Sony Ericsson is releasing high-end handsets en masse, with the 8-megapixel C905 and W902 Walkman handset hitting the shelves. The T303 takes a different approach, focusing on the budget, fashion market.

The dinky slider is just 83 x 47 x 14.7mm, which will fit in almost any pocket, and is super-light too at just 93g. The design is simple but effective. The casing is silver brushed metal and there’s even a flower-patterned battery cover to swap with the plain one if you so wish.

On the front of the slider, you’ll find a four-way navigation button with hard to reach select button in the centre. As is the norm, call answer and end keys also make an appearance, with two softkeys above them. However, they’re not chunky, easy to press softkeys. Instead, they’re ultra-skinny bars that make accessing key features quite a task. The numeric keys are also a little awkward to use quickly. Each is hardly refined and because of the size of the T303, they’re small too.

Also taking a hit from the dimensions of the T303 is the screen. The paltry 1.8-incher will leave you squinting at every operation. However, a mirrored coating means you can use it to see your reflection...

The camera reverts back 2 years to 1.3-megapixels, and snaps aren’t of any high quality. The lack of flash means you’re limited to taking snaps in bright conditions and even mid-lit places leave photos grainy.

There is an MP3 player, and rather invitingly, an FM radio to kill boredom on the way to work. If you were planning on packing the T303 to the rafters with your favourite tunes, you will be disappointed to find out that there’s only 8MB of onboard storage, with no option to expand this with a microSD card. As there is no 3.5mm jack on the phone, you’ll have to use the supplied headphones that leave a little to be desired.

Unlike on the mid- and high-end Sony Ericsson devices, the operating system is a little basic. This doesn’t cause any problems, and makes it easier to use for those with little mobile experience.

There is a Java-based browser on the T303, but it doesn’t come close to the quality as seen on other devices. Obviously, the size of the screen has a huge impact on the usability of the browser, as does the fact it’s only GPRS enabled, but it’s not even simple to navigate around a page, as rendering takes forever.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson T303

Sony Ericsson T303 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

LG has gone touchscreen crazy recently, launching a range of different devices with varying feature sets. The Renoir obviously is at the top of the pile with multimedia and camera options aplenty, perhaps making your compact camera feel a little incompetent.

At the bottom of the pile though, is the LG KP500, dubbed the “Cookie”: a handset with a camera that might not put your compact to shame, but will make your pocket feel satisfyingly heavy.

The swipe touchscreen interface is almost exactly the same as on the Renoir. Swipe across the screen and you can switch between different widget screens. There’s the contacts display, which allows you to put your top 10 contacts on the standby screen for easy access, and then there’s the widgets screen.

The widgets display works in exactly the same way as any other widgets-based touchscreen device. The difference with LG’s interface though, is that if you want to add a new widget, you have to tap a small icon at the bottom first. This is very useful because it prevents clumsy fingers inadvertently moving around existing widgets and stops you launching a widget when you’re moving them round too.

If you’re a little pernickety when it comes to tidiness, you can shake the handset to align all of the icons.

The design of the KP500 Cookie is much sleeker than the Renoir. As the handset is only 89g and with a thickness of 12mm, it’ll easily slide into your pocket.

Although most of the Cookie is screen, there are three hardware buttons along the bottom. These allow you to answer and end calls, plus access the menu if the device is unlocked. Hidden below these keys is the stylus that isn’t essential but comes in handy for certain features such as Drawing Panel.

On the right-hand side of the Cookie, there’s a screen lock button and camera quick access key, plus a microSD port to increase the meagre 48MB of memory to up to 8GB.

On the other side of the device is the volume adjustment keys and proprietary port for charging and hooking up to your PC. Naturally for LG handsets, this port is also for the headphones, which means there’s no room for 3.5mm cans.

There are some handy extras on the LG Cookie, such as an accelerometer with LG’s M-Toy games suite of movement-activated games, the Muvee Studio editing app and Drawing Panel so you can create masterpieces while on the move, but the touchscreen sensitivity can be somewhat disappointing.

The screen feedback is sometimes not as responsive as it could be, even when adjusted in the settings menu. This means text messaging is awkward as the over-zealous prediction kicks in meaning you might find text messages or emails a heap of gobbledygook.

Battery life is also a little hit and miss, with the advertised 350 hours standby too ambitious for a touchscreen handset.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones LG LG KP500 Cookie

LG KP500 Cookie originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:00:00 +0000

At a time when LG is churning out luxury handsets such as the Prada II and KC910 Renoir, it’s a breath of fresh air to see a budget device from the Korean manufacturer. Budget does come at a cost though, and in the case of the LG KF300, this hits both the features and design.

The KF300 is a very plain-looking device; it’s a clamshell with not very many redeeming features. The front is almost holographic, with a hidden screen that springs to life if you press a button, receive a phone call or text. Although the resolution isn’t as pin-sharp as that on the inside of the device, it does comprise 256k colours, which is impressive for an exterior screen, but is also a little pointless considering the budget nature of the KF300.

Open the device up with the satisfyingly springy hinge and you’re transported almost back to the 90s. The buttons take large to a whole new level, with super-sized text to ensure you never press the wrong key by accident. The layout of the essential keys including call buttons, camera shortcut and two soft keys are simple, just like the rest of the phone.

To make things even easier for you, there are four buttons directly below the interior screen. These are quick alarm, instant calendar access, photo gallery and favourites, which is a fully customisable sub menu.

In standby mode, you can directly navigate to your most used functions by pressing a direction on the navigation pad. This is customisable to an extent and a useful addition for those who only use a couple of features on a mobile phone.

