Multimedia Phone Reviews

IT Reviews have published their review of the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone. 'The Pearl 8120 follows on from the first BlackBerry Pearl, and like its predecessor it is small enough to be mistaken for a candybar-style mobile phone. It lacks the characteristic ‘QWERTY' mini keyboard of the BlackBerry, instead having a system where two characters tend to share a single key. You can either adopt a T9-style multitap system or use the SureType system. This requires you to press a key only once regardless of which of its letters you want. As you type the SureType software guesses the word you are after, and you can select it from a list or complete it manually; basically it's a predictive text system. It can take a little getting used to but you can become very quick at typing with practice.'

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A review of the Samsung Katalyst slider handset has been posted over at CNET. 'The Katalyst has a generous 2.1-inch, 262,000-color display that shows off graphics and images with plenty of color and detail. You can change the brightness, backlighting time, and the background color, font size, and font color of the dialing display. The Katalyst supports T-Mobile's MyFaves, so you'll also be presented with five contact thumbnails that you can scroll through on the main screen.

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Technology Reviews have published their review of the Motorola Q9m smartphone. 'The Q 9m is a Windows Mobile Standard smart phone from Verizon. It looks a bit like a traditional BlackBerry: it has a thin, flat, candybar form with a large screen and a QWERTY keyboard. It's a bit bulky, but not especially heavy. It seems like a durable device, although its external screen seems like it could get scratched easily. The phone retails for $199.99 with a contract, but there's also a mail-in rebate for $100.

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Trusted Reviews have published a review of the i-Mate Jama 201 smartphone. 'The 201 is also a very tactile device. The whole chassis is coated in that lovely rubbery, soft-touch plastic which, as well as feeling soft and smooth under your fingertips, also means when you're typing away on its QWERTY keyboard it feels secure in your hands, unlike a number of soap-bar phones I could mention. The keyboard is absolutely tiny and smaller than that on a BlackBerry 8800, for instance, and, if you've got big, builder's thumbs, likely to be rather difficult to use. But I found that, once I'd got used to the size of the keys, typing short email messages and texts was surprisingly easy. The square keys have just enough space between them to prevent you accidentally striking neighbouring characters, and they have a positive click to them that means you know exactly when you've pressed or not pressed a key successfully.'

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MobileBurn have published a review of the Samsung SGH P520 Giorgio Armani luxury handset. 'When it comes to physical appearance and design, the Samsung Armani phone has what it takes. It is no larger than 9 or 10 stacked credit cards, 88mm x 55mm x 10.5mm (3.5" x 2.2" .4"), and weighs only 86g (3.0oz). The included case that it snaps into adds a good layer of protection for an additional 34g (1.2oz), while still providing access to the camera and all of the buttons and ports on the phone's edges. It is probably a good idea to use the case, even though the Armani's 2.6", QVGA resolution display seems reasonably rugged.

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CNET Asia have published a review of the Samsung SGH-G600 sliderphone. ‘The G600's 5-megapixel camera is by far its star feature, which is probably why Samsung decided to keep it nice and safe behind the slide mechanism. You access it by opening the phone and then pressing the dedicated shutter button on the side. Pressing this shutter button very gently in camera mode activates the autofocus, which takes a bit of getting used to as it's very sensitive. The camera lets you adjust a variety of settings, including picture size and flash mode. The G600's flash is unfortunately only an LED photo light that doesn't illuminate as well as a Xenon flash, such as the one found on the Sony Ericsson K810i. You can whack the ISO up to 800 but the shots come out far grainier. Aside from taking photos, you can also use the G600 to shoot video.’

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LetsGoMobile have published a review of the Samsung SGH-G800 handset. ‘The housing of the SGH-G800 feels solid and has a fine hand-fit. When we take a closer look, only the buttons for answering and ending a call reveal that we are dealing with a cell phone. The Samsung G800 has been equipped with a 3.7 Volt Lithium-Ion battery. According to the specifications the battery offers a standby time of 370 hours and a talk-time of over eight hours. This time is accurate when the cell phone is exclusively used for calling and sending SMS messages. When the integrated camera is frequently used, battery time drastically reduces and the cell phone has to be recharged after several hours. This is a vast disadvantage when you’re on the road a lot making extensive use of the Samsung SGH-G800’s other functions.’

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A review of the Verizon Wireless XV6800 smartphone has been posted over at CNET. 'The Verizon Wireless XV6800 is reminiscent of the Sprint Mogul in shape and size, which makes sense, since both devices are made by HTC. The XV6800 measures 4.3 inches high by 2.3 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 5.8 ounces. Although it's on the larger side and you'll probably want to get a belt holster since it'll make for a tight fit in the pants pocket, it sits nicely in the palm and is comfortable to use as a messaging device. We will say that the phone's construction didn't feel as solid as the i760. The XV6800 has the same battery cover as the Sprint Mogul, which we found quite plasticky and flimsy. As far as aesthetics, the XV6800 isn't the most attractive smartphone on the block but has an appropriately business look.'

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The Register Hardware have published a review of the Sony Ericsson Walkman W910i sliderphone. 'The W910i is a surprisingly lightweight 86g, and with its tactile rubber-feel casing, feels comfortable in the hand. It comes in several colour options – noble black, hearty red or Havana gold, depending on network – that thankfully go easy on the trademark Walkman phone orange. The slider action is smooth and solid, while the keypad beneath is makes efficient use of large keys arranged in a no-nonsense grid. Some may prefer them raised a little higher, but we found them perfectly fine for texting. The display dominates the front of the closed phone. Beneath this you get a silver navigation control that’s also marked up with music player keys. A familiar arrangement of soft-menu keys and call/end buttons flank this, while there’s the regular Sony Ericsson menu key and a Clear button.'

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Brighthand have published a review of the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. 'The N810 may be about the size of a Palm TX, but it includes something the TX doesn't: a keyboard. Because of its generous size this is one of the easiest to type on portable keyboards I've used. It's still a thumb-keyboard, of course, so typing on it is much slower than a full-size one, but it's good enough that I don't mind writing emails that are a couple of paragraphs long, which is something I won't do if I have to peck out the letters with a tiny on-screen keyboard, or write them with something like Graffiti. In addition to a physical keyboard, this device has two on-screen ones. One of these is small and designed to let you tap out letters with the stylus, and the other lets you type with your fingertips. Both of these are nice and do what they are supposed to do, but the hardware keyboard is so good I see little need for them.'

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