BLACKBERRY PEARL FLIP 8220

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

It might seem slightly perverse for RIM to produce a clamshell Blackberry when almost every other phone maker's attitude seems to be 'been there, done that' while they focus on sliders and candybars. But there is method in the madness.

RIM's intention with the Pearl range has been to broaden the appeal of the Blackberry beyond its corporate beginnings and to make it just as much about all the other things that people buy phones for - style, fun, camera, music player, web access, and email, still the Blackberry's USP.

Adding a clamshell variation into a market that's not exactly awash with them at the moment could well prove a window of opportunity for the brand, especially when it's as stylish and technically sophisticated as this one.

Look-wise, the 8220 has a more sober appearence than its brightly coloured predecessors in the Pearl range -which are "aimed at girls and hairdressers", as one WAG had it. It looks serious with its glossy black front, but not necessarily in a boring business way. Put it this way, James Bond wouldn't blow his cool by ostentatiously displaying one of these in his next movie.

The outer screen measures 27 X 34 mm with a 128 X 160 resolution- the main, interior one is 240 X 320 - and is barely noticeable with the phone in repose. When you receive a call, however, it flicks into life, revealing an analogue clock with date as well as caller, battery, message and signal info. You can also activate it by pressing one of the two programmable 'convenience keys' on each side.

Elsewhere on the 8220's sides are a mini USB charging port, 3.5mm socket for headphones, a Micro SD memory card slot - it will take upto 16GB though no card comes supplied as standard - volume keys and a call mute key.

Back to the front, and above the outer screen there's a 2-megapixel camera with LED flash and a red status light. There's a slight curve to the body near the top, which may help when flipping it open with one hand. But there's a small surprise when you do the screen comes to rest behind the body of the phone. This feels a bit odd both in the hand and next to your face when you're holding it to your ear. It's no big deal - it's just a bit odd.

There's nothing odd about the keypad, though, which is all business sleekness and efficieny. The keys are large and well spaced, making the entry of text messages and email as a pleasurable as it can be without a full QWERTY keyboard.

NOKIA 3600 SLIDE

Friday, January 16, 2009

The Nokia 3600 Slide is a stylish new offering by Nokia. It features a sleek slider design whichs aero-dynamically styled with smooth and rounded edges. It is powered the tried and tested S40 user interface which has been Nokia's favorite for id range phones. The 3600 Slide has a varied mix of features and doesn't lack in any department. It has most of the features anyone would want in a phone and excels in the multimedia department. It is almost surely going to be a bestseller and is intended to replace the better S40 based phones. It does lack out on some features like 3G and Wi-Fi, GPS, etc but the features seem to be fairly justified in this price range.







The Nokia 3600 Slide is a sleek phone which sports a very stylish slider design. At dimensions of just 97.8 x 47.2 x 14.5 mm it is very compact. It weighs only about 97 gms which makes it easy to carry as well. On top of the slider, you get the 2" TFT display and the earpiece. It also has a 5 way Navigation key , two select keys and the standard Call and End keys. Below the slider you get the alpha-numeric keypad.




All of the keys have a very good feel about them. The keypad backlighting is nice and subtle. No complaints with the keypad. On the top of the phone, you find the charger socket, the Power key and the 2.5 mm audio-jack. The left side sports the covered micro USB slot while the right side sports the volume rocker and camera key.






All the buttons and ports blend in superbly with the design and impart a great balanced feel to the phone. The back of the phone sports the 3.15 MP camera and the Dual LED Flash. The phone is mostly made of plastic. The build quality is superb and feels sturdy as with most Nokia Phones. It can easily withstand light bumps and falls. The slider action is smooth and fluid, the whole body has a refined feel. It has one of the best combinations durability in this range.


The 3600 Slide sports a nice little 2" 16 M colour display with a resolution of 240 x 320 px. It offers superb brightness and contrast. Sunlight leibility is awesome, way better than most phones in this range. A bigger display would have most welcome as this is primarily a multimedia phone. It captures images at a max of resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. It features the standard connectivity features like GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE.









The 3600 Slide offers great signal reception and superb call quality, better than most other Nokia devices which is quite an achivement. There is also some background nosie cancellation which works cool. The loudspeaker volume and vibration strength is also improved.

The Nokia 3600 Slide comes bundled with a standard charger, USB data cable and a set of stereo haedphones. You also get a user manual and a quick start guide in the box. It also ships with a 512 MB micro SD Card.
It is powered by a Li-Ion 860 mAh battery - BL- 4S. it has a rated talktime of about 6 hours and can power the phone for about a day half with moderate usage.




SPECIFICATIONS:

• Weight : 97.3 gms



• Dimensions : 97.8 x 47.2 x 14.5 mm



• Display : 2.0" TFT, 16M Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.



• Memory : 30 MB Internal memory (expandable upto 8 GB Micro SD)



• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP



• Camera : 3.15 MP Camera (2048 x 1536 pixels) with LED Flash, Auto-Focus, Video VGA at 15 FPS



• Connectivity : GPRS Class 32, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, USB 2.0



• OS : S40 User Interface



• Battery : Li-Ion 860 mAh (BL-4S)



• 5 Way Navigation Key, Stereo FM Radio with RDS, Java MIDP 2.0, TV out.

SONY XPERIA X1

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

With its three-inch VGA touchscreen, curved slider design, and speedy network access, the Xperia X1 is one of the hottest Windows Mobile smartphone around. Xperia represents Sony Ericsson's first crack at a Windows mobile phone (until now, all of Sony Ericsson's smartphones have been powered by the Symbian OS).



The basic specs: it's a quad-band GSM phone (good for making calls on worldwide GSM networks), and it supports 3.5G for speedy web surfing, video streaming and file uploading. Wi-Fi is on board, as well as a 3.2-Megapixel camera and a GPS (or GPS assisted by cell-tower triangulation). The centerpiece of the X1 is its three-inch WVGA screen that's 800 X 480 pixels, compared to 480 X 320 pixel for the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen.

The touch-sensitive screen features a series of Xpreria "panels" that will give you quick access to web sites, music, events and the like; running underneath will be Windows Mobile 6. Also cool is the "arcslider" design of the X1 which slides open to reveal a full-QWERTY keypad. Mean while, beneath the three-inch screen is a four-way navigational keypad, "Talk" and "End" buttons, a pair of soft keys, and a Wndows button for calling up the Start menu. There's no stylus. The Xperia X1 is slated for release in the second half of the year.