New Vodafone Handsets coming – 625, 730, 830 rumoured

Vodafone & Huawei - New handsets coming?

We just heard that Huawei, the company behind the ever popular USB Mobile Broadband Dongle and some of Vodafone’s own handsets, (710, 716 and 810) are set to announce the Huawei U5800 as the Vodafone 730. Details are sketchy, but the handset is thought to be a “WCDMA/GPRS/GSM Mobile Phone with Bluetooth.” The handset is expected to be a simple candybar design as with the current 700 series.

Also in the pipeline are a Vodafone 830 and Vodafone 625. The Vodafone 830 will support HSDPA/UMTS/GPRS/GSM and Bluetooth and is thought to be of a sliding design.

The Vodafone 625 (aka Huawei U1100)is a WCDMA/GPRS/GSM/EDGE Mobile Phone with Bluetooth. This phone can operate in virtually all countries, automatically switching between WCDMA 2100 and GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 networks.

Watch this space!

New Walkman Handsets announced by Sony Ericcson

Sony Ericsson have today announced 3 new Walkman handsets.

Sony Ericsson W902, W565, W302

The innovative W902 Walkman phone has the highest specifications of the 3, featuring a 5 megapixel camera with flash, image stabiliser and Auto Focus. The W902 includes an 8GB Memory Stick Micro which lets you store more than 8000 songs. The much improved camera allows for better video capture than on previous Walkman models and allows you to geo-tag your photo’s using information from your network provider. The W902 features the same clear audio technology as the W980 which gives exceptional audio quality when using the HPM-77 premium headphones which are included with the phone. The W902 measures 110 x 49 x 11.7 mm and has a 2.2″ scratch proof screen. Other features include Bluetooth, FM Radio, Picture and Video Blogging, Email, Auto rotate and HSDPA.

The W595 Walkman phone is designed around sharing. It has a 2.2 inch screen, 3.2 megapixel camera and comes with a 2GB memory card that will hold around 2000 songs. The phone has an unusual “share jack” that lets two people listen to the same music using an additional headset. The phone also has the now familiar SensMe and Shake controls, that allow you to select music depending on your mood, skip tracks or adjust the volume simply by shaking the phone. The W595 is also a gaming handset, with four games included including Guitar Rock Tour in 3D.

The W302 Walkman phone is more of a budget Walkman phone, although the specification of the phone is far from budget. At jsut 10.5 mm thin, this slim handset is the perfect way of keeping your music photos and contacts all in one place. The phone includes a 512 MB memory stick micro to store upto 480 songs, has an FM Radio and features Track ID, a music recognition services that allows you to identify music. Its built in 2 megapixel camera lets you capture the moment and post it straight to your blog, send via MMS or email to friends.

All three handsets are due for release in quarter 4 2008.

Head to Head: HTC Touch Diamond Vs iPhone 3G

This week I’m comparing two of the most talked about touch screen phones around – the iPhone 3G and the HTC Touch Diamond.

HTC Touch Diamond

The tiny size is the first thing that you notice when you first hold a HTC Touch Diamond in the palm of your hand, but don’t think this constrains its use as the TouchFLO interface is a joy to use. Navigating through menus and websites is a very simple process. Flicking through photo albums has a nice touch when using your finger and the accelerometer mean that when you turn the phone on its side, the screen automatically rotates to landscape mode so your photos fill the whole screen.

It looks great – the back of the phone has many faceted edges, resembling the surface of a diamond. This gives the phone a special feel and makes it look classy! Also a cool little feature is that the slot that the stylus is stored in is magnetized, so the stylus is ‘sucked’ back into the slot when inserting the stylus.

Overall, internet browsing is a simple, enjoyable experience with the large 2.8″ inch screen and full Internet Explorer functionality giving you a classy user experience.

iPhone 3G

When the original iPhone launched last year, I was all set to get one. That was until I saw the spec and realised how limited it was in regards to the choice of network operator (only available on 02), the lack of 3G and the price. Knowing Apple as I do, I knew it wouldn’t be long until they brought out an upgraded model and that it would be the one I’d get. I use my phone a lot for browsing the internet and for email, so having a phone only running on O2′s Edge would be painful. The Edge network was poor but I’ve noticed that over the last few months, coverage has increased and you can now get HSDPA signal pretty much everywhere you go – equating to speeds of around 3mbps.

