Velocity 111

Don't worry if you have never heard of Velocity Mobile, because this UK based company is very new and hasn't actually brought anything to market just yet. But hopefully over the next few months we should see the launch of the Velocity 103 and Velocity 111 smartphones.

The Velocity 111 is closely related to the 103 in terms of specification, but the QWERTY keyboard and smaller display pitches it directly against handsets such as the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9000.

Featuring the same 3.5G and WiFi connectivity as the 103, the Velocity 111 matches the BlackBerry Bold quite closely. One significant difference is the screen - the BlackBerry has a higher resolution display than the Velocity 111, but then the 111 is a touchscreen panel where the BlackBerry is not.

Another important difference is the operating system, and for most people this will be the key decider. If you're looking for a high spec BlackBerryesque smartphone but you want to run Windows (in this case, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional), then there aren't many handsets we can think of that look more promising than the Velocity 111.

The 2.46" 320 x 240 pixel display certainly isn't has impressive as the screen on the 103, but it will be good enough for most people and it is certainly competitive with everything else in this market segment.

As with the 103, the Velocity 111 supports 3.5G HSDPA downloads and HSUPA uploads, has quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS and WiFi. Advanced GPS (A-GPS) is built in, so you can add your favourite satellite navigation software. The 111 supports Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0 and it comes with a 2.5mm audio socket. There is also a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera plus a secondary video calling camera.

It's quite a large device at 116 x 62 x 15mm and 140 grams in weight. The large 1450 mAh battery can power the 111 for up to 4 hours of talktime and 8 days standby time, which is a little less than the BlackBerry 9000.

The Velocity 111 is slated for release sometime during Q3 2008, although no pricing information is available at present.


source:http://www.mobilegazette.com

LG KP215 Mobile Phone: A Very Light Handset

LG unveils its extremely light mobile phone named LG KP215. The LG KP215 phone weighs as light as 78 grams and is packed with the best of the features in it.

The clamshell phone that supports GSM Dualband, GPRS and 2.0 WAP browser proudly displays its Dual LCD display screens. The LG KP215 clicks its pictures and videos through its 300K resolutions digital camera and plays off its FM radio and an efficient media player which plays formats as MP3, MPEG4, AAC, and AMR very well. With an internal storage of 4MB, the phone also accepts external memory via its MicroSD/TransFlash card expansion slot.

The phone does not show any advancement in its specifications but it does seem to be an above average phone that allows entertainment and internet combined together in synchrony and presents itself well in a compact and sleek form. There is no word on its release date or pricing as yet.

news source : http://www.mobiletor.com/2008/04/29/lg-kp215-mobile-phone-a-very-light-handset/

Nokia 5320 XpressMusic Voice-Controlled Phone Unveiled

Nokia today introduced the 5320 XpressMusic, an affordable music device with voice-controlled features.

Featuring a dynamic design with 3G social entertainment capabilities, the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic delivers exceptional music and web 2.0 access. With the voice-controlled Say and Play feature, consumers only need to say the name of a favorite artist or song to automatically play it. Offering additional features, the 5320 XpressMusic includes dedicated music keys, a 3.5 mm audio jack, up to 24 hours of playback time, an audio chip for hi-fi sound quality, extendable memory up to 8 GB, HS-USB for fast music transfer and HSDPA for fast access to data.

The full-featured Internet browser, access to Ovi and Nokia Search 4.1 allow users to find and share media content and information. Dedicated N-Gage gaming keys and landscape view deliver a true gaming experience, while HSDPA provides fast access to N-Gage, which will be available for download.

The Nokia 5320 XpressMusic is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated retail price of 220 EUR ($350 USD) before taxes and subsidies.

news source : http://www.mobiledia.com/news/65929.html

MTV Mobile Phone slides to France

The popular music channel which has rocked the world for decades, now has stepped into the gadget industry. MTV steps into a new arena by unveiling its fresh new red slider mobile phone in France.

The red 3G slider, from handset designer ModeLabs, possesses a 2.2-inch display a sharp 2MP camera and Bluetooth connectivity. Since it is a part of MTV, how can we forget the integrated MP3 player that plays excellent music on this phone! The Slider phone also features special MTV content topped with extras as games, wallpaper and ring tones.

