Music mobiles will apparently soon kill off every MP3 player except the iPod. I can certainly see how that would be the case – you obviously love gadgets reading this site, but given the choice wouldn’t you rather just take one item down the pub with you?

The 3250 lets you combine the MP3 player and smartphone in one neat, if not entirely compact package.

It’s quite an unusual design, with that odd twisting mechanism causing a bit of a stir. It makes good practical sense though: rotating the block at the bottom either activates the phone mode, music mode or boots up the two megapixel camera depending on the angle of twist.

Nokia lovers will also be pleased to see the utilisation of the Series 60 Symbian operating system in such an entertainment friendly handset. So it’s ideal for business and pleasure! It also has an impressive 1GB of storage on board, which allows you up to 750 music tracks, although if you are snapping away with the camera at full resolution this obviously drops.

The good news is that it all feels very solid, and initial concerns over the twist mechanism feeling loose proved to be unfounded. And while the handset is on the large side, it’s not overly heavy.

In use the OS is up to the standard you expect from Nokia, although the music software itself isn’t as good as some of the competition offerings. Sound quality is respectable though, both in terms of tunes and talking, and overall this is a very neat package with lots of add on software available as well.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Nokia

Nokia 3250 mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:36:32 +0100

Beloved by celebs and stressed business types, the latest BlackBerry device is a slimed-down affair for the common man (or woman).

Now you’ve got even less of an excuse for not taking the office every where you go. The latest BlackBerry offers pretty much everything that the last model – the chunky 8700g does – but it does so in a form factor that’s not much bigger than your common or garden smartphone.

This obviously allows the 7130g to slip into your pocket more easily, and even takes it to the stage where you don’t need to have to consider a second phone for the weekend – something I’d have to do with the larger devices.

Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on two things: how much you love your job, and how much self control you have.

If the answers are "not at all" and "none", then steer well clear. But if you need to be in touch with the office all the time and have the will-power to ignore emails at night and while on your holiday then this more compact device could be for you.

The new sleek design means it features that compressed QWERTY keyboard seen on previous 7000 series BlackBerry devices. And if you aren’t used to it could come as a bit of a shock. There’s something about the cross between text messaging, predictive text and a full keyboard that results in the kind of input speeds not seen since I bought my nan a phone at Christmas.

But you can get used to it, and after a surprisingly drawn-out set up process – I couldn’t access the O2 email site using Firefox for starters – the email service immediately grips you and proves invaluable.

But this handset is about more than just email, and its comprehensive address book, large clear screen and basic but functional internet access make this a great business phone.

However, the lack of true smartphone functionality offered by the likes of O2’s XDA range may make serious business types think twice.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones RIM I-mode

Blackberry 7130g smartphone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:26:06 +0100

Nokia is rapidly getting to grips with this 3G malarkey, and this handset is possibly its best third-generation handset yet. The 6280 is a Series 40 mobile, and features an updated version of the popular operating system. It’s also a little bit on the chunky side, especially for a slider phone, and looks large when compared to recent 3G offerings from rivals Motorola and LG.

However, it still manages to catch the eye with its slightly odd good looks, and the top part of the sliding mechanism puts us in mind of Nokia’s Art Nouveau style handsets of a couple of years back. However, while those phones were feature-free zones, this handset offers a wide range of thrills and frills, including the now de rigeur 2 megapixel camera and a top-notch 262k colour screen. It also has a rather discrete camera on the front, which doesn’t spoil the looks and is ideal for video calling.

You can also download videos, and the 6280 comes with a hot-swappable miniSD card slot – there’s a 64MB card bundled in the box. The handset also supports both EDGE and Push to Talk, although the latter is missing off the versions of this handset that you’ll get from 3. It also boasts Bluetooth for connecting to a hands-free headset, and the ability to synchronise your contacts and appointments with the impressive on-board organiser was good.

Call quality with the 6280 was first rate, both voice and video, and for a handset that offers so many features and such a bright screen, battery life was good, allowing us to get through a hectic social weekend with no problems at all.

There are some problems, and while the nice design is all well and good, Nokia fans will miss the dedicated hard menu button, and if you are into your video calling you may want a dedicated button for that too.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones 3G Nokia

Nokia 6280 mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:18:29 +0100

Sony Ericsson's core music mobile promises lots, and unlike an Embrace album, it delivers.

The range of Walkman mobiles now stretches further than our incredulity over the fact that Coldplay are a successful recording act. And slap bang in the middle of that line up resides the W810i, which offers an enticing blend of high-end features in a relatively affordable package.

Taking its design cues from previous star performers such as the K750i, the W810i is a vision in matt black. Its compact lines set off by a rather novel soft key and joystick one-two-three combo sitting below an exceptionally clear 262k colour screen.

