Review You can argue all you want about the merits of the various mobile operating systems but it’s undoubtedly Android that has put smartphones into the hands of the impecunious masses and in numbers that would have been inconceivable just eighteen months ago.
Tidy price: Vodafone’s Smart
The new king of the cheap charlies is the Vodafone Smart or Huawei U8160 to give it its manufacturer designation. This pound shop special runs Android 2.2 and has a capacitive screen but will only set you back £75.
That’s nearly 20 per cent less than the price of the Orange San Francisco, né ZTE Blade, which will lighten your wallet to the tune of £99 plus a mandatory £20 credit (£119 altogether). Buy online and Vodafone doesn’t demand an airtime purchase as a condition of sale. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Sony Ericsson’s top of the range Xperia Arc was a bold move, cramming a feast of the company’s very latest technology into a case seemingly not a whole lot thicker than a credit card. The Xperia Neo winds things down a notch, not least the price, and the style, but this Android mid-ranger still manages to pack a serious punch.
The Neo is decidedly chunkier than the Arc, at 116 x 57 x 13mm and 126g, though it retains an echo of the ‘human curvature’ design we’ve seen on recent SE handsets. Beneath the screen is Sony Ericsson’s by now familiar approach to the Android control buttons, with slivery hard back, home and menu buttons, but no search à la the Arc, though the Xperia Play had it. Read the rest of this entry »
Review If there is such a condition as telephonic incontinence then HTC is clearly a sufferer, as it churns out a handset for just about every conceivable demographic. With the ChaCha, the company is focusing on text warriors with a hard Qwerty keyboard and some social networking tweaks.
Upbeat performer: HTC’s ChaCha
This Android 2.3 smartie is a funky frolic of a phone with a slimline form factor (114 x 65 x 11m and 124g) that curves in the middle to give it an ergonomic lift in the palm. Its white rubberised plastic and brushed aluminium casing give it a zesty modern feel. While the top half is typically Android – with the four familiar control buttons nestling beneath the touch screen – the 40-key Qwerty keyboard that takes up the lower part looks decidedly different for a Googlephone. BlackBerry users may feel a certain déjà vu, however.
The keys are made of HTC’s comfortingly tactile rubberised plastic, and each one is raised proud of the casing. They’re easy to find and press, both with the tip and the flat of the thumb, and offer good feedback with reassuring clicks for each press. They’re nicely spaced too, so they’re just as easy to use with two thumbs as one. Read the rest of this entry »
Geek Treat of the Week Considering I grew up with Inspector Gadget, Knight Rider and Warren Beatty’s portrayal of Dick Tracy, it’s unsurprising that I’ve always craved a watch that doubles up as a phone. A ‘photch’ perhaps?
Fortunately, my wishes are no longer a pipe-dream, as watchphones have been on the market for years. Chinese manufacturer Burg has produced such watches for a while too, but recently launched a budget model and sent it in for our official vulture verdict.
Burg 5: chunky
The Burg 5 initially seems to be nothing more than a cheap watch. It’s a big chunk of plastic with a hefty silicone strap and an appetite for wear and tear. Being so bulky it’s easy to accidentally catch something and cause damage too, scratching paint off walls in the process. The buttons around the circumference blend into the design as if they’re part of the oversized body. It’s only when you take a closer look at numbers 11 and 12 – which have been replaced by red and green phone symbols – do you suspect this is more than a basic ticker. Read the rest of this entry »
Review When you buy a mobile, you know that you’re likely to be stuck with it for the life of your contract. Good news: you’ll get used to its quirks and differences. Bad news: you can only watch as gorgeous handsets are released for the next year or two.
Smart move? Nokia’s X7
But what’s trickier about the new Nokia X7 is that it uses Symbian, the much-maligned operating system which even the Finnish phone maker says won’t be its main phone platform. From later this year the company will mainly focus on Windows phone for its smartphones. So do you really want to buy what may turn out to be the last major Symbian handset? Read the rest of this entry »
