Cellphone Reviews Blog » High Speed Data

Sony Ericsson W760a Phone Red ATandT

Cellphone Review — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:02:11 +0000

Sony Ericsson W760a Phone Red ATandT

Packed with entertainment features and great innovations to take music and gaming interaction to the next level, the Sony Ericsson w760a for AT&T can quickly download video, music and more over AT&T’s lightning quick HSPDA 3G network. Additionally, this GPS-enabled phone can access the AT&T Navigator service for turn-by-turn directions as well as its Video Share serve, which enables you to send video of yourself to another compatible phone while making a voice call.

This Walkman phone includes the innovative “shake to shuffle” feature, which randomly chooses another song stored on your phone with just a flick of the wrist. This phone is also great for gaming, thanks to that built-in motion sensor that enables you to tilt the phone to control gameplay. Other features include a 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth 2.0 for handsfree devices and stereo music streaming, Memory Stick Micro (M2) expansion, access to personal email and instant messaging services, and up to 3.5 hours of talk time.

Take advantage of AT&T services including Mobile Music, Video Share, and AT&T Navigator turn-by-turn directions.

AT&T Service Options
This AT&T phone can handle high-speed data connectivity via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband data network, which is available in most major metropolitan areas. The AT&T 3G network uses the dual-band UMTS 850/1900 MHz network, and this phone is also compatible with 2100 MHz 3G networks (found in international territories). The AT&T 3G network provides download speeds ranging from 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps, and upload speeds ranging from 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps. This makes it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless multimedia services, and it gives you the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services. (For use outside the United States, an AT&T international data plan is recommended.)

In areas where the 3G network is not available, you’ll continue to receive service on the AT&T EDGE network, which offers availability in more than 13,000 US cities and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. Providing average data speeds between 75-135Kbps, it’s fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services, including video and music clips, full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go. You’ll also enjoy quad-band GSM connectivity, which allows you to make calls in more than 190 countries and access data applications in the more than 135 countries where AT&T offers international data roaming.

With 3G connectivity, you’ll be able to access AT&T’s Video Share service, which enables you to send a live, one-way video stream to another compatible phone during a standard voice call. The service also allows you to switch the direction of the video stream during the same phone call. (Customers must be in an area served by the company’s 3G network and have a Video Share-enabled phone.) A majority of users in the architecture, engineering and construction industries rated the ability to share live video through Video Share highly, according to research commissioned by AT&T. Video Share lets you see progress on a job site or review the day’s work without having to drive from an office or other site to do so.

You can take advantage of the AT&T Navigator GPS software and service, a full-featured premium navigation application that includes audible turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic updates and re-routing options, and 3D moving maps (additional charges applicable). AT&T Navigator offers several other features to make your commute more enjoyable and reliable, including mobile access to Yellowpages.com. Additionally, AT&T Navigator is the only mobile phone-based GPS service that provides integrated speech recognition for address entry and points of interest search.

With 3G connectivity, you’ll be able to access AT&T’s Cellular Video (CV) service and the Internet while on the go. Cellular Video features content from CNN, The Weather Channel, iFilm, Comedy Central and exclusive premium content from HBO and much more. And you get access to AT&T Mobile Music, which enables you to buy tracks while on the, access the Napster and eMusic subscription music services, stream music video, discover what’s playing with Music ID song-recognition software, and find out what’s hot with The Buzz music news portal. (A MEdia Max subscription bundle is recommended for accessing AT&T’s Internet, video, and music services.)

The integrated accelerometer lets you shuffle music by shaking and play games by tilting the phone.

Phone Features
The slider-style w760a features a top face with a 2.2-inch, 262K-color LCD screen (240 x 320-pixel resolution), five-way navigator (with music play/pause button in the center) and standard send/end and soft navigation keys. The phone slides smoothly up to reveal the alpha-numeric keypad. The phone has a 32 MB internal memory, which can be expanded via optional Memory Stick Micro (M2) media (up to 4 GB in size). The internal phonebook can store up to 1000 contact entries with space for up to 7 numbers per entry and support for picture and ringer ID.

This Walkman phone offers a full-function digital audio player that’s compatible with MP3 and AAC files, and it includes Sony Ericsson’s innovative “shake to shuffle” feature. With Shake Control activated, just flick your wrist and a vibration lets you know that the track has been changed–a new song from your current playlist is randomly selected and automatically played. Playback settings also include an equalizer, playlists, stereo widening, and shuffle and loop modes. This Walkman phone features MegaBass enhancement for added depth of sound, a flight mode that lets you keep listening to tunes with the phone’s network connectivity turned off, and the PlayNow feature that enables you to download new music tones directly to the phone.

Sony Ericsson’s SensMe technology is used to incorporate mood analysis into the track details, which allows you to create playlists that suit your mood. Select SensMe in the downloadable Sony Ericsson Media Manager software, and it will mood-analyze all MP3 files on the computer. When you transfer music from a CD or a PC to your phone using Media Manager, the tracks will automatically be analysed. Instead of selecting tracks for your next playlist, just select your mood.

With the W760, gaming is more fun than ever. The integrated accelerometer allows you to shake or tilt the W760a to simulate motion while playing video games, and dedicated A and B gaming buttons also allow extra control and interactivity. The intuitive Media User Interface rotates depending on how you’re holding the phone, so you can see everything you need at a glance. Auto rotate works for photos, videos and games.

This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity with EDR (enhanced data rate), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and audio/video remote control. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking–surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server.

The built-in 3.2 megapixel camera captures stills and video–and playback of video or still pictures is only limited to the memory card size (or capped at 20 seconds for sending via MMS). You can choose from four resolution sizes and two quality settings for still photos, and it also features white balance and brightness adjustments, digital zoom (up to 3.2x), night mode, panorama, and multi-shot mode. It provides support for PictBridge technology so you can print your photos without the need of a PC (either using USB or Bluetooth). Video clips can be shot at up to QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixels) at 30 frames per second (fps).

The phone also ships with a built-in email client with support for POP3 and IMAP4 protocols, while the included Access NetFront Web Browser allows you to surf full HTML web sites. It also supports RSS feeds, allowing you to use your phone to view up-to-the-minute news and other content from selected Web sites and blogs. Just subscribe to the feed and let it come to you. Support is built in for sending and receiving text, video, graphics and sound via messages. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit–a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.

Other features include:

Flight mode allows you to safely use the non-wireless functions of this phone (such as music, games, or organizer functions) on an airplane during flight
Instant messaging via AOL, Windows Live, Yahoo!
Organizational tools: calendar, calculator, alarm clock, tasks, timer, notes, stopwatch
USB mass storage capabilities
Polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, vibrating alert
Speakerphone
Voice dialing and voice commands
Built-in FM radio

Vital Statistics
The Sony Ericsson w760a weighs 3.6 ounces and measures 4.05 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches. Its 930 mAh lithium-polymer battery is rated at up to 3.5 hours of talk time, and up to 240 hours (10 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as AT&T’s 850/1900 MHz 3G frequencies (UMTS/HSDPA).

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Nice phone but definitely not great!
I recently upgraded from my old w810i to w760a. Found that the phone is pretty much same as w810 w/o any much upgrades…Definitely don’t use GPS coz don’t have data plan. So that upgrade doesn’t matter me.

Goods:

1. Camera is better as always was

2. 3G capability

3. Navigator…those who don’t have GPS but have data plan (i wouldn’t like to have data plan unless i have iPhone)

4. better resolution

Bads:

1. Network – I used to get full signal with my old w810 at my home. Now with new 760 i no longer get full network. Also i have observed overall network strength has decreased at number of places. At places, some 10$ cheap nokia phone gives full network whereas my w760a doesn’t…Haven’t seen any noticeable change in dropped call but donno whether people have noticed it while reaching me…

2. Battery life – Compared to 810 battery life is half…My 810 used to last for 3/4 days for sure w/o much talking…But with same amount of talking my 760 doesn’t even last 2 days…Also takes little longer to charge the full batter as compared to 810.

3. Memory card – I had sony’s proprietary pro duo 2g card for 810. now its useless since they have changed the card format…its awful and i hate it…

3 Stars Just don’t like Sliders
I’ve owned a Motorola Razr for years and like the large keypad for ease of dialing. The Voice dial is exceptional and the keys are responsive, which takes me to why I had to sell the Sony W760a. The voice dial set up is terrible. Took me a long time to activate 3 entries and it is entry specific. The Razr allows you to voice dial ANY entry on your Sim card after you activate the feature. Also, the Sony has an annnoying delay after entry of numbers and data. The slider feature is attractive but several times when I thought the keys were locked, I was actvating the browser! It showed on my bill. So, I’m back to my Razr and other flip phones.

1 Star One HUGE Negative!!
The only way you can plug in your ear buds is buy a bulky accessory that plugs into where you plug it in to charge it, then it won’t fit into any carrying case. So if you want to listen to the walkman on earbuds you have to carry the phone around in your hand every where you go. I always do my homework before I buy a product. This time I didn’t. Great reminder to me – ALWAYS DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE YOU BUY. That word “Walkman” cast a magic spell over me that got me to ‘assume’ you could of course plug your ear buds into it. Fooled me Sony Ericsson. Thanks a lot. NOT.

1 Star w760a is J U N K
i am on my 2nd w760a now. my replacement phone has the same problems as the previous one. lockups, shutdowns, problems with bluetooth (on multiple bluetooth devices). i got this phone because i was tired of carrying around a bulky “smart” phone…but this is ridiculous. I had a motorola razr that lasted for about 5 years with never any single issue what so ever. additionally, all the extra accessories you have to buy on this thing are ridiculous. i can honestly say i will never again purchase another sony phone, or probably any other product. oh, and all these problems happen with the ATT software, or debranded. if you have this phone and don’t have any problems, at this point i would recommend you buy a lotto ticket.

3 Stars Not perfect, but a very good non-smart phone.
I bought this phone to replace a Moto Slver S7. The reception and voice quality on this phone is generally superior and the screen is very nice. The sliding parts feel sturdy and I doubt they will break any time soon. This phone is also surprisingly light weight given how sturdy it feels.

The phone does have two issues which are big negatives for me. The battery life is generally short. Perhaps I expect too much since the Slvr had such fantastic battery life, but charging my phone every 2-3 days or so is irritating. From what I gather this battery life is about as good as other phones that are available now, but it is still disappointing. The second issue is that the bluetooth is bothersome to turn off manually. I only use bluetooth when I’m in my car and this phone either leaves it on all the time or off all the time. In order to turn it on and off you must flip through 5 menus. (You can link a shortcut to the handsfree menu, but not to the bluetooth menu.)

