Samsung Tocco Review

Reviewed by: Frank Lewis

When it comes to phones, buttons are out and touch sensitivity is most definitely in. Unfortunately, Samsung's previous touchscreen mobiles -- the Armani and F700 -- were slightly awkward to use.

Not to be defeated, the company is back with the Tocco, a new touchscreen handset that's available at Carphone Warehouse for free on a monthly contract or for around £350 SIM-free. It boasts a wealth of cool features and a completely redesigned user interface called TouchWiz. Is it a case of third time lucky for Samsung?

Strengths
Some of the style and panache of Samsung's Armani phone has obviously rubbed off on the Tocco, as the two look remarkably similar. Like the Armani, the front of the handset is dominated by the large touchscreen, with only three physical buttons -- call answer, call end and main menu -- to break up the clean lines.

The Tocco's touchscreen is capacitive, making it a lot more responsive to touch than previous Samsung touchscreen phones

We've criticised Samsung's touchscreen phones in the past for their drab, monochrome-style interfaces, but the new TouchWiz interface is a breath of fresh air in comparison. It's faster and more responsive and also has adjustable haptic feedback where the phone vibrates slightly when you touch menus or icons.

The interface looks great on the 71mm (2.8-inch) display and features a cleaner layout with more colourful icons. We also really like the slick animations when you move between screens. For example, when you switch from the main menu to the new widgets screen, the display revolves with a pleasing 3D animation.

On the back of the Tocco, there's a 5-megapixel camera with an LED photo light

This new widgets screen is probably the most innovative aspect of the handset. It features a dock on the left-hand edge from where you can drag various applications on to your home screen to personalise it. Widgets range from a music player to digital and analogue clocks, as well as games and a picture viewer. Up to seven widgets can sit on the home screen at any one time. We love it because it provides a neat way of grouping together the stuff that you want to access most often.

There's plenty more to like about the Tocco. It supports HSDPA so you get fast Web access at speeds of up to 7.2Mbps and there are dual cameras for video calling. The main camera is also very impressive. It's a 5-megapixel model and besides autofocus and an LED photo light, it has face detection and smile detection. The latter automatically takes a picture when it spots a grinning mug in the shot. Add in extras like an FM tuner, RSS reader and 223MB of onboard memory and microSD card slot and you've got a feature packed handset.

Weaknesses
As the Tocco is a touchscreen handset, comparisons with the iPhone are inevitable. For the most part, it stands up well, but there are areas that could be improved a lot.

Right underneath the touchscreen are three hard keys that let you send and end calls, in addition to accessing a shortcut menu

In particular, the browser is poor compared to Safari. Whereas Safari makes full Web pages easily readable on the iPhone's small screen, the Tocco's browser struggles to pull off the same trick. The main problem is that there's no zooming feature to let you quickly hone in on areas of text or graphics. While you can move the page around by swiping your finger on the display, it's not as intuitive or as responsive as on Apple's handset.

There's no doubt that the TouchWiz interface is a huge improvement on Samsung's previous efforts, but we think it could still be tweaked further. Although it's mostly speedy, there are times when sluggishness creeps in to spoil the party.

Also, even though the smaller screen size on the Tocco means that it's a more petite handset that fits comfortably in your palm, the lack of screen real estate means that it's not quite big enough to fit a virtual keyboard. Instead, all input has to be done using T9, which isn't ideal when entering Web address or composing emails.

Conclusion
While the Tocco isn't quite an iPhone killer, it does look very stylish and offer up a plethora of great features, including an impressive camera and HSDPA support for speedy Web downloads. In our book, that still makes it one of the best touchscreen phones around at the moment.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

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LG KF700 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

It seems that the South Koreans have taken note of the iPhone's success and are heading into touchscreen territory faster than you can say, "hmm, that looks a bit like the iPhone". If you're not keen on Apple products, you may want to check out the LG KF700. It not only features a touchscreen but also comes with HSDPA (3.5G) and a slide-out keypad. Can it compete with the Jesus phone?

It's currently available on O2 from free on a monthly contract.

Design
The LG KF700 falls somewhere in between the LG Chocolate and the LG Prada. It's not particularly large compared to a phone such as the Nokia N73, but it will take up space in your pocket. We didn't find it too heavy to carry around and it felt solid enough to handle a few drops and hits.

The LG KF700 has a large touchscreen that gives you access to all the phone's features

On the front of the KF700, there's a large touchscreen similar to the Prada's. Hidden underneath, you'll find a standard keypad, and Chocolate owners will be familiar with its layout. It's not the most inspiring of designs, but it is functional. The keypad works well when you need to text and the screen is good for quickly jumping to apps and content.

Adding to the screen and keypad, a scroll wheel at the back of the KF700 gives you access to various features, such as the Web browser and music player. You can also use the scroll wheel to search through your contacts and music, which is useful if you want to look through a long list quickly.

Features
Similar to the LG Prada and Viewty, the KF700 uses a simple, icon-based interface that's fairly easy to understand. When you start the KF700 up for the first time, it gets you to align the touchscreen using your fingers or thumb, and there's no need for stylus. Vibrating feedback ensures that you know when you've tapped the screen.

An interesting feature on the touchscreen -- we've seen it mirrored on the recently launched Samsung Tocco -- is the ability to add widgets to the KF700's home screen. These include two clocks, a calendar and a notepad for taking quick notes. You can only have one widget up at the time but you can change them quite easily by opening the widget menu on the side of the screen.

On the back of the KF700, there's a scroll wheel that gives you quick access to certain apps and also lets you scroll quickly through your contacts and music

Once you've calibrated the touchscreen, you can get on with using the KF700's star features. These include HSDPA for accessing the Web at up to speeds of 7.2Mbps. To our disappointment, the KF700's browser doesn't render pages well, making full sites look like WAP sites. Plus, the browser interface feels clunky.

The KF700's music player fares better than its browser, providing a straightforward interface that allows you to create playlists, shuffle your music and display album art or visualisations with relative ease. Audio quality from the headphones is acceptable and you have the option to plug in your own cans using an in-line adaptor.

Although it's flat, the KF700's keypad is easy to use when texting

Rounding off the KF700's multimedia offerings is a 3-megapixel camera on the back that boasts autofocus, a relatively fast shutter speed and an easy to understand interface. Disappointingly, the LED photo light only worked okay for close up shots and didn't perform well at over a couple of metres, which meant photos of mates in dark pubs and clubs didn't come out well.

Something we did like was the photo editor. It's pretty basic, but lets you add effects and text to your pictures. You can quickly scribble text over a photo using your finger or the keypad, which is useful if you want to caption a shot and then send it to a friend.

Performance
Battery life lasted for around two days with intermittent use of the browser and music player. The battery was drained very quickly if we used HSDPA a lot, which is something you should watch out for if you're a mobile Internet addict. On a separate note, although the interface worked smoothly, there was a slight lag occassionaly.

Conclusion
The LG KF700 is definitely not the most exciting touchscreen handset out there, but it does work. Being able to use the keypad or touchscreen is useful -- neither is the epitome of greatness, though. In a market packed with better-featured touchscreen phones, the KF700 will struggle. If you're not bothered about owning a super phone, then it's worth a look.

Unless you're living under a rock, you'll know that Apple's new iPhone 3G will be available on 11 July as an alternative. You could also try the Samsung F700 that has similar features and boasts a full Qwerty keypad.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

E-TEN glofiish M810 Review

Reviewed by: Frank Lewis

The glofiish M810 is E-TEN's attempt to take on the raft of Windows Mobile smart phones with slide-out keyboards that have appeared lately. It's got plenty of extras, including an onboard GPS chip, but at around £435 SIM-free from expansys, it's not exactly cheap. Is it worth your hard-earned dosh?