It’s the branding of MTV that could help promote this handset. The phone looks good however it does not speak of any extraordinary technical features that will entice you to buy it. The Red MTV phone is available at a price of 49 EUR and also packs along matching accessories.

http://www.mobiletor.com/2008/04/18/mtv-mobile-phone-slides-to-france/

HP iPAQ 614c Business Navigator

Prada phones, phones studded with diamonds and fashion phones are a regular sight in the moody, glass-fronted emporia of the average high street. Yet this kind of glamour rarely casts its golden glow on the world of smartphones.

The iPhone was a rare bright spark, and there has been the odd flicker of light from HTC, E-TEN, Samsung and Blackberry, but other than that, smartphones have largely conformed to the bland business template over the past year or two. HP's latest handset, alas, does nothing to change this.

The iPAQ 614c Business Navigator is a large and ugly phone that's all drab black and grey plastics with no brushed aluminium highlights or chrome trim to set it off. It's pretty chunky, too, with porky dimensions of 60 x 117 x 18mm. And it's hardly a design masterpiece in other respects - its integrated numeric keypad has a rather cheap-looking, shiny finish and is topped by a pair of 'soft', context-sensitive keys that look like a pair of malevolent eyes leering at you as you write a text or surf the web.

It does at least try to balance out its design shortcomings with a few clever tricks. The first of these is its touch ring (don't laugh) control. Embossed in glossy relief on top of the numeric pad keys, it enables you to sweep a thumb or finger in a clockwise or anti-clockwise motion to control the navigation through lists and the like. An innovative addition, to be sure.

The phone has support for the latest super fast HSDPA mobile data networks at up to 7.2Mbps. It also has a GPS receiver built in... but this is no ordinary satellite receiver. It uses the new Assisted GPS (A-GPS) technology, which is designed to combine location information gleaned from the phone's cell location with the data from the satellites themselves to speed up initial satellite lock. The phone is, alas, only supplied with Google Maps - no sat-nav software to speak of - but it did do a decent job of locking onto satellites in central London taking a reasonably quick one minute to lock on to five satellites and provide a position.

news source : http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/review/2008/03/31/HP-iPAQ-614c-Business-Navigator/p1

HP iPAQ 514 voice messenger review

H P has been around in the smartphone world for a few years now. Some years ago Compaq was taken over by HP. Since then the name iPAQ is being used for mobile phones of Hewlett Packard. Mid 2007 HP put the iPAQ 514 voice messenger on the market. The HP iPAQ 514 is a straight to the point business device. The consumer looking for a cell phone with a high resolution camera and enhanced multimedia player should forget about the HP 514. The HP iPAQ 514 has been equipped with Windows Mobile 6 and offers many functions that will appeal to the business user. Thanks to its price of around € 200 we can easily call it the cheapest business handset at the moment.

HP iPAQ Voice Messenger

Hewlett Packard had to make concessions to be able to offer this price. One of these concessions is the monitor; the HP iPAQ 514 has been equipped with a 2-inch monitor with a resolution of 176x220 pixels and 64,000 colours. If you are not used to a high resolution monitor this small sized one will not bother you. But if you are a frequent visitor of internet pages you'll soon find out that you have to scroll not only vertically but also horizontally through the web pages.

HP iPAQ 514 Test

Although HP had to compromise with equipping the HP iPAQ 514; we can say that it is a business mobile phone with enhanced functions. The price of the device is just as attractive as its functionalities. Despite its many functions and the attractive price tag, we think some points need improvement. HP would do a great job as to equip the device with 3G for the business man who is always on the road. HP compromised in installing Wi-Fi but since you cannot always use a Wi-Fi connection; 3G would be the solution.

news source :http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/3145/hp-ipaq-review/

Pantech G300

There's a mobile phone out there to suit everyone's needs. There's a basic phone for ultra-budget users, phones with music players for people who travel frequently, smart phones for the tycoons who need a lot more than just a communication tool. With the G300, Pantech has introduced a phone that should appeal to the fairer sex.

Now reviewing a phone like this for a guy can be pretty tricky, and I'm quite certain every word I say will be scrutinized. So to make sure my opinions are not too "testosterone driven" and that I don't do injustice to this model just because it's not meant to appeal to me, I took opinions of some of my women coworkers. With that out of the way, let's see what's inside the package.

Package and Looks
On opening the box you will find the main mobile unit, two 680mAh Li-Ion batteries, a mobile charger, data cable, mono headset for hands-free calls, a mini software CD, and a thick manual.