Things are also good round the back, with a 2 megapixel camera playing into the hands of people that like pictures as well as movies.

In use it's a dream, as long as you like the Sony Ericsson menu system, anyway.

It's easy to navigate your way around, make calls and sort your diary, and the important job of accessing your music is also simple - just press the orange key on the front and you are away.

Your tunes are stored on a 512MB Memory Stick that comes in the box, and while this is reasonable and can be added to with extra cards, this isn't now that amazing an offer compared to other handsets from Nokia, Samsung and even Sony Ericsson, as manufacturers keep up the pressure for us to listen to music on our phones.

As with all the Walkman phones, Sony Ericsson has done well to make sure they sound the business, and the supplied in-ear headphones provide just enough oomph for the tune. Also, as they split in two, you can also upgrade or replace them if you wish.

So all's well and good in the state of Walkman. And thanks to is great call quality and impressive battery life, we predict that this handset will go far!

Related links:

• Link - Sony Ericsson

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Walkman W810i mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:30:27 +0100

The Nokia 6103 is that rarest of beasts, a drop-dead simple mobile phone.

In this fast-moving world of smartphones, music phones, GPS phones, camera phones and GPSmusiccamerasmartphones it's unusual to find a plain old-fashioned phone phone. The Nokia 6103 is just that though, and it's none the worse for its simplicity.

It's a classic clamshell device, and is an obvious update of previous entry-level Nokia the 6101 - the clue is in the name. This includes the rather unsightly protruding antennae, although the 6103 is compact enough so that this isn't much of a problem. The matt black finish on the outside is pretty attractive, although open it up and you still get the impression that Nokia isn't at home with phones that flip. The screen is a basic 128 x 160 pixel number with up to 65k colours, but seeing as the camera is only VGA and you're not going to be downloading videos then this is certainly adequate.

Other features are good though, with an email client, WAP access and tri-band functionality. But while you can improve on the ring tone offerings with MP3 files there's no media player so music playback is out. The FM radio goes someway towards making up for this, and reception was good.

There's another tick in the plus side of the equation in the fact that the 6103 has Bluetooth on-board, so you can connect it up to a wireless headset for safer driving. However, the really good news is that in terms of call quality and battery life there's really nothing to complain about, and considering that this phone will be available at the lower end of the price scale, it's an excellent value handset.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Nokia

Nokia 6103 mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:53:02 +0100

Chelsea seem hell bent on alienating the entire world, but new sponsor Samsung Mobile has gone for a far more inclusive approach with the first 3G and iMode combination handset.

From a very young age I was always told that putting all your eggs in one basket was a bad thing; so how come this smart little Samsung phone is so enticing? It’s the first device to offer both 3G and iMode connectivity, so if you want rapid internet access on the move it looks like the ideal phone. Well, it does as long as you want to use the impressive - but fairly limited - selection of content providers available on iMode, and are willing to view all the videos and content you access on the relatively small 1.9 inch screen.

But that’s partly the point of the Z320i, because considering all the connection options this handset has to offer - to which you can add Quad band functionality and Bluetooth - it’s small and very neatly put together. It may not be as slim as the LG U880 or RAZR V3x, but with its neat sliding mechanism and short stature it’s more pocketable than most 3G handsets.

It also manages to squeeze in a 1.3 megapixel camera for snapping your mates and there’s the option of video calling too - there’s two cameras on board, an option I prefer to the single swivelling lens.

There are some downsides though, the main one being the lack of any kind of memory expansion options. Okay, so the 100MB of installed memory is reasonably healthy, but if you are thinking of downloading video or music to the built-in MP3 player than you are going to use that up quickly. Also, why can’t people put standard headphone sockets on the phones - at least that way they are easy to upgrade and replace!

Still, these are relatively minor points, and in action the Z320i is an excellent little phone. The menu system is very user-friendly, and it performs very well in the all important areas of voice calling and browsing.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones 3G Samsung

Samsung SGH-Z320i 3G i-mode mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 30 Mar 2006 10:46:08 +0100

For a while there it looked as though push email would be shoved off the mobile map. But now Research in Motion (RIM) the company behind the Blackberry has reached a $612.5 million settlement with software company NTP it looks as though the millions of business people addicted to email on the go will continue to get their fix.

And to celebrate the more positive outlook, RIM has launched its best BlackBerry to date, the 8700g.

This new incarnation features all the communication features we've come to expect from a BlackBerry including the all-important email on the go and a QWERTY keyboard plus a whole lot more including a gorgeous 320x240 LCD screen with more colours on display than an LA gang war.