Although there have been loads of “iPhone Killers” launched over the last 12 months, none of them have come close to the iPhone. Their touch screen interfaces tend to be sticky and uncomfortable to use, where as the iPhone is slick and easy. iPhone 3G also comes shipped with the latest version iPhone 2.0 software, which adds support for third party applications and games. This was something that was only possible on earlier versions if you unlocked you iPhone. The iPhone 2.0 software is also rumoured to act as a remote control for iTunes, so no more running around the house to change tracks – great if you use airport express at home to stream your music around the house.

Visually, there’s not much difference between the new version and the old iPhone, other than the introduction of a white 16GB model. The best news for me now is that i’m not going to have to shell out 269 for it as I can get this iPhone for free!

Sony Ericsson W890i review

After previous good experiences from other Sony Ericsson phones, the Sony Ericsson W890i didn’t disappoint.

Firstly I have to say that the design is very nice with a brushed aluminium finish. It feels well built and solid. The design is very different from it’s predecessor, the W880i, and seems to be better in most ways, in terms of design and build quality. Also the keypad buttons are larger than the tiny ones that existed on the W880i, but still may be a little on the small side for some people, you now get a 3.2 megapixel camera and HSDPA for faster Internet browsing, plus an improved Walkman player and user interface.

I was impressed with the usability of the W890i, it is very simple to use and the menus are easy to understand. The buttons have a nice feel and are positioned well, with Walkman and camera buttons on the sides of the phone also.

Although the camera does not have auto-focus, the images taken with the camera are of a good quality. Sony Ericsson’s latest Walkman player is probably the best music player on a phone to date, in terms of functionality and ease of use. The 2" screen is clear and a good size for browsing the Internet and reading emails.I didn’t have any problems with reading the screen in direct sunlight.

To remove the aluminium battery cover, two clips must be released, then the cover can be removed to reveal the memory card slot. It’s a shame that it’s no longer "hot-swappable" like in most current handsets, but the W890i comes with a 2GB M2 memory card which should allow you to store a plenty of music, photo’s and videos.

Sony Ericsson have taken all the best bits of the extremely popular W880, added a better camera and faster internet and the result is the W890i. A great handset, that will no doubt be as popular as its predecessor.

First Impressions of the LG KF600

This weekend I decided to take a break from my Nokia N82 and spend a little time with the LG KF600.

The KF600 is the latest handset from the Korean manufacturer and is trying to change the way that we use our phones with the introduction of its “InteractPad”.

The phone looks stylish, is a decent size and weight and feels well built. The one thing you notice immediately is the lack of keys on the front of the phone. The KF600 is a touch phone, but with a twist. Rather than having a large touch screen display that drains battery power, the screen has been split into two parts, the display and the InteractPad.

The InteractPad is a unique way of using your phone, from the standby screen you have 6 touch sensitive keys, and as you move through the different screens of the phone, these buttons move and adapt to suit the application you’re using. In some cases I found the InteractPad to be a bit awkward, but in other applications it works really well.

I tend to use my phone mainly for photo’s, music, email, internet and texting rather than making calls. The camera on the KF600 is a 3 megapixel and has an LED flash. Photo’s come out clear and pretty sharp, and if you print them out they will be of a decent quality at 6″ x 4″ size. The flash is ok for taking photo’s in low light close up, but if what you’re taking photo’s of is more than a metre away, it probably won’t be much use.

The KF600 works really well as an MP3 player. There’s a dedicated shortcut key on the side of the phone for quick access and I found it easy to transfer tracks to the phone using Bluetooth or the data cable and software that came with it. The music interface is probably the best use of the InteractPad, you have the usual play/pause, forward and rewind, as well as a track progress bar. Normally these just scroll along with no purpose, but with the interact pad you can simply drag the slider to get to the part of the track you want – great if you want to skip sections of podcasts.

Email and texting works well too. Predictive text meant writing messages is quick and easy, and setting up POP3 email was very straight forward. The only thing I found to be not so great here was the handwriting recognition. In theory it sounds great, but in reality, writing with the end of your finger just isn’t accurate enough, and for hardcore texters, you’ll be able to text using the keypad a lot faster.

Internet access on the KF600 is pretty standard, it runs off a GPRS connection, so a fairly slow connection, but if you just want to check the odd train time or find out what’s on at the cinema then it does the job with no problem at all.

Overall the KF600 is a good all round handset. It will take a little getting used to with the InteractPad, and for the first few days I can guarantee you’ll be touching the top half of the screen and wondering why nothing is happening, but give it a week and you’ll be flying through the menus, but once you’ve got used to the interact pad, you may struggle to go back to a conventional phone.