Mobile Phone Blog – Mobile phone reviews and news

Struggling mobile phone maverick Sony Ericsson has been quite busy lately churning out truly exciting innovative mobile phones lately.  After its Xperia and Satio launches, it has recently announced its latest foray into the fashion handset market with the release of the Sony Ericsson Jalou.

Positioned to compete with the chic and trendy fashion mobile phones, the Jalou is presented in a faceted clamshell form façade that houses a set of features that have made Sony Ericsson a sought-after brand in the mobile phone markets.

A Versatile Fashion Phone

The Sony Ericsson Jalou goes to market during the last quarter of 2008 with a choice of three jewel colors: Aquamarine Blue, Deep Amethyst, or Onyx Black.  Here’s an overview of its versatile feature set:

• Beneath it all, you get a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and a triband UMTS that also supports 3G/HSDPA for a wonderfully fast internet surfing and downloading.
• Considered a pioneering feature among fashion handsets, its 2” QVGA LCD screen becomes a compact mirror with a dedicated key switching between the two even in the middle of a phone task.
• It supports Google apps and social networking sites, Exchange and a NetFront internet browser with YouTube support, all these benefit from its high speed data connectivity support.
• There’s a trendy CyberShot 3.2 megapixel camera with video light, geo-tagging and video recording.
• A WalkMan music player, stereo FM radio and Bluetooth with A2DP support all come in standard.

A Couple of Firsts

Along with a unique user interface that adapts to changes in zodiac signs and special events year round, you get two features considered to be first in Sony Ericsson stable.  The Sony Ericsson Jalou’s 2.2” QVGA screen display can be switched to a compact mirror and you have a pedometer called WalkMate to give measurability to your walking and jogging regimen.

Sony Ericsson Jalou Links:

• Sony Ericsson Jalou on contract
• Sony Ericsson Jalou on T-Mobile
• Sony Ericsson Jalou with Free Gifts

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It’s August and that means only one thing in the mobile phone world, bargains. Whilst people are off sunning themselves, mobile phone manufacturers and retailers are busy lowering their prices in an attempt to stimulate what has always been a slightly stale month. So we decided to put together a list of handsets that we like along with the monthly price you will pay for getting them. We hope you enjoy.

1) Nokia N97 deals – Yes guys it’s the big one, Nokia’s answer to the iPhone and we can tell you for free, that it isn’t the cheapest handset on the market. £40.00 per month on either T-mobile or Vodafone will get you 800 minutes and unlimited texts or 600 minutes and unlimited texts respectively. If you can afford it, then why not go for it?
2) Nokia 5530 deals – Vodafone wins out here offering 600 minutes and unlimited texts for a mere £20.29 per month. OK it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the N97, but for that, you do get a line rental at half the price. Just promise us that you’ll consider it… please?
3) HTC Hero deals – I deliberated for a long time as to whether to put this one in at number 3 or 4 and in the end I went with number 3, simply because the magazines are going crazy over this little beauty. £25.00 per month with 400 minutes and 3000 texts is not a bad deal either on the Orange network.
4) Samsung Jet deals – I love this phone and it was hard for me to put it below the Hero, especially considering you can get this wonderful handset for a little over £21.00 per month on (you guessed it) Orange with 400 minutes and 3000 texts.
5) Blackberry Curve 8520 deals – No list would be complete without adding a Blackberry to the equation. It has to go in at number 5 simply because not everyone wants to send emails on holiday whilst sipping a long Island iced tea in the Bahamas, but with a deal on O2 offering £170 automatic cashback on a £35.00 per month tariff, I might justtake my emails everywhere I go.
6) Nokia N86 deals – The gamers delight, the Nokia N86 is packed with fun, hell it screams fun, perhaps that’s taking it a little too far, but it is an excellent little phone and for £30.00 per month you can get 600 minutes and unlimited texts on Vodafone. With that you can call and text all your mates to let them know your high scores.
7) Sony Ericsson W995 deals – I feel sorry putting the W995 in seventh place, partly because it is a truly amazing phone. What’s more you can get it for just over £21.00 per month. The thing is you will get it and in 3 months time you will want the Satio or the Aino and then you will blame me for putting it on the list and I just couldn’t handle the guilt.
HTC Diamond 2 deals – In at number 8 simply because it is a huge improvement over the original diamond and you can get it for below £30.00 per month on O2. If it’s a Smartphone you’re looking for, this one should be on the shortlist.
Any others we should have included? Get commenting and we will shout them out to the world.

