Reviews

Mobinnova ICE review

Once again Matt comes up with a device that I have never heard and I get the obligatory ‘Want to have a play?’.

This time the phone in question is really obscure, as it is the 1^st venture for Mobinnova that I have come across.

Looking at the spec and the User guide (I’ll explain later) this device certainly packs a punch and should be a real winner, it is nice to see a company ‘have a go’ and try something a little different, but will it turn out to be a flop or a success?

The Mobinnova ICE

Introduction

As I have already mentioned I have never come across Mobinnova before, so a little background, the company is based in Taiwan, they are reported to be Sony Ericssons new partner in developing and producing the new speculated Xperia 2, ousting HTC.

They do offer other models such as the PP5400 Full QWERTY slider which is kind of G1 looking, the PP5401 and PP3400 fixed QWERY blackberry style phones. The ICE is trumpeted as the flagship as let’s take a look…

What’s in the box? (This is covered in Matt’s Mobinnova ICE unboxing video.)

• Mobinnova ICE
• Stereo headset with miniUSB connection
• USB to MiniUSB sync/charge cable
• AC adaptor with European connector
• Leather case with magnetic closer and belt hook
• User Guide and Getting started CD

Mobinnova ICE Specification:

• Dimensions: 114 x 53.5 x 13mm
• Weight: 120g with battery
• Networks: Tri Band WCDMA/HSPA
• Europe/Asia/Americas – WCDMA/HSPA 900/1900/2100MHzHSDPA providing downlink *speeds of up to 7.2Mbps
• HSUPA providing uplink speeds of up to 2Mbps
• Quad band GSM / GPRS / EDGE GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz
• Display: 3” WQVGA flat TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen
• Secondary display: 128 x 96 OLED panel
• User Interface:  mobiToday, mobiFeel and mobiShift controls
• Camera: 3 megapixel autofocus camera with dedicated shutter control. 2nd camera for video calling
• Memory: 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM. microSD expansion slot with SDCH support
• Wireless: WiFi 802.11 b/g
• Radio: Built in FM Radio with RDS/RBDS function
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR / A2DP for use with Bluetooth stereo headsets
• mini USB 2.0 plus TV-Out CVBS + L/R audio
• Navigation: Built in GPS/AGPS
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM7201ATM (528MHz)
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile® 6.1 professional
• Battery: 1080mAh rechargeable Lithium-Polymer battery
• Talk: Up to 6 hours
• Standby: Up to 160 hours

Looking around the device

On the top of the ICE there is the power button and a mute button which switches the device from ring mode to vibrate mode.

Mobinnova ICE top view

On the left hand side is the miniUSB and not a lot else. Slightly in the wrong place again as with quite a few of the recent devices I have reviewed, not conducive to being able to hold easily when plugged in.

Mobinnova ICE left side

On the right there is the volume up/down rocker, unusual for it to be on the right and not seen before to my knowledge, there is also a customisable camera button and below that a MicroSD slot.

Mobinnova ICE right side

There is nothing on the bottom, apart from a tiny microphone hole.

The back on the device holds the 3 megapixel autofocus camera with dedicated shutter control, there is no flash or portrait mirror. Also you can find the rear speaker. As Matt mentioned there is also the back, slide off, cover which hides the completely useless reset button, why put this under the cover?

Mobinnova ICE back view

The front of the device is home to a whole host of goodies from the earpiece and VGA camera, down to the 3” WQVGA flat TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen, and also a second screen which I will cover in the review. Aside this secondary screen is the send/ end keys which are the only buttons to protrude through the flat shiny surface.

Mobinnova ICE front view

General

My first impression of the ICE are similar to that of Matt’s in that it is very Omnia looking and not unlike a certain apple phone either. It is long and slim, comparing it to the Omnia, which is 112x57x13mm, it is very slightly longer (2mm) with the same width and depth. It certainly dwarfs my Diamond which is a full centimetre shorter.

It is very sleek and smooth, for me a little too smooth and slippery. It is very pocketable and as you would expect a real shiny fingerprint magnet. That said it is responsive and positive in all aspects, such touching the screen and pressing the buttons.

