Review Few would be surprised to learn that US brand Motorola has struggled of late. Since the flush of success it enjoyed with the Razr series back in 2004, Motorola has singularly failed to set the mobile world alight, seemingly watching as other brands grasped the smartphone nettle and raced to the future.
Motorola’s Dext: better than we’d imagined
But now, the company thinks its saviour may be at hand. The Motorola Dext is a smartphone that focuses on social networking using its Motoblur service. This makes innovative use of cloud technology to put instant Facebook and Twitter updates on your home page and holds all your phone‘s info on a remote server, so you can access it anywhere and revise it instantly.
Motoblur features aside, the Dext runs the Android operating system, has a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 5Mp Camera, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, A-GPS and a host of additional apps. However, for UK users, it’s initially only available on the Orange network. The Motorola Dext is a fairly chunky device at 114x58x16mm and 163g. Still, its designers have made the effort to soften its brick-like tendencies by tapering the front edges dramatically. This actually feels a bit odd at first, since the top half sits slightly inside the bottom half, but it turned out to be quite a practical solution. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Do pocket media players need built in speakers? Certainly, apart from the Touch, Apple doesn’t seem to think so and let’s face it, love it or loathe it, Apple knows a thing or two about selling MP3 players to world+dog.
Sonic boon? Sony’s Walkman NWZ-S544
Sony, however, begs to differ and has launched a new series of Walkman players complete with built-in Stereospeakers. A stroke of genius, or a niche too far? Physically, the new S class resembles a slightly stretched version of the E-class player we looked at last month.
Happily the installation of two small speakers at the top and bottom hasn’t done too much to increase the size of the device which, at 49.3 x 99.3 x 10.2mm and 68g, remains reasonably light and compact despite having a 2.4in, 240 x 320 display, rather than the E’s 2in affair.
External controls are the now familiar Walkman norm, the only major difference being the addition of a rocker to switch the speakers on and off. The speakers, which face both forward and back, are mounted on the left hand side of the player at both the top and bottom. They are concealed by robust grilles, which bode well for the device’s longevity. Read the rest of this entry »
Review LG’s first Chocolate was promoted as a style phone but now, several incarnations in, its become more than just a sweet talker. The LG New Chocolate BL40 looks like nothing else (except perhaps a bar of Cadbury’s Bourneville), with its 21:9 cinematic widescreen and elongated proportions. Yet, besides its unusual look, it also has a 5Mp Camera, Wi-Fi, HSDPA 3G, A-GPS, an upgraded S-Class UI with widgets and an FM radio, plus a host of other features.
Dandy candy: LG’s New Chocolate BL40
To our eyes, the BL40 looks lovely, with its glass front, glossy black plastic back, tasteful metal strip around the sides with some snazzy red trim on top and bottom. This distinctive look won’t appeal to everyone but get better acquainted with it, and there’s a lot to like. Initially, the dimensions of 128 x 51 x 11mm seem bizarre but we soon got used to its stretch limo aesthetics. At 129g it’s no lightweight, but at least feels sturdy and well made in the hand.
Around the sides the controls are rather stylishly built into that metallic strip and include a volume rocker, Camera shutter, music key, a micro USB socket covered by a plastic grommet and there’s a 3.5mm jack plug on top next to the power key. The back is plain except for the Schneider Kreuznach Camera lens and LED flash. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Following on from the original Solid SGH-M110 and the recent B2700 Bound, the GT-B2100 Solid Extreme is the latest in a line of Samsung handsets that show themselves as well ’ard. While designed for harsh outdoor conditions, the Solid Extreme nevertheless touts features we typically expect to find on phones these days, namely a music player, FM radio and a Camera.
Tough call: Samsung’s GT-B2100 Solid Extreme
However, this model lacks the higher-speed 3G multimedia capabilities of the Bound and misses out on its compass, altimeter and pedometer gimmickry. Its Camera is also an entry-level 1.3Mp shooter, so you won’t be getting scintillating shots of the great outdoors either.
Where the Solid Extreme does flex its biceps is in its sheer ruggedness – its raison d’être. Complying with the IEC IP57 standard, the Solid Extreme can take more than the bit of the water-splashing that’s covered by its stablemates’ IP54 accreditation. The IP57 ‘ingress protection’ standard means the Solid Extreme is waterproof, rather than just ‘water-resistant’.
The GT-B2100 can be submerged to a depth of 1 metre for 30 minutes without becoming a damp squib – a level of sealing that also delivers dust- and sand-resistance too. A further beefing up of this Solid’s tough-guy image is reflected in its compliance with US military standard MIL-STD-810F. So if you want to make a call in environments of blowing rain, shock, salt fog, humidity, solar radiation, vibration and extreme temperature the phone will be fine even if you’re not, assuming a decent signal, of course. Read the rest of this entry »
Head-to-head With the market for mid-range MP3 players never having been more competitive, seeing Sony and Samsung fight it our for advantage is like watching two wannabe WAGs scrap over a premiership footballer who is rumoured to be hung like a horse and has a Manchester City transfer cheque in his pocket.
Sony’s Walkman E444: the better looking of the two
So with both Sony and Sammy releasing new media players with similar specifications at the same time and at virtually the same price Register Hardware thought it would be a good idea to review them together. Another reason for doing so is that both devices are direct replacements for media players that we reviewed towards the end of 2008: the Samsung Q1 and the Sony NWZ-E436F.
Sammy’s Q1 was a player that didn’t really impress us. The controls where a horrible example of design taking precedence over function and, try as we might, we couldn’t get the thing to show up on the Desktop of either a Linux box or a Mac. On the plus side, it sounded good.
Thankfully, this time round, Samsung has reconsidered the controls. We’re still not convinced a wholly flat, smooth and solid touchpad is the best way to control a media player. Still, the Q2 does what you expect it to when you touch any of the seven controls. Read the rest of this entry »
