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The LG Cookie is the first LG phone to offer an affordable touch screen experience in the UK.  The LG Cookie retails for around £100 and is also often free with the purchase of a monthly service plan.  Despite being a relatively low priced unit, the Cookie delivers exceptional performance, close to, and easily mistaken for the level of performance seen in similar mid range LG devices.

The most notable feature of the LG Cookie is the simple touch screen interface, which guides you through each and every feature available on the phone.  During initial setup, it’s easy to customize your home screen with whatever widgets you choose.  Compatibility and ease of use is clearly LG’s goal with this handset, as demonstrated by the Cookie’s ability to play MP3, AAC, and WMA files.

The cookie however begins to fall short once you discover that there is absolutely no 3G support, Wi-Fi, or GPS technology.  While some may simply prefer to use the touch screen for all purposes, arguably it’s best used for mobile web content, which is sorely lacking in this device.  Text messaging for some will quickly become a burden without a full QWERTY keyboard.

While the Cookie is a great step in the right direction (affordability of touch screen mobile devices), there’s still a long way to go before this technology is both affordable and effective. Mobile phone deals are possible on higher spec models, with a monthly service plan, so if the Cookie does not entice you, compare mobile phones from LG or other manufacturers.

The Sony Ericsson Spiro is part of the Sony Ericsson Walkman range of mobile handsets designed for music lovers. The phone, set to be released later this year, is designed to appeal to the lovers of cheap mobile phones, without compromising on features.

Visually, the Spiro features a 2.2 inch 240 x 320 pixel QVGA TFT display on a slide up handset. Dimensions for the phone are 48 by 92 by 17 mm, with a weight of 90 grams. According to Sony Ericsson, the battery life is up to four and a half hours of talk time and 476 hours of standby.

Music features include the Walkman 4.0 player and instant access to TrackID. Also included are Bluetooth stereo for wired and wireless speaker capability, FM radio, and a proper 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack. The phone’s 5 MB of onboard memory can be expanded to 16 GB via a microSD card.

Social networking features include Facebook and Twitter applications and SMS chat with easy-to-read conversation bubbles.  Non music-related features include a 2 megapixel camera (no flash) with video camera capability, email capability, and web browsing. The Spiro is dual band and does not include 3G, HSDPA, or Wi-Fi.

The phone will be available in ‘Stealth Black’, ‘Contrast Black’, ‘Sunset Pink’, and ‘Spring Green’.

If we compare mobile phones, the Sony Ericsson Spiro is comparable to the LG GS290 Cookie Fresh, with similar look and size, features and functionality.

The phone is set to be released in the UK in late 2010.

Envirofone is a company based in the UK and Ireland that pays up to 90% of the original price of your damaged mobile phone, and will even buy broken units. One unique feature of this company is that it offers free courier service to anyone who sends in more than four handsets, offering more benefits for more handsets submitted.

Envirofone is considered the UK and Ireland’s top recycling site for mobile phones and claims to have paid over £20 million to users of over 2,000 different phone models. With around 17,000 unique visitors per day and six million page views every month, Envirofone has generated enough funds to provide over £500,000 in charity donations so far. One more interesting thing about Envirofone is that they accept both working and non-working phones.

The company’s official site, www.envirofone.com, has a Sell My Phone button which will take you to a page where you select your mobile phone unit or units and put them into a sales basket. You will then be asked to enter the details for your phone and after you confirm the sale, you will be given instructions for delivery. The sale is definitely worth it as Envirofone pays as much as £115.03 for a Samsung B7610 Omnia Pro model or £127.02 for a Nokia N86 8MP. Offers to recycle parts of phones for free are also featured. You can send your phone and the specified parts are replaced and the recycled parts are disposed of in a manner that is not harmful to the environment.

The site also features a Green Room section where you can view free information on news articles, green company offers, and blogs about the environment.

BlackBerry’s latest mobile phone offerings include the Pearl 3G 9105. It owes much of its shape and styling to the older Bold 9700 but is a slimmed down, more compact version. Much of this is due to BlackBerry replacing the QWERTY keyboard with a good quality, well-designed alphanumeric one. This is not to say that it has lost any of its quality; this phone still includes plenty to text home about.

Email is where all BlackBerry phones excel and the Pearl 9105 is no different in this regard. Starting an account is easily organised and there is excellent space on the screen for reading messages and emails. They have introduced an integrated mail service that allows users to receive messages from a wide number of sources including Twitter updates and Facebook messages as well as traditional emails.

This is a departure from BlackBerry’s traditional business user market and the Pearl is most definitely styled for the teen consumer market.  While the camera and media systems are not top of the range they do have some interesting settings and are easy to use, especially with the media player controls being accessible from the top of the phone.

Some of the apps could do with updating and if, when released, the new BlackBerry OS 6.0 is made available to the Pearl then it will go some way to increasing the browser performance.

This is a great little starter BlackBerry, not a business user’s mobile created for mass typing and constant surfing, but a good phone for general daily use and keeping in contact with friends.

The Samsung Jet or Jet Ultra Edition is a slim line mid-range touch screen phone that when first making mobile phone news, featured a launch slogan of “Impatience is a virtue”. But is the Jet that fast?

First of all, the phone features a powerful 800 MHz processor, which is faster (theoretically) than the iPhone 3G S. However, it also has the resistive screen – a feature which not only can frustrate some users, but also slow them down. Physically, the phone is gorgeous. It features a polished black front with a reddish black back. And it is both sturdy and compact.