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Seeing as how the time is nigh upon us for the start of the Premier League season, we’re going to be employing a football metaphor in our ramlings about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3. Don’t like football? Touch luck. But this should still make sense.

So, the main thing that’s interesting about the Sony Ericsson xperia X3 is that it’s the first Sony Ericsson phone to use the Google Android operating platform. All previous SE smartphones have used the Windows Mobile platform. And the way we want you to picture this is by thinking of at team like Wolverhampton Wanderers stepping up to the Premier League. Because as good a team as they are, Wolves last season were in the Championship and had to go and play against teams like Barnsley and Plymouth. Now though, they get to play against Manchester United and Liverpool, in front of millions of people on TVs around the world. And so, if you’re following, you should think of Windows Mobile as the Championship, Android as the Premier League. The former’s not a bad league, has some good features, but overall it’s nothing compared to the Premier. And there really is nothing that comes close to Android for mobile phones. It’s slick yet simple, feature-packed yet intuitive, and in this version, Sony Ericsson have even re-skinned it to make it all the most stunning and fun to interact with (see the video below)

So there we have it. One shoddy metaphor for one very decent phone. Check out this metaphor-free Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 review for a full list of specs, or have a look at these Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 deals.

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Sometimes, just for fun (yeah, we know, we’re sad – deal with it), we like to identify lies and out them, as though they were witches and we were some kind of medieval witch hunters. So when the official press release for the Sony Ericsson T715 hit our inboxes, we donned our lie-outing caps, and scribbled some things down.

Lie number 1

“…the large 2.2” screen shows off websites in all their glory.”

Large? 2.2 inches? Large? Your girlfriend must have been really disappointed the first time you took your pants down buddy, because 2.2 inches is a long, long way from large.

Lies 2 and 3

“At the size of a credit card and with a high-class finish, the Sony Ericsson T715 adds a touch of sophistication to your life.”

Despite the healthy debts incurred on them, all of our credit card average about, say, 1mm in thickness. This thing is 14mm. 14. That’s thicker than most 3.5-inch-screen smartphones out there. And the t715 does not, in any way shape or chunky form add even an ounce of sophistication to our lives. It just adds a chunky phone.

Lie 4

“…this new mobile phone demonstrates the sophisticated design language consumers have come to expect from Sony Ericsson.”

THAT DOESN’T EVEN MEAN ANYTHING, YOU’RE JUST USING WORDS THAT HAVE NO MEANING YOU IDIOTS. IDIOTS!

Then we breath. Then we remember that the last time we did this lie-outing kind of thing we ended up on remand. So we close our inbox. Read this more considered Sony Ericsson T715 review instead. Watch the video below. Listen to some soft jazz. And breath. Just breath.

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Have a look at these stats and tell us how you think the Sony Ericsson Satio is marketing itself:

• 12.1 megapixel camera
• Up to 12x digital zoom
• Auto focus
• Face and smile detection
• Geo-tagging
• Image stabilizer
• Photo fix
• Send to web
• Red-eye reduction
• Touch focus
• Video recording
• Xenon flash

So… your answer would be: as a cameraphone, right? Well, actually not. Sony Ericsson actually seem – at these still pre-release times, at least – to have taken the decision to market this more as a high-end media-playing phone. Which makes us very happy. As recent posts here have shown, we’re not a fan at all of phones pretending to be cameras. No matter how many megapixels you have on a phone, you’ve still got a tiny light sensor, and tiny light sensors mean crappy images (in relation to real cameras) no matter how many megapixels you cram into them.