Strengths
The M810 may not be the most exciting Windows Mobile phone to look at, but it certainly feels like it's built to last. The graphite-style finish on the front looks suitably professional for a phone that's likely to find its most comfortable niche among business users.

Push the phone apart and it opens with a satisfying clunk to reveal the full Qwerty keyboard that hides inside. The keys on the keyboard could be better, but they're reasonably large and much easier to use than the onscreen virtual keyboard when you're composing emails or sending text messages.

The M810 really can't be faulted when it comes to connectivity. Not only does it support HSDPA for speedy Web downloads, but you also get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. On top of this, E-TEN has added an onboard SiRF Star III GPS chip. There's a basic GPS application provided that shows your current coordinates, but if you want to really make the most of it, you'll need to invest in some navigation software.

The phone may primarily be aimed at business users, but E-TEN hasn't forgotten the fun stuff. For starters, it's added a 2-megapixel camera with autofocus and a flash for taking pictures as well as a secondary camera on the front for making 3G video calls. The main snapper isn't going to replace your digital camera, but the pictures are reasonable with natural-looking colours.

The phone also comes with a pair of decent headphones so you can listen to tunes via the Microsoft media player. If you get bored of your own selection of music, you can fire up the FM tuner to listen to Radio One.

The M810's call quality is excellent too, thanks to its loud speaker and good quality mic. The battery life isn't too bad either. You can expect to get around six hours talk time from it, which isn't bad for a Windows Mobile-based handset.

Weaknesses
Is it just us, or do Windows Mobile handsets seem to get bigger as time goes on? The M810 follows this trend and is not only very tall, but also very thick and heavy too, tipping the scales at nearly 180g. Bizarrely, although it uses quite a speedy processor – a 500MHz Samsung chip – it actually feels quite sluggish. Screen updates are especially slow and it seems to take an age to switch between portrait and landscape view when you slide out the keyboard.

The keyboard itself isn't wonderful either. Rather than proper keys, the letters are laid out on a flat plastic surface with raised edges around them, reminding us of the bygone days of the Sinclair ZX81. In fact, the controls in general aren't great, as even the hard buttons are on the small side and the telescopic stylus feels uncomfortable to hold.

We have to say that after using the Safari browser on the 2G iPhone, going back to Pocket Internet Explorer on the M810 is like travelling back in time. It really is spectacularly poor in comparison to the intuitive touch controls and speedy page zooming abilities of Safari.

Conclusion
To make an impression against the likes of the HTC TyTN II, the M810 really needed to offer something special. Apart from the onboard GPS chip, however, it's a pretty pedestrian effort with the iffy keyboard, sluggish screen updates and bulky dimensions all letting the side down.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Nokia N78 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

With more multimedia-toting smart phones entering the market, Nokia's N-series is certainly less lonely than it was when it launched. Two years ago, handsets such as the Nokia N73 were topping the charts. Can Nokia repeat the same success with the Nokia N78 in today's feverish smart phone market?

The Nokia N78 is available SIM-free for around £300 and will be available shortly for free on a monthly contract.

Design
The Nokia N78's design harks back to the candy-bar roots of the first N-series phones. But while this design reminds us of the two-year-old N73, the N78 is much thinner than its predecessor and its glossy front and silver, curved border stands in line with Nokia's new design direction. We like the different approach, but some people have said they prefer the older, more boxy look of the N95. Preferences aside, one sure thing is that the glossy surfaces make it a fingerprint magnet and there's plenty of flat space to leave smudges.

The Nokia N78 has a large screen with a light sensor that adjusts its brightness depending on ambient light

The cancel, menu, send and end keys are flat but click when you push them, making them easy to use. Instead of a standard four-way navigation key, the N78's navigation key can be used like an iPod's scroll wheel. It works well for speeding through long lists, such as contacts or music tracks, but it's not very accurate when you move slowly. The navigation key is also fiddly to press up, down, left or right and detracts from the overall user experience.

One of the most interesting design features on the N78 is its keypad, which is made up of four horizontal lines. It looks like it shouldn't work well, but it's surprisingly easy to type on and much better than the N73's. Our only issue with the keypad area is that the cancel key is on the bottom right of the N78, which feels unusual compared to its normal location up at the top; fortunately, you do get use to it after a while.

Features
The N78 is like the N82's thinner cousin, boasting almost all of the same features. You'll notice when you start using the N78 that although it runs on S60 3rd edition, Nokia has tweaked the interface slightly so that it looks more flashy. When you go from one app to another, for example, there are transitional effects with an Apple OS X feel to them.

While the keypad looks weird, it's actually easy to use. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the navigation key

But it's not just about a fancy interface. HSDPA (3.5G) and Wi-Fi help you stay connected to the Internet almost everywhere you go and you can download third-party apps such as the Opera Mini browser for a desktop-like browsing experience.

Navigating around town is made easy using the N78's A-GPS; it picks up satellites very quickly using a combination of cell and satellite data. Navigating using Nokia Maps works well, particularly if you want step-by-step information, although you need to pay for certain services such as voice guidance. You might also want to try using Google Maps -- it's free and offers an aerial view option, which we really like.

The N78 comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera that disappointingly only comes with an LED photo light instead of a xenon flash

You can easily load up your N78 with music by dragging and dropping tracks via the PC software. Plus, there's a microSD card slot for adding extra storage space. A built-in 3.5mm headphone jack lets you plug your normal headphones straight in, which is a small but very important feature as it cuts out all the messing around with adaptors. The N78's stereo speakers pump out ample sound, but they certainly won't replace your hi-fi.

We're disappointed with the 3.2-megapixel camera on the N78. It can't compete with the camera on the N82, as the picture quality isn't very clear. There's no xenon flash either and without a camera cover, you have to wonder why Nokia has bothered.

Performance
Battery life lasted for about two days with medium to heavy usage, which is good going when you keep in mind how many features the N78 has. GPS and HSDPA hogged much of the battery, but if you're not planning on using them a lot, then there shouldn't be a huge problem.

Conclusion
The N78 is a mixed bag. It packs more features than most phones, but the camera is underwhelming and the navigation key is fiddly to use. It's by no means a terrible phone, but it's not a great one either.

Compared to the similarly-specced N82, we don't think it holds up very well. Sure, it's thinner and it'll help you find your way around as you browse the Web and listen to music, but the overall user experience isn't what we expected. With a few crucial tweaks, it could have been a much better phone.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Nokia E71 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

The Nokia E series has traditionally been an uninspiring collection of boxy phones, but last year saw a dramatic upturn in its fortunes. The Nokia E51 and E65 took the market by storm -- and it wasn't just businessmen buying them. The E series is beginning to look as attractive as its multimedia N-series siblings.

The Nokia E71 is the Finnish giant's latest addition to the E series and will be available in July. Pricing is set to be around €350 (around £280) SIM-free, and it will most likely be free on a monthly contract. But will it be another email knockout?

Design
The E71 is one of Nokia's most attractive smart phones to date. Many phones with Qwerty keypads lack a certain finesse, but the E71 wouldn't look out of place in an Aston Martin. Not only does it look good, its attractive metal casing feels very classy and it's not too heavy or too light.

A 10mm thick profile ensures it fits inside a pocket comfortably, even though it's wider than your average handset. The screen and Qwerty keypad are well laid-out -- a series of shortcut keys below the screen make it easy to access your emails, calendar and contacts. Although the keys are small, they're very usable, because each is raised, making it easy to distinguish between them. In fact, the E71's keypad is one of the best Qwerty keypads we've ever laid fingers on.

The E71's Qwerty keyboard is one of the best we've ever used

We inadvertently dropped the E71 a few times from waist height and it carried on working as if nothing had happened, thanks to its resilient casing. It truly is a stunning looking phone that will stand the test of time.

