Sony Ericsson C905A Mobile Phone

The Sony Ericsson C905a is a true Cyber-shot camera phone. In addition to its 8.1-megapixel sensor, it features face detection, auto-focus, a Xenon flash, PictBridge printer support, and GPS tagging—all great for snapping off important shots whenever you don't have that point-and-shoot handy. The C905a's feature array puts it in direct competition with the Motorola MotoZINE ZN5 and the Samsung Behold SGH-T919, T-Mobile's pair of heavy-hitting camera phones. In fact, the C905a fills a hole in AT&T's otherwise diverse handset lineup; none of the carrier's other devices can take pictures like this one.

The C905a is a bit bulky. It 4.1 by 1.9 by 0.7 inches and weighs 4.8 ounces. That's not terrible, but something to keep in mind when comparing it to other feature phones. My test model was nicely finished in Ice Silver plastic; you can also get the C905a in Night Black or Copper Gold. Plenty of useful, chrome-finished shortcut buttons adorn the sides, though the proprietary charger connector and lack of a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack were disappointments.

The 2.4-inch screen features 240-by-320-pixel resolution and displays up to 262K colors. Below the LCD are a five-way control pad and six hardware buttons. Unfortunately, the Send and End buttons are in between the others, so careful aim is required. Slide the front panel up and you'll reveal a recessed, membrane keypad finished in matte black. The keys are quiet, but a little too stiff for easy dialing. The slider mechanism itself was solid, though, and snapped into place with a reassuring chuck. There's a built-in accelerometer, which was useful for navigation as well as gaming. In short, not the most ergonomic phone on the planet, but perfectly usable.
The C905a is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM and tri-band (850/1900/2100) HSDPA handset. That means it's a true world phone with high-speed data capability both here and overseas. Voice calls sounded clear and loud in both directions, with good wind resistance, although slightly on the nasal side through the earpiece. Reception was solid, with a lock on 3G even in a rural area of Massachusetts that trips up other AT&T handsets. The speakerphone was a tad harsh but had decent volume, and the C905a sounded fine through a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. Battery life was on the low side at 3 hours and 46 minutes.

The home screen features colorful, alternating wallpapers that fade in and out every few seconds. Once you dive into the user interface, it's easy enough to get around. But that's mainly due to redundancy; the C905a features the same triple-menu, jam-packed system that plagues unlocked Sony Ericsson W995a. It could use some serious editing, but at least it's responsive. There are a few nice sounding ringtones on board, and plenty of options for buying new ones or assigning your own MP3 or AAC files. The NetFront Web browser is good enough for WAP sites and offers a mouse cursor. But it made a mess of desktop sites and took forever to load them even over HSDPA.
The C905a is AT&T's only camera phone with more than 3 megapixels, so it's by far the best the carrier has to offer. The 8-megapixel camera has lots of options (including face detection) and a very powerful flash for a camera phone. It lit up simulated indoor and night shots surprisingly well. But in outdoor daylight, the default exposure metering washes out bright areas and the edges of things appear just a touch soft. Thanks to the much better low-light performance, this camera comes out ahead of the W995a, but I still prefer the Samsung Memoir's daylight photos. You can tweak your photos after the fact with Sony Ericsson's PhotoDJ software, which lets you alter levels, fix contrast, or add captions.

The C905a's autofocus comes at the cost of a painful 1.4 second shutter delay, which can be eliminated by pre-focusing—it's all the desperately slow autofocus mechanism. Sony's BestPic technology is supposed to give you the option to take photos both before and after you click the shutter, but autofocus killed that option: with BestPic and autofocus, I just ended up taking photos 1.7 to 2.8 seconds after I pressed the shutter.

The movie mode takes compressed-looking and somewhat washed out 320x240 videos at 30 frames per second, but with a bonus: the VideoDJ editing software on the phone lets you trim and paste together videos without using your PC. However, the iPhone 3GS has a much better video mode, though its still image capabilities fall far behind the C905a's.

The BlackBerry Bold is a messaging and e-mail powerhouse and also offers more screen resolution than the C905a, but it looks dowdy compared to the Sony Ericsson's sharp lines. In short, if you're tired of cell phones that take poor quality photos, the C905a should be at the top of your list.

LG Crystal GD900 - The Crystal Clear Transparent Mobile Phone

Technology has no bounds. Proving the saying right is the all new flashy and swanky phone from LG, the LG Crystal. This LG Crystal pertains attributes that go well with its name "CRYSTAL". The LG Crystal GD900 sports an unbelievable transparent keypad. This transparent, slide-out keypad is no gimmick. It is a true extension of a touch screen phone created by LG. LG has christened it 'Crystal'.

LG Crystal (LG-GD900) is a unique concept. It is a premium phone with a slithering glass swagger about it. The see-through tempered glass is a keypad with a cool glow to be visible in any light condition.

It is made of highly durable tempered glass and is framed and reinforced by a band of liquid-metal, a composite alloy that is ultra-strong and able to absorb shock and vibration. It is sleek, slender and has seamlessly placed volume and camera button on the sides.