It's a dramatic improvement on older BlackBerrys, and the increased resolution makes reading emails a breeze, while the improved 312MhZ Intel processor handles documents with more dexterity than previous devices.

RIM toyed with a smaller BlackBerry in the 7100, but while the 8700g is certainly large for a mobile phone the return of the full QWWERTY keyboard is a key to the usability here. The keys are really good for typing emails, and much easier than trying to reply to people on say the SPV C600.

Our review sample was on O2, and the network made setting-up the email service simple. You get your own O2 mail address, but can also set up ten other accounts all via a website accessed on the device.

It's amazing how quickly emails come and go, and you quickly find yourself involved in conversations that have the rapidity of text messaging.

There are downsides though, and while the 64MB of memory is good, a way of expanding it would have been useful for the power user.

Also, as is becoming increasingly common with business-focused devices there's no camera. We understand the reasoning behind this (security), but it's a shame to have all that emailing power and no camera to produce your own attachments.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones RIM Biz Skype Nokia

BlackBerry 8700g originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:08:15 +0000

Motorola proves that it’s better at grouping than Phil "The Power" Taylor, with the latest addition to its ever growing family of slimline phones.

The L6 is the slimmest handset available on the market right now, and unless you want a phone that will snap every time you press a button too vigorously while texting it’s hard to see where it could shed any further micrometers. This handset is seriously thin, 10.9mm! Although it’s still quite wide and slightly taller than an iPod.

What isn’t hard to spot is the L6’s lineage, as it’s a doppelganger for the L7 we’ve looked at previously. It fits in just below it in the brand’s line up, loosing a few extra millimetres and a couple of features on the way. It’s the RAZR V3 and V3i all over again - these handsets are darn close to each other in almost every respect!

The metallic number pad looks great, and the keys are easier to press than on its RAZR relations, and if your taste is for candybars rather than clamshells there’s very little here not to get excited about. If you like Motorola menus you’ll also be happy, and the inclusion on Bluetooth is a nice touch on such an affordable phone, and a welcome nod towards safety concerns over people using the phones while driving.

Sadly, the commonality stretches to the VGA camera, which isn’t great considering the current trend towards offering megapixel snappers on even the most basic handsets. Even so, the images it produces are passable, and it has a video camera as well.

And that brings us on to what’s been taken out. Primarily that appears to be a drop from a 262k colour screen to this rather more prosaic 65K number, and there’s no MP3 player. Considering all the issues over whether the L6 and V3i would sport iTunes, we think it’s refreshing that this handset has no pretence to be a music mobile! This also means that there’s less to complain about on the missing memory front, as with no MP3 player to hog space the non-expandable 10MB should be enough for most people.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Motorola

Motorola SLVR L6 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:28:26 +0000

Following on the success of Sony Ericsson’s Walkman music mobiles comes another assault into Sony’s brand vault - the Cyber-shot camera phone.

This shows incredibly good thinking on the company’s behalf, for while the Cyber-shot brand doesn’t quite have the same resonance in the digital camera market that the Walkman has for portable music, it still has a ring of quality to it.

As does the first handset in the range, the K800, which we were lucky enough to briefly get our grubby mitts onto at the launch event.

First impressions were very, very good, and while we initially scoffed at the idea of leaving our holiday memories in the hands of a phone rather than a camera we left thinking that we could be convinced. Or that we might not panic if we only had one of these in our pocket when we came through passport control.

The headline feature here is obviously the 3.2 megapixel resolution, which is way up there with digital cameras from a couple of years ago, and well up to printing on standard 6x4 paper. The 2-inch 262k colour LCD display also appeared to do the business, although we were indoors and would like to see how it performs in the bright sunshine.

On the software side, we loved the BestPic mode, which promises to banish the days of missing the moment. It constantly takes images as soon as you auto-focus the K800, and lets you choose between the four before you press the shutter release, the four after, and the moment you actually do the deed. We even got beyond our irritation at constantly being told that we could take pictures from the past (!), to actually agree that this is a good feature.

Another great feature was the tie-in with Google-owned Blogger. With this handset you can create instant blogs at the touch of only a few buttons and the minimum of fuss - we can’t wait to give it a go.

There were some things missing though, most notably a Carl Zeiss lens, which is a hallmark of Cyber-shot cameras, and has actually appeared on the Nokia N90 camera phone - very strange. This is bad news because anyone that’s played with digital cameras knows that megapixels are only a part of the story when it comes to images quality.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson K800 mobile phone - FIRST LOOK originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 08 Mar 2006 10:19:58 +0000

After struggling with a gaggle of Paul McCartney references we’ve plumped with the never ageing-one’s Back To The Egg. That’s exactly what the revamped Siemens/Benq brand has done, returning to the former highlight of its range the delectably delicious egg-shaped SL55 for its spanky new SL75. Due to our natural discretion we will try to avoid mentioning the disappointingly overweight SL65.

