Samsung Solstice

The Samsung Solstice, like the Samsung Highlight on T-mobile, skips out on some advanced smartphone features like Wi-Fi and a high-megapixel camera and tries to keep things simple. In some ways, this works nicely. The phone did a great job making calls, with some cool address book and in-call interface designs. It’s also the first AT&T phone we’ve tried that can use the new AT&T Social Net app, which let us keep tabs on our Facebook, MySpace and Twitter updates all at once, albeit rather slowly. For the most part we liked the hardware. The screen was colorful and bright, and streaming videos from AT&T’s Cellular Video service looked surprisingly good. We were disappointed that so many features were just plain mediocre, like the Web browser, the 2-megapixel camera and the rest of the messaging apps. Regardless, buyers looking for a simpler, smaller device will find a healthy, though not very exciting, feature phone in the Solstice. Release: July 2009. Price: $100.

Pros: Top-notch call management. Great-looking screen, even with streaming vids. Slim and light design.

Cons: TouchWiz is a clunky interface. Besides Social Net, messaging features are way behind the competition. Lacks good multimedia hardware ports and accessories.

Share This

Samsung Comeback

The Samsung Comeback should be called the Samsung Comeback In 10 Minutes. The phone was sluggish in almost every way, from simply opening messages to browsing the Web, belying its 3G Internet connection. It was also confusing to use, thanks to the maze-like interface with its redundant choices and counterintuitive feature placements. Where’s the GPS navigator? Oh right, under “Organizer,” with the voice dialing app. Some aspects frustrated us, and some were downright lousy, like the nearly useless external display and the strange, tic-tac keys on the full-QWERTY keyboard. The Samsung Comeback would have been a decent messaging phone a year ago, but can’t match the competitors’ current offerings in the budget segment. If T-Mobile is your preferred carrier and price doesn’t matter, the Sidekick LX 2009 offers a more compelling messaging experience. Release: July 2009. Price: $130.

Pros: Cool colors. Nice camera. HTML Web browser. Good GPS navigation.

Cons: Sluggish at almost every task, even e-mail. Keyboard tough to use. External screen is very low quality.

Share This

Samsung Jet S8000

At Samsung Mobile headquarters, company reps gave us a hands-on look at their newest flagship feature phone, the Samsung Jet. The Jet is not a smartphone. It runs a proprietary OS instead of Windows Mobile, like the Samsung Omnia2. Still, with its 800 MHz processor and advanced capabilities, this has got to be the smartest ‘dumbphone’ on the market. With companies beefing up their mobile processor offerings, we expect to see a new MHz war open up in the mobile phone world soon.
The Samsung Jet is a bit smaller than the Samsung Omnia 2, thanks mostly to the smaller display. The Omnia 2 uses an AMOLED touchscreen that is 3.7-inches diagonal. The Samsung Jet uses the same AMOLED technology, but the screen comes in more than a half inch smaller, at a still-respectable 3.1-inches. The AMOLED screen on the Jet looks fantastic, and users are going to enjoy the new technology as it trickles down into more and more phones. Colors look bright and fresh, and the phone is capable of much deeper blacks, lending a deeper contrast to the display. Also, the AMOLED technology uses 40% less energy than a comparably sized TFT LCD screen, according to Samsung. In our hands-on time, we took a look at the 180-degree viewing angle, and there was hardly a point where the screen didn’t look crisp and legible.

Share This

LG KC910

LG launched the LG KC910 in October 2008, the world’s first 8-megapixel phone with an all-touch interface. The LG KC910 boasts camera capabilities, the latest multimedia features and a 3-inch full touchscreen. The LG KC910 is the successor to the popular LG Viewty (in Europe). The LG KC910 offers a multi-sensorial experience, providing enhanced viewing, improved sound and better use of touch. The LG KC910 is being developed to include Schneider-Kreuznach certified optics, a xenon flash and ISO sensitivity up to 1600. Further strengthening the phone’s camera features are image stabilization, autofocus, manual focus, Face Tracking, Smile Shot and blink detection. An embedded GPS receiver gives the LG KC910 the ability to geo-tag photos for later plotting on an interactive map. A variety of creative shot modes is also included. The LG KC910 is the first handset for the global market to include Dolby Mobile, an integrated suite of audio processing technologies which aims to bring depth and richness as well as clean, powerful bass to the music listening experience.
Furthermore, the LG KC910 can record video from 5 fps up to 120 fps, which allows it to record in both fast and slow motion. The phone also plays DivX and Xvid movies straight out of the box, without the need for additional encoding. Rounding out the phone’s feature set, are AGPS enabled navigation, compatibility with the latest 3G HSDPA networks for connections up to 7.2 Mbps and Wi-Fi connectivity. The LG KC910 also includes a Jogging Buddy program that uses GPS technology to help track workouts.

Share This

LG Iron Man Shine

The Iron Man edition of the LG Shine is a special phone going only to contest winners, which is a real shame, because this phone is gorgeous. The maroon and gold accents look exactly like you’d expect the Iron Man suit to look in person. The phone is crafted from real 18 karat gold, which puts the material value at $2000, though mere mortals won’t be able to plunk down that kind of change any time soon. Instead, LG is giving the phones away as part of an Iron Man movie promotion. The phone was a bit heavy in person, obviously due to all that gold, but the look is so right, it would be a shame for LG to pass up the opportunity and create some with a gold finish, instead of the real thing. Besides, gold scratches pretty easily. Look for the phone to appear in promotional ads in a month or so, and if you can find one in person, take a look, because it is quite snazzy. Released in May 2008. The mirrored, brushed metal Shine phone, now in Iron Man maroon and real gold.