So, what of the Sony Ericsson Satio as an all round media player? Well, it’s a bit of a cracker. With a really neat set of panels floating around the homescreen that gives you instant access to all your media playing/recording functions, this is clearly a phone that’s been designed with you in mind. Add to that the Sony Ericsson Satio’s 16:9 format, super bright screen, the ability to dual-download media and games to both your PC and phone, and a whole host of other funky features and you’ve got something that’s going to push a lot of buttons for a lot of people. More so for sure than the PSP-focused Aino, and certainly more so than the I’m-a-camera-honest-I-am Samsung Pixon 12. Seems like that’s an easy choice for you to make then… Have a read of this Sony Ericsson Satio review here, or just peruse this video instead

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We always try and bring you more opinionated rantings than lists here, as we hope you appreciate, but sometimes these phone chumps just bombard us with too too much information and all we can do is line things up, reel off descriptions, and hope you’ll forgive us. Oh, and you’ll also have to forgive us not blabbering on about the 3G/WiFi/8MP camera/battery time/stereo headset/etc/etc/etc/ because, well, just because we haven’t got time. So, today’s list is media-playying-apps-focused, but what a list it is…

1. PlayTVservice – If you own a Playstation3 you’ll know that you can watch certain free TV channels on it using the TV service function. Fair enough. What’s exciting with the Aino, though, is that you can now watch those same channels on the phone, just by linking up to the PS3 via the internet. So, sat on a beach in India? Want to watch Eastenders? Now you can… you sad individual you.
2. Remote Play – Initially a piece of kit that was intended quite rightly for the PSP, Sony Ericsson have now realised that it would work just as well on a phone. Basically, Remote Play lets you access all the PS3’s media content on your Sony Ericsson Aino. Whether you’re at home and hooked up via local network, or on that beach in Goa, you can access all your stuff in a jiffy.
3. Media Go – Simple but effective method of controlling and watching all the media on your home computer using the Sony Ericsson Aino itself. Again done via Wi-Fi. Nice.
4. Media Home – Synchronises your PC with your phone and makes sure they’re sharing all your fun files.

So there we have it. The Aino is one nifty little slider indeed. Have a squizz at this Sony Ericsson Aino review if you want a non-breakneck-speed run through of all those specs, or just pass some time in the company of this video if you’re feeling lazy:

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Sony Ericsson recently revealed information about a new mobile phone at a press conference held in China. This new model is called Sony Ericsson T707 and goes by the code name Elle for the time being. Sony Ericsson has released only limited information on this therefore there are not many image previews available on this one. Somehow according to what we heard it’s a flip phone (clamshell) but since it carries the T series name tag it cannot be either a Walkman or Cyber Shot. We can safely assume that this phone therefore will carry a bit of all the sophisticated features that Sony Ericsson has gathered from all its products.

The T707 which is said to resemble the W508 and Z610 in certain ways is expected to come in 5 colors; orange, green, pink/violet, blue and black. The specifications which are out at the moment suggest that it’s quad-band on GSM and dual-band on UMTS and HSDPA. The main display is of 2.2inches with QVGA resolution. But sources say there is also a smaller display on the outside.

The camera claims to be 3.2megapixel with fixed focus. There is a memory card slot if you need any additional storage and the package offers you a 1GB memory card. Availability of A2DP Bluetooth is also confirmed. This phone, carrying dimensions of 93×50x14mm and weighing 98g is expected to reach the markets in May 2009. For more information check out GSM Arena.

Although Sony Ericsson has not yet officially mentioned anything about the prices, you can check out some of the Sony Ericsson T707 Elle contracts that are going to be available online. This will help you get a head start. These Sony Ericsson T707 Elle deals play a great role in bringing down the cost of the phone and also giving you the best tariffs by some of the leading service providers in UK. Further T707 Elle deals are only a click away so you can get the best package you want at your fingertips without even leaving your chair!