=====

EDIT: The problem that I describe above does not actually exist. I decided to investigate this issue a few days after I wrote the review and it turns out that you can set a button to automatically turn the BT on and off. No menus or any of that mess. It’s actually very convenient! I would add a star to this review if it were allowed.

======

Another odd thing is that they do not package an ear-bud or computer connection cable or memory card with the phone. I suppose that since I paid $.01 for the phone I cannot hold that against them.

Buy/More Info

Samsung Rugby A837 Phone Yellow ATandT

Cellphone Review — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:38:56 +0000

Samsung Rugby A837 Phone Yellow ATandT

Ideal for on-site field services, the ruggedized Samsung Rugby for AT&T can take just about anything you can throw at it. This highly durable handset is certified to Military Standard MIL-STD 810F standards that’s perfect for users like construction foremen and landscape designers. In addition to access to AT&T Navigation turn-by-turn direction service, the Rugby also features compatibility with Push to Talk communication, Enterprise Paging, and AT&T’s breakthrough Video Share calling services. This quad-band GSM phone runs on AT&T’s dual-band 3G (HSDPA/UMTS) network, for fast downloads and seamless video calls. It also offers a 1.3-megapixel camera, microSD memory expansion to 8 GB, Bluetooth for handsfree communication and stereo music streaming, access to personal email and instant messaging, and up to 5 hours of talk time.

The ruggedized Samsung Rugby is certified to Military Standard MI-SID-810F, withstanding dust, shock vibrations, rain, humidity, solar radiation and altitude and temperature extremes.

AT&T Service Options
This AT&T phone can handle high-speed data connectivity via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband data network, which is available in most major metropolitan areas. The AT&T 3G network uses the dual-band UMTS 850/1900 MHz network (also known as WCDMA), making it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless multimedia services. It also gives AT&T the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services.

This 3G-enabled handset is compatible with AT&T’s Video Share calling.

With 3G connectivity, you’ll be able to access AT&T’s Cellular Video (CV) service and the Internet while on the go. Cellular Video features content from CNN, The Weather Channel, iFilm, Comedy Central and exclusive premium content from HBO and much more. And you get access to AT&T Mobile Music, which enables you to buy tracks while on the, access the Napster subscription music service, stream music video, discover what’s playing with Music ID song-recognition software, and find out what’s hot with The Buzz music news portal. (A MEdia Max subscription bundle is recommended for accessing AT&T’s Internet, video, and music services.)

Small business and enterprise customers also have the option to use AT&T’s Enterprise Paging to connect quickly to its workforce from a central location. Enterprise Paging is an AT&T-hosted service that allows a centralized dispatch system administrator to build customized group distribution lists of workers in the field and to send group notifications via text messaging. Workers can respond immediately or take the appropriate action in the message.

With its built-in A-GPS, you can use the optional AT&T Navigator service to get you to your destination with points of interest and turn-by-turn navigation.

The Rugby features a rubberized and metal casing that is easy to grip.

Phone Features
The rugged clamshell Rugby is certified to military standard MIL-STD-810F to withstand dust, shock, vibration, rain, humidity, solar radiation, altitude and temperature extremes, and it features a rubberized and metal casing that is easy to grip. The exterior of the phone has a large speaker for easy Push to Talk (PTT) communication as well as a small LCD screen that displays current time, incoming calls, signal strength, and battery life. The interior 2-inch LCD screen has a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and a 262K color depth. The phone has a 128 MB internal memory, which can be expanded via optional microSD memory cards (up to 8 GB in size). The phonebook can hold up to 1000 contact entries with up to 6 numbers per entry. It also offers 8 one-touch dialing numbers and support for picture and ringer ID.

Handsfree communication is easy thanks to the integrated full duplex speakerphone–perfect for conference calling from the office or on the road. This phone provides Bluetooth wireless connectivity (version 2.0), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and file transfer. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking–surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server.

The 1.3-megapixel camera provides three resolution choices (1280 x 960, 640 x 480, and 320 x 320 pixels), and it features a 4x digital zoom, multi-shot capabilities (up to 9 shots in a row), brightness adjustment, and a self-timer. Additionally, you can capture videos in QCIF resolution up to 1 hour in length (as well as audio clips of that length), as long as you have space available on your memory card.

Whether on a trip to a new job site or looking for a place to eat lunch in a new area, Rugby is aGPS-capable, which means AT&T Navigator can get you there with points of interest and turn-by-turn navigation. Assisted-GPS technology allows Rugby to locate itself to get you headed in the right direction quickly.

Other features include:

Push to Talk (PTT) enables you to pull an entire work group into a wireless call from a PTT session as well as set one’s own status to available, unavailable, do not disturb and more.
Organizer tools: Calendar, Calculator, Currency Converter, Tasks, Note, Alarm, World Time
Instant messaging services: AOL, Windows Live, Yahoo!
Access to personal email
SMS text and MMS multimedia messaging
T9 predictive text entry
Music playback formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, 3GP, MP4, M4A
Any key answer
64-chord polyphonic ringtones, real music ringtones, and vibrating alert
Multi-lingual display (English, French, Spanish)
Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures)

Vital Statistics
The Samsung Rugby weighs 4.66 ounces and measures 3.95 x 2.05 x 0.9 inches. Its 1000 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5 hours of talk time, and up to 250 hours (10+ days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as 850/1900 MHz 3G frequencies (UMTS/HSDPA).

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Not As Tough As It Looks
THE YELLOW MODEL MAY NOT BE A GOOD CHOICE. With the military specs and all, I thought this phone would be a tank. In the first hour after I bought it, I placed the phone in my pocket with my old phone, a Sony Ericsson W810i. I later noticed scratches all over the front plastic panel of the Rugby. Over the next few weeks, I also noticed mysterious dark stains appearing on the yellow rubberized coating. It appears that whatever this colored material is made of is picking up stains that can’t be removed, almost as if the coating was wearing off to expose a darker material beneath. It’s worth noting that I keep this phone in a zipper pouch designed for a small digital camera, so there is no friction applied to the phone. I treated my phone’s exterior to Vinylex protectant in hopes this will reduce the absorption qualities of the yellow coating. Looks like a snap-on cover will be required for true protection. I also noticed that the hinge has more play than I would have expected for this type of phone and more than I would like to see.

Otherwise, the phone isn’t bad. I like the size and feel of the keypad – with the exception that the clear key is too close to the navigation keys; a small ridge between the two would help prevent pressing clear when you had wanted to hit the down function of the navigation key. Talk quality is good as is the battery life. Push-To-Talk does not have a means to shut it off, so you will constantly hit the button by mistake and be prompted whether you want to accept the charges of that feature. I was surprised that the small 1.3mp camera actually takes pretty good pics.

Actually a good phone overall, but it would be more durable with a protective cover – which then would eliminate the novelty of the yellow “DeWalt tools” color scheme.

UPDATE (2/8/09): YELLOW MODEL WAS A BAD CHOICE. I now know that the yellow coating absorbs anything with grease or dyes that it comes in contact with. The black and red from the inside of the carrying pouch I keep this phone in is being soaked up by the yellow coating. Again, this staining cannot be removed. It appears that Samsung neglected to do proper R&D on this coating – anything else on the phone? A hard yellow plastic shell would have been far superior. Unless you purchase a clip-on cover (which I am looking into), this phone can only be stored in something like a cotton bag that has not been dyed – unless you don’t care if the phone looks dirty and old. Functionally the phone might be military spec, but esthetically it is the least durable phone I’ve ever seen. Samsung blew it with their choice of cover material. Also, I’ve seen a demo model of this phone in an AT&T store where the speaker grill on the front was badly dented and the paint scratched off. It’s unfortunate when you spend a lot of time researching something only to find out after you finally bought it that you made the wrong choice. If you want the Rugby, get it in black.

4 Stars Not for Mac Users
I like this phone but I wish I would have known in advance that I would not be able to install ring tones and other Mac sounds/music on it. Had I known this I would have purchase and IPhone instead.

3 Stars Great potential, but it falls way short
Received the Rugby in 2 days. I knew it didn’t support voice dial, figured I could get used to that. But what really suprised me, and is a constant annoyance is the outer display. It turns completely off within 5 seconds of closing the phone. There is nothing in setup to configure it differently. What is the point of even having an outer display, especially a 65,000 color display, if it is never on for more than 5 seconds? Furthermore, the display does not respond to any buttons on the outside of the phone. You have to actually open, then close the flap to check the time, or to see if you have missed a call.( a two handed operation). It does not even light when connected to the charger. It appears dead unless it is handled constantly.

This complaint may seem insignificant, but I am a carpenter/ woodworker, I use loud machinery, so I miss a lot of calls, and I do not wear a watch. I keep my phone on the bench near where I am working, and often glance at the phone to check for missed calls, or the time. Sometimes I have glue on my hands- even paint- I can’t be picking up and manipulating the phone every few minutes. This phone is being marketed as a workingman’s device, but it falls way short.

It is a fairly large size, a bit large for jeans pocket, but one could get used to it. The speakerphone is excellent. Loud. Very Loud. I would be extremely satisfied with this phone if not for the front display issue.

1 Star Don’t be disappointed
I bought this phone for its rugged specifications. I’m an active person (firefighter) and I thought I’d like some additional protection. The specs are nothing more than window dressing. The phone got wet, admittedly immersed, and failed.

When warranty work was sought, Samsung simply voided the warranty for the reason of “moisture.”

Worthless company, worthless product.Samsung Rugby A837 Phone, Black (AT&T)Samsung Rugby A837 Phone, Yellow (AT&T)

3 Stars A bit of a letdown
This refers to the MAROON model but color shouldn’t be a factor.

I purchased this phone primarily because of its ruggedness, and on that score it’s fine. As an old guy (not old enough for a Jitterbug), I won’t use 90% of the features but those I want are lacking. I wanted voice dial: nada. With all the bells and whistles available, why can’t we record a call? How often are you in a position to jot down info a caller provides?

Buy/More Info

T Mobile Shadow Phone Sage T Mobile

Cellphone Review — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:45:34 +0000

T Mobile Shadow Phone Sage T Mobile

Despite being a feature-rich, Windows Mobile 6-powered smartphone, the T-Mobile Shadow is designed to reduce the complexity often associated with many smartphones while maintaining all the powerful calling, messaging and picture sharing capabilities you expect. The Shadow’s enhanced user-interface is based on the Windows Mobile 6 operating system, which enables you to view and edit Word and Excel documents as well as view emails in their original HTML format and enjoy quick access to contacts with the ability to search a call history and contacts database.

This slider phone offers a large, brightly colorful 2.6-inch LCD screen and spinning scroll wheel for easy navigatoin. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth for handsfree communication and stereo music streaming, MicroSD memory expansion (up to 4 GB), built-in Wi-Fi networking, quad-band GSM connectivity with EDGE data services, and up to 5 hours of talk time. The copper version of the Shadow comes with an extra extended life battery for even more talk time.