But LG Crystal is not just a pretty face. Not only does it dish up the digits, the keypad also transforms itself into a laptop style mouse pad that offers easy phone browsing and navigation. With the first of its kind shortcut method, this glow-transparent-pad can create magic. Just drag your finger to write an alphabetic letter, maybe an 'M' on the keypad, and watch the music menu come alive on the screen.

Once you've reached your favourite song, you can savour it in the best audio quality. LG Crystal gives you Dolby surround sound and more options to hear your song. Crystal uses LG's signature S-Class user interface. It has a 3D cube style menu that is always a pleasure to navigate.

The menu can also be viewed in a simple format. It is laid in four categories for easy access. Contacts and music widgets can be viewed in a pretty reel format. It is no less than a smart phone. Crystal offers quick shortcut features for emails like copy and paste, you can do that with messages and notepad.
Viewing online pages is a breeze with the keypad gesture control and easy zoom in and out options. There is handwriting recognition as well. Multimedia features are aplenty.

LG Crystal has a 8 mega pixel snapper, video record with various light controlling and speed controlling options. There is Google Maps, YouTube and FM player. Fun features are quite different from other phones in the games section. There are motion sensing games and the bubble game. Blow wind on the phone to activate the bubbles.
The Salient Features Of LG Crystal Are:

* Transparent touch pad
* Gesture command on touch pad
* 3D S-Class user interface
* LCD touch screen
* 8 megapixel camera

Even a simple feature like calender and organizer, that one uses daily, is given a new design. Date, time and memo format look smart and fun to use. All in all this Crystal will creat magic in the mobile market in India when it launches in August.

A little birdie told that the LG Crystal will be priced around Rs 30,000.

T-Mobile Dash 3G Mobile Phone

The HTC manufactured T-Mobile Dash 3G has now finally made an appearance on the T-Mobile website. This T-Mobile Dash 3G Mobile Phone seems to be commanding a price tag of $169.99 with a 2 year contract although the suggest retail price is $349.99.

For putting your signature to that agreement you’ll get a Windows mobile 6.1 Standard Edition based T-Mobile Dash 3G with a full QWERTY keyboard, and a 2.4 inch QVGA display. Design-wise, the Dash 3G is relatively sober with a plain black and red color scheme. The left side of the handset has the volume rocker, which is usefully broader than on other models from the company. However unlike most HTC smartphones the charging/headset port is on the right-hand side of the handset, not the bottom. This makes no real difference when recharging, but does get in the way somewhat when using the supplied hands-free headset. T-Mobile also include a headset adapter in the box with the Dash 3G, so that you can use your own headphones; it’s a nice addition, but it does protrude significantly from the side of the smartphone making the whole thing unwieldy.Up front, there’s a 2.4-inch 65k color LCD display, running at QVGA 320 x 240 resolution. It’s a bright panel, certainly, but compared not only to other Windows Mobile devices but to rival platforms it looks small and light on pixels. Happily the trackball makes navigation relatively speedy, but we did find ourselves wishing for at least a 480 x 320 panel.

The T-Mobile Dash 3G Mobile Phone features Microsoft Exchange support, GPS, WiFi, 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, and available in red accents that makes the original Dash seem somewhat outdated.

Lets just keep our fingers crossed until the T-Mobile Dash 3G Mobile Phone is launched into the market, so that we cam make out the trth about this seeming to be dashing, T-Mobile Dash 3G Mobile Phone!

Nokia 6700 Classic Mobile Phone

The Nokia 6700 Classic replaces their popular 6300 model, living breathing proof that not everyone wants a smartphone. The 6700 takes the candybar form and our review version was chrome, which looks utterly stunning: it gets a little smeary, but looks cracking.

The 6700 measures 109.8 x 45 x 11.2mm and is only 116.5g, small enough to fit into any pocket or bag. The front is divided between the all-metal 12-key keypad at the bottom and the 2.2-inch display at the top. Between the two is the normal run of calling and navigation buttons.

The screen has a 320 x 240px resolution, so despite its size, it looks nice and crisp and it is bright enough to cope with sunny conditions too. Things are a little cramped on the screen compared to some of the larger screens, but in return you get a compactness those other devices lack.
The phone runs the Symbian S40 user interface, which whilst not exactly cutting-edge by modern standards is simple to use. For those who want a simple handset, then it is free from confusion. To aid you in your navigation the home page does offer a shortcut bar to jump you into Nokia Maps, the browser or Nokia's Ovi sharing portal.

Customisation isn't available to the same degree as on rival platforms but you will be able to tap into the Ovi Store to download relevant applications, such as a Facebook app. But being a simple interface it is fast to navigate and extremely stable.

The all-metal keypad looks good with its single-piece design and gentle backlighting. One thing to watch out for ladies, if you use your nails to press the buttons, you might find that the cut characters on the keypad act a little like a nail file and roughen the ends of your nails. Otherwise we found it fast and responsive and backed by Nokia's reliable T9 system makes for some fast texting action.