Features
Email-centric, business-oriented phones can be dull as ditchwater, but the E71 isn't lacking exciting features. Like the Nokia E90, this smart phone boasts more features than your average Nokia.

Having said that, it gets the basics right first. We can happily say that setting up your personal email, such as Gmail or Yahoo, is really easy. All you have to do is put in your email address and password -- that's it. The E71 also supports Microsoft Exchange, although it's a little harder to set that up, so you might want to get some help from your office IT guy, depending on your phone skills.

Connecting to the Internet to receive emails and browse Web sites is possible almost everywhere you go, via HSDPA (3.5G) or Wi-Fi. Using the built-in Wi-Fi scanner, it's easy to find a hotspot and connect to it. To save battery life, you should turn off Wi-Fi scanning when you're not using it.

Surfing the Net is better than with most built-in browsers. Pages are displayed in full and, interestingly, the E71's browser supports Flash and lets you watch YouTube videos, although it's fairly sluggish -- audio streams faster than video.

Because it runs on the S60 operating system, you can download a variety of programs, including our favourite mobile apps, Opera Mini and Google Maps. The E71 packs GPS, so you can use Google Maps' sat-nav feature to accurately track your location and get directions.

You can also use the pre-installed Nokia Maps for navigating around town. It does everything that Google Maps Mobile does, but with a few extras, including being able to save a screenshot and voice navigation, but you will have to pay for the latter.

A small but noteworthy feature is the E71's start page. It cleverly lets you display emails, apps and other features, but that's not all. You can set up one start page for home and one for work, flicking between the two depending on what you're up to. It's useful if you like to keep certain aspects of your life separate, such as work and personal emails.

The 3.2-megapixel camera is not the best of its type

The only feature that left us very disappointed was the 3.2-megapixel camera. Its shutter speed was slow and it took blurry photos. We hope the next model in the E series offers a better camera.

Performance
For a phone with so many features, we were really impressed with how long it could last on one charge. In our real-world testing, we used GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA regularly throughout the day, and we managed to squeeze two days out of the battery before it needed recharging. If you want to expand battery life even further, switching off all non-essential connections, such as Wi-Fi and HSDPA, helps significantly.

Conclusion
Most business phones leave you yearning for something a little more refined, something that will get the job done but also work well as a phone for home. The Nokia E71 is the business phone we've all been waiting for.

It looks gorgeous, it works well and most importantly it packs enough features to deal with a smorgasbord of situations. We're disappointed with its camera, but we think this is one of the best Nokia email phones to date, and highly recommend it if you're looking for a phone with a Qwerty keypad.

Edited by Nick Hide

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Sony Ericsson W350i Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

In 1999, Ericsson brought out the classic -- and popular -- T28 flip phone. With a nod to its past success, Sony Ericsson has released a new budget Walkman handset.

The Sony Ericsson W350i is a Walkman entrant with a retro appearance and pseudo-candy bar form factor. It's out now on a range of networks, coupled with both pay as you go or for free on contract price plans.

Design
The W350i's retro appearance is the result of the seldom seen flip phone design. When open, the flip panel reveals an easy-to-use glossy keypad comprising fairly large, smooth buttons. When closed, concealing the keypad, it plays host to dedicated Walkman buttons on its exterior, making the handset much more like a Sony MP3 player when in standby.

The flip panel does its job well enough, but it's quite flimsy and actually bends -- a result of Sony Ericsson's desire to keep this handset just 11mm thick, though the rest of the handset is reasonably rugged and should survive the odd drop.

We also found it to be a nice phone to use -- it's ergonomic, fairly lightweight and sports an attractive finish in a range of colours. While small, the 176x220-pixel screen is bright and clear.

A small annoyance: while the Walkman buttons on the front of the flip panel allow you to play, pause and skip tracks, you have to fold it down to navigate to other albums or artists.

Features
Slightly annoying too is that unlike almost all MP3 players, neither protected nor unprotected WMA files are supported -- only MP3 and AAC files are compatible, including DRM-free iTunes Plus downloads.

You can use Windows Media Player or Sony Ericsson's bundled media manager software to sync content and the latter supports podcast subscriptions. You can also simply drag and drop content using Windows.

Aside from weak audio compatibility, there's a rear-mounted 1.3-megapixel camera without a flash for still images only, plus FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, email and RSS support, games, but sadly no 3.5mm headphone socket. This is a standard seen across the industry, despite our constant complaints.

Bear in mind that this is a 2.5G handset, not 3G, and as such Internet browsing speeds won't blow you away. Installing Opera Mini would be a good move if you plan on using the Internet on this phone.

Performance
Of course, this slow network performance is the result of this phone being geared almost exclusively towards music playback, despite the sparse audio format support.

After a very slow file transfer (roughly 15 to 20 seconds per song, 3 minutes or so per album), we started listening to some tunes and heard pretty decent sound quality -- as long as MP3s are encoded at a decent bit rate (at least 192Kbps). We used our high-end reference headphones, but you'll at least want to replace the rubbish bundled earphones with a decent pair.

Dashboard Confessional's nicely recorded Fever Dreams had warm and decent detail through the W350i and its general sound quality was on par with a good standalone MP3 player.

We did feel though that Dream Theater's Take Away My Pain sounded cleaner through Creative's Zen with subtle background sounds just slightly less well defined though the W350i. If you don't plan on using earphones any better than the bundled pair, though, you'll probably -- and sadly -- never notice this.

It's a fun phone to use with simple menus and reasonably large fonts, so phone addicts and newbies alike should enjoy using it. Call quality is good as well, though we've heard louder -- it might not be ideal if you plan on using it in mostly loud environments.

As a pocket camera, it's fine for quick snaps, but it can't compare to even slightly more capable handsets in terms of image quality (example here). Don't forget there's no flash, either.

Conclusion
Considering its price, its ease of use and its generally decent performance, it's hard not to like this compact little handset. But it's still no match for a dedicated MP3 player, which we'd choose over solely using the W350i for music in a heartbeat.

Still, few handsets -- bar the iPhone -- offer music playback capabilities to rival dedicated MP3 players, but if you fancy a better camera and more phone features, Sony Ericsson's more costly models will cater and are still the best of the bunch as music handsets.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

HTC Touch Diamond Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

The HTC Touch Diamond is a brave new product that tries to capture some of the iPhone's popularity by featuring a finger-friendly interface that looks better than anything we've seen on a Windows Mobile handset before. But can HTC apply Apple's success by using Windows Mobile and a fancy new interface?

The HTC Touch Diamond will be available soon on most major networks for free on a monthly contract.

Design
The HTC Touch Diamond looks fantastic compared to any Windows Mobile phone we've seen before. It's not too large or small and has a thin profile, which makes it easy fit into a pocket. Unlike previous models, HTC has added an attractive twist to the design of the back of the phone by using a prism-like surface. It looks less boring that your traditional smart phone.

The HTC Touch Diamond has a glossy front that looks good, but picks up fingerprints very easily

The Touch Diamond's VGA (640x480 pixels), 71mm (2.8-inch) touchscreen is very sharp and displays pictures really well. Unfortunately, it's very glossy, so you may struggle to see what's going on in bright light. Another disadvantage of the Diamond's glossy surfaces is that they pick up unsightly fingerprints on the back and face grease on the front. Expect to clean this phone often if you want to keep it looking good.

Considering how many features the HTC Touch Diamond has, it's very thin and fits into a pocket

Underneath the touchscreen, you'll find a set of flat, clickable keys. Interestingly, the four-way navigation key doubles up as a touch-sensitive scroll wheel in certain apps such as the photo viewer, letting you zoom in and out of pictures. Bizarrely, the scroll wheel doesn't work everywhere, which is a shame, particularly since we would have liked to use it to scroll through long contact lists or music tracks.

