Mobile Phone Blog – Mobile phone reviews and news

Although conjuring images of Flight of the Navigator, surely one of the greatest films ever made, the Nokia 6710 is actually a rather chunky looking phone. Nokia claim on the likes of The official Nokia page that they’ve created something that’s built to fit easily in the hand for when you’re running around the city using the mapping functions, like the weird guy in the video below. Whether the mapping function is a big enough pay off though we’re not quite sure. You’ll find GPS and a much more premium finish on the 6700, and although the Nokia 6710 Navigator is features a larger screen, we’re not sure that’s enough. Fair enough, if you’re the kind of person who’s going to be using the navigation functions a lot, then this might be worth a look. Especially when you consider that Nokia chuck in a free car-holder for the phone, so you can hook this thing up to face you while you’re driving (it comes with both pedestrian and driving modes for the maps), but then the 2.6” actually starts to seem a little small when you think about how big some standalone GPS devices are.

But if you know you’re going to be using maps a lot, then this phone is pretty much a dream. Nokia Maps is a cracking piece of software, featuring in v3.0 here, and it comes with more add-ons, features, gadgets and gizmos that you can shake a compass at. In fact, the pedestrian mode even features an integrated compass so you won’t even have anything to shake.

There’s also a more than decent camera onboard, an impressive battery and Nokia’s cracking little web browser, so even when you’re not scratching your head and turning the thing upside down to try and work out where you are on street corners, then you’ll still find plenty to be happy with. Have a read of this Nokia 6710 review for a full update on everything you can expect to find onboard.

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We’ve been scathing about a few recent cameraphones, we’ll admit. This is mainly because, smart (and modest) as we are, we realise that the 12 megapixel promise actually guarantees nothing but enormous file sizes should you choose to shoot in the highest res mode. And given that most of these cameraphones have had little more than toy lenses attached to their light sensors, even if those light sensors have had megapixels crammed into them tighter than idiots into a Michael Jackson memorial concert they still wouldn’t take a decent picture.

The LG Louvre, however, has a decent looking lens from comedy-German-named lens experts Schneider-Kreuznach, manufacturers of millions (and millions) of very decent lenses over the last near-century of their existence. And, even if this might not be as scientific, if you have a little Google Image hunt, you’ll find that the back of the LG Louvre GC990 looks more like a dedicated camera than a phone. And, as looking at the kind of idiots that attend memorial services proves, you can more often than not judge by looks.

The Louvre, or GC990 as it will more likely be called once LG get their ducks in a row and actually confirm a release date for this thing, might actually just be the best of the upcoming batch of 12MP cameraphones… you heard it here first. Hear it second in this LG Louvre review. Have a look at these LG mobile phones. And watch this space…

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Like a destitute homeless guy reciting Shakespearean sonnets on your street corner, Motorola have produced a bit of a stir with the Motorola ROKR ZN50. In case you didn’t know (and who’s to blame you, not paying as much attention as you would to things like mobile phone manufacturers quarterly reports as, say, geeks like us) Motorola are, well, not doing very well at all, to put it politely. And although this range of Motorola phones might suggest otherwise, they’ve been releasing nothing of note for some time now.

However, all hail the Motorola ZN50. It might not be enough to save the ailing company. It isn’t actually a stonker of a phone (just a rather good one), but we think it shows Motorola still have some balls, some skills and more than enough ability to make a pretty damn sexy phone when they want to.

As the (terrible) name suggests, the ROKR is a music-focused phone, and everything we’ve seen of it so far would put it in a very decent place amongst all the other music-centric phones currently out there. The so-called Panoramic UI is also interesting from what we’ve seen, although it might be borrowing just a little too heavily from Google’s Android. You’ll also find a mid-range camera, a nice TV tuner option, expandable memory up to 16GB and all the usual GPS / WiFi / Bluetooth shenanigans on-board too.

The sad news is this thing will be available only in Korea to start with, but if – as we predict – sales are good, you can more or less guarantee this thing will be winging its way west sometime soon. Check out a full list of all the specs and features in this Motorola ZN50 review, or have a little look at this, well, comical video to get a taste of just how good looking this thing is.

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No sooner have we written a witty, inventive blog post about the HTC Magic being, well, magic as it makes things disappear. Most notably that was the physical keyboard of its predecessor the G1, and, as you might expect, the Magic was claimed to be all the slimmer, fitter and healthier because of it. That G1 keyboard was taking up a fair bit of room, and adding more than its fair share of grams to the package, and we were all for this bit of disappearing.

Well, magic fans will be pleased to know that, in some kind of scam that would make members of the magic circle choke on their rabbit steaks, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G pulls off exactly the same trick, in exactly the same way, because it’s… well, exactly the same phone. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls in the audience, right before your very eyes T-Mobile have re-branded a phone and claimed it as their own. But there really is not a jot, not an inch, not a puff of magic dust different on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. You can scour the official site, hunt down the fine details in this T-Mobile myTouch 3G review, but you’ll find nothing remiss, amiss, or even missing because, well, because it’s the same.

Which sadly means there’s still no 3.5mm jack, and still only the paltry 512MB of internal memory. But, who are we to argue with a little bit of magic… sorry, a little bit of (deep breath now) T-Mobile myTouch 3G. Who are we indeed.

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Sometimes, someone in the world of the blogosphere writes something so apt, so correct, so downright pithy in their attempts to describe something, that there simply is no other alternative but to steal it, claim it as your own and make absolutely no reference to who originally produced said genius statement. So, here goes our own little contribution to the back-stabbing, phrase-stealing, lack-of-footnoting realm that is where we spend inordinate amounts of our days.

The Samsung Tocco Lite doesn’t so much surf as paddle the web.

There we have it, ladies and gentlemen. In those 12 words you have a summation, a precis of everything we found ourselves wanting to say about the Samsung Tocco Lite. Everything that we were grinding our teeth and wringing our hands about how to write, how to sum up for you in the most memorable way, in a way that would make you laugh out loud and forward on the permalink to our blog to all your friends and family. Everything that the official page somehow says without meaning to. All that is kind of but not quite contained in this Samsung Tocco Lite review. All that definitely isn’t even hinted at in the video below.

Because the Samsung Tocco Lite, whilst claim to be THE phone for you if you’re one of those ‘always on’ types, one of those social networking junkies who’s updating their Facebook every four minutes, not only doesn’t have WiFi, but also decided that, hell, who needs 3G either?! So with its WAP-only connectivity, you’ll realise with an aahhhh and an ooohhh, this thing is merely PADDLING what others SURF. Now you see.

That’s not to say there’s not plenty that’s right about this phone. There is. Just about. And, best of all, it’s a bargain basement budget banger of an option. But, you know, just be careful about deciding how much you like to be online on your phone.

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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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Ahh, Teflon, is there anything you can’t do. Well, yes, now we think about it. You probably can’t / shouldn’t be used as, say, plant food, because you are inedible. But aside from all the things you can’t do, there are an increasing number of things you can. First non-stick pans, today mobile phone coatings, tomorrow the world. Or the inedible parts of the world, at least. But let’s focus on what’s happening today (or in the very near future), because Teflon is making its debut appearance on mobile phone in the (weird) shape of the HTC Hero. Hurrah, we say. Because, as we’re sure like most of you, our pockets are always full of any combination of the following: crushed crisps, salt, buttons, chewing we didn’t throw on the ground because that policeman was watching, half a twix, a rail ticket for a place we’ve never heard of, what might be salsa, a moist towelette from KFC (no longer moist), some keys, some more keys, what used to be a key but now we use for picking our nose as we can’t remember what it opens, etc. and so on.

So the fact that the HTC Hero is now coated not only in Teflon on all it’s physical case covering bits, but also has a fingerprint-resistant screen coating, probably much like the [wait while we dig into our pockets for the piece of paper we scribble this on while researching the iPhone 3G S] oleophobic coating found on the iPhone 3G S. Fantastic, we think, as we scratch our slightly greasy beard, wondering if it really is okay to shampoo your beard as that guy in the pub was insisting the other day. And not only that but the screen on this thing is a capacitive jobbie, meaning that – and you’ll like this – it pushes back at your fingers as you type. Magic. Oh, and there’s a whole bunch of other, less grime-related features that you can read about in this official product overview, or in this HTC Hero review. How this guy didn’t manage to get as excited as us about this Teflon news we’ll never know:

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It’s not often we find ourselves saying this, but the here goes: this phone has plenty of great features, even a couple of uniquely new features, that make it more than stand its ground in its category, but we just don’t care.

Why don’t we care? Well, the Nokia 6700 doesn’t want us to care. The 6700 is so insouciant, so resolutely fine just how it is, that it doesn’t need any kind of ego-stroking. We could tell you about the CABC. Yep, you know, the Content Adaptive Brightness Control, which uses sensors for determining the amount of ambient light around you, then checks to see what application you’re using, and adjusts the screen brightness and contrast accordingly. Example: a game would be made brighter and more powerful than reading an SMS, saving strain on the battery and improving its overall standby time. Neat, huh? Well as we were writing that the Nokia 6700 classic was just staring into the distance at some pretty women who couldn’t help but look over and giggle amongst themselves.

