We wrote about this slick looking phone back in May and now it's finally available stateside. You might have seen Verizon's catchy ad for the Chocolate with Goldfrapp's 'Strict Machine' playing in the background. What a great choice of music for this product! Currently only available through Verizon, the Chocolate is definitely one sweet phone!
Cell phones often inspire devotion, but few have a following like T-Mobile's Sidekick. The device has long been the instant messaging and e-mailing device of choice among hipsters because of its nifty flip screen and comfortable rapid-fire keyboard. But users have griped about the poor camera, crippled Web browser, and lack of expandability. The Sidekick 3 improves those areas to varying degrees and delivers Bluetooth and a smaller design. The Sidekick 3 is 20 percent smaller than its predecessor but weighs a bit more (6.7 ounces versus 6.5 ounces). The keyboard's old membrane keys have been replaced with hard plastic keys that are faster to use and more responsive.
The long rubber bumpers of the Sidekick II are gone, and the buttons within them were replaced with smaller plastic buttons. Most noticeable is the trackball, which replaces the old scroll wheel. The ball has a much looser feel but turns out to be a good navigation option. More of the device's menus can now be explored with the trackball alone, which has a 360-degree movement range and can be pressed to select items. A few tweaks improve the Danger OS: Similar applications (IM clients and organizational apps) have been grouped into single-menu items that open in subfolders. The backgrounds are darker and slightly more serious, reflecting T-Mobile's desired mid-20's demographic rather than the high school image previously associated with the phone.
As a phone, the Sidekick 3 is much improved, with better reception, stronger volume, and far less of the echo that plagued many users. While the speakerphone still sounds airy and a bit noisy, it is also noticeably improved from the last generation. The Sidekick 3 uses T-Mobile's EDGE service, and even while loading Web page images, this generation doubles the speed of the previous version. Better use of on-board memory also allows pages to load with fewer errors. Java-heavy pages stymied the Sidekick II, but this model was able to load more sites without fail. Fully zoomed-in maps were (barely) usable on Yahoo, and Google Maps proved too much to handle.
Perhaps the greatest surprise is the MP3 player, which relies on the miniSD Card slot (up to 2GB) for storage. The miniSD Card will show up in Windows as a removable drive, so you can simply drag and drop tunes into a folder. Unfortunately, the Sidekick 3 doesn't support DRM-protected tracks, so you can't use this device to play songs purchased from online music stores.
Pressing the Jump and Return keys brings up the player at any time, and music is organized by several data types, including artist, album, and playlist. The sound is good through headphones and surprisingly impressive through the phone's loudspeaker. Songs cannot be used as ringtones. As an upgrade, the Sidekick 3 could have been more dramatic. There's no question, however, that the improved phone function and data service, in addition to the miniSD Card slot and music player, make this the best model in the line yet. The Sidekick 3 is a very good smart phone option for less business-centric users.
According to Motorola, it's the thinnest, lightest and coolest QWERTY on the planet. Well, we’ll finally be able to find out for ourselves when the long-awaited Q is released this week. Boasting flexible mobile email featuring Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software, advanced cellular phone technology, rich multimedia capabilities and an easy-to-use one-handed navigation thumbwheel, the Moto Q looks and feels unique.
It measures 11.5 x 6.3 x 1.1cm and sports a 2.4in, 320 x 240, 65,536-colour job, and the handset also incorporates a 1.3 mega pixel camera with a flash. There's a Mini SD slot for memory expansion, and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. The keypad is backlit, and Motorola has built in speakerphone capability.
At this point it looks like the Q will only be available from Verizon, but Sprint is talking about having the Q too. A Cingular version will not be out until the end of the year. Time to switch carriers again!
The LG KG800 cell phone is better known to many people as the Chocolate phone. Don't bother looking for any hidden meaning - quite simply, it's bar-shaped and the best-selling version in South Korea is a dark brown chocolate color! It's become a favourite phone for the rich and famous, appearing in the hand (and pocket) of top celebs. Why? Well, the phone cleverly blends modern styling with useful features. When the slide-up design is closed, you'll notice a high-quality display screen and a handful of touch-sensitive keys for controlling essential functions. They glow red when they're being used and fade into the background when they're not needed. Slide the phone open and there's a standard keypad, along with a wealth of useful functions including an alarm clock, calendar, calculator, photo editor and games.
The LG KG800 is also an MP3 player, with 128MB of memory providing plenty of storage space. In addition, the back of the phone contains a 1.3 megapixel camera for photos and videos. All this and Bluetooth connectivity as well.
If you're looking for stand-out style without compromising on usability, you'll appreciate the LG Chocolate KG800. It certainly is a tasty little camera phone!
I just came across the slick new Nokia 770. This device is meant to be a home Internet appliance and it's not what you would expect from Nokai......it’s not a phone!
That's right; the 770 has no mobile phone inside. Instead it relies on its Bluetooth v1.2 and WiFi (802.11b) support to connect to the Internet either through your home WiFi router or via your Bluetooth compatible mobile phone. Nokia envisions the 770 as an inexpensive (about US$350) and convenient replacement for the 2nd or 3rd PC a family might have at home. The mobile phone industry calls it “the third screen,” a smaller successor to the TV and PC.
Thanks to the 770's massive 4.13" diagonal, 800x480 pixel display, browsing and email should be quite comfortable. In addition to the Opera web browser and the built-in email client, the initial release of the 770 will also ship with a RSS news reader, an Internet radio, various media players, a PDF viewer, and Flash v6 compatibility. There’s also a user installable software upgrade that will introduce Voice Over IP (VOIP) and Instant Messaging to the mix.
The little package does have some drawbacks. The biggest: no keyboard, not even a way to connect an outboard Bluetooth model. You’re stuck with a skinny stylus to tap on an on-screen keyboard.
However, if your phone doesn’t have a high speed connection with web browsing or a media player, the Nokia 770 can be your cool looking gateway to online info, photos, music and video.
Coming July 2006 is the new Sony Ericsson K800i. It’s their latest Cyber-shot digital camera and a small and sophisticated feature-packed 3G phone all in one. The K800i is equipped with a 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus, image and video stabilizer and built-in Xenon flash.
Sony Ericsson’s BestPic technology lets you capture several images in quick succession with one press of the camera key. When you’ve taken a photo, you can share it straight away using Bluetooth™, multimedia messaging or blog it online.
The K800i has 64MB of internal memory and has Memory Stick Micro (M2) support allowing you to use the phone as a video recorder and/or music player.
Check out the latest iPod inspired phone from Nokia. The ultra stylish tri-band 7380 is the size of a candy bar and its sensual fusion of leather-inspired materials are complemented with etched metal and quicksilver surfaces. The front of the handset has a glass mirror (for looking at yourself talk!) and a 104 x 298 pixel wide-screen display. It's also equiped with a powerful 2mb camera for pics as well as video and it uses the ingenious iPod style scroll wheel for inputting text and dialing numbers. It also has a built in FM radio and an integrated music player for MP3/AAC/M4A formats. 52mb of internal memory should keep you humming. Looking good comes with a price though! $499 in the USA.