I have to apologise here as I am not sure if this is a prototype or an import but all the instructions and user guides appear to be in Spanish! And there is no UK plug adaptor for the AC charger. Fortunately I managed to download the correct manual from their website. (Yes, I am that guy who reads the manuals!)

Highlights

• Very responsive
• Sharp clear screen
• Innovative UI

Lowlights

• Useless reset button
• Poor stylus
• No accelerometer
• For me, the secondary navigation screen
• On screen text size

Again as I mentioned in the Introduction, it is nice to see a company trying something different. With regard to the software this unit is Windows Mobile 6.1 professional and therefore familiar to most. The difference that I can see from normal are – World time which allows 5 or so, separate world time zones to be set and these can then be dragged to the today screen to suit. Weather World also allows 5 or so cities to be set for weather updates, unfortunately for the life of me I could not get this to function, OK for London and Taipei, but not my home town.

For some reason that I was unable to solve the ability to ‘add city’, the icon was greyed out and that was that.

A ‘Control Centre’ which houses a shortcut to settings. An FM radio. Mobifriends, this is a contact application which can be added to the ‘Today’ screen, I liked this and it is a novel twist on the normal contact apps, you can easily add favourite contacts and on selecting this contact, Mobifriends opens with the options to email, text, MMS, IM or video call.

MobiGPS downloads GPS information in the same way as QuickGPS and is customisable as to what schedule you prefer. Mobitoday launches the ‘Today’ screen pictured above. On top of these it is pretty standard with the likes of Office Mobile etc.

As Matt commented on besides the normal interface there is also a smaller bar that sits underneath the standard screen taking up some of the screen space, these accommodate shortcuts to Telephone, Applications, Mutimedia, Settings and Today. All nice to have as an added extra, but at the loss of screen real estate.

One small quirk here is that when you rotate the screen to landscape, these icons don’t rotate but remain in their portrait orientation, looks weird.

Whilst on the subject of Landscape, there is an accelerometer, but for most applications that I tried, switching between portrait to landscape is done thorough the manual settings option, only, the exception to this is in camera and pictures mode which automatically turns to landscape. Third party applications that I would expect to rotate simply didn’t, I even tried to install some of the Auto rotate programs that are about to no avail. It does state ‘Marketing Demo’ on the box so maybe not quite the finished article and I am sure will soon be worked around. I could not find any reference on how to adjust, tweak or activate this in any of the software.

At this point another gripe, the stylus is rubbish! It is too small even when pulled out to the full telescopic length, it is still just over 3 inches long and very narrow.

The small separate screen underneath the main 3” screen has 2 main functions, navigation and information. The first if these is the Navigation, a 5 way navigation pad as with a normal D-pad. In information mode it alerts you of things, in the way of different icons, like the battery charge status and message receipt etc when in standby. This is not the best, it is dimly lit and not that responsive, I feel that a smaller phone overall and the omission of this would be preferable, sorry.

The rest of the everyday functions work well, the call quality is good even at low signal strength, GPS works as expected, there is no bundled software, but Google maps looks great and the Qualcomm MSM7201ATM (528MHz) handles everything thrown at it with easy as we have seen in quite a few devices lately, it is fast and reliable. The camera is OK, at 3 megapixels it’s not the highest of spec, but it is functional. Battery life I found to be above average for this type of device, not great, just above average, a full day of normal/heavy use will finish it off.

Another point I don’t like is the size of the text on the screen, probably due to the 240 x 400 WQVGA, but even set on the highest available, it does not look right, it’s OK and readable but I have definitely seem better and would prefer a larger option with my failing eyesight. Thankfully the vibrating feedback on most screen touches aids poor old souls like me.

The phone keypad is also a bit naff as seen and with the addition of the above mentioned toolbar underneath it does make the screen very busy.

Unfortunately there seems to be more moans and groans about this device than positives, I don’t mean this to be the case, the Mobinnova ICE is more than capable, I think that for me I have highlighted the negatives as the rest the phone is fairly unremarkable, I do applaud Mobinnova for trying to be different, and I look forward to their partnership with Sony Ericsson, and can’t wait to see what they come up with in the way of the proposed Xperia 2.

I am positive that a lot of people will like the device and be happy with the design, use and overall functionality. For me there is nothing to make the ICE really standout from the rest, it looks as though it will be priced with the other average devices available, so you pay your money and make your choice. My opinion…. nice try but could try harder!?