Aimed at the female market, the G300 sports a glossy metal-finished wine-red color with silver edges, giving it an overall classy look. It's quite small in size at 76 x 40 x 23.5 mm (weighing 90 g), and would easily fit even in small hands. The top of the clamshell sports a diamond that lights up in seven different colors and a monochrome LCD display with white backlight.

The LCD on the inside, however, looks crisp within its 260,000-color TFT display. The 128 x 128 pixel resolution ensures that even in its small size, visibility will never be a problem. The brightness level of the screen is also just right with perfect visibility even with bright overhead sunlight.

The keypad is as usual present on the lower inner part of the phone. The keys are soft and extremely easy to use. The numeric keys are perfectly sized and spaced for convenience during single handed as well as double handed operation.

news source : http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/Pantech_G300/551-51852-614-1.html

Bird D636 - user opinions and reviews

This is a very nice phone, it is light and easy to use. The graphics are more sleek and modern than previous Bird phones, it has a Lenovo or LG look about it, greys and blues, which complement the blue glow from the keypad. However, the alert boxes are unmatched graphically.

It is worth noting that my phone does not have French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Hindi. It is a mainland China model, so perhaps an export model is slightly different. This phone supports the display of traditional chinese characters, which is a refreshing change for most mainland phones. However, the interface is limited to English and Simplified Chinese, you also cannot input in Traditional (HK, Macau etc) characters (Bird is attempting to break into the HK market). Previous models of Bird phones only supported mainland characters. Similar Bird generation phones with similar software may be able to imput in Traditional Characters (I don't remember the model numbers I tested though, they all had the new grey look)

The dictionary function is still present in this phone, though along with the other current generation bird phones, it has a much worse interface than before. You are required to break out of the screen to a dedicated imput screen, then back into the dictionary. On the plus side, there are more language tools, and they seem to be upgradable by changing some files on the phone (though I have not explored this).

The input for text is changed, pressing 1 used to scroll through the puncuation marks, but now it brings up a break out screen of all the puncation to move through, slightly annoying to get used to. The Chinese input is also different, instead of pressing left and right to change words and down to change characters you need to press star to change words and left and right to change characters.

Some settings, display settings and menu settings (matrix or list) have gone, but you can now use any ring tone for your sms and alarm. Another small annoyance is that the large "OK" button doesn't go to the menu, instead it loads up the internet, and you can't change this, or any of the d pad's short cuts.

The screen is very clear and bright. The camera is typically slow at large res, but it does a decent job. It has the usual photo editing tools for bird phones, add text, change colours, icons etc (though it is somewhat lacking on the non touch screen models). It also has a few other apps such as paint (really limited - not a selling point, I think they are just experimenting), MFlash player (comes loaded with a couple of animations, no KTV though it seems to be able to play them but not a dedicated app this time), health, currency converter, stop watch. The firm ware has a version number so I assume you can update it, but Bird has no downloads on their website.

Sagem my511X Roland Garros

F or the Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM) in Barcelona, Sagem Mobiles (Safran Group), official partner of the French Open for the third year running, unveils Roland Garros by Sagem, an all new model but every bit as elegant and dedicated to tennis. Elegantly-styled with the trademark Roland-Garros signature and sleek white and grey finishing, the Roland Garros my511X mobile phone by Sagem was designed not just for sports fans but also people equally passionate about styling. The elegant and sophisticated lines highlight an understated yet fashion-conscious design.

Sagem my511X Roland Garros - Customization

Ultra-compact, slim line (106.9x46.3x10.9) and featherweight (81 g), the Sagem my511X Rolland Garros will fit anywhere. What really makes it a collector's item is the level of customization on offer: courtside ball sound effect ringtones, Java tennis game, themed wallpapers, and that original tennis ball tin-style packaging. Technology-wise, it has the complete game: a 1.3-megapixel camera plus video with 4x digital zoom, music player (mp3 and AAC), SMS and MMS functions, Bluetooth, and a 13 MB memory made expandable via a microSD card.

Sagem Roland Garros mobile phone - Battery life

The ultra-smooth white fascia boasts a subtle mirror effect that really sets off the champagne-colored keys, 65K-color 128x160-pixel high-resolution TFT display, and curvaceous keypad. The my511X Roland Garros by Sagem also has stamina, with a battery life covering 220 hours on standby and 3 hours of talk-time. Roland Garros by Sagem will be released in April 2008.

news source : http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/3038/sagem-my511x-roland-garros/