The easy-to-use T-Mobile Shadow smartphone provides access to personal email and IM buddies, ability to edit Microsoft Office documents, and quick connection to your Fave 5.

T-Mobile Service
The Shadow operates on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and can handle high-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including video and music clips, full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.

It’s compatible with T-Mobile’s myFaves service, which allows you to call up to five of your most common contacts–on any network, even landlines–without using any of your minutes. Learn more about myFaves from T-Mobile.

Download cool new games, HiFi Ringers (real songs by today’s hottest artists), MegaTones (instrumental versions of songs), and wallpapers quickly, as well as stay connected via the Web, instant messaging, and email.

With T-Mobile Contacts (formerly T-Mobile Address Book), you can store your phonebook on T-Mobile’s network so even if you lose your phone, you don’t lose your contacts. Contacts lets you import entries from Microsoft Outlook, .vcf files, or use .csv files to import from Yahoo!, Gmail, etc.; back up your phone’s address book on our server with enhanced safety features; and store additional contacts on the server.

The Shadow also features a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth stereo music streaming, and MicroSD expansion.

Phone Features
Teaming with manufacturer HTC, T-Mobile’s Shadow offers an innovative design and simple user interface that strips out the complexity of traditional multi-function phones for a quick learning curve to all of this smartphone’s communication and organization features. The 2.6-inch LCD screen has a 240 x 320-pixel resolution and support for a 65K color depth. The phone’s face has a scrolling navigator button–which you can spin for faster scrolling through applications and contacts–complemented by send/end, home, back, and two soft keys for navigation. It smoothly slides up to reveal the alpha-numeric keypad that uses Blackberry’s SureType keyboard layout, which places two letters per key.

The phone has an internal 140 MB memory, which can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards (up to 4 GB in size). The internal phonebook is only limited by the available memory, and it offers multiple fields for phone numbers, and email/IM addresses. A special myFaves feature is integrated into the shadow, where a lighted navigation wheel gets you to your Fave 5 quickly and easily, enabling you to call, text, email, or IM with a single touch. You can customize your Fave 5 witha photo and icons you create or purchase from T-Mobile, as well as choose a distinct ringtone for each Fave.

Access six email accounts–five personal and one work account–including Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, Comcast, and AOL. Receive email the instant your computer does–no delay–and view attachments in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint plus Adobe PDFs.

The 2-megapixel camera provides a range of five resolutions and four quality settings, and it features white balance and brightness settings, and several shooting modes. It will also capture video clips for as long as you have available memory.

The phone is compatible with text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messaging, as well as POP3 personal email accounts. It includes XT9 predictive text entry (the new version of the T9), with such features as a word prediction list and spelling correction that spots transposed letters and missed keys, as well as instant integration into all applications on the device.

Other features include:

Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for fast web surfing on home/corporate networks and hotspots (not compatible with T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home service)
Music playback: MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV
Stay in synch with your Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks in Microsoft Outlook
Send and receive instant messages with Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, or ICQ
Reminder feature, so you never forget another friend’s or family member’s birthday or anniversary
An array of lights and sounds that differentiate one function from another, whether you’re receiving an e-mail, picture message or calendar appointment notification
Speakerphone
Voice-activated dialing enables you to make a call with simple voice commands when your hands are busy
Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 850, 200 MHz
Memory: 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM (140 MB user accessible)

Vital Statistics
The T-Mobile Shadow weighs 5.3 ounces and measures 2.1 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches. Its 920 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5 hours of talk time, and up to 144 hours (6 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

Powered by Windows Mobile 6
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 updates the Windows Mobile 5 platform with a number of handy features that make searching through email, editing Microsoft Office documents, and staying on top of your most important communications even easier. Emails can now be viewed in their original rich HTML format and now offer the ability to visit embedded links. It also includes Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which provides a full set of Windows Live services, such as the Windows Live Messenger IM application, which now enables you to chat with more than one person at one time or send a file.

With Windows Mobile 6, your phone will finally be able to emulate the power and features of your PC’s Microsoft Office suite. You’ll be able to neatly view, navigate and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in their original formatting–without affecting tables, images or text–as well as view PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft Office Word Mobile features include spell-check, Find and Replace commands, bulleted lists, text formatting, and support for tables for the first time.
With Excel Mobile, you’re not just confined to editing charts: with the new Chart Wizard you can create charts quickly and easily.
PowerPoint Mobile allows you to view the full presentation, rehearse timings, check the order and any live links you may have in your presentation. You can then email comments back to the team or communicate via MSN Messenger for an immediate response.
After creating or editing a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, you can synchronize it with your PC and it will automatically be converted to the PC version.

All Windows Mobile 6 powered devices include Direct Push Technology for up-to-date e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization of Outlook calendars, tasks and contacts through Microsoft Exchange Server. It also offers a set of important device security and management features that include the capability to remotely wipe all data from a device should it be lost or stolen, helping ensure that confidential information remains that way.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Piece of garbage
When I first received this phone for a birthday gift, I thought “WOW what a great gift/awesome phone etc.” It worked fine initially…fast forward to the present and 4 phones later…I am about to get my 5th phone as the fourth phone stopped working.

I put up with the terrible battery life and all the other cons. I even loved it in spite of them. However, going on to my fifth phone…I have to say, I will never buy another HTC product again.

Let’s list the problems with my last phones (keep in mind I have never dropped them, spilled anything on them and I treat them with the utmost care) [I work customer service at a tech place so I know about hardware]:

- Buttons mysteriously stop working….permanently

- It stops being able to make phone calls….permanently

- The screen goes black and you cannot get out of this

- After some error, you cannot exit a call by hanging up…only restarting the phone (really now)

- It can no longer locate “signal” despite the fact I have not gone anywhere…it claims the sim card does not work (works just fine tried it on another phone)

- AND MORE!

I am so fed up with this phone that I would have literally run it over with my care by now if T-Mobile did not need me to send it back to get a replacement.

What a piece of crap. F you HTC.

4 Stars Best Phone I’ve Had Yet
So, yes other customers are right. It has a slow processor but trust me, it’s not THAT slow! It is slower than most phones, but is expected since it is a smartphone. Considering how many applications it’s holding, it isn’t a surprise. The best features for me have to be the Windows applications on this phone. Now I can travel with my documents from my PC and not worry. The battery life is another thing that’s a little sketchy. It does NOT have a horrible battery, like the Samsung Blast, but it could be better, in which case the Shadow’s battery lasts about a day and a half. Another idea is, if your not using your wifi, turn it off! It will save your battery. The formats on the phones applications highly make up for it, in which case they are quite amazing. The slider itself is quite durable and I’m confident that if I dropped it, it wouldn’t be shattered all over the floor. I haven’t had any problems hearing anyone on the other line, and there isn’t 7 buttons that send a text (i.e. Samsung Trace). Overall it is the best phone I’ve owned, and smartphone wise it’s a good deal (especially if you get it from Cartoys and not T-mobile itself).

4 Stars Very Slick Phone
t-Mobile Shadow

I have had my t-mobile shadow now for 4 months. I absolutely love this phone in spite of its shortcomings (which are significant). Let me give you the simple break down.

Pros:

-Form factor rocks! I have yet to find a smart phone on the market that comes even close to being as comfortable to use and easy to function with one or two handed operation. The size, look, and feel of this phone rocks in every way. It also seems like it is holding up fairly well considering how hard I am on equipment.

-Screen brightness and readability are superior to any phone I have used before.

-Phone Call Clarity is very nice on this phone. I have no complaints about volume or audio quality, and the phone seems to get fairly good reception.

-The custom interface that t-mobile has included for the MyFav’s is nice but I disabled it since I prefer the standard Windows Mobile interface and I don’t use my favs.

-MicroSDHC support. The phone uses the MicroSD cards and supports the HC cards so I currently have a 4gb card that works great. I haven’t tried the 8gb cards yet.

-Qwerty Keyboard is awesome. I have had not problem at all with the fact that there are two characters per key. The recognition system is awesome and after a week of use I am actually faster on this keyboard than I was on the full Qwerty keyboard on my BlackBerry.

Cons:

-Battery Life is my single largest complaint about this phone. If you plan on using a phone for two days or more without charging then this is not the phone for you. I use my phone to check email about 20 times a day and I make about 15 phone calls per day, I send about 10-15 text messages per day and that pretty much burns the entire battery by Midnight each day. For how much I use the phone I can expect about 18 hours of use before a recharge is required.

-Scroll wheel. The scroll wheel seems like it would be a nice addition but you have to turn it almost half a rotation to get it to scroll one position, so it is faster just to use it like a d-pad than a scroll wheel. I am hoping that a firmware update someday will fix this.

-Slightly slower performance. I have noticed that the phone does not handle some of the bigger applications I use as well. I use terminal services to remote manage some Microsoft servers that I have and it doesn’t work very well on the phone. Most of the standard mobile apps work just fine though.

I hope this was helpful. Good Luck!

4 Stars Not that slow really, good feature set, battery life not great though
Windows Mobile 6 has a lot of improvements over 5, but it still takes some navigation to get to some things. Recently upgraded the ROM to 1.11 via T-Mobile support, which had some tweaks that improved battery life a bit. Still can’t get it to sync with Exchange Server over GPRS, though it works fine over WiFi (server issue, maybe?), but everything else is good..nice keyboard, not a bad camera, large contact and calendar capabilites, good web browsing for a phone, ActiveSync mostly works very well, syncs with Exchange fine (except for the DirectPush issue, which I think will get solved), and more…T-Mobile does indeed have good customer support, probably the best in the cell phone biz that I know of, and I’ve worked with a lot of them. So even they can’t help me solve the GPRS/Exchange sync issue I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting a credit for the GPRS fees I’ve run up, not that they amount to much.

1 Star Horrible phone
This is a terrible phone. The sound was very low on the internal speaker. Well it was very low, it stopped working after about a month. So now I’m speaker phone only; or my bluetooth headset. Which is why I didn’t take it right back while it was still under warranty, because I use my bluetooth headset all the time anyway. Still it’s a hassle using speakerphone for every call when I’m at work where I can’t wear the headset.

Now they’ve updated the firmware and now the bluetooth doesn’t see any devices. So of the two of three ways you can listen to a call I’m now down to one way; speaker phone only.

The battery life is slow, and it’s not helped by the horrible OS where when you close a program, you’re not really closing the program you’re just putting it in the background. To really close a program you have to go to the task manager and close it there. And that just gives a small bump in battery life.