Features
Considering its size, the Touch Diamond is packed with features. It's one of the most feature-rich Windows Mobile phones out there and boasts almost everything you'd need on the move. There's GPS that you can use with Google Maps -- it looks great on the Diamond's screen, too -- and HSDPA and Wi-Fi, which makes browsing the Web and picking up emails fast and possible almost everywhere you go.

A customised version of Opera Mobile also makes surfing the Internet enjoyable. It lets you see an entire page and then zoom in on the parts you want to see properly. Opera Mobile also lets you open new tabs, which means you can navigate through a few different pages without needing to open new windows. It's one of our favourite apps and it works well on the Diamond's ample touchscreen.

Another customised app offered on the Touch Diamond is provided by YouTube. You can watch YouTube videos via Wi-Fi or HSDPA and search through YouTube's directory or just check out the latest videos. It seemed to load videos slowly using HSPDA and worked better using Wi-Fi. Picture quality on the Touch Diamond was much better than any previous HTC incarnations, thanks to its VGA screen. Still, it didn't look as good as on an iPhone because the screen isn't as large.

The lack of a flash on the camera mean that shots in low light don't come out very well

If you're not in the mood for videos and fancy games instead, the Touch Diamond comes with a ball and hole game. It's simple, but very fun: you use the phone's motion sensor to navigate a ball into a hole by moving the whole phone. You can 'feel' the ball bumping into the sides of a wall and the pressure of it dropping into the hole. New games using the Diamond's motion sensor have yet to be announced.

This is by far HTC's most consumer-oriented handset to date, so we were keen to see how good the music player and camera were. Joining these features together is a proprietary interface called TouchFLO 3D. It's more attractive and finger friendly than the standard Windows Mobile interface but -- and this is a big but -- it doesn't run very smoothly. While we'd like to say that HTC has cracked the touchscreen smart phone with its fancy new interface, we think that it's still got a long way to go.

As you can see, the glossy bottom surface has a distinct style, but also picks up smudges

The TouchFLO 3D's music interface looks similar to Apple's Cover Flow, but it's fiddly to use and at times froze up. You're better off using the Windows Media player. Annoyingly, you have to use the proprietary headphones to listen to music, which didn't impress us at all.

As for the 3.2-megapixel camera, it took passable shots in daylight, but the lack of a flash meant that photos didn't come out well in low light. Compared to phones such as the Nokia N82 or the recently-announced Sony Ericsson C905 -- both of which feature better cameras and xenon flashes -- we really think HTC has to up its game.

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Samsung Solid Review

Reviewed by: Sandra Vogel

Samsung is a prolific producer of mobile phones. Its range extends from consumer-focused handsets through to high-powered smart phones. The company has recently produced its first rugged handset, the Samsung Solid (or more formally, the SGH-M110). It's available from O2 and Orange for free on a monthly contract.

Design
The Samsung Solid isn't a fully rugged mobile phone. It meets the IP54 standard, which means it's designed to survive water splashes and some knocks and drops. However, it's not intended to survive immersion in water or to suffer the indignity of being driven over, trodden on or otherwise treated with extreme harshness.

With that in mind, the Solid isn't the chunkiest of mobile phones either, although its rubbery outer shell is distinctive. The mostly matte black finish lends the phone a certain industrial look and also has a practical use in that it helps with grip. This is particularly apparent when you're wearing gloves. The material used is much easier to grip than the shiny plastic or metal used for many handsets.

A key consideration for any rugged device is how the ports and connectors are protected. The Solid has only one connector, which is shared by the mains power adaptor and headset. It's proprietary, protected by a cover hinged on one side. As far as we can see, there's no protection against dust or water when the port is uncovered; even when covered, water could seep around the seal.

The only other control around the edges is a volume rocker. This is not moulded into the rubber shell but is a separate button. Again, it looks as though water could seep in.

The front is the hardest zone to protect against ingress of foreign matter. Most of the buttons on the front are protected by a single piece of soft rubber. This covers the number keys, call and end keys, and soft-menu keys. The navigation pad and its central button are separate, as are two silver keys to the far left and right of the navigation pad. The left one activates the handset's speakerphone, while the right one is a delete key and also has a second function, which we will come to shortly.

The backplate is held firmly in place by a rotating lock. There looks to be a good seal between it and the main body of the device.

During testing, which included a long weekend of use involving rain, snow, sleet and mud, the screen became slightly scratched, but not to a significant degree. Our main concern with the screen is its small size. At just 38mm (1.5 inches) across the diagonal, the screen does not offer a great deal of viewable information at once, and its 128x128-pixel resolution is low.

The screen technology is CSTN, which is not often used in mobile phones these days. Nevetheless, it proved perfectly adequate during testing as far as brightness and visibility were concerned.

Overall, the Samsung Solid is a little larger than the usual candybar mobile phone at 48 by 109 by 18mm. It's light at 95g. It comes with a stereo headset and a clasp that's fixed to the phone via a lanyard and can be used to tether the phone to a belt loop or otherwise secure it about your person.

Features
The Samsung Solid is a relatively basic handset as far as features go. It's a dual-band GSM phone with GPRS support. Bluetooth is built in, but perhaps not surprisingly, there's no Wi-Fi.

It also lacks a flash memory card slot for expanding on the 2MB of internal memory. Space is allocated for 500 phone-book entries. Each entry can include a landline, mobile, office and fax number as well as an email address and one number designated as 'other'. You can add a text note to an entry and assign individual entries to a group; it's also possible to append an image to an entry and assign it a ringtone.

Applications include a voice recorder, WAP browser, calendar, to-do list, memo utility, clock, three alarms, calculator, unit converter, timer and stopwatch. There's an FM radio, but no music player.

The camera at the back shoots stills at up to VGA resolution (640x480 pixels), which puts it a long way behind even a mid-range smart phone. Picture quality is poor, with shutter lag making it difficult to take photos of anything moving. It may suffice for basic image capture tasks.

We mentioned that the front-facing delete key has a second function. This relates to the flash, which sits next to the camera lens. Press the delete key for a second or so and the flash is turned on permanently so it can be used as a torch. Press the key again and the flash is turned off. This doesn't work when the keypad is locked. Since the keypad locks after about five seconds unless you disable the feature -- and to unlock it takes about five seconds, too -- this can be irritating.

The phone incorporates an SOS feature. If you tap the front-facing volume button three times, an SOS message is sent to a nominated person. Once this has been sent, the next call to the handset is automatically answered. This feature is clearly intended primarily for those engaged in challenging outdoor activities, but could have wider appeal.

Performance
The rubberised casing helps protect this handset against knocks and drops, although we doubt it would survive being trodden on or driven over. If nothing else, the screen may be vulnerable to shattering.

The outstanding feature of the Samsung Solid is probably its battery life. Samsung claims 8 hours of talk time and up to 400 hours on standby. During testing, we got 15 days of usage between charges and this included making a relatively small number of phone calls, sending some text messages and listening to the radio in short bursts.

Conclusion
The Samsung Solid has limited appeal because of its realative paucity of features compared to a smart phone. It could fit the bill for those who work in trades where dust, dirt, water and occasional drops are a perennial problem.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Toshiba Portege G810 Review

Reviewed by: Frank Lewis

With the Portege G810, Toshiba is trying to coax smart phone users to go without a trusty stylus. Instead, it wants them to rely on its touch interface that it's grafted on top of G810's Windows Mobile OS. It's a similar tactic to that adopted by HTC with its Touch range of phones -- including the HTC Touch Diamond we recently reviewed -- but can this £360 handset pull off the same trick?