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The upcoming Sony Ericsson S312 is the successor to last year’s budget phone the S302. This is a low end phone with very limited specs but surely covers the basics right compared to last year’s phone.
Although light on the specs it sports a very hardy look and supports a small display unit covering 176×220 pixels. This is sufficient for the once looking for basic functionality and the phone is exceptional in delivering quality given the low budget scenario. The camera is less than 2 mega pixels. The phone is codenamed Athena and definitely looks good.

Limited specs but the phone is expected to be released in the third quarter and only in selected markets. Compare S312 Snapshot deals from leading retailers and get the best offer on the phone.

The Sony Ericsson S312 Snapshot will come with amazing deals given its expected low price leading service providers are prompted to deliver excellent deals on this little gadget. The S312 Snapshot is all about low cost and it is your chance to compare and get the cheapest from leading retail stores around the world.

It is expected that this phone will carry most of the same features and options in the early S302 and therefore you can expect the standard built in photo editing tools and all the basic functions like Bluetooth. This should include an expandable memory slot for additional memory. However, we cannot expect very large storage capacity given its structure and market. You can tune into your favorite radio station with the given headsets. Probably weighs in around 80g and is expected to have around 12.5 days of standby time and 7 hours of talk time. The usual speakerphone functions should definitely be available.

This is expected to be an entry to mid level phone and price details are not yet released by Sony Corporation. Check Sony Ericsson’s own site for updates on the S312.

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The newly announced Sony Ericsson Aino is the perfect accompaniment to any PS3 lover. With the release of the Aino you can now control your PS3 remotely, instructing your PS3 to do things when you are not even in the room. So far I have only figured out that you can switch your machine on and off, but I’m sure that in time the Aino will offer far more than that.
The Aino looks great as well, if not a little similar to the newly named Sony Ericsson Satio (previously the Idou). It seems that touch screens are most definitely the way to go in 2009, although I am yet to be totally convinced as to their effectiveness. Call me old fashioned, but I still like pushing buttons.
If you are like me and still like the old style keypad, then check out some of the Sony Ericsson W995 deals that are out there. I really love this phone and the great bonus is that this one is for the here and now, it is available to buy on contract today, so although the other 2 phones look pretty special, if you are looking to change your handset today, then the W995 has to be the way to go! The 8.1 megapixel camera and walkman features finally swung it for me.

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It seems that megapixels are becoming as important on phones these days as they are on digital cameras. What started out as a nice addition to your handset, has now become an essential addition to any serious camphone user. So now ladies and gentlemen the megapixel war is well and truly in full flow. Samsung has just announced the Samsung Pixon 12, which is essentially an upgraded version of the original Samsung pixon, but with an improved camera, upgraded from 8 to 12 megapixels. This comes hot on the heels of the Sony Ericsson Satio, originally named the Idou, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress back in February. It seems that these devices come in 4’s so we are sure that Nokia and LG will not be far behind in announcing new handsets that offer 12 megapixel handsets in the near future, so watch this space for further developments.
But what does the megapixel war really mean for consumers? Any digital camera expert will tell you that the number of megapixels a camera has is just a starting point when looking at picture quality. Others would go further in saying that once you reach a certain resolution, the number of megapixels becomes even less important. Other factors that need to be considered are the quality of the lens and the level of zoom, both optical and digital. The problem is that people like slim mobile phones and trying to fit an optical zoom mechanism into a mobile phone means it becomes considerably bulkier. The Samsung G800 is a perfect example of this. It seems that manufacturers would sooner stick to digital zoom over optical in an attempt to keep the phone as slim and light weight as possible. The best thing to do is check out some actual pictures that are taken by either of these phones to see which one truly takes the best photographs, do not go on megapixels alone!

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