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 The LG GD900 Crystal wouldn’t be the first mobile to sell itself on a gimmick. But in today’s increasingly competitive market, a gimmick just isn’t enough. The new Crystal’s schtick is that it has a see-through keypad – as in, transparent.
LG’s GD900 Crystal
It’s not completely transparent of course, the numbers are displayed as grey etchings, which light up when the keypad is touched. And it’s not just a keypad either, since it also doubles as a multi-function trackpad.
Also on board is a 3in touch screen, 8Mp Camera, HSDPA 3G (7.2Mbps), quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, the Symbian S60 operating system and LG’s very cool S-Class user interface. So it’s clearly more than just a pretty keypad.
The LG GD900 Crystal isn’t the slimmest or lightest slider at 105 x 53 x 14mm and 120g but it’s perfectly pocketable, nonetheless. The front is dominated by the 3in, 800 x 480 pixel, capacitive touch screen and above it are loudspeaker, VGA Camera and light sensor. Below the screen are three touch-sensitive keys: call start and stop, plus a shortcut to the spinning cube version of LG’s S-Class interface, which we last saw on the Viewty Smart. Read the rest of this entry »
Review It seems like it’s been a long time coming, but the TG01 is finally here. Toshiba’s latest venture into the smart phone market is a Windows Mobile device but, in terms of size, looks unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Toshiba’s TG01
It’s bigger, thinner and, according to Toshiba, faster any other phone out there, thanks to its 1GHz processor. The TG01 also has HSDPA 3G (7.2Mbps), Wi-Fi, A-GPS and a 3.2Mp Camera, which ought to put it in the front running with the best of the latest rash of high-end smart phones. It ought to, but appearances can be deceiving.
Yes indeed, the Toshiba TG01 is certainly bigger than the rest, and thinner too, at 130x70x9.9mm, just a whisker under the magic 1cm line. It’s no heavyweight either at 129g, which makes it surprisingly pocketable. Admittedly, it’s a bit awkward for a jeans pocket perhaps, but its slimness means that it will fit very nicely into the inside breast pocket of a suit. Read the rest of this entry »