The sides of the LG KF300 are plain, with only a proprietary charging/headphone port gracing the right-hand side and volume keys on the left. This means that you can’t activate the camera to take a self portrait using the external screen, or launch the MP3 player while the clamshell is closed.

The internal screen is crystal clear for such a low-end device and this works seamlessly with LG’s ultra-simple UI. One thing that puzzles is that the icons in the menu are tiny compared to the text when you enter the sub menus. It’s quite clear that the KF300 has been designed for older generations, and for this market alone, the device works like a dream.

The browser is standard Java-based, so don’t expect to be able to zoom in and out of pages easily as you can on Symbian-based devices, or skim a page with an optical navigation key, because there isn’t one.

The camera is 2-megapixel, and is quite frankly not really worth using unless you’re planning to use any snaps for your phone wallpaper. There’s no flash and most images are grainy.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones LG LG KF300

LG KF300 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Packed to the rafters with everything you’d expect on a high-end device, the Nokia N79 is an impressive offering.

As you’d find on a high-end device, there’s GPS (with Nokia Maps preinstalled), the N-Gage gaming interface, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, TV out and an FM transmitter for streaming music to your Hi-Fi.

However, it’s the build quality that is jeopardised here. The casing is plastic, and it really does make the handset feel cheap.

Although the main number keys are a good size, the call answer/end and two soft keys below the screen are nothing more than super-thin raised lines. This does make answering calls quickly quite a cumbersome task.

Between the soft keys and call control buttons, there are two clickable flat panels. The left is the quick menu button, the right the cancel key. Although the area that these two keys cover is larger than the other keys in this top section, they really are too awkward to press to find convenient.

In the centre, below the screen is a four-way navigation key that is also just a flat panel. A light in the centre pulses as if breathing and this is a nice touch if you’re in a club and want to see what you’re doing, but not so great when trying to get to sleep if you’re one who leaves their phone on all night.

Previously, Nseries devices were aimed at prosumer multimedia junkies but it’s clear that the N79’s core market is the youth area.

Anyone who remembers the first Nokia devices with Xpress on covers will be pleasantly surprised with how the idea has developed. Three covers are shipped with the Nokia N79; blue, green and maroon coloured. The clever part is that each features an embedded chip, which when put into contact with the phone changes the wallpaper of the N79.

The 5-megapixel camera is the same as on the N96 and recently announced N97, but this is no problem. The dual LED flash is suitable for any dark environment, although sometimes it is a little too strong and results in a loss of detail.

Stereo speakers sit along the right-hand side of the Nokia N79, allowing you to watch video in landscape mode with the speakers blasting out respectable sound levels.

The accelerometer on the N79 is a little hit and miss; sometimes it’s too sensitive, other times it takes seconds to adjust the screen orientation. The screen itself may not be as large as on the N96, but the 240 x 320 pixel resolution makes it super-clear, even if watching a movie.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia N79

Nokia N79 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:11:11 +0000

Once again, Nokia has taken beauty before bones with the 6600 Fold; a low-specced clamshell handset. But how does it weigh up?

Nokia seems to have taken a stand against the feature-frenzied smartphones we’ve all come to love. Sure, the N96 features the top end spec you’d expect from the Finnish manufacturer, but recently the mid-range selection of handsets has seen a boom. Swiftly following on from the announcement and release of three new fashion-biased Supernova handsets, comes the launch of the Nokia 6600 Fold.

The Fold is a handset at a modest price, with modest features, but is still a device likely to be a huge hit with the army of Nokia fanboys out there. The 6600 Fold falls nothing short of fashionable with a sleek, streamlined casing available in either black or pink, with a hyper-shiny exterior that’ll have no trouble attracting pesky fingerprints.

Through the mirrored frontage, an invisible screen appears when you tap it, displaying vital stats including date and time plus track and artist name if you’re playing a music track. If you have a missed call or text messages waiting, you can check on these by barely lifting a finger.

If you simply don’t have the energy to prise the two magnetically sealed halves apart, you can tap a button on the side and as if by magic the handset will open, revealing a severely beauty-impaired keypad.

Ok, so we didn’t expect anything half as stunning as the exterior inside the Nokia 6600 Fold, but here it seems as though the manufacturer has completely overlooked anything but retro ugliness. However, keys are hugely responsive and the layout allows even those with oversized fingers to press the keys without much effort.

The internal screen is nothing short of impressive from a handset that’s free on almost every monthly contract out there. The vitals stats read QVGA resolution, 16.7 million colours and 2.13-inches.

You may be thinking that this whole review seems to be based on how the Nokia 6600 Fold looks, and there’s a reason for that. There simply aren’t any bells and whistles to brag about with the 6600 Fold apart from its design.

Applications are basic Nokia fare, with a few quirky extras preloaded, including Flickr for directly uploading your snaps to the web, Opera Mini for improved web browsing and a presenter app that allows you to use the Nokia 6600 Fold as a remote control for PowerPoint presentations. This is an odd addition, considering the handset is very unlikely to be on the top of the list for businessmen.

Even on a budget handset, a 2-megapixel camera is not something to brag about. There is a flash, but it’s hardly going to light up anything more than the 5 inches in front of you.

The Nokia 6600 Fold certainly takes style over specs. It’s a hefty device, weight wise, but fits nicely in the hand at 87.7 x 44 x 15.9mm. The minimalist design on the outside is somewhat ruined by the cluttered, distasteful interior, but quite clearly reflects the feature set: refined, back to basics, and simple.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia 6600 Fold

Nokia 6600 Fold mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000