Archive for September, 2010

Released for AT&T, the Pantech Ease is an affordable, easy-to-use handset designed for an uncluttered look and a straightforward user experience. It features a large and comfortable 3.2-inch touch screen display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for quick messaging and to navigate through intuitive menus. The Ease can be switched from a simplicity-centric ‘Easy Mode’ to a more traditional ‘Advanced Mode’. Additional features include a built-in 2.0-megapixel camera, high-speed HSDPA Internet and Bluetooth wireless technology.

MAIN FEATURES:

Sharp tries to do many things with its new FX, the successor to the Sidekick line, carried by AT&T. It’s a touch screen phone, a texting phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 3G world phone with high-speed voice and data service.  Entertainer

Perhaps as a result of this, many of its components, such as the camera, are sufficient to get the job done for most tasks, but not particularly impressive. The FX also is not particularly eye-catching. On the positive side, this cousin of the Sidekick brand of handsets does feel like it’s solidly built, the QWERTY keyboard is nice for avid texters and the speaker plays back loud, well-rounded audio.

AT&T is currently offering the FX for $100, when users sign a two-year agreement with a minimum $20 messaging service or a qualifying combination of messaging and data services and a $50 mail-in-rebate. Without that deal, the carrier is selling the phone for $300.

The price point is actually a key problem with the Sharp FX. Since Apple rolled out the iPhone 4G and the 3G went down in price to $100, that raises the bar for other phones in this price range.

With AT&T offering the FX for $100 with a contract, the iPhone 3G, with its superior camera and other technology, might be a better deal, unless you really want a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

DESIGN:

When it comes to style, the FX is more is more utilitarian than sexy. It’s a bit clunky, and looks like Sharp bundled together the features it wanted without much consideration for aesthetic details to tie them together.

The FX has a matte black exterior, with a slightly rubbery feel, and there are a couple of silver details around the earpiece and one of the navigation buttons. Blue and white backlit QWERTY keys at a touch of color. The three-inch touch screen appears to resist finger prints, which is nice.

A slide-out QWERTY keyboard is no longer enough for even handsets targeted at serious texters, and the FX follows the trend of a touch screen and QWERTY combination. Other examples include the Motorola Droid 2 and Samsung Rogue. Raised keys on the handset’s QWERTY keyboard make it easier for texters to dial or type by touch.

At approximately 5 ounces, the FX is actually slightly lighter than the roughly 5.96-ounce Motorola Droid and Droid 2. And in comparison to the range of other slide-out keyboard phones currently on the market, the FX weighs in somewhere in the middle.

The FX is approximately 2.2 inches wide, 4.5 inches tall and 0.6 inches thick. That makes the Sharp FX slightly narrower and shorter than the Motorola Droid and 2, although just a hair thicker than those handsets.

The touch screen dial-pad has large, easy-to-use keys and the screen itself is very responsive. As a result, it was easy to dial numbers correctly.

The backlit keys on the slide-out QWERTY keyboard are raised to help users text by touch, and they feel solid and well-made. It does take a strong, intentional touch to dial these keys, which minimizes mistakes. It’s easy to correct errors made on the QWERTY keyboard, because the touch screen displays an option to “clear” mistakes.

A couple of difficulties with the keyboard include that number keys are located on the right side of the QWERTY keyboard, which makes dialing difficult for left handed people who want to use the keys. At least the numbers are laid out in the same, intuitive pattern as a normal handset keypad.

Another potential problem with the slide-out keyboard is that the top row of keys is very close to the touch screen, so people with large fingers might struggle to use those particular keys.

In addition to the QWERTY keyboard, there are three navigation keys on the exterior bottom end of the handset. This includes, from left to right, a send key, a back and multitask key, and an end key. A tiny microphone is located just to the left of these buttons.

There is a headset jack on the lower left side of the phone, a volume rocker key on the upper left side of the phone, and a 2.0-megapixel camera on the upper back of the phone. On the right side of the phone, there is a lock key near the top to illuminate the screen and bring up animation that prompts users to unlock the screen. And there is a camera key on the bottom right side to activate the camera and camcorder.

The back panel on the FX slides off easily with only gentle pressure applied to the lower end of the phone, so it is simple to replace the battery or install or remove a microSD card.

While the FX is clunky in form, it appears to be built to survive a lot of use, with a solid and well-made appearance. A handset with a slide-out keyboard that projects slightly above the rest of the phone, even in its closed position, cannot be called sleek. But the keyboard slides out with a satisfying “thunk” and does not feel like it will break any time soon.