This finish is smooth and glossy on our virgin white sample, (it’s also available in a more moody black or silver) and the size and look are both spot on. In fact, the SL75 not only wears its style credentials in its sleeve, but it also does so in a really smart, limited edition bespoke leather case, designed by luxury-leather-goods-supplier-to-extremely-posh-people Aspinal of London (£60).

But this mobile not only looks great, it feels amazing in the hand too - although if you have mitts like sides of beef we wouldn’t recommend it. The two halves of the sliding mechanism join up with a reassuringly solid click that was missing on the original, and although light, it’s weighty enough to inspire confidence in the build quality. The 262k colour screen is small, but perfectly formed, and if we have a gripe about the construction is that the buttons are too tightly packed for effective text messaging or dialling - so make sure your contacts are kept up to date. It also has email functionality, but it’s a pain to input anything longer than a basic missive, so beware.

Internally things have certainly kept apace with current trends, and this handset has a surprisingly impressive array of features for such a compact style phone. There are all manner of useful offerings including a passable 1.3 megapixel snapper, Bluetooth connectivity and even an MP3 player backed up with 52MB of internal memory - sadly there’s no way to add to this via cards.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones BenQ-Siemens

Siemens SL75 mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:35:13 +0000

A manufacturer with the most popular mobile on the market has a problem when it comes to updating that phone: just how do you improve on a product without ruining it? Motorola has obviously decided the way forward is to leave well alone, only pausing to correct a couple of oversights it made in the original.

Enter the RAZR V3i, for all intents and purposes the same ubiquitous bling handset that lets hoodies up and down the country text their mates, but with the inclusion of a megapixel camera over the original’s VGA snapper. We applaud this, and also the addition of a video capture option - the original just offered playback. However, apart from that, there’s not much to add … at least not if you live in the UK.

You see, over in the good ol’ US of A the V3i is doing exactly what everyone said the V3 should have been doing: flying the Motorola/Apple flag as an iTunes phone instead of the much maligned and distinctly brick-like ROKR. However, we are set to miss out on that thrill, for reasons that to be honest aren’t exactly clear to us, or maybe even Motorola.

The response: "A global announcement was made in 2005 relating to the availability in some markets of a future version of the V3i that would be compatible with the iTunes music player. At present, we haven’t announced anything further on this but will do so when/if this product is to become available in the UK".

So, apart from the imaging improvements there’s very little to report, and this handset will probably be slipping into jeans pockets without the new owners realising that it’s actually different from the original RAZR.

Or it would be if Moto had decided to update the V3 with the V3i, instead of selling this handset as an upgrade, and placing it above the older phone in its RAZR V3 "family of handsets".

Obviously Motorola feels that people will pay a premium for the improved photo capture, the option of shooting videos and a slightly better screen on the outside. We’re not so sure they will.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Motorola

Motorola RAZR V3i mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:06:01 +0000

Hands up if you bought the SPV C550? If so, you have our sympathy, seriously. That mobile promised so much and delivered … well … a couple of extra buttons so you could access the MP3 player, more sluggish response times than the C500 and … well, that was about it. But Orange has come good again with the C600, the true replacement for the ageing C500 and one of the best compact smartphones on the market.

The obvious improvement over most of the previous devices in this series is the screen (knicked from the C550), which is as clear and bright as you could wish for. It’s also pretty big for this size of candy bar handset, although the new improved 1.3 megapixel camera is still a little behind the times. The new joystick control allows easier navigation through the occasionally dense menu systems, and the whole package comes together sweetly.

The headline grabbing news internally is that this handset sees Orange’s smallest smartphone make the leap from Windows for Mobile 2003 SE to the brand spanking new Windows Mobile 5.0. The new OS performs well, and in conjunction with the 200MHz processor, motors things along at a fair rate of knots - something that couldn’t be said for the C550. The most obvious change is in the menu system, but more subtle tunings make the whole device run more effectively - and this includes much, much better battery life and you can now pop off for the weekend without packing the charger.

On board memory is average at 64MB plus there’s a 32MB Mini SD in the box; so you’ll need to add some more if you are interested in using Windows Media Player 10 for music. And this is something you may want to consider, because sound quality isn’t bad at all - okay, it’s no iPod, but squeeze some music on here and it can get you through the walk to your local lunch spot without having to pack two gadgets. Which kind of sums this phone up: it offers power at your convenience.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Orange

Orange SPV C600 mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:05:30 +0000