The 5 megapixel camera includes auto focus, smile detection, digital zoom and dual LED, which means it produces good pictures in daylight. But, the absence of a xenon flash means that pictures taken in lower light conditions, or from a distance, will lose quality.

The phone can play back video in high resolution in DivX or Xvid without conversion. There are two gigabytes of memory built into the phone, which can be expanded to 16 GB with a MicroSD card. Other features include music player, FM radio, and a 3.5 mm headphone socket.

While the Jet is not a Smartphone, it does have multi-tasking support via the TouchWiz interface. And it includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, and a GSP receiver (but doesn’t come with Google Maps).

So, is it fast? Well, it doesn’t really feel like it; but, that being said, it is still a good phone for the price.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the successor to the Satio, features a delightful ergonomic design, with an 8.1 megapixel camera and a proper 3.5 mm headphone jack to take advantage of the Sony Walkman audio we love so much. For consumers looking for the latest mobile phones, this mid-range offering stands up well against its competitors.

We will start with the camera – it is an easy-to-use 8.1 megapixels with separate buttons to launch video and still photo options. Onscreen icons clearly guide you through changing settings, and there are plenty of them to choose from.

The HD video camera function is also simple to use and the phone comes with an 8 GB memory card to facilitate HD video recording. Or you can set the phone to lower res VGA or QVGA, although after experiencing HD, it is a bit of a letdown.

Gone from this phone is the proprietary FastPort connector, replaced by a microUSB port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Needless to say, the sound quality was vastly improved with the ability to use proper headphones. As with most of Sony’s phones, the music interface was easy to use with extra features like album artwork and playlist creation.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has an ergonomic design that feels nice when held. The TFT screen is also lovely and sharp but has the resistive touch screen we find frustrating to use. Menus, however, are nicely laid out.

For consumers looking for deals on contract mobile phones, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is available on most networks.

The MOTOKZR K3 is a clam shell type phone that just flips open. It looks good and is of solid construction, made with high quality materials. It boasts a phone book which will hold 2000 contact names and a 2 megapixel camera. It supports video calls and HSDPA and offers an internal memory of 50 MB; it has an SD memory slot so the memory capacity can be expanded as required. It has external music controls and is Bluetooth compatible.

Overall, this a perfectly serviceable mobile phone available at a great price if a little time is taken to check out mobile phone deals. It does have some drawbacks though. The front plate seems to pick up finger marks very easily (even if your hands are clean) and the keypad is very difficult to use by touch because it just doesn’t feel right. The absence of a flash unit and the lack of auto focus make the camera difficult to use effectively. There is no facility to set up weekly alarms on the clock, only daily times and there is no way to set up SMS proof of delivery on a permanent basis. You have to do it before sending each text.  The MOTOKZR K3 does not have an FM radio and is sadly without call filtering facilities, or a voice recorder which will record calls.

This particular Motorola model seems to concentrate on design and looks but it does not put the same importance on functionality. It is a fairly decent quality phone for basic use and the design is excellent, but it seems to be all looks and little substance.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520, also known as the BlackBerry Gemini, has a mixture of business and consumer market targeted functionalities. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is part of a range of BlackBerry mobile phones (others include the BlackBerry Curve 8300 and the Curve 8900) that are relatively cheap mobile phones and which feature email, phone and texting services with more multimedia and social networking features.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 measures 4.29 by 2.36 by 0.55 inches. It weighs just 3.74 inches, making it one of BlackBerry’s lighter mobile phones. Its battery life allows for 4.5 hours of talk time and 17 days (408 hours) of standby time.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520’s main screen has a picture resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Somewhat disappointingly the screen size is on the small side, measuring just 2.64 inches. Also relatively basic is the camera resolution of just 2 megapixels, although it does have a digital zoom.

The inbuilt video player supports MPEG4, H.263, H.264, and WMV files and the music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WAV and AMR files. The mobile phone has a memory of 128 MB RAM/256 MB ROM. It has a full QWERTY keyboard, microUSB, Wi-Fi, 2.0 Bluetooth and allows for email services on IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and BlackBerry Connect.

All in all, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a relatively basic BlackBerry that achieves what it sets out to do, but does not dazzle. Many competitor mobile phones achieve similar results.

One of the first things to look at if you are considering a mobile broadband connection is whether or not your ISP uses a HSPA protocol. At its basic level it is a collection of two distinct mobile telephone protocols: High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), which extend and improve the performance of existing networks. A new standard known as Evolved HSPA, or HSPA +, was released in late 2008, and has become a worldwide option as of 2010. They provide increased performance for mobile broadband users by utilizing improved modulation schemes and refining the protocols by which mobile devices communicate with the network. The improvements have led to a better utilization of the radio bandwidth provided by cellular networks, but it has currently only been commercially developed by around 200 operators in roughly 80 countries. Right now the only way to know which broadband providers offer the service is to read the fine print and determine if they have updated their existing 3G network for HSPA access.

Making a mobile broadband comparison is a complicated business in itself without worrying about whether or not the ISP is giving you the preferred package or just a standard connection. If you are someone who only relies on connectivity for things like e-mails and Internet browsing then the standard mobile broadband connection is fine, but if you rely upon uploading and downloading information on a real-time basis, the only real option is an evolved mobile broadband connection, so be sure to compare the various broadband providers.

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.