Or how about the time ActiveSync synced my blank pc outlook address book to my smartphone and erased all my contacts. That was clever. Didn’t these geniuses at M$ ever hear of a concept called “union” as in the union of two sets? Too bad apple does the same thing with their ipods as M$ does. The new version of ActiveSync now at least asks which way you want the data to go. I guess I had an older version, I never imagined sync means some thing else entirely than what I thought it meant.

And you see those pictures of your ‘friends’ in the circle in the product picture? You think, oh well that’ll be kind of cool, use the wheel to wheel around to whoever you want to call. I can’t review if that’s cool or not because with tmobile; that’s extra. I know this much, it ain’t 4 bucks a month cool.

I’m so sick of these mobile phones with all their locked out or charge extra features.

Buy/More Info

Nokia 1680 Black Phone T Mobile

Cellphone Review — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:23:27 +0000

Nokia 1680 Black Phone T Mobile

A great choice for those looking for a simplified cell phone for on-the-go communications, the Nokia 1680 classic offers essential mobile phone functionality with the added benefits of a basic digital camera. It offers a VGA camera with video recording capabilities, and it features one-touch access for photos and videos. It’s compatible with T-Mobile’s MyFaves service for unlimited nationwide calling to your five favorite people. Other features include access to personal email as well as text and multimedia messaging, speakerphone for handsfree communication, web browser, and up to 4 hours of talk time.

T-Mobile Service Options
The 1680 operates on GSM 850/1900 networks and can handle high-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including video and music clips, full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.

Enjoy access to personal email and instant messaging via popular services as well as SMS/MMS messaging.

Phone Features
The candybar-style Nokia 1680 has a color LCD screen with a 128 x 160-pixel resolution and 65K color depth. It has a standard alpha-numeric keypad, five-way navigator, send/end keys, and two soft keys for navigating the interface. The phone has an internal 32 MB memory, which isn’t expandable. The internal phonebook can store up to 1000 contact entries, with multiple numbers per entry and support for caller groups and ringer/picture ID. Additionally, the phone displays the most recent 20 dialed/received/missed calls.

The 1680 offers a full range of email, text, and multimedia messaging options. It includes support for IMAP4, POP3, and SMTP email. In addition to SMS text and MMS multimedia messaging, this phone incorporates Nokia Xpress audio messaging, which allows you to personalize messages in a spontaneous and creative way. By using a specially designed menu, an audio message can be recorded and sent with only a few clicks of a button. Xpress audio messages can be sent to all MMS-enabled GSM handsets, and can also be shared with multiple recipients.

Other features include:

Send and receive instant messages with Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, or ICQ.
Organizer with local calendar, Expense Manager, advanced calculator, Converter II
WAP 2.0 web browser (XHTML)
VGA camera for still photos up to 640 x 480 pixels
Capture and play back short video clips
Integrated speakerphone
2.5mm headset jack
Ringtones: Polyphonic (24 channels), MP3

Vital Statistics
The Nokia 1680 weighs 2.6 ounces and measures 4.26 x .59 x 1.81 inches. Its 700 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4 hours of talk time, and up to 432 hours (18 days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Ok phone to tide me over
Short: This phone works fine as a basic phone, if that is all you are looking for.

Long: My old phone’s LCD croaked on me, and I wanted to wait a bit before buying an HTC Dream, so I went with this cheap phone. Complaints: Menu/key response is sometimes slow. No way to get data to phone via USB cable, at least if you live in the US.

It seems like a USB cable exists (in Europe, Asia and Australia) but it costs about as much as the phone itself does after exchange rates. If you go to [...], they talk about cable CA-126, which works with the 1680. It has a regular usb connector on one end, and a Nokia microusb & 2.5mm charger plug on the other. The US Nokia manual says the Microusb port is for “authorized personal only”, which to my mind says that the carriers in the US wanted to force people into getting things onto the phone via some $$$-chargeable method.

In any event, I’ll be getting a new phone in a few months so I’ll live with this phone for now. But the limitations it has makes it so that it is only suitable for those who are not looking for anything other than making/receiving phone calls (like my parents).

4 Stars Good basic phone for the money
I needed a replacement phone, and did not want to sign up for a new contract, so I bought a Nokia 1680c at the full retail price. This phone is a good value. It rings loud & clear, and the speakerphone is easy to hear. People I’m calling say my voice is clear, though they can tell I’m on a cell phone. It has a lot of neat software features; for example, you can configure a shortcut action for the left and right softkeys, as well the Up-Down-Left-Right buttons. There is no dedicated rocker switch on the side for volume up & down; during a call, the volume is adjusted by the Left and Right buttons. The phone is constructed well, but feels too light. Battery life is very good. The screen is bright and clear. Navigating menus can be a little sluggish. The keypad is stiff, making text messaging a chore. No Bluetooth connectivity, so forget about using one of those fancy headsets. The box does include a wired earbud/microphone with integrated call answer/end button. Something that annoyed me was how it saved numbers to the address book from an incoming call; the Nokia software puts a “+” symbol in front of incoming call numbers. That gets saved to the address book — for example “+15551212121″ — a minor thing, and something probably more useful for European phone numbers, for example. Overall, I like this phone, and will probably keep it until I someday feel the need to get a smartphone-type slab of electronics.

Buy/More Info

Palm Centro Black Phone ATandT

Cellphone Review — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:13:41 +0000

Palm Centro Black Phone ATandT

Life starts after five o’clock. Not coincidentally, that’s also when the Palm Centro smartphone comes alive. Not only does the Palm Centro handle all your favorite voice functions, but it also offers text, IM, e-mail, and web access–all in a body that’s a lot smaller than you’d think. Add a 1.3-megapixel camera, 64 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth connectivity for headsets, MicroSD expansion, and a full QWERTY keyboard and you have a terrific smartphone for all your messaging and personal needs. You’ll be able to get to where you’re going fast with support for TeleNav GPS Navigator software (which requires an optional Bluetooth GPS receiver). And this quad-band GSM version of the Centro for AT&T also features walkie talkie-style Push to Talk (PTT) communication in addition to voice dialing and speakerphone capabilities. The integrated Palm OS 5.4.9 operating system also plays nicely with Windows XP and Vista as well as Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.

The Palm Centro’s full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to type text messages, IMs, and e-mails.

AT&T Service
This phone operates on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and can handle high-speed data connectivity via AT&T’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”), with availability in more than 13,000 US cities and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. This third-generation, high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including video and music clips, full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.

The phone has a built-in web browser for MEdia Net downloads and mobile web browsing. AT&T’s MEdia Net service enables you to receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more. The AT&T Mobile Music platform includes the ability to sideload music with Napster and eMusic with the built-in Pocket Tunes Deluxe application, listen to live radio with XM Radio Mobile, discover new songs with MusicID and more. You can also access XM Radio Mobile, which provides 25 of the best XM Radio channels, featuring commercial-free rock, hip-hop, country, jazz and more (additional monthly fee; free three-day trial included).

With a database of more than 3 million artists and titles, you can use MusicID to identify an unknown song. While holding the Centro up to a speaker, the MusicID application returns song information such as title, artist and cover art, if available. It also keeps track of previous IDs and allows users to share song information with friends via text messages (additional monthly fee; free three-day trial included).

It’s also MobiTV capable, which enables you to watch live television, premium and prime-time programming, video-on-demand clips and satellite and digital music services from the top broadcast and cable television networks and major music labels (additional monthly charges are applicable).

You can take advantage of the TeleNav GPS Navigator software, the full-featured premium navigation application that includes audible turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic updates and re-routing options, and 3D moving maps. It comes as a 30-day trial version, and it can be downloaded via the TeleNav web site or via virtual pre-load icon (VPL) after activation.

You can also instantly talk across the largest Push to Talk (PTT) network coverage area in America. Push to Talk works like a walkie-talkie to talk to an individual or a group of up to 29 users. With status icons that clearly indicate the availability of friends and family, Push to Talk customers will know who is free before they call. You can purchase unlimited Push to Talk minutes with with single or family plans, or use Push to Talk on a pay-per-use basis that’s charged by the minute.

Click to see even more details.

Design
The Palm Centro boasts a sleek glacier white housing that measures a mere 4.2 by 2.1 by 0.7 inches (HxWxD) and weighs 4.2 ounces. It’s notably smaller than many competing smartphones, yet doesn’t sacrifice functionality at any point along the way. Users will also love the 320 x 320 touchscreen (up to 65,000 colors), which offers a crisp resolution for photos and videos. And thanks to the full QWERTY keyboard, you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your old cell phone.

Phone and Messaging Functions
The Palm Centro smartphones offers a ton of ways to stay in touch with friends, whether calling, firing off a quick text, instant messaging, or sending an e-mail. From a phone perspective, the Palm Centro lets you dial people right from your address book, set up three-way calls from the touch of a button, or use the speakerphone to talk hands-free. The keyboard, meanwhile, makes it a breeze to type complete messages whether you’re sending text, pictures, or even audio or video clips. Plus, the Centro keeps all your messages in a chat-style view, so it’s easy to keep track of the conversation.

Want to keep up with all the latest gossip when you’re away from the computer? Turn to the Centro’s instant messaging functions, which support all your buddy lists on AIM, MSN, and Yahoo. It also supports Good Mobile Messaging after an over-the-air (OTA) download of the software.. Similarly, the Centro lets you access your personal e-mail accounts, such as Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo. As a result, you can reply to invites and answer e-mails when you’re out and about.

Web Functions
Whether you’re keeping up with friends on Facebook or looking up directions to the new bistro across town, the Centro’s touchscreen and keyboard make it fun to navigate around the web. The Centro includes a fast built-in web browser that lets you check out photos on Flickr quickly via AT&T’s EDGE data network. The Centro is also compatible with Google Maps, making it simple to get directions or see which freeways are clear and which ones are parking lots. Google Maps shows you red, yellow, or green traffic routes in real time.

Organizer Functions
The Palm Centro includes a complete organizer for keeping track of all your daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities. The contacts list gathers all your friends’ phone numbers, addresses, and more, while the calendar keeps you from missing upcoming meetings, events, and parties. You can even enter a friend’s birthday in the contacts list and will automatically show up in your calendar. As with the best organizers, the Centro also offers a to-do list that lets you check off items when they’re complete. As a result, it’s easy to keep track of what you did and still need to do. And should you come across a tidbit that doesn’t have a logical home, simply turn to the memo function, which lets you store random information such as hot spots in Vegas or the names of movies you’d like to rent. Say goodbye to carrying around crumpled scraps of paper in your pocket or purse. Finally, it’s possible to save a copy of all those names, numbers, appointments, photos, and videos on your computer thanks to the sync function.

Multimedia
Whether you want to take pictures, play videos, or listen to music, the Palm Centro has got you covered. The 1.3-megapixel digital camera (with a 2x digital zoom) lets you shoot pictures and send them to friends, store digital albums, or shoot videos. The built-in MP3 player, meanwhile, lets you take your tunes everywhere you go. With 64 MB of storage, there’s plenty of room for your playlists, plus you can add up to 4 GB more with a microSD card. And thanks to Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can play the songs you downloaded from online music stores.

Vital Statistics
The Palm Centro weighs 4.2 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3 hours of talk time, and up to 240 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Excellent Smartphone on a Poor AT&T Network
As of March 2009, I think Palm Centro is one of the best smartphones available. The style is simple, unadorned and functional a.k.a. Google style but not stylish, fun & glamorous like iPhone & Mac. Having used 3 Windows Mobile phones, iPhone, Balckberry Storm, Palm Treo 755p & Nokia E51, I think Centro is closest to the ideal smartphone but AT&T network does not hold water to Verizon Wirelss network in reliability.

1. Clear sound. Solid, reliable phone.

2. Reasonable size & weight (119 gms) and is pocketable and you have to carry phone with you all the time. But there is scope for improvement, it could be lighter and thinner. Ideal weight for a phone is less than 100 gms.

3. Top-notch contact, calendar and memos management.

4. Brisk, peppy response and rarely locks up or freezes.

5. A-one Microsoft office document functionality with Documents-to-Go.

6. Good QWERTY keyboard.

7. Fairly decent availability of applications.

8. Functions well as a tethered modem with cable and speed in 800-900 Kbs range on Verizon Wireless network.

10.Synchronizes calendar, contacts and memos with Macbook.

11.Good SMS function: threads messages.

But Centro is not without flaws: the default OK button is on Voicemail and dials Voicemail unintentionally. I have not been able to sync over Bluetooth or use Bluetooth modem. Web browser is fast for mobile sites but otherwise barely functional – Internet is available but browsing is not enjoyable like on iPhone. Instead of micro-USB or mini-USB, it uses proprietary cable which is hard to take out. Camera is bare minimum at 1.3 Megapixels and music function is basic with 2.5 mm audio jack. Font size is small and has to be individually adjusted in each application.

Here is my Gestalt on smartphones.

1. iPhone is the best MP3, video and multimedia player, has the best user interface and mobile browser experience but is abysmal as a phone in comparison to Verizon Centro. AT&T has poor network signal and coverage, the calls drop all the time and sound on iPhone is average.

2. Blackberry Storm has a gorgeous screen and excellent email device but has very buggy software and constantly freezes. Blackberries shine when it comes to email.

3. Windows Mobile phones are horrendous: packed with features that don’t work and smartphone operating system is the most unreliable.

4. Symbian based Nokia phones are fairly decent smartphones but their availability on US cellular carriers is very limited. Verizon Wireless, the best network in US, has none.

In my experience Palm operating system is one of the most trusty and functional smartphone operating systems. Centro is supposedly the last in the Palm lineage phones. I would recommend it if you need a solid, trustworthy smartphone, but on Verizon, not on AT&T.

4 Stars A nice phone
I’ve had this phone for about a month now and it’s serving me well. My only minor complaint is how tiny the buttons are. It takes some getting used to but they are manageable however. Everything else I like. Doesn’t hurt it was only .01! I’d recommend it.

3 Stars Nice device but Palm OS is terrible on a phone
I have used and liked the Palm PDAs over many years.

My work gave me a Palm Centro.

The device is nice – fits in short or trouser pocket easily.

The Palm OS is frustrating – freezes regularly for 2-3 seconds when

accessing commands or navigating the menus. This is by far the biggest

annoyance with this phone. I’ll tr to navigate to a manu or function

and the phone freezes for several seconds and then catches up.

Keyboard is small.

Web browsing is acceptable.

The device is ok as a phone but you really need a bluetooth to make it

usable.

Would certainly not be the device of my choice if I had to buy one.

1 Star I really wanted to like this phone…
but in all honesty it fails to please on many levels. The first one I had the four-way browsing button stopped functioning in two weeks. This wasn’t from dropping or hard use, but just casual, in the pocket carrying.

The second phone I was using a plug in style hands free device and when I removed it the phone would not come out of hands free mode: the ear piece was disabled and the microphone was muted. I refuse to pay $50 dollars for the insurance deductible to replace a poorly made, fragile device that will probably break again in the next six months.

I will give it that it is a wonderfully sized PDA that is easy to carry and great to text on but Palm’s quality control has failed me for the last time. I’ve had four of their PDA’s just to have everyone of them stop functioning within a year from casual use, not dropping, getting wet, or any other abuse. I’m going to Blackberry and reccomend you do the same.

1 Star Palm’s Bargain Phone – Buyer Beware
Cons: Cheaply constructed buttons. Long delays after button presses, etc. Can’t sync email, etc unless connected the ‘Sprint’ network

Pros: I liked the included ring tones/sound, battery life decent

I was excited to get a new Palm OS based phone at a great price. However, the phone’s cheaply constructed tin-foil buttons caught on on the corner of my pants pocket just after the 30 day exchange policy. It was all over after that, as the bent buttons just kept getting worse, then the center button fell out making it impossible to use. Palm offered to fix the phone at a gracious 50% off for $150. So it can break again? No thanks!

Some might get lucky and not see these problems until months after purchase – just be forewarned.

Buy/More Info

Samsung Propel A767 Phone Green ATandT

Cellphone Review — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:22:00 +0000

Samsung Propel A767 Phone Green ATandT

Get the word out to friends, family, and instant messaging buddies with the Samsung Propel slider phone from AT&T, whose face slides up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard that makes typing a breeze. You’ll be able to quickly download video, music and more over AT&T’s lightning quick HSPDA 3G network. Additionally, this GPS-enabled phone can access the AT&T Navigator service for turn-by-turn directions as well as its Video Share serve, which enables you to send video of yourself to another compatible phone while making a voice call. Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth for handsfree devices and stereo music streaming, MicroSD memory expansion (to 8 GB), access to personal email, and up to 5 hours of talk time.

The Propel’s full slide-out QWERTY keypad makes keeping up with friends and family via email and text and instant messaging a breeze.

AT&T Service
This AT&T phone can handle high-speed data connectivity via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband data network, which is available in most major metropolitan areas. The AT&T 3G network uses the dual-band UMTS 850/1900 MHz network, which provides download speeds ranging from 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps, and upload speeds ranging from 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps. This makes it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless multimedia services, and it gives you the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services.

Phone Features
The Samsung Propel’s face features a large 2.2-inch LCD screen, which offers a 65K color depth and 220 x 176-pixel resolution and sits above a standard five-way navigator, two soft keys for navigating menus, and send/end keys. It also includes a dedicated one-touch messaging key, making text messaging, instant messaging and mobile email quick and simple. The face slides up to reveal full QWERTY keyboard with integrated numeric keypad and dedicated camera button. The phone has an internal 50 MB memory, which can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards (up to 8 GB in size). The internal phonebook can store up to 1000 contact entries, each capable of storing multiple phone numbers and supporting caller groups as well as picture/ringer ID.

Handsfree communication is easy thanks to the integrated speakerphone. This phone also provides Bluetooth wireless connectivity (version 2.0), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and file transfer. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking–surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server.

The Propel offers a full range of email, text, and multimedia messaging options. It includes support for mobile email services such as AOL, Yahoo!, and Windows Live. You can also keep up with your instant messaging buddies using the built-in IM application that connects to those same services.

Other features include:

1.3-megapixel camera with digital zoom and video capture capabilities
Digital audio player with support for MP3 files
72-chord polyphonic and MP3 ringtones
Organizer tools: calendar, alarm, world clock, notes, memo, currency converter, to do
Voice recording capabilities
T9 predictive text entry
USB connectivity (cable not included)
Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), SPP (serial port profile)

Vital Statistics
The Samsung Propel weighs 3.8 ounces and measures 3.85 x 2.23 x 0.5 inches. Its 1000 mAH lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5 hours of talk time, and up to 240 hours (10 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as AT&T’s 850/1900 MHz 3G network (UMTS/HSDPA).

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Excellent Entry Level Texting Phone =)
This is a great entry level texting phone for all the text message whores out there. Despite all the pictures advertising the phone, it only appears to be big and bulky but it’s the complete opposite. The phone is actually very slim & slender. I love that it comes in 3 different colors (Green, Blue, & Rose White) and probably more on the way. I picked up the green one and i love it. I originally purchased the Samsung Epix PDA phone and was so disappointed by the awful operating system and returned it right away. Finally the Samsung Propel hits the stores and it’s basically a PDA smart phone without the Window Mobile operating system (Which is awful by the way). I love the Samsung Menu and UI. It’s easy to use and just navigating through it is a breeze. You don’t even need to look at the manual to operate this thing. The one downside to the Propel is that the screen could be a bit bigger and the colors could be a bit more vibrant. You only get 65K colors as oppose to the usual Samsung high end phones that come with 262K colors. So, that was one of the disappointments with this phone. Samsung knew this phone was strictly for the teens so i can see why the price is so cheap. Considering the friendly price is probably a big reason why you don’t get the 262K colors. Another flaw is the Instant Messaging. You do get AIM & Yahoo but the buddylist is not in real time. You will only be able to see a few friends on your buddylist not all. But if you IM them they will respond even though they appear to not be signed in. The best thing about my Sidekick LX is that IM is in real time. I signed on from both devices and had about 50 friends on my buddylist appear on my SK while the Propel only had 3. As i stated before even though only 3 appear you can still IM the ones that don’t appear and chat with them. Also AT&T for some reason is so stingy with the accessories. I wish it came with an additional USB charger, free micro SD memory card, or a case. Unfortunately NONE. All you get is the cell & wall charger. Overall i am very pleased with my purchase and recommend anyone looking for a texting phone or any device that might come close to a Sidekick on the AT&T network, this would be the phone 4 u.

Pros:

Sleek sexy design

Comes in multiple colors

Camera/camcorder (Really should be 6.0 megapixel by now)

Built in Messaging Clients (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Etc)

Access to Emails

Qwerty Keyboard

MP3 Players

Samsung Menu

GPS

Slider Phone

Micro SD (Up to 8GB)

Cons:

Only 65K Colors on screen

Only 1.3 Megapixel Camera/Camcorder (Really should be 6.0 by now)

Battery is really thin so carry an extra charger with you

AT&T is really cheap with the accessories (Only device & charger included)

Wish a USB Charger was included

4 Stars Samsung propel
I have had this phone for 3 weeks. It is an ok phone. Only thing I really dont like is how fast the battery runs down. I use to have a little LG flip phone and I only charged it once a week. This one is like every other day and more if I go to the media mall. I was also disappointed when I downloaded a message alert tone from the AT&T ringtone page only to find out you cant use it as a message tone. Since I text alot I thought it would be cute to have animal sounds as alerts. Other than these two things it is a pretty little phone and I was able to get it in green which is my favorite color.

Buy/More Info

Samsung T339 Phone Charcoal T Mobile

Cellphone Review — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:07:18 +0000

Samsung T339 Phone Charcoal T Mobile

Stylish and svelte, the Samsung T339 flip phone for T-Mobile includes built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) that supports both voice and data, making it easier to stay connected to family, friends and colleagues using T-Mobile’s Unlimited HotSpot Calling service. A great phone for staying in touch with family and friends while on the go, it includes SMS/MMS as well as instant messaging (IM) connectivity. Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera with video capture, Bluetooth for handsfree communication and stereo music streaming, MicroSD memory expansion (up to 2 GB), digital audio player, and up to 6 hours of talk time.

T-Mobile Service

Enjoy unlimited nationwide calling over Wi-Fi networks with T-Mobile’s HotSpot Enabled service.

With T-Mobile HotSpot Enabled service, you’ll effortlessly transition between Wi-Fi calling and T-Mobile’s wireless network while you talk. You can get unlimited nationwide calls over Wi-Fi–at home via your wireless router or at any U.S. T-Mobile HotSpot. You can also use the HotSpot Enabled service via most open, or unsecured, wireless routers, as well as any secured wireless router for which you have access to the password from the owner. Whenever you’re not using a Wi-Fi network, the phone works just like a regular mobile phone, using your Whenever Minutes under your T-Mobile voice plan.

Additionally, this mobile phone operates on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and can handle high-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”). As a quad-band world phone, this phone supports international roaming, extending the ability to stay connected while traveling abroad. This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.

This phone also includes compatibility with T-Mobile’s myFaves service, which allows you to call up to five of your most common contacts–on any network, even landlines–without using any of your minutes. Learn more about myFaves from T-Mobile.

Phone Features
The trim Samsung T339 features a 2-inch internal LCD screen (176 x 220 pixels, 262K colors) that’s complemented by an external 1-inch screen (96 x 96 pixels, 65K colors) that displays current time, signal strength, battery life, and incoming calls. The phone’s camera lens sits above this external screen. Flipping open the phone reveals the standard alpha-numeric keypad that’s joined by a five-way navigator, send and end keys, and two soft navigation keys. The phone has a small 20 MB internal memory, which can store up to 1000 contact entries with support for multiple numbers per contact, caller groups and picture/ringer ID. The phone’s memory can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards–great for bringing your favorite music along wherever you roam or saving pictures and videos.

The Samsung T339 features a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth stereo music streaming, and MicroSD memory expansion.

With the integrated Wi-Fi networking, the Samsung T339 allows you to quickly surf the Internet over open wireless networks at home, at your business, or at Wi-Fi hotpsots (such as your local coffee shop). Additionally, with a HotSpot Enabled plan, you’ll be able to effortlessly switch between Wi-Fi calling and T-Mobile’s wireless network while you talk.

If you need text messaging capabilities, the T339 has you covered as support is built-in for sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages. Instant messaging is also supported too, and comes preloaded with AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and ICQ IM clients (additional fees may apply). When it’s time to connect to the Web, you can do so quickly over the supported EDGE data protocol using the WAP 2.0 browser. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built-into the unit–a plus for text messaging users.

Other features include:

1.3-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
Digital audio player with support for MP3, AAC/AAC+ formats
Organizational tools: calendar, alarm, stopwatch, calculator, converter
64-chord polyphonic ringtones, vibrate mode
Speakerphone plus 2.5mm jack for wired headsets
Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures)

Vital Statistics
The Samsung T339 weighs 3.3 ounces and measures 3.6 x 1.8 x 0.8 inches. Its 880 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6 hours of talk time, and up to 264 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

Buy/More Info

Nokia 6205 Dark Knight Edition Phone Verizon Wireless

Cellphone Review — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:06:02 +0000

Nokia 6205 Dark Knight Edition Phone Verizon Wireless

Built with premium materials and boasting an elegant design, this special version of the clamshell Nokia 6205 for Verizon celebrates one of The Dark Knight–the continuation of the Batman legend and one of the biggest movies in Hollywood history. Clad in a mysterious black color and embellished with a subtle The Dark Knight emblem, it comes pre-loaded with wallpapers, voice tones, animated screensavers inspired by the film, and a full movie trailer. You will also find a Joker playing card with a code and a link to a special Verizon web site where you can find out if you’ve won The Joker’s “bag of cash” containing $10,000, play games to win more The Dark Knight-themed prizes, and download exclusive The Dark Knight content from Verizon Wireless’ V CAST service.

Great Gotham Gadgetry! The Dark Knight Edition of the Nokia 6205 boasts a sleek black design and Dark Knight emblem on the back.

It’s compatible with the V Cast Music and V CAST Music with Rhapsody services, which enables you to purchase songs through your phone and download them via Verizon’s fast EV-DO data network. The phone also features Bluetooth connectivity for handsfree devices, MicroSD memory expansion, a 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder, and up to 4.5 hours of talk time.

Verizon Service Options
With support for the EV-DO high-speed data standard, you’ll enjoy fast access to the Internet and Verizon’s multimedia services (additional charges applicable), with average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps and peak rates up to 2 Mbps. (Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered.) The V Cast Music service enables you to download songs instantly to your phone, or purchase music through your PC and transfer the files to your phone. If purchased from your phone, you’ll receive two copies of the song: a Windows Media Audio Pro Plus format at 64Kbps stereo is sent to your phone, and a Windows Media Audio 9 format at 160Kbps stereo is sent to your account in the V CAST Music online store for downloading to your PC. V Cast Music offers nearly 2 million songs, with more being added all the time.

Enjoy crisp looking videos on the 262K color screen, and send messages and email using the clearly defined keypad.

In addition to the V Cast Music service, this phone is also compatible with Verizon’s V CAST Music with Rhapsody, which enables you to access this exclusive digital music service for RealNetworks and for MTV Networks. V CAST Music with Rhapsody delivers unlimited monthly access to music on up to three Rhapsody-compatible mobile phones and players and online on multiple PCs and Web browsers. In addition, customers who purchase music over-the-air are able to download the master copy of the songs or albums to their PCs free of digital rights management (DRM) software that restricts how and where music can be played.

The V Cast Video service enables you to stream or download video clips to your phone from a variety of news, entertainment, sports, and weather channels, including CNN, ABC News, E!, CBS Sports, The Weather Channel, and VH1.

Verizon’s Mobile eMail gives you access to your Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL accounts so you can read, write, and reply. Access your address book, receive e-mail alerts and more, right on your Verizon Wireless phone. Getting on the Internet is easy using Verizon’s Mobile Web 2.0 package, which allows you to read and send e-mails, exchange instant messages and view your favorite web content on your phone. Verizon’s Get It Now wireless download service is also fully compatible with this phone. This pay-per-download service features application downloads, games and productivity tools. You can also personalize your handset with ringtone downloads using the Get It Now service.

With this GPS-enabled phone, you’ll be able to access Verizon’s VZ Navigator service (additional charges applicable) for voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, heads-up alerts, local search of nearly 14 million points of interest in the US (such as landmarks, restaurants and ATMs), and detailed color maps. And Verizon’s Chaperone service lets you easily locate your loved ones from your Verizon Wireless phone or PC in real time. After defining a zone, such as an area designating a school or summer camp, you’ll be sent an alert via text message when the Chaperone handset enters or leaves the zone.

Phone Features
The sleek Nokia 6205 features a 1.3-inch external LCD screen that provides touch-sensitive external music keys that make it simple to access your stored music library. And the internal 2-inch, 262K color internal LCD screen (with a 176 x 220-pixel resolution) makes watching news, sports and entertainment content from V CAST Video come alive. Under the clamshell, you’ll also find a standard alpha-numeric keypad, five-way navigation pad, and send/end and two soft keys. The phone has a 58 MB internal memory, which can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards (up to 4 GB in size). It can store up to 500 contact entries, and it features multiple phone number fields per entry as well as picture and ringer ID capabilities.

In addition to an integrated handsfree speakerphone, the 6205 provides Bluetooth connectivity for communication headsets and other handsfree devices. The embedded Bluetooth 2.0 also provides support for dial-up networking, transferring files, and sharing contacts and calendar updates with other Bluetooth-enabled phone users.

The 1.3-megapixel camera includes a flash and 4x digital zoom, and it can capture still images from 1280 x 960 pixels (suitable for printing) to 160 x 120 pixels (perfect for sending via email or MMS messaging). It also features a self-timer and landscape/portrait modes. You can also capture short video clips for saving or sending via messaging. The digital audio player supports MP3 and WMA files as well as unprotected AAC/AAC+ formats, and it also features the ability to create and manage playlists in the phone as well as sync music between the phone and your PC via USB.

In addition to voice communication, you can also quickly and easily sent SMS text messages as well as MMS picture messaging. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit–a plus for mobile text messaging users.

Other features include:

Organizer tools: Notepad, Calculator, Alarm Clock, World Clock, Stopwatch
Voice dialing and voice commands for touch-free phone operation
Built-in speakerphone
Polyphonic ringtones and real-music ringtones in multiple formats
Openwave Web browser (WAP 2.0)
2.5mm headphone/headset jack
TTY compatible
Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4/T4
Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), PBA (transfer contacts)

Vital Statistics
The Nokia 6205 weighs 3.62 ounces and measures 3.62 x 1.77 x 0.72 inches. Its 1020 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.5 hours (270 minutes) of talk time, and up to 264 hours (11 days) of standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA frequencies as well as the 1xEV-DO r0 data network.

Buy/More Info

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 Phone Red T Mobile

Cellphone Review — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:40:07 +0000

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 Phone Red T Mobile

Enjoy all the communication and connectivity features you’ve come to expect from a Blackberry phone–including email served up by the BlackBerry Internet Service and a full menu of messaging options (SMS, MMS, and IM)–in a new clamshell form factor. The Blackberry Flip from T-Mobile also brings support for T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home service, which enables you to make calls from the GSM cellular network and then seamlessly transfer them to your Wi-Fi network.

Quickly and accurately type messages thanks to the SureType enhanced predictive text typing technology.

The Blackberry Flip features the SureType hybrid alpha-numeric/QWERTY keyboard found on Blackberry Pearl phones, which makes typing messages and dialing numbers fast and easy. It also includes a 2-megapixel camera with video capture, Bluetooth for handsfree devices and stereo music streaming, microSD memory expansion (up to 16 GB), EDGE data connectivity, voice-activated dialing, and up to 4 hours of talk time.

T-Mobile Service
With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service, you’ll effortlessly transition between Wi-Fi calling and T-Mobile’s wireless network while you talk. You can get unlimited nationwide calls over Wi-Fi–at home via your wireless router or at any U.S. T-Mobile HotSpot. You can also use the HotSpot @Home service via most open, or unsecured, wireless routers, as well as any secured wireless router for which you have access to the password from the owner. This phone is compatible with the 802.11b/g Wi-Fi standard as well as with Wi-Fi security protocols including WEP ,WPA and WPA2. Whenever you’re not using a Wi-Fi network, this phone works just like a regular mobile phone, using your Whenever Minutes under your T-Mobile voice plan.

Additionally, this mobile phone operates on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and can handle high-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.

Phone Features
The BlackBerry Flip presents a sophisticated look with a sleek design and a chrome-finished frame surrounding its smooth, luminescent face. Weighing 3.6 ounces, the Flip has two light-sensing LCD screens–an internal 2.3-inch 65K-color screen (240 x 320-pixel resolution) and an external 65K-color screen with a 128 x 160-pixel resolution. The external LCD makes it easy to preview incoming emails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset. It can also display currently playing music track information, and the screen darkens after a pre-assigned time-out duration. The phone has an internal 128 MB memory, which can be expanded via microSD/microSDHC memory cards up to 16 GB in size.

More than just an email companion, the Blackberry Flip also offers a media player, 2.0-megapixel camera, and Wi-Fi connectivity–compatible with T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home. See larger version.

Opening up the clamshell reveals the Blackberry Flip’s unique alpha-numeric keypad, which has been brough over from Blackberry’s popular Pearl models. Each button on the keypad shares two letters and the unit automatically determines which letter is the intended one based on what it predicts you are trying to spell. This unique predictive text technology, known as SureType, makes the Blackberry Flip’s diminutive size possible. SureType also learns the words you use most often, further enhancing your typing speed.

With BlackBerry push technology, you don’t need to retrieve your e-mail. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, allowing you to be discreetly notified as new e-mail arrives. Support is also built-in for viewing e-mail attachments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, and PDF formats).

You’ll be able to easily access up to 10 supported personal and work email accounts, send and receive text and instant messages, and connect on popular social networking sites with friends, family and co-workers. The DataViz Documents to Go software suite is also preloaded, allowing you to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset. The BlackBerry Flip is supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, BlackBerry Unite!, BlackBerry Professional Software and BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which provides tight integration with corporate email systems.

Surf the Internet with the BlackBerry Browser, which includes a “Page View” option that displays a full web page on the screen along with a magnifying glass that allows the user to quickly and accurately point and zoom in on a specific area of the web page. It also provides quicker access to Bookmarks and History.

This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity, and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, audio/video remote control, and sending of vCard calendar and contact info. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. With Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), you just say the word and the 8120 can initiate a call with anyone in your contact list. Plus, you can use VAD along with the built-in speakerphone or with a Bluetooth headset for hands-free dialing.

With an advanced media player for displaying pictures, listening to music and watching videos, the Flip is the perfect on-the-go entertainment center. Videos play smoothly on the large internal display, playlists can be managed directly on the handset, and there’s an equalizer with 11 preset filters. The BlackBerry Flip also works with the new BlackBerry Media Sync application that makes it easy to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone. It’s compatible with a wide range of music file formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ and AMR-NB as well as MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video clips.

The external screen displays incoming calls as well as currently playing music tracks and a clock when at rest. See larger version.

The 2-megapixel camera features a 5x digital zoom and flash as well as your choice of three picture sizes and qualities and white balance settings. You can also capture video clips in two formats–normal and small for sending via MMS.

Other features include:

Instant messaging via popular services including AOL, Yahoo!, Windows Live, Google Talk, and Blackberry Messenger
SMS text and MMS picture/video messaging
Support for IMAP/POP3, SMTP email
Integrates with an existing enterprise email account
Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g)
Support for AES or Triple DES encryption when integrated with BlackBerry Enterprise Server
Ringtones: polyphonic, MIDI, and MP3
USB 2.0 connectivity
Downloadable BlackBerry Maps application provides directions and maps while on the road.
3.5mm headphone jack
Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), DUN (dial-up networking), PBA (transfer contacts)

Vital Statistics
The Blackberry Flip weighs 3.6 ounces and measures 2.0 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches. Its 900 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4 hours of talk time, and up to 360 hours (15 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as Wi-Fi 802.11b/g networks using the T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Good phone, shame about its carrier…
I am a big fan of the BlackBerry. I’ve never had a problem with the straight design in all of its versions, but when I heard that they’d released a flip version of the Pearl, I knew I had to give it a whirl. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip has a gorgeous design. It has two displays — an internal and an external — and both look great. The phone is rather long in dimensions (as opposed to Sprint’s LG Lotus, which is thick and short), but it’s not as big or as heavy as I thought it would be. When flipped open, it is a little thicker than the Motorola RAZR, but not by much. And it comes in two colors — black and red. I love the red one.

The Flip, like all other BlackBerrys, has Push e-mail, web browsing, GPS, a media center, and you can download applications to it. It runs with RIM’s latest OS, so you get the newest features. The internal display isn’t as impressive as the one found in the BlackBerry Bold (AT&T), nor is it as fast and user-friendly, but it’s good nevertheless. This is a Pearl, which means you get the short-type keyboard. It works the exact same way as the classic BlackBerry Pearl, so no renovations there. It has a 2-MP camera and a headphone jack. The design is quite sleek and beautiful, and it’s very comfortable to hold to your ear while talking on the phone. The trackball is smaller than earlier versions of the BB Pearl, and you may or may not like this change. I for one had no difficulty using it. The web browser is middling in this phone. Definitely not as refined as the one found in the Bold.

The phone itself is great. Business types as well as idle fans will very likely enjoy using this. The one big problem I see with this phone is its carrier. T-Mobile still runs on Edge. They have GSM and 3G capabilities, but in very few areas, which does not include mine. I live in Western Massachusetts, not far from Connecticut and New York, and Verizon, AT&T and Sprint run fast and reliable 3G networks. T-Mobile, however, has yet to step up on the plate. Well, at least it has wifi, and it works well at home and at local hotspots. The aforementioned carrier also sets some limitations in terms of features and capabilities. I am not impressed with their media software. They are also not very friendly with Mac users. I was not able to sync my music, photos and videos on this phone, which is a big dealbreaker for me. I want my smartphone to work for me, not the other way around.

So, in a nutshell, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip is beautiful and possesses the ease of use well known from RIM. As far as functionality goes, it is either a hit or a miss. As for me, it is a miss. This isn’t a great area for T-Mobile subscribers. I need my 3G network for when I’m on the road, and I’m not getting that here. I also need my media, which neither the phone nor the carrier allows me to install on this phone. I’d say be careful, do your research, and then decide if T-Mobile works well in your area and if this phone is the right one for you.

1 Star Mac users stay away!
Mac users should stay away from this phone!! I purchased the phone through T-mobile because I wanted a smart phone that would work as a pda and mp3 player. First I checked to see if the phone was compatible with isync. It is not. However, apple points you to the “PocketMac Sync Manager” application. I got my the pearl flip and loved the way it looked, the way it made calls, and the wi-fi features. I thought this was going to be so awesome.

My first sign of trouble was trying to connect through bluetooth. I installed PocketMac and paired my phone with my MacBook Pro. I could not sync up wirelessly. I did get it to sync once via USB cable with PocketMac. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the application trying to fix the trouble. It was then I learned that PocketMac doesn’t sync with bluetooth. PocketMac would no longer open.

I called T-Mobile who patched me through to Blackberry support. After two hours even their tech was frustrated and admitted that PocketMac is not a good solution for Mac users. Bottom line, some people get this to work but they have far more free time and patience than I do. I’m returning the phone and wishing I didn’t have a contract with T-Mobile.

4 Stars Very good phone with lots of features!
I’ve been using my new Blackberry 8220 flip phone for about a week now. Here are my impressions about this phone… the pros and cons. Keep in mind that this is my first Blackberry phone, so I do not review it in comparison to any other blackberry. Instead, I compare it to other flip phones I’ve had. My last flip phone was the Motorola KRZR K1. This phone eats it up, and spits it out.

Pros:

-Call quality: sound quality while making and receiving calls are good. There doesn’t seem to be a difference in quality between making a wifi call or network phone call (see wifi)

- Wifi: This phone has a built in wifi receiver. This means that if you have a wifi connection at home (or any unsecured wifi signal) you can browse the web with this phone (for free). The pre-installed t-mobile browser is lame (it doesn’t let you browse any website you want unless you sign up for the data plan). Download the free browser “Opera” for this phone, and you can cruise any website you want.

-Wifi calling: When you are connected to a strong wifi signal… you can make calls over the wifi connection, thereby not using up your minutes on your plan… very cool!

-web browsing: Web browsing is as good as it gets on a 240 x 320 resolution screen. Again, I recommend downloading a free copy of the Opera browser. When used with a fast wifi connection, loading time for pages is surprisingly fast.

-Built in mp3 player: The mp3 player works well and sounds good, but the layout/interface could be better. (tip: use button #4,#6 to skip songs instead of using trackball) For example, when the phone is closed… you can only access volume controls. The built in standard 3.5mm headphone jack is fantastic, though! All phones should have this… I absolutely love not having to carry around an annoying adapter just to listen to my music in the car or over headphones. It’s also cool that it has the ability to display album artwork This phone comes with a handsfree headset/stereo headphone… very cool! The included headphones sound surprisingly good too… about as good as a typical $30 set of Sony headphones.

-Screen: The screen is small but gorgeous… colors look saturated and images look very sharp.

-Camera: For a 2 megapixel camera… it works well and does a good job of automatically adjusting shutter and exposure. Color saturation and contrast could be better, though. Even on the highest resolution… images lack high contrast and sharpness. Built in flash is a nice extra.

-mp3 ringers – I really love the fact that you can use any mp3/sound file as a ring-tone, alarm tone, alert tone… etc.

-Texting: At first, I really hated the button configuration for texting. It’s totally different from most phones. But once you get used to it, texting on this phone works very well and the intelligent word suggestions are pretty good at guessing what word you’re typing. The ability to add your own words to the custom library is great, too. I love that when a text messagecomes, you can preview the first few lines of the on the front screen… very useful! Also, there are special status lights on the front of the phone that blinks Red on the front of the phone when you have an unread text.

-Picture texting: Photo texting seems to work relatively well, but the only limitation is that you can only add a few words of text along with the image. I’m not sure if this is a limitation of the ‘mms message system’ or phone.

-expandable mini-SD/mini-SDHC. This is awesome for storing tons of images and music for the mp3 player… very cool! Right now, you can expand it up to a 16GB micro SDHC card and essentially have a 16gb Mp3 player in addition to a phone.

Cons:

-Battery Life: Sadly, the battery does not seem to last very long… even when the phone is only used for texting. For example, I noticed that the battery drained down to about 40% capacity from just one day of texting (no phone calls). To be fair, I do text a lot in one day (perhaps 50 a day?) Sadly it’s a phone you’ll probably have to charge every day even if you don’t use it very often throughout the course of your day. If you’re listening Blackberry, please release a Hi-capacity battery for this phone!

-Non-standard USB connector: I don’t like that it has a non-standard usb connection. If you loose the cable, you’ll have to get one especially made for the blackberry. They could have easily made it the standard min-usb to USB connection (but they didn’t… GRrr!) Oh well, at least they got the standard 3.5mm headphone jack right.

- The whole phone is very prone to fingerprint smudging… so it ends up looking oily and kinda gross, if not cleaned like… everyday.

Conclusion: The positive features greatly outweigh the few negative things about this phone. This phone has an impressive array of features… considering how small the device is. It’s really a tiny computer in addition to a phone, and it does most things pretty darn well. If you’re into flip phones, and want one that does more than probably any other one out there…then this one may be the phone for you. I just wish that the battery on this baby lasted longer! Oh well, even tiny computers take lots of juice I guess

Fun tip: You can get the game Pac-man for this phone for free online

Buy/More Info

HTC Touch PRO Phone Black Sprint

Cellphone Review — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:05:17 +0000

HTC Touch PRO Phone Black Sprint

Get down to business and stay close to all your most important contacts and documents while on the go with the HTC Touch Pro Smartphone for Sprint, which combines a slide-out QWERTY keyboard paired with HTC’s intuitive, graphic-rich TouchFLO 3D touchscreen user interface. The TouchFLO 3D user interface responds perfectly to your finger gestures when scrolling through contacts, browsing the web, and launching media–all vividly displayed as photos and artwork on the 2.8-inch screen powered by the 3D graphics processor. And with the power of the updated Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, you’ll stay easily connected to your business and personal data on the go with support for a wide variety of email accounts as well as the ability to edit Microsoft Office documents.

With the TouchFLO 3D interface, album artwork, calendar items and snapshots are brought to life for you to interact, play and launch at your fingertips.

The HTC Touch Pro for Sprint provides a mobile Internet experience that uses the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network (EV-DO Rev. A). You’ll also enjoy GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service as well as access to Sprint TV’s video-on-demand with full-motion video and vivid sound. Other features include built-in Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g), a 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth for handsfree devices and stereo music streaming, and up to 4 hours of talk time. Compatible with MicroSD memory cards for expansion up to 16 GB, this package includes a 1 GB MicroSD card to give you the room you need for larger work files, presentations, reports, documents or fun files like photos and music.

Sprint Service
Supporting the EV-DO Rev. A high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO Rev. A connectivity provides peak network download data rates of up to 3.1 Mbps and peak upload data rates of up to 1.8 Mbps; average download speeds range from 600 kbps to 1.4 mbps and average uplink speeds range from 350 to 500 kbps.

With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive service allows you to access your favorite channels and networks within seconds to watch live TV or video-on-demand with full-motion video. Choose from more than 50 live television channels and watch programs such as CNN mobile, FOX sports and E! Entertainment; access NFL Network and special programming via Sprint Exclusive Entertainment.

Sprint brings you closer to this season’s NFL action with NFL Mobile Live, which enables you to listen to the live radio broadcasts of every NFL game throughout the 2008 regular season. Sprint is making it easier to follow a specific team by carrying a live radio broadcast for each game, including pregame and postgame reports in most instances. NFL Mobile Live also allows NFL.com fantasy owners to monitor the performance of every player in real time directly from their phone. Key information for individual players will be easily accessible, including real-time game and season cumulative stats, rankings, player profiles and photos. NFL Mobile Live is free of charge to Sprint data subscribers.

The slide-out, backlit QWERTY keyboard makes sending email and editing documents fast and familiar.

This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.

The Sprint Mobile Sync service enables you to store and manage up to 5,000 contacts in your Sprint Mobile Sync address book, including phone numbers, addresses, notes and other fields. After your phone is activated, every change you make to your address book will be automatically saved on the Sprint network and every change you make online will be updated on your phone. Create and manage personal Group Connect groups to instantly reach up to 20 other users, at the same time, via Nextel Direct Connect or texting. Import contact fields to your address book or synchronize them with your Microsoft Outlook contacts.

Phone Features
With the TouchFLO 3D interface, HTC has taken a great leap forward in touchscreen innovation. It’s designed for one-hand operation using simple, gesture-based navigation, allowing you to simply touch, hold and slide along the screen tabs. A quick slide on the home screen quickly activates the most used features such as e-mail, text messaging, music player and camera. This instinctive interface extends to the powerful Web browser, where a useful “zoom in, zoom out” feature makes it especially easy to access the Web via the included Opera browser, which provides for desktop-like Web page renderings and user interactions. An integrated accelerometer senses when you change the position of the phone from portrait to landscape viewing, and it auto-rotates the screen’s orientation.

The HTC Touch Pro features a sharp, 262K-color 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen (480 x 640 pixels) for touch-sensitive navigation control, complete with three-dimensional animated transitions. For email, messaging and other data input, the HTC Touch Pro also comes equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the smartphone’s side.

Business users can choose from several popular platforms to access your corporate e-mail. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional platform offers seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook information including email, contacts, calendar and to-do lists. You can access and edit email attachments using mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint.

In addition, the HTC Touch Pro supports scores of industry-specific applications as well as Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM), an enterprise-grade mobile device management solution that also provides security, mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) and software distribution for Windows Mobile devices enabled for Windows Mobile 6.1. For maximum flexibility, customers can choose to use either the classic Windows Mobile interface or HTC’s acclaimed TouchFLO 3D graphical interface, which makes popular applications easily available at the swipe of a finger.

This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity with EDR (enhanced data rate), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and audio/video remote control. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You’ll also be able to access open Wi-Fi networks in offices and hotspots via the integrated 802.11b/g wireless connectivity.

Other features include:

3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus; video capture up to CIF resolution (352 x 288 pixels)
Windows Media Player compatible with MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV file formats
512 MB of ROM, 288 MB of RAM
Compatible with ActiveSync 4.5 and Windows Mobile Device Center
Support for polyphonic ringtones as well as real-music ringers
Voice command capable.
MicroSD memory card expansion (up to 16 GB capacities)
WorldCard Mobile business card reader
USB 2.0 connectivity with mass storage capabilities
Bluetooth version 2.0+EDR with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), HID (support for mice or joysticks), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), PAN (personal area networking), PBA (transfer contacts)
Hearing Aid Compatibility = M3

Vital Statistics
The HTC Touch Pro weighs 4.94 ounces and measures 4.17 x 2.04 x 0.71 inches. Its 1340 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.0 hours of talk time, and up to 350 hours (14.6 days) of standby time. It runs on the CDMA 800/1900 frequencies as well as Sprint’s EV-DO Rev. A data network.

Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 offers a number of handy features that make searching through email, editing Microsoft Office documents, and staying on top of your most important communications even easier. Emails can now be viewed in their original rich HTML format and now offer the ability to visit embedded links. It also includes Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which provides a full set of Windows Live services, such as the Windows Live Messenger IM application, which now enables you to chat with more than one person at one time or send a file.

With Windows Mobile 6.1, your phone will finally be able to emulate the power and features of your PC’s Microsoft Office suite. You’ll be able to neatly view, navigate and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in their original formatting–without affecting tables, images or text–as well as view PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft Office Word Mobile features include spell-check, Find and Replace commands, bulleted lists, text formatting, and support for tables for the first time.
With Excel Mobile, you’re not just confined to editing charts: with the new Chart Wizard you can create charts quickly and easily.
PowerPoint Mobile allows you to view the full presentation, rehearse timings, check the order and any live links you may have in your presentation. You can then email comments back to the team or communicate via MSN Messenger for an immediate response.
After creating or editing a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, you can synchronize it with your PC and it will automatically be converted to the PC version.

All Windows Mobile 6.1 powered devices include Direct Push Technology for up-to-date e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization of Outlook calendars, tasks and contacts through Microsoft Exchange Server. It also offers a set of important device security and management features that include the capability to remotely wipe all data from a device should it be lost or stolen, helping ensure that confidential information remains that way.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Best phone
Ok I have gotten into the world of PPC’s with a real old model,

This is by far the best phone, and the wife loved it so much she had to get it. Now for thoose not used to a ppc it might feel a bit clunky with the interface, but do to all it can do it will.

I will say battery life could be better, although there are registry tweaks and such that greatly help ([...]). There are certain programs to help with the TF3D feel. Overall I highly recomend this to someone with the need and use for a powerfull phone, and business use.

Dave

1 Star Amazon Customer Service
Amazon customer service is terrible. If THEY have a problem, they just simply cancel your order without notification and tell you “if you really want the product, you just have re-order online because there is nothing else we can do”.

It is a shame because Amazon’s price is great for this phone. If I ever get this phone, because this will be the 4th time I’m ordering it, I’ll rate the actual phone in another review.

But shame on Amazon!!! Their customer service is weak.

3 Stars Noob perspective – it’s a computer not a phone
I recently switched from a traditional cell phone to this phone because of the reportedly good web experience. It does have a good web expereince, but alas I miss having a phone. This is a warning to all you “phone only” users wanting to transcend to a higher plain…this might not be the one for you.

Pro: fast internet and good browser experience

Cons: weak battery and clumbsy phone interface.

Short story: this device is less of a phone and more of a very small computer. Still bleeding edge in IMHO.

1 Star Flashy, but……
I must concur with fellow reviewer Neil Brown. The interface of this phone is an inconsistent mess. Coming from the Palm OS, I was always presented with a consistent user interface, just one example: the save and cancel key buttons always in the same place, regardless of the feature. The HTC buttons change functionality and position with each program; even the basic buttons work differently. The OK and cancel buttons (tiny! keep your fingernails long) appear almost randomly on the top and bottom of the screen. The back arrow sometimes takes you back to the previous screen and sometimes it doesn’t. Furthermore, the same program will act differently with the pull out keyboard than with the phone in the vertical position. The TouchFlo feature is useless because of the delayed inconsistent screen feedback. Unfortunately, the HTC was chosen by my company as THE phone for us to use.

5 Stars Best phone on the market
For people who want a device that is a computer in their pocket this is the right device for you. For those of you who aren’t comfortable with computers and there make-up and don’t know how to customize things to your liking on a windows mobile device than this device is not for you. The great thing about windows mobile is there are so many customizable options you have out there and the programs you can install are limitless. If you don’t like how a certain program functions install a different one. There are tons of custom rom’s (operating systems) You can install to turn this machine into a beast that cannot be touched by any other phone out there today.

Buy/More Info