Strengths
There's been a spate of chunky Windows Mobile devices dropping through our letter box of late, but thankfully, the G810 bucks this trend. Instead, it's a rather petite machine that's only slightly shorter and thicker than the iPhone.

The handset runs the latest version of Microsoft's smart phone OS, Windows Mobile 6.1, so you get some improvements like full page zooming in Internet Explorer and the cleaner Home screen.

However, you won't see much of the latter because you'll be using Toshiba's own touch interface that sits over the top of Window Mobile. It's designed specifically to be used with your fingers rather than a stylus and presents most functions as large, easily-pressed buttons on the phone's 71mm (2.8-inch) touchscreen.

In use, the handset feels pretty sprightly, thanks to the 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor and with 256MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM, there's a decent amount of storage space on offer. You can increase this all the way up to 4GB if you like by adding cards via the microSD slot on lefthand side of the phone.

Connectivity is excellent too. The phone supports HSDPA up to a maximum speed of 3.6Mbps and it also supports HSUPA, which offers faster upload speeds of up to 2Mbps on networks that support this feature. Naturally, the old stalwarts of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are also included.

Toshiba hasn't forgotten the fun stuff either. The handset is supplied with stereo headphones for listening to tunes either via the phone's media player or the onboard FM tuner. There's also a 3-megapixel camera, complete with LED flash and a micro mirror. It takes quite decent snaps and is backed up by a second VGA resolution camera on the front so you can use the phone to make 3G video calls, if you want.

Weaknesses
With the addition of its own touch interface, Toshiba has tried desperately to make Windows Mobile not just more finger friendly, but also more user friendly. It does work in parts as the large, friendly icons are much nicer to work with than the usual Windows Mobile menus. However, the big problem is that you frequently find yourself tapping on a large user-friendly button only to be dumped back into the more usual Windows Mobile interface, which really requires you to fall back on the stylus.

Matters are made worse by the fact that Toshiba has given this phone possibly the worst stylus we've ever come across. It's actually part of the case that clips off, rather than a neat stylus with its own slot. When you unclip it, you'll find that it curves around at the end, making it almost impossible to hold straight, let alone use.

It's not the only problem that afflicts this phone as the handset also suffers from poor battery life. Although it'll run for around eight days in standby, when you start actually making calls on it, the handset gives up the ghost after just 4 hours. That's poor even by smart phone standards.

Conclusion
The G810 is packed full of great technology. It supports HSDPA for speedy downloads, has a decent camera and great connectivity with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. However, although Toshiba has tried its best to make the Windows Mobile operating system more user friendly with its own touchscreen interface, the result falls between two stools. At the end of day, the G810 simply feels like a phone that's using the wrong OS.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

Motorola Rokr E8 Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Sony Ericsson's Walkman handsets may be something of a household name when it comes to music phones, but as they consistently lack standard headphone sockets or support for common music file formats, it shouldn't be too difficult for another company to leap ahead.

Motorola's Rokr E8 is pitched -- purely and simply -- as a phone for music and a phone for the style-conscious. It's available for free on a monthly contract from O2 and Orange.

Design
When it's switched off, you'd be forgiven for thinking the E8 is simply a large, black slab. With its lights switched off, the handset appears to have no buttons and few controls.

The haptic keypad is pressure-sensitive -- sort of a cross between a physical button and typical touch-sensitivity à la iPhone. It mimics a physical keypad really well, making speed texting reasonably easy.

We were thrilled to see a 3.5mm headphone socket, meaning any decent headphones you have will work fine. There's also no unsightly slots dotted around; the microSD slot sits next to the SIM slot inside the handset -- good for aesthetics, bad if you swap cards a lot.

We initially took issue with the screen, as at 51mm (2 inches) diagonally, it's hardly huge. But it's very crisp, very bright and extremely pleasant to read.

Features
This isn't a 3G handset, so if you plan on browsing the Web, either don't buy this phone or be prepared to browse very slowly. Alternatively, you can install Opera Mini. It works with EDGE and GPRS, plus quad-band compatibility makes this a good phone for use around the world.

A 2-megapixel camera sits on the back of the handset, though it's not backed up with any flash. Inside, you'll find 2GB of onboard memory, which could be better, but it can be expanded with microSD up to 4GB in capacity.

Even better, these two pools of memory are automatically combined, meaning music stored in the phone's memory is combined with music stored on microSD within the main music library, itself accessible with a dedicated music key.

Compatible music formats include MP3, AAC, WMA and WAV, but the E8 doesn't support protected WMA/AAC from the likes of Napster or iTunes. What is supported can be played through headphones or wirelessly via stereo A2DP Bluetooth.

Performance
Using the E8 takes some getting used to, particularly if you're joining the Motorola scene after using a Nokia or Sony Ericsson handset. After about a week of adjustment, it becomes pretty simple.

There's a noticeable amount of lag when navigating menus -- split-second delays between item selections and menu scrolling makes lightening-fast browsing somewhat difficult. The touch-sensitive scroll 'wheel' does make long lists easy to browse, happily.

Texting with the pressure-sensitive keypad is actually much more fluid than we initially expected. Predictive typing modes are hit and miss in terms of the accuracy of their predictions, but on the whole, it's a pretty enjoyable experience -- not what you'd assume considering the handset's lack of physical buttons. Motorola has done an excellent job at harnessing the haptic technology it's used.

As a music player, we found the E8 to be superb in terms of audio quality. Through our reference headphones and using uncompressed CD-quality WAV files, the E8 offered a full-bodied, powerful sound when playing Dream Theater's 6:00.

With the Freemasons' remix of Shakira and Beyoncé's pop duet Beautiful Liar, we again heard excellent audio performance -- good bass, a strong mid-range and although a little harsh at higher volumes, an acceptable and bright treble.

Good too was call quality, although it's not the single loudest earpiece we've come across. It wouldn't go down as the most ideal phone to use if you're perpetually working with drills and jet engines.

Conclusion
There's no doubt in our mind that this is a great handset and a smashing music phone. It'll take a while to get used to it and its laggy navigation makes it annoying at times.

But its great sound quality, 3.5mm headphone socket and decent file format support absolutely make it a cut above the rest. As of right now, it's one of our favourite music phones, even though it's not quite a solid replacement for a dedicated MP3 player.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Sony Ericsson W760i Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Ever since we first set eyes on Sony Ericsson's W760i Walkman phone, we knew we'd love it. It enters the music phone market and goes up against one of our all-time favourite music handsets, the W890i. As this slider phone faces some tough competition -- even from its own siblings -- is it everything we hoped for? It's available for free on a monthly contract from networks including O2 and T-Mobile.

Design
This stylish handset immediately feels good to use, with a solid, lightweight build and in our opinion, an attractive design for business or personal use. Sliding out the keypad reveals a smashing set of large, flat keys, which are soft to push and easy for speedy texting.

A Memory Stick Micro slot sits on top of the phone for easy memory card swapage. It's also possible to unlock and navigate the Walkman features of the W760i without sliding out the keypad, using a dedicated Walkman button. This is extremely useful for when you're listening to music.

What isn't useful is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone socket, immediately nulifying any chance of us recommending this handset as a suitable replacement to a dedicated MP3 player. You'll need to use the bundled plastic proprietary adaptor in order to use your own headphones, resulting in roughly 3 metres of cable between your ears and the phone. But that's our only massive criticism of the W760i's design.

Features
This quad-band music phone has some distinctly non-music phone features. Firstly, an accelerometer detects the phone's position in space. It knows when it's being tilted and in what direction. For instance, if you tilt the phone on its side when viewing a photo, the photo will rotate to better fit the screen.

This also allows you to control games by tilting the phone. EA's Need For Speed Pro Street 3D racing game comes pre-installed among others. Its cars can be steered and accelerated by tilting the handset in a variety of directions.

Sony Ericsson also crammed in GPS navigation, coupled with Google Maps and Wayfinder Navigator for helping you get around in unfamiliar locations. A 3-megapixel camera will let you take photos and videos of these locations and email them over the W760i's high-speed HSDPA data connection.

Download the amazing -- and free -- Opera Mini browser and the W760i becomes a blisteringly fast Internet browsing device, too. Sony Ericsson has bundled an integrated RSS feed reader into the slick dedicated media menus, so even if you're not bothered about browsing the Web, you can at least keep up to date with news as its published.

DRM'd WMA content purchased from most online music download stores should be supported -- we had no problem playing some protected Dream Theater tracks purchased from Napster. Sadly not supported are AIFF, OGG, FLAC and lossless WMA music formats. There's no gapless playback either, so live albums will have a second-long pause between tracks.

This is pretty typical for music phones and the supported formats -- unprotected MP3, WMA, AAC and WAV -- are at least the ones most commonly used in the music world. Additionally, A2DP stereo Bluetooth enables the W760i to work with any Bluetooth headphones you've got lying around.

Performance
We've enjoyed using this phone so much. Its menus are slick and attractive and the physical controls are well placed. It's not flawless, but we're confident most people will agree it's a nice handset to use.

Music can be dragged and dropped through Windows or synced with either Windows Media Player or Sony Ericsson's bundled software. We had trouble getting video on here, though, and we wouldn't recommend the W760i if watching video is a major desire. File transfers are also extremely slow -- around eight to ten seconds per 320Kbps MP3.

Testing with uncompressed, lossless WAV files, we heard a decent sound quality, though through our reference-grade headphones we could hear a tiny element of background distortion. Most people won't even notice this and it won't be an issue for casual listening. A keen ear with a good pair of earphones may spot it.

Call quality is great and you should get a brilliant 9 hours of calls or 400 hours of standby time. Pictures quality is okay too, though at full resolution there's a good deal of noise. Check out our full-res example shot here.

If there was one more thing we'd like, it'd be Wi-Fi. No, a music phone doesn't necessarily need it, but considering the inclusion of so many other features that aren't synonymous with music phones, Wi-Fi is notably absent from the W760i.

Conclusion
The W760i is probably our favourite Sony Ericsson Walkman phone to date and with its terrific design encasing a feature-packed and high-performing handset, it rivals even Nokia's N95. Even if you're not bothered about Walkman features, you'd be daft not to consider it for its other selling points.

Its biggest let down is its lack of a standard headphone socket. In this area, it's no competitor to dedicated MP3 players or the terrific 3.5mm-ready Motorola Rokr e8.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

LG KC550 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

LG has started picking up a reputation for producing high-end handsets, but that doesn't mean it isn't making other types, too. The LG KC550 is a pay as you go camera phone with a whopping 5-megapixel camera, designed for camera phone fans on a budget. We took it out for a spin to see if it's worth the money. You can pick one up for around £170 from various stores including expansys and Play.com.

Design
The LG KC550 is an attractive phone. It's not in a league with the iPhone 3G, but it's well balanced, featuring a solid casing with attractive silver details. On its front, you'll find a large, easy-to-view screen and underneath that, a set of well-sized navigation keys.

Slide the KC550 up and you'll unveil a flat keypad that we found comfortable for texting and didn't present any problems. Of course, the star of the show is the KC550's 5-megapixel camera, located at the back.

Protected by a solid metal sliding cover, the camera is activated when you slide this cover open. To take a picture, you hold the KC550 sideways, as you would a camera, and click a dedicated shutter button -- very straightforward.

Features
The KC550's camera takes relatively high-quality shots in daylight and doesn't present much shutter lag. You can adjust several settings, including white balance and sensitivity up to ISO 800.

Picture quality in daylight is good, with snaps coming out clear and balanced in terms of colour and brightness. The same can't be said for low-light pictures that don't come out as well because there's only an LED photo light.

For a 5-megapixel camera phone, you may be surprised to find that there's no 3G or Wi-Fi. This means that uploading pics or downloading data is slow. That said, you can send pics relatively quickly to friends via Bluetooth at close range.

Not having 3G doesn't mean that you can't browse the Web, especially if you download the Java-based Web browser, Opera Mini. During testing we found that it rendered pages speedily and was better than using the pre-installed browser.

If downloading Java apps and browsing the Web isn't your favourite slice of pie, there's always the KC550's music player and FM radio. Our only issue is that to use either, you have to use the proprietary headphones and there's no adaptor to plug in a standard pair.

An unexpected feature on the KC550 is the motion sensor that adjusts pictures to landscape or portrait depending on how you're holding the handset. It also enables a set of motion-based games also found on the LG Secret, which are simple but fun.

Performance
Battery life lasted for around two days with moderate use. With no 3G or Wi-Fi to hog the battery, we didn't see any massive energy dips. If you want to save on battery life, don't leave Bluetooth enabled all the time.

Conclusion
The LG KC550 isn't going to set the camera phone world on fire, but it's relatively cheap. While we're annoyed that it doesn't have 3G or Wi-Fi and the camera lacks a xenon flash, we think it's a good option if you're watching the pennies.

If you want something with more oomph then we suggest going for Nokia N82 that packs in almost every feature out there. You could also opt for the slimmer LG Secret, which boasts HSDPA (3.5G) and a 5-megapixel camera.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Apple iPhone 3G Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Carefully carried through the office like an unopened birthday present, the Apple iPhone 3G gently made its way to our desk. Floppy-haired co-workers eagerly huddled around, waiting for the screen to turn on and display all the new goodies the iPhone 3G has in store. Questions echoed around the room: would 3G be that much faster than EDGE? Does GPS make it a more useful phone?

There was simply no doubt that this is an exciting product, but after the hype dissolved and people went back to their desks, we had some important questions of our own to answer. If anything, Apple knows how to hype its products and for the most part it delivers, but the original iPhone wasn't perfect and we were determined to see whether the iPhone 3G had enough to offer over its predecessor to justify an upgrade.

The iPhone 3G is available to buy from Apple, Carphone Warehouse and O2's online and high street outlets. You can buy it on a monthly contract, starting at £30 a month with a £99 upfront charge for the 8GB model, or £159 for the 16GB. You can get it for free if you pay more than £45 a month. Alternatively there's a pay as you go option too, if you'd rather not be on a contract, but Apple hasn't yet announced the price.

Design
When you open the lid of the iPhone 3G's compact box, you'll think it's not really that different to the original iPhone. The front section is indeed very similar to its predecessor -- the screen is the same size, the ear speaker and home key at the bottom look the same and the silver rim around the edges is the same as the old one too.

It's when you take the iPhone 3G out of its box that you start to see the differences. The back section features plastic instead of metal and curved edges similar to the MacBook Air's. Technically it's thicker than the original at its thickest point, but the curved edges genuinely make it feel thinner. You'd expect it to feel more flimsy, but the type of plastic used makes it feel quite solid -- we do expect it to get scratched though.

Something else completely different in design to the original iPhone is the headphone jack. The original iPhone features a recessed jack, which only allows you to use headphones with pins that fit through the gap. The iPhone 3G's headphone jack is flush against the edge, meaning you can plug in any headphones, which will make a massive difference to the sound quality you can enjoy.

Overall, the feel of the iPhone 3G is, as expected, superb. It feels every inch how you want a smart phone to feel. It's neither too heavy nor too light, it feels solid without being overly bulky, and the screen -- almost identical to the original iPhone's -- is a joy to look at.

Features
When the iPhone first came out, many people were disappointed to see that it lacked 3G, among other things. As you may have gathered, Apple has fixed this -- in fact, it's gone one better and included HSDPA, which is an even faster version of 3G. And it makes a massive difference. Browsing the Web and watching YouTube videos is lightning fast compared to the old iPhone, which was hamstrung on EDGE. We loaded the Sky News homepage on the original iPhone in 1 minute 40 seconds. The iPhone 3G took just 40 seconds to load the same page -- over 2.5 times as fast.

GPS is another addition to the iPhone 3G's artillery -- and it blows the old model to smithereens. Compared to the original iPhone's cellular and Wi-Fi triangulation, using GPS on the iPhone 3G is far more accurate. GPS pinpointed our location to within metres rather than kilometres. For the time being it only works with Google Maps, which doesn't do voice navigation. Some pundits have suggested Apple isn't keen on third-party developers creating navigation apps, but we'll have to wait and see.

As for other apps, you'll be glad to know that the App Store is live and already features over 500 programs. You don't need to use the badly implemented Web-based apps anymore, or unlock your iPhone. Some of the apps come free, while others you have to pay for.

Apps range from simple games to Internet radio stations and it's extremely easy to download them. All you have to do is click on the desired app and it pops up in your iPhone 3G's menu, installing relatively quickly, depending on the size of the file. Most of the free apps aren't very useful, and some are frankly bizarre (such as an alarm that doesn't have a timer), but as the App Store increases in popularity we're sure much better free apps will appear.

As an iPod, there's little difference in sound quality between the original iPhone and the new 3G version. And that's through studio-grade reference headphones -- through bundled and inexpensive earphones, the difference between the two phones is all but non-existent. This is a good thing, since the sound quality is certainly impressive.

The iPod classic, for example, offers a slightly warmer sound, and is certainly the preferable performer to our ears. But listening to rock, folk, metal and pop, the iPhone 3G proved itself a smashing music player. And although its memory is limited, supporting lossless audio formats means it's capable of handling vastly superior audio when compared to almost every other phone ever made.

If you're not a big fan of listening to music, browsing the Web and downloading apps, then aside from wondering why you've bought an iPhone 3G, you may be pleased to know that it supports Microsoft Exchange. This lets you synchronise all your office emails, contacts and calendar entries over the air. You can also view Microsoft Office documents, but you can't edit them, which is frustrating.

While there are plenty of improvements on the iPhone 3G compared to the original iPhone, we're still disappointed to see that not all of the old problems have been resolved. The iPhone 3G's 2-megapixel camera isn't an improvement on the old one, there's no flash you still can't shoot video. MMS messages are still no go and there's no stereo Bluetooth to let you listen to music wirelessly.

Some of the above issues may be resolved with third-party apps, but the lack of movement in these areas is disappointing to say the least. In our opinion those are basic features that should come as standard on a high-end smart phone. On a similar note, given the iPhone 3G's spec, we also think that a VoIP client should have come with the new firmware as a cheaper way of making voice calls.

Performance
The iPhone 3G vastly supersedes the old iPhone when it comes to audio quality during calls. You can hear people loud and clear, with no noticeable distortion. The iPhone 3G's loudspeaker is also louder than its predecessor, but still not as loud as we'd like. Compared to the Nokia N82, the iPhone 3G operates at a whisper, and isn't great for sharing YouTube videos, for example.

We haven't had the iPhone long enough at this point to properly test the battery, but from our usage so far, we think it should last for around a day with moderate use of 3G and GPS. We'll update this section when we've exhausted the battery. There is an option to turn the 3G off if you want to save power. It's annoying that the battery cover still can't easily be removed, however.

Conclusion
The iPhone 3G is still hampered by a few minor problems that may or may not annoy you, such as the inability to send MMS, but overall we found it a joy to use. You don't immediately think, "Isn't it a shame it doesn't do that?" because what it does do well is so far in advance of other phones you almost forget its downsides.

If you're not tempted by the iPhone 3G, you could opt for the similarly specced Nokia N82, which also comes with HSDPA and GPS. If you're after a more affordable touchscreen phone, the Samsung Tocco has a responsive screen, but isn't as feature-rich as either the iPhone 3G or Nokia N82.

Edited by Nick Hide

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

HTC Advantage X7510 Review

Reviewed by: Brett James

The HTC Advantage X7510 smart phone adds Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and updates its Qwerty keypad with haptic feedback. Are these additions worth the price tag? The X7510 was supplied by clove.co.uk, where it's available for £656.

Strengths
Cosmetically, the X7510 is virtually identical to the original Advantage, though a few buttons have been removed from the front facia. The OS is now Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with a standard HTC customised home interface.

Its weight and larger profile are in place to accommodate the 127mm (5-inch) touchscreen display, which, despite its VGA resolution, will at least retain better compatibility with third-party programs.

Apart from the impressive 16GB of storage, miniSD card expansion and multimedia touches -- stereo speakers/3.5mm headphone jack -- the X7510's biggest improvement lies with its keyboard. While the keypad is completely flat, it does provide a dedicated number key row and the new haptic feedback system gives off a slight vibration/audible noise when each key is pressed. This feature resulted helped produce a quicker and more comfortable typing experience than we had expected.

When the board is not in use, it clips to the front of the screen and provides basic head's-up information related to network status, battery strength and time. When required for typing it locks into position with a strong magnet and the screen angles back slightly.

The TV-out cable can be used to rig up your device to a TV/VGA monitor (S-Video/Composite/D-Sub) to watch movies. You could also utilise the USB port to attach a full-sized USB PC keyboard or flash drive.

Additionally, the X7510 is adorned with a 624MHz CPU, 128MB RAM (with 77MB free, allowing for better multitasking), HSDPA support, dual Wi-Fi and a GPS receiver. The receiver was pretty slow at picking up our location indoors using Google Maps, but there's a data utility supplied to help.

HTC also throws in a host of extra software/utilities -- far too many to list here. The cream of the crop has to be the Opera 9 browser, which alongside the display makes Web surfing a dream.

Even with the large screen, the X7510 provided respectable battery life, with a claimed 5 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby.

Weaknesses
The X7510 definitely offers a great spec, but it's still a Windows Mobile device underneath and the high price may be out of most buyers' reach.

Plus, while smaller than a laptop, it's still large, heavy and impractical for all situations. The navigation pad, for example, has been removed, which will impede those wishing to pursue gaming. Making calls feels a little strange as the keyboard really needs a flat surface to work effectively and the screen angle can't be adjusted.

The 3-megapixel camera provided above average image quality, but we did discover a strange issue when using the camera outside. After a while, the screen would start flashing and captured images would corrupt. Hopefully, a firmware upgrade will solve this issue.

Our synthetic benchmark test revealed that its graphics performance was surprisingly poor and while not really affecting Windows operation, we did detect a few lip sync issues in one of our video tests.

Conclusion
Like early Advantage models, the X7510 is one of those devices that struggles to find a common ground. It's too big to be completely functional as a smart phone, though it's lighter and more manageable than a laptop or UMPC. In theory, it does provide a useful proposition for those who don't want a full-blown Windows operating system, but at the same time still need to be kept in touch with the office.

Price is always going to be the X7510's biggest downfall, regardless if the device is well specced and featured. Despite it not being practical for all mobile situations, the X7510 is still a great piece of kit and we especially liked the new haptic Qwerty keyboard and large screen. Coupled with the instant-on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS, 16GB of storage and supplied software, you have a useful alternative to a laptop for out of office use.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Nokia 6220 Classic Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Camera phones with 5-megapixel snappers are all the rage these days, but they're often too heavy or lacking a good flash. Nokia's 6220 Classic offers a more lightweight alternative and a xenon flash among its myriad features. Is it the perfect, pocketable solution?

The Nokia 6220 Classic is currently available for free on a monthly contract from most networks.