But the 6700 doesn't offer retro connectivity, it is packing in the full range of GSM, GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA, so your handset will happily lap up data on the move. It doesn't have Wi-Fi, so you won't get the advantage of fast free surfing at home through your phone.

However it does have AGPS with Nokia Maps, which we found to be good and responsive, whilst Bluetooth 2.1 will allow you to connect to your PC or stereo headset. The bundled headset connects to the Micro-USB connection on the bottom of the phone. It's of the hard plastic ear bud variety and does leave a little to be required, but incorporates the handsfree kit too. The headset acts as the aerial for the FM radio as well, so you'll probably be stuck with it.

Around the back of the handset you'll find a 5-megapixel camera, a generous offering perhaps, considering the "Classic" tag. It features an LED flash that is as good as useless for anything other than candid shots to share online, giving your subjects a telltale yellow cast. There is a dedicated shutter button on the top of the phone, which is perhaps a little sensitive.

The camera performance is pretty good overall for a basic handset and you'll have no problem capturing still shots in good light, but it doesn't compare to the performance of Nokia's camera phones packing a better quality lens.

Video can also be captured at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 at 15fps which isn't so impressive, although a smoother 362 x 288 30fps option is available, which will do for basic sharing on YouTube. If video and imaging is important, then perhaps you'd be better off looking at some of the more dedicated handsets on offer.

The Nokia 6700 Classic is miserly, giving you 170MB of internal memory, although our review model came with a 1GB microSD card in the slot (hiding under the back cover). Nokia claim that it supports up to 8GB, although it happily accepted a 16GB microSDHC card.

The Nokia 6700 Classic is a great little handset. It looks and feels good without scrimping on features like HSDPA and GPS that you really want. Ok, so some features are missing, but for many, the 6700 will give them that they want: a compact handset which is well connected.

The quality of the metal sandwich construction is unquestionable too and we love that polished chrome finish. For some though, the screen might just a little too small, and the lack of 3.5mm jack is immensely annoying.

Toshiba TG01 - The World's Fastest Mobile Phone!

Smallest and fastest are the words that haunt the gadget industry. People love to say my gadget is smaller than yours! Likewise people also equally love to say "my gadget is faster than yours!" Keeping the people's hunger for speed, Toshiba has launched the all new mobile phone, Toshiba TG01.

Toshiba Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company's main business is in Infrastructure, Consumer Products, and Electronic devices and components. Toshiba is now trying to create a mark for itself in the Mobile Phone industry with the all new Toshiba TG01.

Toshiba launched the TG01 on the Orange network in the UK today. It's based on Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon, the fastest processor in a mobile phone to date.
Toshiba's emphasis is on media handling on the move, so the phone is mostly screen - a 4.1-inch resistive touch display - and at only 9.9mm it's almost as thin as a freshly purged supermodel.The Toshiba TG01 Mobile phone will be available on a 24-month, £39.15 per month plan from Orange as of today. Unfortunately the phone is let down by its OS - Windows 6.1. The INQ had a fumble with the handset at the launch event last night, but even the Toshiba and Orange demonstrators found it a tad cumbersome to navigate at times.

The WM6.1 is hardly the best way to show off the power of the processor behind it. Toshiba has promised an update to WM6.5 when Microsoft finally gets around to releasing it. There are some firmware additions by Orange, which could also have been the reason for our slower than expected handset experience.
But then if you wait around for a few days website Xda-developers will surely have an Android ROM for the TG01.

On the whole, Toshiba TG01 is the fastest mobile phone so far, still there's long time to go before we could talk about the usability and performance of this lighting fast device.

Huawei Android Phone - The Next Big Android?

Huawei Technologies ("Huawei"), a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions worldwide, today showcased its first Android-powered smart phone at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This smart phone will be commercially available in the third quarter of 2009.

"Huawei is delighted to showcase its much anticipated first Android-powered smart phone. As a terminal solutions provider with all-round capabilities, Huawei has an acute insight into the drivers of the communications industry and in-depth understanding of operators," said Mr. James Chen, Director of Huawei Terminal Marketing Department., "A pioneer in mobile broadband devices, we look forward to expanding a compelling mobile communications experience for end-users whilst providing customized services to our operator partners via the Android smart phone."

Huawei partnered with an established design consultancy to develop a robust and user-friendly interface, creating a powerful customer experience that is able to evolve with operators' differentiation requirements. The touchphone hardware is decidedly iPhone-esque, and almost seems too button scarce to work with the traditional Android interface, but that's where the rest of the story comes in: Huawei is working with an "established design consultancy" to develop its own custom interface for the device. The as-yet unnamed phone will be coming to market in Q3 of this year, and Huawei is currently in talks with a carrier who will rebrand the device -- the lack of finality there left much of the rest of the info on this phone shrouded.

Smart phones are expected to account for more than 24 percent of the global mobile phone market by 2011, and this figure is set to exceed 30 percent by 2012.