handset, 100 minutes of free talk time and 100 free text messages.

O2 are currently offering the W702 as a free handset on their 18 month contract with the higher monthly price plan of £30.00 per month. Included in this option are 300 free minutes of voice calls and 3000 text messages. This is also available with the gift of an 8GB iPod Nano.

Some companies like to offer gifts as a way of enticing a sale, but if the rest of the plan is not suitable for you, then you may find you are spending money unnecessarily.

Mobile phone reviews really don’t seem to like this addition to the Nokia mobile phones family; so is the Nokia X6 really an awful piece of kit or is it just misunderstood and a lot better than it was first perceived? The mobile phone news desks were buzzing when this phone was first released, it is a touchscreen phone and it does look good. The screen has been given precedence and reaches right to the edges of the casing. The Nokia X6 does not offer up a stylus, so you have to be comfortable with using your fingertips or get yourself a separate one, but this is then a pain to carry around.

Menus are typical to the Nokia brand, so if you have seen one of their newer phones you will have seen the menu for the Nokia X6. We have to say we too have mixed feelings about this handset. Clearly a contender for contract mobile phone, what concerns us is that you are going to be sick of this phone well before the contract is up for renewal and then sadly be stuck with it until such time as your contract runs out. It does have all the key functionality, GPS, Bluetooth, a camera and video, but this isn’t really what causes the gripes. It is the functionality that is going to irritate people; it is just hard to use, a bit clunky and awkward. It is sad to say that this phone could have been a market leader, it was definitely pointing in the right direction, but sadly it falls just too far short of the mark.

The Nokia 5130 is an entry level XpressMusic mobile phone. This device provides users with the functionality that has made these mobile phones so popular, but without the large price tag.

If you were to compare mobile phones, the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is fairly average in size. This mobile phone is 107.5 mm long by 46.7 mm wide and it is 14.8 mm thick. The overall weight of the Nokia 5130 is 88 grams. With a talk time of up to 6 hours, the battery power is impressive.

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic includes a built in Stereo FM radio that includes support for RDS. This mobile phone supports a variety of popular music formats, including MP3, AAC+, and WMA. In order to easily access music on this mobile phone, the Nokia 5130 includes dedicated music keys.

Nokia has also included a basic 2 megapixel camera with the 5130 XpressMusic. This camera is capable of capturing video clips. Other useful features that can be found on this mobile phone include an organiser and voice memo.

For users who may want to store a large quantity of music and photos on their Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, there is a microSD expansion slot that supports cards up to 16 gigabytes in size. To get users started, Nokia has included a 1 gigabyte card in the box.

Certain networks are providing customers who purchase the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic with a variety of free gifts. These gifts range from cash back to Playstation 3 bundles. There are numerous Nokia 5130 deals available that vary in contract length and cost in order to accommodate the majority of users.

The Apple iPhone 3GS is a tweaked version of the iPhone 3G, with Apple engineering the internal workings rather than completely redesigning the handset. The result is a faster phone available with either an 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB hardrive. Its faster data speeds mean that the camera and video functions give excellent photo and video rendering.

Greater speed is the main improvement on the 32GB; this has been one of the main criticisms of all the smart phones and was particularly true of the iPhone. The system and applications now boot up more quickly and game players will certainly notice the difference when playing on the 3GS.

They have also increased the specification of the camera to three mega pixels. Though it is not top of the range it works well when used with its other features such as auto focus, macro shooting and an easily adjustable on-screen focusing system. The inbuilt video is also an excellent improvement, which is simple to use, with a built in editing facility making downloading to sites like YouTube fast and painless.

While things like the on board compass may seem a bit pointless, when used with the maps application its rotating direction finder will make getting lost difficult for even the most hard pressed of directionally challenged people.

Although they have included a better battery and power system, the Apple iPhone still uses a lot of battery power and heavy apps users may find this frustrating. You can close off 3G to save power, but that then defeats the point of having it in the first place. This is a good phone for first time iPhone users but it is debatable whether it is worth the upgrade quite yet.  If you are interested look for some Apple iPhone 3GS deals, they are around.