Out of the box, the Sharp FX comes with a USB cable and power outlet adaptor so the cord can be used to charge the phone. The handset also comes with a quick start user guide and a CD loaded with a user manual, interactive tutorial, games and applications. (more…)

Released for T-Mobile, the Motorola Charm is a compact Android device with a 2.8-inch touch screen display and intuitive ‘backtrack’ navigation pad — located directly behind the home screen — to have an unobstructed view of the Web, texts, emails and news feeds. The Charm runs Android 2.1 software and an enhanced version of MotoBlur, which syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos and more and grabs information from sources such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Gmail. Additional features include a 3.0-megapixel camera with Kodak technology for brighter pictures, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and high-speed HSDPA Internet.

MEAN FEATURES:

If you’ve seen the commercials, you know the Kin line of phones is all about social networking. The Kin One allows users to view Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking accounts in one screen, with updates from you and your friends visible in a list format.

There’s also a screen for favorites and a screen that holds all the traditional information on a phone, such as messages, pictures, contacts, music, email and Internet.

The Kin One has a unique shape, just about as wide as it is long, and has an interesting color scheme — black, white and silver with lime green detailing on the QWERTY keypad.

It’s not for everyone, including people that want a big screen for watching movies and clips, or people that want to keep their phone services basic and limited to chatting and texting. But it does hold appeal for the social butterfly on the go that’s looking for something smaller than a Blackberry or easier to type with than a touch screen keypad.

DESIGN:

The Kin One doesn’t look like many other phones on the market. First off, it has an almost square screen. It’s a slider but leaves sizable slivers of the bottom piece of the phone exposed when it’s closed. It’s so small it’s the size of an adult’s palm. And while mostly black, it quickly goes from incognito to flashy as soon as the QWERTY keypad is exposed with its white and lime green numbers and letters.

The keypad has bubble-shaped keys that are large enough and far enough apart to make typing easy. Getting a hang of selecting numbers takes a bit of time, since they’re printed on the top row of letters instead of over a block of 10 letters clumped on the left side of the keyboard, as is the case with most phones that don’t have separate keys for numbers and letters.

The screen has a back button below it on the phone’s face an earpiece above it. The main display shows social networking updates, while a panel to the right show favorites and a panel on the left connects the user to contacts, search, messages, phone options, email, a Web browser, music and other media, the phone’s camera, settings, alarm, and news feed.

The lens and flash for the phone’s 5.0-megapixel camera are located on the back of the phone, the battery latch is at the bottom of the phone, a USB port is on the left side of the phone, and a headset jack is on the top of the phone.

Volume keys are on the top left side of the phone and keys for turning the phone on or off and taking a picture are on the bottom right side of the phone. The Kin One weighs nearly four ounces.

Anyone who buys this phone has to want something different. Measuring an oddly-shaped 3.25-inches long, 2.5-inches wide and 0.75-inch thick, this isn’t a phone with the typical measurements. For some, a bigger screen may be preferable, but the keypad’s size isn’t likely to receive complaints.

The phone isn’t that much wider than many smartphones, but it is shorter. Those who prefer the status quo may find it a leap to pick up this phone. But for those that don’t mind, or even welcome, this compact design, the Kin One is worth checking out. (more…)

Motorola’s original Droid debuted on Verizon last fall, aiming to knock the iPhone off its pedestal in the smartphone world. But while it didn’t quite accomplish that feat, it did become an instant hit, selling over 250,000 units in the first week of its launch.

Seven months later, Motorola’s newest Droid, the X, hopes to achieve even greater successes while taking on greater competition from the Droid Incredible and Evo 4G from HTC and the iPhone 4 from Apple.

The Droid X has several improvements over the Droid, like a better camera, a larger touch screen display and more storage space. It has speedy Internet speeds, connects to plenty of devices, and offers integrated contact information, messaging and social networking.

The phone is a bit bulky, though, and it has weak audio. There’s also only one instant messenger option and the battery drains fairly quickly.

But the Droid X has a lot of features and plenty to offer. Whether people will buy it or not depends on how much continuous use time they want, whether they’re comfortable with a touch screen and how much they’re interested in the bells and whistles.

DESIGN:

The Droid X is huge, there’s no other word for it. The X is about 10 percent bigger than the original Droid, but also 10 percent lighter. That’s because Motorola slimmed down the X to a mere 0.4 inches from 0.55 inches — that’s a remarkable 35 percent. By comparison, the Evo, another behemoth, is about the same size, while the iPhone 4 is 30 percent smaller.