Design
As the name suggests, this is a classic-looking phone. A standard candy-bar handset, the 6220 Classic features a medium-sized screen, which is bright and sharp, and a flat but sensible keypad. Unusually, the 6220 sports a black glossy front and a matte grey finish with a grainy texture on the back. It's a strange combination that offsets the smooth feeling of the front.

Considering how many features are crammed into this handset, it's rather small and light, but not so petite that you feel you need to handle it with care. We accidentally dropped it from waist-height a few times and it survived unscathed.

It's the camera on the back that we're really interested in, though. Similar to the Nokia N82, the 6220 Classic comes with a 5-megapixel camera that sports a xenon flash and is protected by a sliding cover. To use the camera, you simply slide the cover open and click the dedicated shutter button on the side.

If you look closely on the left side of the phone, you'll also notice another dedicated button that gives you access to Nokia Maps and activates the assisted GPS. Above the button is a useful blue light, which flashes if the GPS is on.

So far, so good: all the buttons are in the right place, the screen is easy to view and the camera packs all the right design features. Unfortunately, there's one area of the 6220 Classic's design that disappointed us: the headphone jack. Unlike the Nokia N82's 3.5mm headphone jack that will work with any pair of normal 'phones, the 6220 Classic only comes with a 2.5mm jack. You either have to use the in-box headphones or buy a special pair.

Features
The 6220 Classic's star feature is its camera, boasting a similar spec to the Nokia N82's snapper. Slide the protective cover open and the 5-megapixel camera is automatically activated, although it does take a few seconds to start up.

We found pictures taken with the Classic's camera came out looking good on the 6220's screen but less sharp than we expected when viewed on a monitor. Compared to the quality of picture from N82's camera, our results weren't as well balanced.

Happily, low light performance impressed us. The xenon flash provided a high level of illumination and, in our opinion, is much better than using a camera phone with an LED photo light. The xenon flash is particularly useful at night because it's so bright.

You can transfer your pictures using the phone's HSDPA or Bluetooth options and you can add the picture's location using the built-in GPS. Simply upload your pictures to sites like Flickr and then pinpoint them on a map. The Classic's assisted GPS manages to find your location fairly quickly, too. We tested it out with Google Maps and it worked well, which is very handy when you're lost and need to find your way home.

If you want to see your pictures on the Web, you can use your 6220 Classic to browse sites using Nokia's own browser or you can download Opera Mini. While the screen isn't iPhone 3G-size, browsing the Internet isn't too uncomfortable.

HSPDA (3.5G) helps make this Web surfing much quicker. We do wish that the 6220 Classic also had Wi-Fi, similar to the N82. The lack of Wi-Fi means that you'd better get a flat-rate data contract if you don't want to incur massive data charges.

Performance
Battery life was adequate and didn't present any unexpected highs or lows. We found that with moderate use, we managed to get around two days but obviously that figure decreased when we used HSDPA and GPS more often.

Conclusion
Playing it safe, Nokia has stuck to a tried and tested candy-bar design, but still manages to pack in enough features to keep most people happy. It's definitely more attractive than the similarly-specced N82, but the camera isn't as good.

If you're looking for a compact camera phone with a xenon flash, it's worth having a look at the 6220 Classic. Alternatively, the Nokia N82 will give you more bite with its excellent snapper.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk

Samsung F400 Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Remember the £600 Samsung Bang & Olufsen Serene handset? So do we, and not because we ponied up the cash to buy one -- it was preposterous. Bangsung, as we like to call the joint entity, now has a slicker, more affordable music phone on the market: the F400.

It's out now with deals from O2 and several other networks, from free on contracts from £25 a month, and around £220 SIM-free.

Design
One of the most important aspects of the F400's design is the native 3.5mm headphone socket -- there's no need to use any bundled cables to connect your favourite 'phones to the handset. This may seem like a given, but even some of the highest-end music phones lack this simple feature.

Playing host to this headphone socket is a generally solid-feeling dual-slider chassis. It's not the most slimline of phones, or the lightest, but it's well-built and pretty rugged. What it isn't is a cute phone designed for life in your skinny jeans' pockets, unless you really want to feel that it's there.

This is partly to do with the integrated Bang & Olufsen mini-speakers, located behind the screen and revealed by sliding the screen downwards. Slide it upwards and there's also a terrific chunky keypad that's dead easy to text on at speed -- we were up to our usual texting pace within a day of getting used to it.

Slide the screen down to reveal the B&O speakers

The 56mm (2.2-inch) 240x320-pixel screen is clear and easy to read, but its glossy plastic coating makes it a poor performer outdoors when the sun's out.

Features
Behind this distinctly average screen, aside from the cute speakers, is a microSD slot for expanding the 20MB of internal memory up to 2GB. This helps store pictures and MPEG-4 video captured by the 3-megapixel camera, itself backed up with an LED flash.

The most common audio formats are supported by the F400, including MP3, unprotected AAC and WMA. Purchased content from online stores should be compatible, and we had no problem playing songs purchased from Napster. Built-in stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) will beam these files to wireless headphones.

Videos enjoy less usability, not only because they're less accessible than music within the phone, but because strict file formats, bit rates and resolutions of video files must be obeyed. To make things easier, Samsung includes a fairly usable bit of software that allows novices and advanced users to tweak the video conversion setup, but it's not a particularly friendly process for anyone. To be fair, very few phones make this rigmarole easy.

With 3.2Mbps HSDPA data connectivity, browsing the Web is reasonably speedy. And although the built-in browser is pretty basic, installing the terrific -- and free -- Opera Mini browser turns the F400 into an enjoyable device to browse the Web with, even if the average screen quality somewhat hinders the readability of small text.

The usual phone applications are included as well, such as a calendar, voice recorder, world clock and calculator, and Java games and apps are supported.

Performance
As a portable music player, the F400 falls short of competing with the likes of dedicated players from Apple, Creative and Sony. Compared to music phones, both the iPhone 3G and Motorola Rokr E8 offer dedicated 3.5mm headphone sockets and the former certainly offers greater audio quality.

One thing we noticed is a not-too-subtle distortion with bass. During Ingrid Michaelson's beautiful track Masochist, there was a distinct distortion, or 'rattle', that accompanied the bass-heavy kick drum.

The 3-megapixel camera has an LED flash for low-light snaps

We compared the F400's sound quality with the iPod classic's, with the same lossless-encoded tracks, and through the same studio-grade reference headphones, and felt the F400 was definitely the weaker performer. The classic offered a slightly cleaner sound and an improved sense of spaciousness.

Normally we wouldn't compare a music phone to a £250 dedicated music device, but the F400 is pitched as offering "breathtaking sound quality" and features audio by Bang and Olufsen, so we felt it necessary to give it a real run for its money.

We genuinely believe most people will be more than happy with its performance however, and indeed most sub-£60 earphones aren't good enough to convey the F400's shortcomings anyway.

Though while the phone is generally easy enough to use, we never particularly enjoyed it -- certain oversights reek of unfinished software design. For example, there doesn't seem to be any easy way of browsing your music library without stopping the song currently playing.

Finally, call quality is certainly above average, but has a slightly dull tone -- clearer call experiences do exist.

Conclusion
The F400 excited us so much before we got to test it, but let us down once we started. It's still a good phone on the whole, but it feels at times almost unfinished, with occasionally annoying usability and no features that stand out from the crowd. And it's certainly no competition to dedicated MP3 players.

The Motorola Rokr E8 and Samsung F400 gave us similarly mixed feelings, but the Motorola has the edge as a music phone. The F400, on the other hand, has a better, flash-equipped camera, a friendlier design and improved usability in terms of texting and navigation.

Care about music in particular but nothing else that much? Choose the E8. Like music and usability equally? Choose the F400. You should also consider the Sony Ericsson W760i, an excellent phone despite its lack of a 3.5mm headphone socket.

Edited by Nick Hide

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk