Review LG has produced a slew of good-looking handsets recently, not least with its sleek ‘n’ smooth Chocolate series. With its S-class UI it’s also got a snappy icon-based interface which gets a little bit of an update with the LG GM750.
LG’s GM750: all the trimmings, but lacks finesse
The phone is exclusive to Vodafone and echoes the good looks of LG’s higher end smart phones as well as much of their specs, including a 3in touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.5, a 5Mp Camera, Wi-Fi and HSDPA 3G with downloads up to 7.2 Mbps. Even so, actually using it turned out to be a bit of a pain
Looking not hugely different from other LG touch screen phones such as the Arena and Cookie, the GM750 is fairly chunky at 110x54x13mm and 120g but it has slick bevelled sides and corners to lessen the effect.
Above the touchscreen is a VGA Camera for video calls, light sensor and speaker, with touch-sensitive call start and stop buttons below with a navpad in-between. This is nicely sensitive by the way, and often proved preferable to using the screen itself, as we’ll see. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Acer has been successful in the laptop market by building low-cost, efficient computers that deliver the goods for less dosh than many of its big-brand brethren. When it first began manufacturing smart phones earlier this year, we had high hopes that they’d be able to pull of the same trick. Yet, Acer’s first four Windows Mobile smartphones seemed out-of-date almost as soon as they hit the shelves, and there was the feeling that they were old Glofish models with a new badge.
Acer’s beTouch E101: Price and performance payoff?
The latest beTouch batch, however, are new, with improved processors and the latest Windows Mobile 6.5. The E101 is the lowliest of the bunch, way behind the range-topping neoTouch S200, and claims distinction as the market’s cheapest WinMo smartphone. But with no Wi-Fi, no 3G and an exceptionally poor screen, could Acer have made a compromise too far?
The Acer beTouch E101 is a fair old handful at 113 x 56 x 13mm, but feels lighter than it looks at 118g. Part of the reason for this is its rather cheap and plasticky casing, which feels particularly flimsy on the thin back panel.
Beneath the large 3.2in screen is a large circular navpad with an outer scroll wheel and an inner action button. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it is a genuine scroll wheel which allows you to twirl through menus and web pages, but also has pressure points underneath, so it doubles as a five-way navpad. On each side of it are hard buttons for call start and stop, as well as back and home. Read the rest of this entry »
Review The original BlackBerry Storm launched around this time last year as Research-in-Motion’s premier handset and quickly lost no time in dividing opinion along Marmite-style lines. Mostly, people either loved or hated its innovative SurePress ‘floating’ touch screen, which made crystal clear the distinction between a brush a press by requiring you to depress the glass screen cover for it to make contact and access functions. For some, it just felt wrong, like something had come loose, but to others, it made perfect sense.
Missing link: RIM’s BlackBerry Storm 2 9520, now with Wi-Fi
With the BlackBerry Storm 2 9520 the floating screen has been retained and updated, and RIM would have us believe that it’s better than before. To pique interest beyond the Marmite divide, the new Storm has also got Wi-Fi and more Flash memory, plus a little bit of social network integration.
Unusually for a next-gen phone, the Storm2 is actually slightly bigger than its predecessor, though there’s not much in it. At 112.5 x 62.2 x 13.95mm it’s gained 0.5mm in length and a mere 0.05mm in thickness, and at 160g it’s 5g heavier. The new screen looks much the same at first glance, but sits closer to the edge of the casing, so there’s less room for it to collect dust and grime in the corners, as the original Storm was prone to.
The handset is a little less blocky in appearance, the original’s strident chrome striping having been toned down a bit, and the buttons on the sides (volume rocker, Camera shutter, programmable voice notes button) now all sport BlackBerry‘s generic black rubberised plastic coating. Read the rest of this entry »
