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Palm Pre review: A Pebble in your hand

Posted on 19 December 2009 by admin

pany but the Palm Pre is not the kind to walk around a with “Will work for food” sign on its neck. No sir. It’s looking to elbow its way through a crowd of apples, androids and PocketPCs.

Palm Pre official photos

Are we talking the mother of all comebacks here? We honestly don’t know. But it looks like a debut of the same magnitude as the iPhone OS, Android and Maemo. The Palm Pre seems to have all the things that made the iPhone so special: multi-touch display, an Application Store, fluid and creative UI and a good web browser. But Palm didn’t stop there – the webOS is all about multitasking – to an extent that gives quite a point to those who wouldn’t call the iPhone a proper smartphone.

The webOS and all the touchscreen gadgetry will sure keep us busy enough. It’s the interface and the handling that will earn the Palm Pre its deserved share of admirers. But before we power up this multitasking monster and start navigating its new and unique system, let’s look at the package itself.

Key features:

3.1″ 16M-color TFT display of 320 x 480 pixel resolution and excellent sunlight legibility
3 megapixel fixed focus camera, LED flash
Quad-band GSM support
Tri-band UMTS support with HSDPA
ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics chip
256 MB RAM
Sliding-out full QWERTY keyboard
Palm webOS is an innovative multi-touch user interface, heavy on multitasking
Touch-enabled Gesture Area
Built-in GPS receiver
Wi-Fi
8 GB of onboard storage
Accelerometer, proximity sensor
3.5 mm audio jack
Bluetooth with A2DP support
Application Store for direct apps download and installation
Office document viewer

Main disadvantages:

No video calls over the 3G network
No memory card slot
Glossy plastics look cheap, love fingerprints
Camera has no auto focus… nor any settings at all, disappointing image quality
No video recording unless hacked
Web browser lacks Flash support, but it’s on its way
No DivX/XviD video playback support
No Bluetooth file transfers
App Catalog available in a limited number of countries
Small and fiddly QWERTY keyboard keys
No onscreen keyboard, portrait typing only
No smart dialing

The specs ring the iPhone bell and you may think the Pre is just another copycat – you’ll be wrong. The Palm Pre is pushing a brand new OS and doesn’t keep a stiff upper lip like some other smartphones – that goes to you Symbian and WinMo.

Palm Pre in our hands

But so much for the resemblance to iPhone. It’s a completely different form factor, there are some novel navigation solutions and there’s a QWERTY keyboard and multi-tasking. The Palm Pre is a fresh and exciting addition to the world of smartphones.

The webOS may have learned a lot from the iPhone OS, but it certainly is trying to do things its own way. The Pre is obviously limited much like the first iPhone and earliest Android handsets.

It’s not the list of do’s and don’ts that makes this phone though. It’s not the capacitive, multi-touch-enabled touchscreen, it’s not the QWERTY keyboard. The Pre hopes to be a symbol of a company’s rebirth and promises an exciting time for touchscreen. And it’s got a darn good reason to be hopeful: the webOS.

We’ll get there but let’s take this one step at a time. The Palm Pre gets unboxed, handled and described right after the jump.

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Tags: c901, Cyber-shot, SonyEricsson

Sony Ericsson C901 review: Cyber-shot reloaded

Posted on 03 November 2009 by admin

At first, you might think that the Sony Ericsson C901 is just another 5-megapixel cameraphone. Well, that’s not terribly exciting in the current market bustling with 8-megapixel snappers, and probing the boundaries at 12. But you’d be wrong. Be it for the simple reason that the C901 is one of the few handsets out there sporting a Xenon flash. And the one on the C901 is special enough to help it stand above the crowd of cameraphones.

Another thing to note is the eco-friendly GreenHeart version which is interestingly enough, is the only flair or C901 that can currently be found on the Sony Ericsson website.

The C901 GreenHeart is trendy for being partially made of recycled materials (though, technically both devices are identical). You can find out more about it here.

Sony Ericsson C901 official photos

Even after reading those lines many would say there is nothing so special about the C901, particularly as it’s not even selling worldwide! Well, we‘ve been inundated with requests that we review it and there’s nothing we like doing more than pleasing our loyal readers.