This phone is ‘that’ cool. It has all the specs, all the gadgets and gizmos of most of the smartphones out there, but it doesn’t feel the need to wear them on its sleeve. Most likely because its sleeves are made of finely glimmering metal. As are its buttons. And its screen, like a well-judged pair of sunglasses, is not too big, but ‘just’ big enough for what you need.

Don’t believe us? Have a look at Nokia’s official page. Still don’t believe us? Try this Nokia 6700 review. Still not sure? Maybe the video below will help. Still nothing… then baby, you just ain’t cool enough to ever understand. Go buy yourself a big-screened touchscreen piece of nonsense.

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As any good magician knows, one of the main tricks to master is that of making things disappear. And, as if by some kind of sorcery (or perhaps through the work of some research and development spods, along with the help of some phone technicians – either way) the HTC Magic has made the physical keyboard of its predecessor the G1 disappear. And, as you might expect, the Magic is all the slimmer, fitter and healthier because of it. That G1 keyboard was taking up a fair bit of room, and adding more than its fair share of grams to the package, and we’re all for this bit of disappearing.

However, what HTC seemed to have done is cast too powerful a spell, because there’s some other things missing from this thing too. And, though we might be stretching the metaphor just a wee bit, because the G1 didn’t have the things that are missing from the HTC Magic either (but look into our eyes, straight into our eyes, not around the eyes, into the eyes: the metaphor is good, stick with it), we don’t care and neither do you. So what else is missing? Well, first up is: a whole bag full of memory seems to have been sent into the top hat of doom to spend the rest of its days with an underfed rabbit. Because at 512MB of internal memory (and yes, we know, you can expand that, but we hate those silly little cards) we nearly snorted our daily breakfast magic elixir smoothie through our noses. And no sooner had we wiped ourselves down than we find out that there’s not even a 3.5mm jack on the thing. So, not only do HTC not want you to listen to, well, any media, they also don’t you to store any either. Not very smart for a smartphone, if you ask us.

But don’t let us conjure too negative an image here. The Magic (HTC Official page here for those who like that kind of thing) is a thoroughly fantastic phone in most other departments, and, well: GOOGLE ANDROID, WOOOOO! Have a little look at this HTC Magic Review for a less magical, more practical rundown of all it has to offer.

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The TG01 (have a look at some Toshiba TG01 deals) has a lot going for it, a lot that is going to attract people. Mostly in the way of inches. With a screen size of 4.1”, you can see why. The screen on this thing isn’t just big, it’s colossal. But some of you are going to like that. And some of you will especially like that when you hear that Toshiba have also employed some of that rich TV-making heritage of theirs to make the screen as good as can be (even, if we might sniffily point out, it’s not an OLED/AMOLED screen as Samsung have been using to such incredible effect recently). Worried about gammas (aren’t we all?), then never fear as the Toshiba TG01 has dynamic gamma correction. Phew, glad we got that one sorted, right?

But, but, but… we also suspect / realise / hope / pray that you lot reading this are interested in more than just video playback. That you’re impressed by more than just a big screen. And for those of you, we think the TG01 (have a look at the Official site) might just have one disappointment too many. For starters, the Windows Mobile OS – even though it will be freely updated to v6.5 when that’s made available in the near future – is just, well, not as good as most other choices out there (Symbian, Android, etc.). Want some handy apps on the iPhone? You go to the one-stop, one-tap and you’ve got it Apple app shop. Want some apps on the TG01? Well, you could go to that one offshoot of the Windows thing, you know. Or there’s that other one Dave mentioned. What was it again?… Point being downloading apps on all WinMo devices is a royal pain in the behind.

Then you might want to stick your headphones in to listen to the sound going on with those gamma-vanquished videos. Well, you can plug your favourite ear drum destroyers straight into… well, into the USB adaptor, which, hang on, untangle that bit, no that bit, that’s it – then that goes straight into the phone.

See where we’re going? We hope so. Don’t get us wrong, if it’s the biggest and (well, kind of almost) the best screen you want, then you’ve got nowhere else to go. But if you really want an all round decent smartphone, then there’s a whole bunch of other places to be taking your wallet. |Have a look through this Toshiba TG01 review for a full rundown of the stats and specs, or take a look at the film below.

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