Why such a big phone? Well, larger devices have more real estate to add larger displays. And the Droid X’s 4.3-inch touch screen is one of the largest on the market. The only devices with similar-sized screens are on Evo and HD2 devices from HTC, both of which are slightly smaller in size as well.

Regardless, the Droid X’s touch screen display makes watching videos and reading emails and texts easy on the eyes, while the all-black exterior and reflective screen keep the phone looking professional.

Below the screen are four buttons for the menu, home, back and search.

Turned around, the back of the device reveals an 8.0-megapixel camera lens and flash.

On the left side, there are ports for micro-USB and HDMI features, while the right has volume keys, a camera key and a 3.5-millimeter headset jack. Power and lock keys are located atop the phone.

The Droid X is bigger than some people may like. It certainly won’t fit in a jeans pocket comfortably and calls for two hands instead of one to operate the device most of the time. But it has a gargantuan touch screen. Fortunately, the Droid X isn’t too heavy. It’s much lighter than the Evo and Droid, and easy to navigate through screens with the keys available.

If size is a major concern, then the Droid X, while very thin and not too hefty, might be too tall and wide for you. But if you can handle the extra size, you’ll be rewarded with a larger screen.

Out of the box, the Motorola Droid X comes with a standard battery, a wall/USB charger, a built-in 16-gigabyte microSD memory card, a product safety and warranty brochure and a product safety and quick reference guide.

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The Samsung A687 strive is a super fabulous device. You would simply love to have this phone in hand. It has been equipped with some marvelous features. These features include the following:

• Messaging: You can send and receive SMS, MMS, and Email via this phone in a quick way.
• Browser: You can enjoy WAP 2.0/ XHTM browser services.
• Entertainment: You can play and download exciting games. The MP3 player will let you enjoy the best of entertainment on the go.
• Phone book: It can accommodate one thousand entries for you.
• Photo call: A great feature that lets you set pictures for callers.
• Camera: You can use the dynamic 2 mega pixel camera for capturing excellent quality pictures at 1600×1200 pixels resolution.
• Memory: Storage is facilitated by 80MB internal memory. Additional microSD card lets you enjoy up to 32GB space.
• Dimensions: The phone measures 105.9×58.9×14.6mm and weighs 131.1 grams. (more…)

Samsung unveiled its new phone touch cell called Samsung Sunburst A697, Which hit the market during the next few days in the service of AT & T operator.

Technical features of the new Samsung Sunburst A697:

• TFT Touch Screen 240 x 400 pixels (3 inches)
• 190MB internal memory
• Memory Card Slot microSD (up to 32Gb )
• GPS with A- GPS and AT & T Navigator
• GPRS
• EDGE
• Bluetooth 2.1
• microUSB 2.0 port
• Player MP3/WAV/eAAC +
• MP4/H.263 Player
• 2-megapixel digital camera , 1600 x 1200 pixels
• Li -Ion Battery 1000 mAh

The new cell Samsung Sunburst A697 is compatible with networks : (more…)

I was really interested in the BlackBerry Storm 2. I am definitely interested to see how it shakes out. The Storm 2 is the second generation BlackBerry with a touch-sensitive screen, successor of the highly-anticipated Storm. The BlackBerry Storm 2 also adds WiFi, I believe OS 5 adds the ability to store apps on an SD card. Been using a Storm a friend lent me with the new OS 5.0 for a couple weeks now and I have to say I love it and the screen is so beautiful that I can deal with it.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 features include a 3.25-inch 360 x 480 pixel capacitive SurePress touchscreen display, a 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, 802.11b/g WiFi and 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA data, 256MB of flash memory, 2GB of onboard memory with microSDHC expansion, 3.5-mm standard headset jack, built-in GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and running BlackBerry OS 5. The BlackBerry Storm 2 is likely to appear in November at around $200. I definitely will buy it. I’ve been waiting like forever for this phone.

BlackBerry Storm 2 Specifications:

- Carrier: Verizon

- Networks: Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM®/GPRS/EDGE networks; Single-band: 2100 MHz UMTS/HSPA networks; Dual-band: 800/1900/ MHz CDMA/Ev-DO Rev A networks
- Display: 3.25 inches touch screen,  360 x 480 pixels, 65 536 colors, TFT
- Camera: 3.2 megapixels
- Operating system: BlackBerry OS 5.0
- Input:  touch screen
- Memory: 256 MB ROM, 2 GB
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