Key features

Xenon and LED flash equipped 5-megapixel cameraphone, videocalling
Lots of dedicated camera controls
Active camera cover
Quad-band GSM support
3G with HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
2.2″ 256K-color display of QVGA resolution
Accelerometer for screen auto-rotation
110 MB of internal memory, M2 expansion (up to 8GB)
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Motion-based games
Multi-tasking and task manager
Smart dialing

Main disadvantages

Video recording maxes out at QVGA@30fps
No document viewer
Memory card slot under the battery cover
Disappointing retail package contents

Sony Ericsson C901 live shots

The Sony Ericsson C901 is a great value in terms of image quality. Looking at the pictures we took with it makes us nostalgic for the time when Sony Ericsson camerphones set the pace and the others just followed.

Aside from the remarkable imaging though, the C901 is just an ordinary feature phone. And that isn’t a bad thing, since it does its job just fine. Very little to complain about, but at the same time not a huge list of features to get excited about either.

Anyhow, it’s about time we opened the box and started the review, don’t you think? Head for the next page to see what we found in the box and what we thought of the Sony Ericsson C901 design and construction.

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Tags: Corby, S3650, S3650 Corby, Samsung S3650 Corby. Samsung

Samsung S3650 Corby now official

Posted on 01 September 2009 by admin

The Samsung S3650 Corby just got official and it’s dressed to impress with its Fashion Jackets and ready for a night out, partying in social networks. With a price tag of 150 euro and attractive design, Corby aims to be affordable and appealing to the young audience.

The basic specs are reminiscent of the Samsung S5230 Star, but Corby maintains its own identity very well. Starting off with the physical dimension of the S3650, it’s 103 x 56.5 x 12.0 mm big and weighs 93 grams. Packed in that compact shell are a 2.8″ QVGA capacitive touchscreen (yes, capacitive) and a 2-megapixel camera.

Samsung S3650 Corby

MP3 player, microSD card slot for cards up to 8GB and a FM radio with RDS keep the S3650 rocking, and the WMV support is a really nice touch. A USB port and Bluetooth 2.1 will aid in loading up the phone with music from your computer, but unfortunately, the USB port is the proprietary Samsung one.

The Samsung S3650 is a globetrotter with its quad-band GSM and EDGE support, thought it’s not the speediest one – it’s 2G only. The 960-mAh battery should give it good standby and talk time numbers though nothing official was quoted.

On the social side, Samsung Corby offers Facebook, MySpace and Twitter integration and the list goes on. YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket are Corby’s playground as well. You can update your status on the various social networking sites and receive updates from your friends via a simple pop-up notification feature.

Samsung S3650 Corby shows off its festive colors

The Samsung S3650 also incorporates a lot of the know-how that went into the likes of the Samsung Jet, like one finger zoom, smart unlock and as with any recent touch-based phone from Samsung – TouchWiz user interface and a great deal of widgets. It also offers something called Cartoon UI, which is described as “a highly stylised graphical menu and wallpaper that adapts according to handset functionality”.

One of the main things that Samsung hopes will attract people to the Corby (aside from its bargain price point) is the interchangeable back covers. The S3650 is available in bright colors, Jamaican Yellow, Cupid Pink, Minimal White, and Festival Orange (with more to come in the future), but can get fancy too. Included in the box will be two additional back covers – the Fashion Jackets.

Corby’s front is black, and it’s the back that receives the vivid color treatment. One of the Fashion Jackets is black, making the entire phone black (and black is elegant, right?), while the other one is more interesting – a unique pattern design color.

Check out our studio photos of Samsung S3650 Corby:

The Samsung S3650 Corby will be available in Europe from mid-September for about 150 euro (215 US dollars). No word on its availability outside Europe just yet.

Source: GSMArena.com

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Tags: Nokia 5530, review, XpressMusic

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic review: Winner by design

Posted on 20 August 2009 by admin

Introduction

The XpressMusic lineup is fired up and coming after you with all they’ve got – from QWERTY smartphones to touchscreens. In fact, with the arrival of 5530 XpressMusic, the Nokia music line has more touch phones than the Nseries. We told you, they’re dead serious about it.

With the 5800 XpressMusic shaping up as quite a blockbuster, Nokia had hardly any choice but to build on that momentum. The way up from the 5800 goes into Nseries territory really, so a lower spec’d device with an even sweeter price tag seems quite the right thing to do to reach the masses. And well, strategically expand the user base for the Touch UI edition of Symbian S60.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic official photos

The Nokia 5800 offered value-for-money that very few could match. The 5530 comes in even more affordable but tries to deliver as much goodies as possible, pushing the value-for-money meter well towards the “must have” end of the scale. Here’s what the 5530 XpressMusic offers and what was left out to keep the cost down: