Cellphone Reviews Blog

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.

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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

BlackBerry Curve 8320 Phone Pale Gold T Mobile

Adding a fashionable touch to Research in Motion’s formidable arsenal of telephonic, PIM, and media tools, the BlackBerry 8320 Curve for T-Mobile is also the smallest, lightest BlackBerry phone that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. This amalgam of the svelte BlackBerry Pearl and the more business-oriented 8800 combines RIM’s long-valued corporate email and messaging platform with a host of advanced multimedia features, including a 2-megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth (for listening to music via wireless headphones). In addition to its quad-band GSM and EDGE connectivity, it also offers Wi-Fi connectivity for access to the Internet and email as well as access to T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home service. This version comes in pale gold, but it’s also available in titanium.

The Curve’s full QWERTY keyboard and the innovative trackball navigation system (placed above the keyboard) makes accessing your data and writing email a breeze..

The 2-megapixel camera makes it easy to capture pictures to send via email or upload to your online photo collection.

T-Mobile Service Options
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 the following wireless security protocols: WEP, WPA (TKIP), WPA2 (AES-CCMP), LEAP, PEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, EAP-FAST, EAP-SIM, EAP-AKA. Whenever you’re not using a Wi-Fi network, the Curve works just like a regular mobile phone, using your Whenever Minutes under your T-Mobile voice plan.

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.

Staying Connected
With BlackBerry’s push email technology, your email will find you without having to initiate a connection. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, notifying you as new email arrives. In addition to the text, you can also receive and view attachments in a wide range of popular file formats, including Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, and Adobe PDF.

Browse the web with the integrated, full-featured browser, which quickly and efficiently displays HTML pages as well as enables you to set up RSS feeds to stay connected to up-to-the-minute news and blog posts. And keep up with your contacts using a variety of instant message (IM) networks, including the integrated Blackberry Messenger as well as downloadable clients for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and Lotus Sametime.

For corporate users, the Curve delivers all the enterprise email and messaging capabilities you’ve come to expect. It’s supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, giving you access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments.

Phone Features

Click for larger view.

The Curve is fashioned in a liquid silver finish with chrome highlights and subtly curving corners. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 inches, the Curve is just as slim as the Pearl (0.6 inches) and weighs in at 3.9 ounces–just 0.7 ounces heavier than its predecessor. It features a bright 2.5-inch color TFT screen that provides 65,000 colors and a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and it includes a light-sensing feature that automatically adjusts backlighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments. Like the BlackBerry 8800, the Curve includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad, and it also features an integrated spell checker with a customizable dictionary to help maintain accuracy while on the go. It has 64 MB of internal ROM memory, and is expandable using MicroSD memory cards. The battery provides up to 4 hours (240 minutes) of talk time and up to 17 days (408 hours) of standby time.

You can snap vivid photos (though no video) using the 2-megapixel camera on the back of the Curve, which also features a 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen viewfinder. It can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger, or even uploaded to your Flickr account with the Yahoo! Go service. Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or Home Screen image. You can edit photos and create albums within the Curve using the PhotoSuite application. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.

Listen to your favorite music and watch downloaded videos using the included stereo headset, or use an optional wireless headphone thanks to the Curve’s support for the Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP). The Curve is compatible with a wide variety of file formats, including MP3, WMA and AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ audio and WMV, MPEG4 and H.263 video. Dedicated volume controls are conveniently located on the side of the handset.

With the Voice-Activated Dialing (VAD) feature, you can initiate a call just by telling the Curve who to call from your contact list–either via the integrated speakerphone or using an optional Bluetooth wireless headset. Other advanced phone features include advanced sound technology that cancels out background noise and echo, dedicated volume and mute keys, and the ability to customize the Curve with polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

Vital Statistics
The Blackberry Curve 8320 weighs 3.92 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4 hours of talk time, and up to 408 hours (17 days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Blackberry Curve 8320 T-Mobile – Loving it….. still!!!!!,
This is by far the coolest phone I’ve had! I love the ease of set up – I have yet to even glance at the manual. Before I knew it, I was surfing the internet and dowloading Google Maps (a must have for every blackberry user – the satellite views are amazing)! Camera is the best I’ve seen on any cellphone thus far. With a memory card you could load up to 2GB (unsure if a larger card will work) of music, ringtones, videos, and pictures. The screen is beautiful! Very impressive Blackberry.

The only negative aspect that I could find, was the fact that T-Mobile’s version does not have GPS (AT&T does). But this flaw can easily be overcome by buying an optional portable GPS receiver that costs anywhere from $45 – 100 bucks.

Overall – this is one awesome phone!

4 Stars Powerful,Great Quality/Design,not easy to configure
(Note: long review)

I was shopping for a phone (not a PDA) when I decided to buy the Blackberry Curve 8320. My top priorities were:

* to eliminate my need for an office landline by using an inexpensive cell phone plan and a phone with maximum coverage options

* great call quality

* ease of use and configuration

* good headset features that would allow me to easily talk while using my computer

Less important but desirable were:

* Bluetooth so I could occasionally use my Garmin Nuvi 660 for hands free phone use and POI dialing.

* a media player (but not if it got in the way of phone use)

The service provider was more important than the phone, and that led me to T-mobile, which offers good coverage in my area, the best prices, great service, and Hotspot@home which increases coverage to anywhere with open WiFi.

So my perspective is that of a solo consultant who chose a Blackberry Curve over other, less complex, T-mobile Hotspot@home compatible phones (the other choices were Nokia 6086, Samsung Katalyst, and Samsung t409).

Pros:

Call quality when using included headset (and T-mobile network) is the best I’ve ever experienced with any kind of phone, cell or otherwise.

3.5mm jack means many options for headsets of any type/quality/price.

Very stable: The PDA and media functions don’t crash the phone or get in the way of phone use. So this model works for those who want a phone first and foremost without any compromises (though there are a couple minor quirks mentioned below).

Having WiFi as an option is great, though I don’t need it at home or at my office thanks to good T-mobile reception. I want this option not in order access the web or to save money (1000 minutes per month is plenty for me), but rather to increase call quality in situations where the network signal is weak or not present.

Has many physical design features that are very well thought out: user assignable buttons, a surprisingly usable keyboard despite the tiny size, a standby mode button (prevents accidental key presses) – all in an attractive yet solid form factor – and there are many accessories available to augment use of the phone. The more I use it, the more impressed I am with the physical design.

Volume control is superb – can go up loud enough to be able to use in very noisy conditions – and if there is a risk of ear damage from excessive volume, a warning pops up.

Even if you never send emails from the phone, having a well designed keyboard makes for a better phone: It makes dialing contacts fast, means 26 speed dial keys (letters are easier to remember than numbers), and typing in a new contact is faster than with numeric keypad phones.

The address book is very nicely integrated with the phone in a way that makes it fast and easy to dial contacts even if they are not on speed dial – just dial the first couple letters of anyone’s first or last name and you’ll then be able to use track ball to pick out the contact. It was easy to install and use the software on my computer that enabled me to transfer my 150 contacts from MS Outlook.

The “Send Voice Note” feature lets me send myself (or anyone) a voice note, usually in less than 10 seconds. Never imagined wanting such a feature but now that I have it I love to use it to send myself reminders or cash expense notes for later entry into Quicken.

Battery life is good if used primarily as a phone.

In March, 2008, the phone cost only fifty (after rebate) when purchased with a 2 year contract commitment through Amazon. This was relevant as the other phone I considered was the Nokia 6086 – which would have been free through the same source. Purchased direct from T-mobile the 8320 costs two hundred additional which was a big enough difference that I didn’t even consider the 8320 at first. Even though I wasn’t shopping for a PDA, the modest extra cost was well worth it for a couple of nonPDA features – and I get to see for a modest cost if using as a PDA makes sense for me.

T-mobile’s pricing plans are the least expensive available for national service plans – the 39.99/month for 1000 anytime minutes and unlimited weekends/nights is just what I need. For another 9.99/month I got BB E-mail, as required by the Amazon offer. The additional cost of 15 cents per MMS message is fine if you send just a few MMS each month like me.

T-mobile’s customer service is the best I’ve ever experienced from a phone company.

Blackberries are popular so that means lots of options for support and Accessories, and integration with other systems. For example, users of Gmail and Google Apps will like that Google has already provided some integration tools and integration is likely to greatly improve by the end of the year.

Cons:

Complexity of interface and scattered options/help screens leads to many hours of figuring out how to configure the phone – or finding out something can’t be done. Discovering some of the answers required use of online forums or calls to T-mobile.

The default settings were a bit different from typical cell phone settings. It is time consuming and tedious to configure the 8320 to act like a normal cell phone (though you can do it in less than half an hour with a new phone once you finish learning where all the settings are). I wish I had discovered sooner that the majority of changes a basic user would want to make are buried in two applications if you study them carefully:

Profiles/Advanced/Normal/Phone and Options/Screen/Keyboard.

Some things that are standard on most phones cannot be done (or in some cases additional effort is required to download/install an application).

Examples of missing standard phone functions are:

1) cannot ring/vibrate simultaneously

2) no sustained flashing LED when there’s a voice mail (it does for a few minutes but then it stops – so if you happen to miss a call and not be near your phone for the next 15 minutes, you won’t know you got a call unless you look at the screen).

When not using the headset, your ear must be in the proper place for good quality. If your natural inclination is to place your ear close to the phone and just above it, you’ll hear a low level hiss from the speaker (true with both phone or media player use). This is minor if you learn to hold the phone differently and/or primarily use with headset.

A little uncomfortable to hold this wide phone for calls of more than a few Minutes. Avoid this phone if you have small hands and/or plan to spend many hours per week using as a phone without headset.

Too little memory (or is it bad memory management?). I am not (nor do I want to become) a power user but yet will need to do a battery pull every few weeks (Update: there is a way to do a soft reboot. Alt-Right Shift-Delete). It starts with around 21MB free but just checking out the various applications and settings and using the media player without even enabling email dropped it to 16MB. A battery pull bumped it back up to 21MB. With memory so cheap it seems bizarre that it comes with so little.

Having expandable SD memory is great but the Curve is very slow and sometimes awkward in how it accesses the SD memory. For example, for music albums with many short tracks, it can take over 30 seconds to open the album and begin to play music when loaded first time. It is also slow to display the names of albums from the SD card after each time the phone connects to a computer.

Having WiFi accessibility is great but in many cases requires changes to the router configuration. Would rather this worked with any open router without having to reconfigure – or if reconfiguration is required, then make it easy to do. On the bright side, T-mobile offers pre-configured routers for $50 for those who don’t want to go through the reconfiguration hassle. Would like it even better if they sold a portable gadget that simply took any open WiFi signal and converted it into a format that works fine with my phone.

Having Bluetooth compatibility with my Garmin 660 is nice but if not for a terrific post on the blackberryforums.com web site by ggraves, I’m not sure I ever would have been able to get it working properly. Garmin tech support did not know what needed to be done to get the 660 working with the Blackberry Curve. Connecting properly should not be so complicated or required making a change to the Garmin operating system.

It’s a finger controlled PDA. It is time consuming to figure out how to work all the functions of the device and this can be a distraction from getting work done. This has happened to me, as I am one of those people who gets sucked into checking out the capabilities of a new electronic gadget.

I owned one of the first Palm-based PDA cell phones and experienced the same thing – I wasted more time trying to figure things out then I saved by being able to browse or have my contacts on a phone instead of on a printout (and struggled to learn the custom alphabet). I turned away from PDA phones after that experience and figured I’d wait until intelligent voice interfaces were standard for these things but here I am wasting time again.

I’ll gladly ditch this phone the year an affordable, intelligent, voice controlled cell phone comes out.

The process for buying this phone through Amazon was unwieldy – was not able to get hotspot@home for Amazon and am not able to add it for 6 months without incurring a penalty (so says an Amazon rep – T-mobile reps say you can add hotspot@home without penalty but I don’t want it enough to risk a $250 penalty). When I checked the status of my phone order on Amazon, it wanted me to revise it but didn’t tell me how – so I called a phone rep to be told that I didn’t need to revise it. And I was supposed to get free 2-day shipping but got charged shipping because I bought a microSD card along with the order. Also unclear who to contact – Amazon or T-mobile – about certain issues – and one issue wasted a bit of my time because of that. If $200 doesn’t matter to you, I would recommend buying from T-mobile for $249 instead of $49 from Amazon to get the best possible customer service and the flexibility to change plans at will.

Summary:

In sum – once setup and customization is complete, it’s a very good phone, but learning how to set it up and use the rich feature set to best advantage takes too long, and managing memory is a nuisance. This has the feel of an “early adopter” type of devise that requires a certain level of dedication to harness all the power. This may be a non-issue if the IT department of your employer sets up the phone for you and helps get you started.

Buying it from Amazon turned out to be enough of a hassle that I question whether it was worth saving $200.

Now that I’ve bought the phone and spent the time learning how to best use it, I’ll stick with it. But it would have worked out much better for me if the defaults were very similar to a regular cell phone – or it had a way to easily make it like a regular cell phone (perhaps the setup up process could have offered three choices like – what kind of user will you be – simple phone user, moderate communicator, power user – and then it configures with default settings that make the most sense for that type of user).

It was tough to choose between the Blackberry Curve 8320 and the Nokia 6086, but the deciding factor turned out to be the 3.5mm jack (I didn’t like the two Samsung models because I find real keys easier to use than membrane keys).

The Nokia 6086 had equivalent call quality (with no hiss) in my 5 minute in-store test. If it had including a 3.5mm jack and identical bundled headset, then that probably would have been a better choice for me. But I am satisfied with the 8320 and will probably stick with it for years – and I am using functions (some useful, some fun) that are not available on the 6086. I just hope I have the discipline to use it as a phone, not a time draining toy.

5 Stars Real Estate Must Have!
This phone was the answer to almost all of my needs! Being in the Real Estate Industry, I rely on always being available…..and when I cannot be available I must still be in contact with the working world. This phone lets me keep up on employees and others I work with while I am out. Responding to clients needs is very simple and they appreciate me being able to get a hold of them and to respond to requests in minutes! Taking a few hours off to golf and not feeling guilty! I am literally still in the office with full access to all of my documents, contacts, tasks, calendars and more!

The camera on this is great. Not close to a Nikon and definitely would not use for property photos for advertising, but driving by a smoking deal and being able to send the mls info and some “decent” quality pictures to a client to get the “OK” is priceless.

For those whom have primarily EMAIL needs, do not even try others. Blackberry has nailed it as they always have. I have been through countless Blackjacks, Dash’s, Wizards, Pocket Pc’s, Treo’s and others and no one can compare to Blackberry’s instant email push. Don’t hesitate; the only decision is what blackberry you want.

3 Stars Blackberry vs. Treo
Pros of Blackberry: WiFi usage. My old phone (Treo 600 from Sprint) couldn’t pick up cell reception in my apartment. With Blackberry Curve 8820 I can talk all I want at home. (I’m using my WiFi connection but still get charged for cell minutes; you don’t need to buy the WiFi router, it’ll detect any WiFi in your neighborhood.)

Cons: I miss my Treo! The Treo seemed more user friendly. Some things I miss on my Treo: 1) instant ringer off with button on top of phone. With the Blackberry, you have to go in the interface and select ringer off. This can be a pain if you’re in the movie theater and at the last moment have to turn your ringer or phone off. 2) The Treo had a vibrate and ring option. With the BB, you can only choose vibrate or sound. There is no dual function. 3) Ring tones. Both phones come with ring tones but in the Treo, you could select it from the menu when you were in the phone book interface. With the BB, you can select volume only. The ring tones aren’t in the preferences either. Its hidden down deep in the menu after about 6 click strokes. 4) Treo has touchscreen interface, BB does not. The touchscreen is a real nice option when you’re fed up with the BB trackball. 5) The Treo comes with a nice user manual about 100 pages. The BB comes with a 1 page folding user guide. You have to go find the manual elsewhere (I use TMobile’s BB manual online ~ so that means I have to be connected to the internet to figure something out. 6) Synching. Treo has the nice Desktop software so if you have to make massive revisions or want to copy something from the internet straight to your Palm, you can do it via the Palm Desktop software. The BB software is just a synch manager. Its not a real desktop software. You HAVE to use a third party software such at Outlook (doesn’t work with Outlook express), Yahoo, Google, or other. Since I’m a student and don’t have access (nor money) to buy the Microsoft office suite, I’ve had a heck of a time synching my BB to Yahoo and its a pain to have to do everything in Yahoo (I miss the Palm Desktop software because it was like the Palm but on your desktop so the learning curve was low).

The BB is great for business professionals who have Outlook and BB has push technology so you can read up to 10 email accounts on your BB. This is a cool function (but quickly gets out of hand because now your interface has email, SMS, and in/outgoing call logs). You can set it show it only shows up one or the other but then you’ve just paid for push technology (about $30) and now aren’t using it.

Too bad Palm isn’t catching up as fast as BB because I think its more user friendly.

However, once you get use to digging in the menu options in the BB, its not too bad. PS – another note on the sparse user manual in the BB, you have to play around with the menu and you’ll find alot of undocumented shortcuts. I wish they would just document these up front!

2 Stars defective software
I bought the blackberry in December 2007. Within a month, there were problems with memory, recalling numbers, keypad etc.

In March, I spent much time with T-Mobile technical support to fix these issues. They suggested I needed a memory card even though I was emailing very little and was not downloading applications, data … I have been erasing all calls, texts etc every day since. The problems have continued.

It is now June 1, 2008, I am demanding that T-Mobile replace an obvious defective handset and I am being met with resistance. They want me to buy a memory card and I am refusing. ( Two other family members have this same Curve and use it to collect data much more than I do and have had not issues)

I would suggest to all buyuers to go with another carrier to avoid the problems I am having.

Buy/More Info

Nokia 6126 Phone ATandT

If you like the look and feel of Nokia phones, but you’ve been waiting for a powerful clamshell design from them, the wait is over. The quad-band Nokia 6126 packs a serious punch with support for EDGE data, dual high-resolution color displays, a 1-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, microSD memory expansion, a music player, and a whole lot more.

Slim and powerful. View an interactive demonstration of the 6126.

Design
The 6126’s super thin design houses an inner display that sports impressive 240 x 320 resolution and support for 16.7 million, yes million colors. Meanwhile, the outside cover of the handset features a supplementary, 128 x 160, 65,000-color display that can display picture IDs, time, call information, battery and signal strength, and more. The phone’s camera unit is placed just above this display. Up and down buttons for volume control are placed on the left side and a camera control button is placed on the right. Most of the phone’s features and on-screen menus are controlled by a five-way center button on the handset’s control pad. There’s also an input to accept universal hands-free headsets, as well as a USB port for transferring data to and from the handset. The hot-swappable microSD/TransFlash memory expansion slot is compatible with cards with 2 GB of capacity.

Calling Features
The 6126 supports polyphonic ringtones, as well as video-based ringers so you can load your favorite video clips to alert you of incoming calls. Plus, with the phone’s picture and ringer ID functions, you can assign pictures and ringtones to your most common callers. If you want to be discreet, there’s also a vibrate ringer mode. Meanwhile, speaker-independent voice activated dialing makes calling your friends, family and associates as easy as saying their names. The phone recognizes any voice, so you don’t have to worry about pre-recording your commands. The 6126’s phone book will keep track of all your contacts, and address book capacity is only limited by the phone’s 11 MB of built-in memory. Lastly, there’s an integrated speakerphone for talking hands-free. Lastly, the phone’s Bluetooth connectivity means that your favorite Bluetooth headset is fully compatible.

Messaging, Internet and Tools
The 6126 is a mobile messaging and Internet powerhouse. With support for the MMS (multimedia messaging service), the phone can send picture and text messages, and when coupled with the phone’s powerful camera, MMS opens up great opportunities for robust messaging. The phone ships with a built-in email client that supports POP3, IMAP, and SMTP protocols. You can even open and view email attachments.

Getting on the Internet is easy with the 6126. It supports the GPRS data protocol, as well as the high-speed EDGE wireless data service. When used with a Cingular data plan and the phone’s USB or Bluetooth data capability, the phone can be used as a wireless modem for laptops and PDAs. The phone is bundled with a mobile Web browser for MEdia Net content downloads and browsing. Cingular’s MEdia service lets you receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more. Meanwhile, 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.

The 6126 supports PC synchronization via USB or Bluetooth, which means you can manage and synchronize contacts, calendar and other data with your PC. Nokia’s PC Suite application makes this process a breeze. A number of handy software tools are bundled with the 6126 including a voice memo recorder, a calculator, a calendar, a to-do list, and an alarm clock.

Imaging and Entertainment
This is where the real fun begins. The 6126’s 1-megapixel camera takes great pictures and it can also capture video. And when you’ve got all the pictures you want on your memory card, you can connect the camera directly to any PictBridge-compatible printer for instantaneous printing right from the phone. The phone supports playback of streaming video in 3GPP format, too.

If mobile music is your thing, you can load up your MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and WMA audio files and listen to your heart’s content via the stereo headset jack. And don’t forget about the games! The phone comes with a perennial favorite, Snake, as well as 3D soccer. More games are available from the MEdia Net service.

Vital Statistics
The Nokia 6126 weighs 3.95 ounces and measures 3.62 x 1.89 x 0.79 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.4 hours of digital talk time, and up to 240 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star GARBAGE!
A few words to the wise, Don’t buy this phone!!! I got this phone as an upgrade w/ my contract renewal, and was it a mistake! This phone is straight crap! Let’s just say, don’t EVER, EVER EVER EVER DROP THIS PHONE!

I dropped this phone One time and it straight stopped working! I couldn’t believe it, so guess what, I dropped it again and figured, I dropped it and it stopped working, lets see if this works.. And Wholla! It started working again. I had an older Nokia, similar to this model. and that phone would take a lickin’ and keep on tickin. This thing, is just plastic w/ some lights. How many ways can I say it… GARBAGE!

4 Stars Wonderful..on my 3rd one right now
I went for 11 months with this phone before it started to crash when I tried to send picture msgs. But if you have AT&T and you’re under warranty, they’ll give you the same model brand new FREE. Two months went by and then one night, I clicked the menu button and it froze. So now I’m on my third one BUT I am very happy with this phone.

BATTERY – I see quite a few people complain about the short life. Mine has a really long life. And I have the wallpaper and mini screen running the flash solar system which uses a lot of power. I charge my phone I say about every other day. Before when I just used a still picture, I charged my phone every few days. And I talk and text and take A LOT of pictures. I can’t tell you how many days is stand by because I can’t go that long without my cell haha Either (1) I’m blessed with a good battery or (2) when you first get the phone (or any phone), charge the battery for a really long time a few times (over night about 12 hours about 3 or 4 times) to really maximize the battery [if you charge it for only a few hours, even though it says battery full, it won't hold as much charge].

PAINT – Yea, it chips off really easily. But so has any other phone I’ve owned since my Nokia 5190. Paint is paint and after sitting in a purse or pocket rubbing against keys and coins, the paint does come off. Plus, it’s a phone. So long as it works, it’s fine by me. Looks shouldn’t be a top complaint.

SOUND – Excellent quality. I LOVE the speaker phone. I love it so much I didn’t bother buying bluetooth. I can hear the other person well and they can hear me just fine. And having the speaker on while it’s closed it awesome!

CAMERA – Remember, it’s only a 1mp. Thus, I did not have high expectations for taking pictures. But I am very impressed with the quality considering it’s in the phone. I can zoom in and still the picture is quite nice. You can’t compare a cell phone camera with a digicam so of the cell phone cameras I’ve had/seen/used, this is one of the top 5. With any cell phone, don’t buy it and judge it on the quality of the camera. It’s a PHONE, not a digicam. As for pictures of the inside of your pocket/purse, keylock your phone before closing it. Or set it up to keylock automatically. Simple solutions to a simple problem.

SIGNAL – I find that if my other family members are receiving signal and I am not, if I turn my phone off and on again, I’ll get the reception they’re receiving. Considering I live in the urban area, cell phone signal is pretty much strong everywhere. But when I do go out to National parks or mountains away from cities, I get decent reception. Not full bars but enough to send msgs and make calls.

USER FRIENDLY – I love how every little detail can be changed and adjusted to your mood and desires. I get bored seeing the same things again and again. But with this phone, I can go between a menu from tabs to grids. Colors, fonts, tones EVERYTHING is customizable.

PICTURES AND INCOMING CALLS – If the phone is closed, yes the picture you assign to the contact will show up on the outside. I only got this when I got the cell with the updated software. The first one I had (over a year ago) did not have this feature.

THE FLIP BUTTON – This is my first flip phone so I would just pull it open when I had it. Then I discovered the button! I love that button. Even after a month of pulling open the phone, it still worked just fine. The button is not necessary for use.

MP3 PLAYER – No opinion. I don’t use it, sorry.

One and only con – The software is glitchy. First phone after 11 months, it would crash when I tried sending a picture msgs. Second phone after 2 months, one random day, it decided that whenever the menu button was pressed, the phone would freeze. I swear it’s running on Vista.

Yea, I’m on my third one of this phone. BUT I love it. And I love the features and how I can customized it very specifically for me.

Remember, if you have AT&T and you’re under warranty and it’s still valid, you can get the same phone for FREE. If you’re battery life sucks, tell them and they’ll give you a new battery for FREE. Software gets glitchy, get a new phone for FREE. In Northern CA, you have to go to a DSC (Device Support Center). Ask the retail store of locations.

4 Stars A Very Good Phone
I got this phone to replace my beloved Razr. I’ve had this one now for @ 6 months, and I really like it. The sound quality is excellent, and it is comfortable against my ear for long periods of time, which is a plus. It is also highly customizable, another big plus for me, as well as being very easy to use- it only took @ an hour to set it up how I liked.

My only complaint is the battery life, which is lacking. I have to charge it every two, or it dies. This is a little aggravating , but I’ve learned to just plug it into the charger every night, and no more problems.

Overall, a great quality phone!

5 Stars I love it
I have a 6126, which I use mainly for internet access with AT&T Media Net (web internet) prepaid service. I LOVE IT. I was able to install Opera Mini (free at operamini.com, just go to it from the phone) into the Games folder. I use this phone mainly for web browsing, and Opera Mini comes pretty close to a normal web browsing experience. I signed up for pay as you go AT&T which means it took a month before I can sign up for unlimited Media Net. Still, it’s been really useful even before that. This is a seriously good web experience for the price.

Eventually I may need to upgrade my phone service to get tethering and the phone is capable of that and other things as well that I’m not using yet. So for me this phone will be useful for a long time to come.

4 Stars Nokia 6126 – Good Solid Phone
Nokia 6126 – I used the phone for a year now. It is well built and does basic functions well.

re: some complaints by others –

Pl. note that there is no protruding Antenna in this model…it is embedded inside the phone(below the microphone). So if you clutch your fingers around the bottom of the phone while talking, you may feel call drop/fading.

Battery life is comparable with other phones. Make sure Bluetooth is set to OFF when not used. The battery-life indicator is not accurate. The phone charger connector is an easy to use simple round plug, unlike the flimsy multi pin connector in Motorola phones.

The camera photos in daytime are amazingly clear. Same with the any wallpapers you download. Understandably, low light photos/ videos aren’t great.

Bluetooth is perfect. It syncs up with your pc for quick uploads/downloads. I believe one could use it for music as well.

Call volume is ok, bot not exceptional. The phone is long, so there’s some getting used to for the ideal position for the ear. Note that most cell phone cases have only a tiny opening made for the earphone and if the case slides out during a call, it may feels like call fading. Use a small scissor to cut a slightly larger hole for the ear piece.

Outside display shows the clock, which is useful. The camera button is too close to on-off button, not good. There is also a useful voice recording feature. Since I didn’t use the phone as a music player, cannot comment.

It may not be a trendy phone for the youngsters, but 6126 is a solid WORLD/ quad band phone. Buy a memory card and a case.

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Sony Ericsson W580i Gray Phone ATandT

Sony Ericsson shakes things up with its new quad-band W580i Walkman phone, introducing an innovative “shake to shuffle” feature that randomly chooses another song stored on your phone with just a flick of the wrist. This thin, slider-style phone also features a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, fast Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR connectivity with music streaming, Memory Stick Micro expansion, Web browser for viewing full Internet sites, email access, an FM radio with RDS, and EDGE data support.

The slim slider W580i measures just 0.55 inches thin and features a brightly colorful QVGA screen, external music keys, and a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder.

With AT&T’s Mobile Music service, you can access your Napster subscription service for music downloads to keep you booming out the tunes for up to 20 hours.

AT&T Service
The W580i 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 lets you do more than just stream videos–it enables you to receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more. It also features AT&T Mobile Music, which provides access to the Napster subscription music service in addition to Music ID song-recognition software, music videos and The Buzz music news portal. (A MEdia Max subscription bundle is recommended for accessing AT&T’s Internet, video, and music services.)

Phone Features
The W580i Walkman phone offers a full-function digital audio player that’s compatible with MP3 and AAC files. The front of this slider phone includes dedicated music control buttons, and it includes Sony Ericsson’s innovative “shake to shuffle” feature. With Shake control activated, press and hold the Walkman key and flick your wrist. A vibration lets you know that the track has been changed–a new song from your current playlist is randomly selected and automatically played.

With the TrackID service, you can identify any song that you can hear by just recording a snippet of sound using the microphone. After sending the file for recognition, you’ll have the name, artist and album sent to your phone. Other Walkman features include 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 Disc2Phone software for easy transfer of song files between phone and PC. It also includes a built-in FM radio with RDS, which displays the name of the currently playing song (when tuned to compatible radio stations).

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 2.0 megapixel camera captures stills and video–and playback of video or still pictures is only limited to the memory card size. Picture effects and custom screensavers, backgrounds, and themes can be setup to fit your personality. It provides support for PictBridge technology so you can print your photos without the need of a PC (either using USB or Bluetooth). And the W580i makes it easy to send snapped photos directly to a blog or an online photo, complete with text. This phone is also compatible with RTSP/3GPP streaming video playback

You can even take your favorite tracks to the track with the W580i, which will count your steps, your calories and monitor your running speed/distance/time with the integrated motion sensor. Your workout results are stored in your phone so you can monitor your progress.

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.

The phone also supports the SyncML PC synchronization standard. This means the phone can be used with the included Sony Ericsson Sync Station software, which lets you synchronize your Microsoft Outlook calendar, contacts, notes and tasks on your PC with the phone.

Other features include:

• 2-inch LCD with a 240 x 320-pixel resolution and support for 262K colors
• Up to 1000 contact entries, each with five number fields
• Built-in pedometer and fitness applications
• Picture blogging with Google Blogger
• Mobile email and messaging via AOL/AIM, Yahoo!, and MSN
• Java support for online and offline 3D games (preloaded games include PacMan and Ms. PacMan)
• USB 2.0 wired connectivity with mass storage capability
• PIM functions including calendar, tasks, notes, alarm, calculator, stopwatch, and timer
• T9 text entry technology
• 72-chord polyphonic ringtones and MP3 ringtones
• Digital audio file formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+

Vital Statistics
The W580i weighs 3.32 ounces and measures 3.9 x 1.85 x 0.55 inches. Its 930 mAh lithium-polymer battery is rated at up to 9 hours of talk time, and up to 370 hours of digital standby time; the phone will also play for up to 20 hours when in Music Mode. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars still kicking… barely
i bought this phone as an alternative to the iphone because my wife is on att so i wanted to switch over. i wish i had waited because now i have to wait until may to switch phones. the buttons on the phone cracked from over use (texting) but they still work, they just look broken and crappy. the whole left side of the phone was broken for about a week at one point but then decided to start working again when i had finally scheduled an appointment to return it. in all, not my best phone to date- the music stuff works ok, but not very fast. the speaker is distorted sounding now but when i first got it, it sounded ok. camera works ok outside, needs light.

4 Stars My Sony Ericsson W580i has served me well.
I purchased my gray Sony Ericsson W580i directly from AT&T in 2007 and spent $[...] after rebates. At the time, this phone offered the most features for a compact phone at a reasonable price. I usually keep a cell phone for longer than the two year contract period so I look for a phone with fun and techie features that will help make it easy to hang onto.

Pros:

- Compact size

- Capabilities & features (music/radio, 2MP camera, video, internet, bluetooth, speakerphone, organization and fitness apps, accepts memory card, etc.)

- Long lasting talk-time battery life

Cons:

- Proprietary accessories (headphone & power cable jacks, Micro M2 memory card)

- Small keypad and buttons (including exterior hot keys for music and internet that I’ve easily activated by accident)

- Continuous use of the Bluetooth zaps down the battery power

- Short ring span before callers go to voicemail (I’m slow!)

I am surprised by the number of reviewers that have commented about issues with the durability of the phone. My phone has suffered the depths of my overcrowded purse, been dropped onto the street, and gone sliding off of the dash onto the floor of my car, and does not yet look worse for the wear.

Overall, I am pleased with this purchase and would give this phone 4.5 stars.

2 Stars Limited life
Phone works well, but is too fragile. My husband and I both have one and they lasted less than a 18 months–out of warranty but too soon for us to qualify for new free phones from at&t.

Liked:

Calendar. (easy to use and can be synced with Outlook)

Camera. (took good pictures, easy to get them off the phone)

Mp3 player. (expandable memory, easy to use)

But:

I had to replace the screen when it cracked just a few months in (replacements are available online for about $30). It cracked again later and I’ve been using it with a black mark across the middle of the screen.

My husband’s screen went blank after 14 months and had to be replaced.

Mine stopped working completely at 16 months, even after trying a software update at the Sony Ericsson site.

My husband’s has started making loud buzzing noise during calls, audible on both ends, that prevents use, and is being replaced at 17 months.

The headphones use a phone specific jack, so if you loose them you can’t just replace them with inexpensive ones.

Overall this phone is too fragile and doesn’t last long enough to make it worth it. I think a well treated phone should last longer. We enjoyed them while they worked.

4 Stars High quality phone, for the most part…
I’ve had this phone for almost one year.

PROS:

-excellent, bright display

-easy to navigate interface, also very attractive

-sound quality

-external speaker for mp3 player

-good camera (2 mp)

CONS:

-keys split down the middle, though still functional (this is covered under the one year Manufacturer’s Warranty)

-slider design has it pitfalls (eg. accidentally hanging up on people)

-MEdia Net shortcut button accidentally pressed when in pocket or in purse (I got charged every month for this)

-only compatible with M2 cards, they are much more expensive compared to MicroSD cards

Overall, it is a very good MP3 phone. It’s stylish, and the display is excellent. If you don’t mind a slider-phone, then I recommend the w580i.

2 Stars Great phone, but poor quality
I have had the w580i for 1 year, 2 months now and I have enjoyed using the phone and most of its features. However, during that time I have experienced several quality issues. One of them (the ear speaker died) was probably isolated to my unit. But I also had my keypad crack twice. The cracked keypad seems to be a common issue with this model, just search online about it. I had to send in the phone twice for warranty repairs. Now, the left soft keys (select/back) have stopped working. Another search revealed this to also be a common flaw also. My warranty has run out, so Sony Ericsson will not fix this. Fortunately, there is a workaround by pushing hard on the area between the navigation keys and the LCD screen (where there is either the ‘W’ logo or the at&t logo), then the keys will work.

The bottom line though is that this phone has some serious quality flaws and therefore I do not recommend purchasing this model anymore. I give it 2-stars since the phone is still a very nice slider design with excellent software/interface.

Buy/More Info