Share This

LG KT878 and KV920 for China

LG has unveiled the LG KT878 and KV920 phone which destined for China Mobile and China Telecom. The LG KT878 is a TD-SCDMA phone that equipped with a large 3-inch WVGA touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Music player, FM radio, microSD card support and Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. According to the news, The LG KT878 will be sold via China Mobile. On other hand, the LG KV920 is a phone that based on CDMA2000 networks. the LG KV920 features two WQVGA displays, a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, music player and a 3MP camera. The LG KV920 phone will be available via China Telecom. Unfortunately, no word on pricing at this time. LG-KV920 has more attractive features in comparison to LG-KT878, it is dual mode mobile phone, it has gorgeous QWERTY keyboard when it opened as well as 2.8-inch WQVGA LCD screen. It is compatible with CDMA EVDO network, it has some another features also such as Bluetooth, 3 Megapixel camera module, MP3 and PMP player which supports MPEG4, WMV, H.263, H.264 and more format files.

Share This

LG KE850 Prada

Since we certainly don’t feel qualified to offer judgment on a Prada bag or a Prada dress, we passed around the Prada phone to some of our more fashionable friends, who all rendered a similar judgment. They adored the phone’s look, appreciated its light weight and, in all, found it to be, aesthetically speaking, a better choice than the iPhone. Weight was the biggest issue, but with its gleaming chrome band and Prada slip-case, the Prada phone got oohs and aahs from the right crowd.
Prada hasn’t been shy about customizing the interface to enhance the mood, either. When the phone turns on, a devilish chorus sounds and a soft gradient lights up the screen. When you get voice mail, an angelic choir announces its arrival. If the touch experience on the KE850 isn’t as responsive or polished as on the iPhone, it isn’t for lack of trying, as the Prada phone has plenty of nice icons and menus that take full advantage of the touch screen. Unlike the HTC Touch, which imposed its capacitative screen on Windows Mobile 6, the Prada is built for touch. Most of this is tapping, less dragging and no pinching.
Menus on the Prada phone are kept nice and simple, without long lists of options or settings that would stymie fingers. The phone itself has a few hardware buttons, including “send” and “end” keys, camera and volume controls, and an unlock key. There is a port for power adapters or the included headphone adapter and remote control, but the microSD slot is hidden beneath the battery. Still, a removable battery on a touch screen phone? Who would have thought it possible?

Share This

LG KE850 PRADA

The LG Prada phone is pretty, stylish and unique. It’s lighter and smaller than the iPhone, and though its interface lacks some of the flourish and dazzle of Apple’s OS, LG manages to hold their own with stylish menus and slick, modern icons. It isn’t a perfect phone, and perhaps doesn’t attempt to be, as it lacks many advanced media playback features and an onscreen, QWERTY keyboard. This, plus a lack of good software, keeps the phone from being a better smartphone, media player or even laptop replacement. Still, it makes good calls, and for folks who don’t mind paying extra for a lot of style, and the Prada brand, that may be all that matters. Release: April 2007. Price: $600.

Pros: Sleek design. Cool menus and interface ooze style. Very good call quality, solid feature set. Autofocus camera takes nice, usable pictures.

Cons: Lacks 3G, GPS and other advanced phone features. Onscreen keypad is a good compromise, not a great solution. Poor sync options for calendar, contacts and media transfer.

Share This

Fashion Nokia 9000 in 1996

There are several categories of mobile phones, from basic phones to feature phones such as musicphones and cameraphones, to smartphones. The first smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which incorporated PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturisation and increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be added to phones, the concept of the smartphone has evolved, and what was a high-end smartphone five years ago, is a standard phone today. Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the SonyEricsson Walkman series of musicphones and Cybershot series of cameraphones; the Nokia N-Series of multimedia phones; and the Apple iPhone which provides full-featured web access and multimedia capabilities.

The Nokia 9000 Communicator was the first in Nokia’s Communicator series, introduced in 1996. The phone was huge and heavy (397g) in comparison with its modern equivaent the Nokia E90. The Communicator part is driven by an Intel 24 MHz 386(Central pro2008). It has 8 MB of memory, which is divided between applications (4 MB), program memory (2MB) and user data (2MB). The operating system is GEOS 3.0. The Nokia 9000 Communication was used by Val Kilmer when he played Simon Templar in the 1997 remark of The Saint.

Share This

Nokia E72

In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. Until the early 1990s, following introduction of the Motorola Micro TAC, most mobile phones were too large to be carried in a jacket pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones. With the miniaturization of digital components and the development of more sophisticated batteries, mobile phones have become smaller and lighter.

The materials of the E72 are all top-notch. Everything about it feels solid. The back plate is made of metal and the the finish is a nice matte black. It is just a hair wider than the E71, and this lets Nokia give it a slightly bigger keyboard. The keyboard of the E71 was fantastic, and the E72’s is just as good. The keys have the same shape and feel, and because it is factionally wider, I found it a bit easier to type on. The camera module appears to bulge just a bit more than that of the E71, and we chalk this up to its spec jump from 3.2 megapixels to 5.0 megapixels. The navigation cluster has been changed up a bit. I can’t say it is better or worse than that of the E71, it’s just different. The most noticeable aspect is that the shortcut keys to email, calendar, contacts, etc., have been made slightly bigger. My favorite feature, of course, is the 3.5mm headset jack, which Nokia has wisely been putting on its E Series devices lately.
The one negative thing I’ll say about the E72 is the screen. It uses the same 240 x 320 screen of the E71. Compared to the high-resolution devices that are being kicked out by the competition lately, the E72’s screen looked downright dreary. Still, in total, the E72 is a great follow-up device to the E71.

Share This