Review by: Steve

[ Post Tags: Mobinnova ICE, Smartphone, Windows Mobile, unboxing video, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Sony Ericsson W980 review

As if the choice of Walkman phones from Sony Ericsson was not big and confusing enough, then be prepared as it may just get a whole lot harder to choose with the introduction of the Sony Ericsson W980.

The Sony Ericsson W980

What’s in the box?

• Sony Ericsson W980i Walkman
• Battery (BST-38)
• Charger (CST-70)
• USB Cable (DCU-60)
• Stereo Portable Handsfree (HPM-77)
• Sony Ericsson PC Suite
• Media Manager
• User guide

Have a  look at Matt’s Sony Ericsson W980 unboxing video for more.

Sony Ericsson W980 specification:

• Size:92.0 x 46.0 x 17.0 mm
• Weight: 100g
• Main Screen: 240 x 320 pixels – 2.2 inches
• External screen: 176 x 176 pixels
• Memory: 8GB Phone Memory – Stores up to 8000 songs (eAAC+ format)
• Networks: GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 & UMTS 2100
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.2x digital zoom
  – Picture blogging
  – Video blogging
  – Video recording with 4x digital zoom
  – Photo fix
  – Auto rotate
  – x-Pict Story™
  – PictBridge printing
• Music: Walkman® player
  – Clear stereo
  – Clear bass
  – Album art
  – FM transmitter
  – Shake control
  – SensMe™
  – PlayNow™
  – TrackID™
  – Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Internet: RSS feeds, Access NetFront™ Web Browser
• Entertainment: Music tones (MP3/AAC), 3D games, Java™, FM radio with RDS
• Connectivity: Bluetooth™ technology, Modem, Synchronization
• Messaging: Email, MMS (Multimedia Messaging)

General

The W980 certainly sets itself apart from the rest of the Sony Ericsson Walkman range in that it is only one of two clamshell Walkman devices. However looks are only skin deep so does the W980 stand out in a range already full of feature filled, stylish & practical mobile phones.

As I mentioned earlier the W980 is only the second Clamshell, flip phone in the Walkman range with some some cool features, the front when closed is home to a number of touch buttons allowing you to access the phones multimedia functions without opening the device. If you are wondering what the clear strip at the bottom of the device is, it is a ‘light bar’ which flashes orange along to the music.

Sony Ericsson W980

When opened the device shows off its glossy black finish, with its well spaced, well sized numerical keys, above which are the navigational buttons, A central menu and select button is surrounded by the directional controls, with the call buttons either side and shortcut keys for accessing contacts, messages, media controls etc.

Sony Ericsson W980 keypad

The right side of the phone similar to other Sony Ericsson Walkman devices houses a lock slider for locking the device when not in use, next to this is a quick access key and finally there is a two way volume control button. Another interesting addition to the W980 is a stereo speaker located just below the lock slider.

W980 right side

The left side of the phone is rather bare, button wise however it does house the familiar and rather large Sony Ericsson proprietary connector and also another stereo speaker the same seen on the right side of the device.

W980 left side

Highlights & Lowlights
+ Good Connectivity
+ 8GB In-built memory
– No additional memory support
– Lack Of Camera Flash

Review

So another day another addition to the Sony Ericsson Walkman range, so what does the W980 have to make it any more appealing than the other great devices currently available in this ever growing range.

Well as it is the first thing you will notice about the W980 lets start with its appearance, as I mentioned earlier the W980 is only the second clamshell device in the Walkman range and it is a style which in the past I have liked however the problem with the W980 is as anyone with a glossy HDTV or Playstation 3 will tell you that piano black = dirt, scratches and a general pain to maintain. However that said I do think the W980 has a certain quirky appeal and actually has distinctive retro styling, which may not be to everyone taste. The W980 feels pretty light while reaming fairly sturdy and robust.

As for Using the on a day to day basis, that is exactly what I have been doing for the past week or so and I have to say as with all the Sony Ericsson phones I have experienced the W980 certainly continues with the simple navigation menu layout which will be familiar to any current or previous Sony Ericsson users. The simple menu allows for easy access to the phones features whether it be multimedia or messaging. The touch display on the front of the device is also simple to use and a useful addition for quick access to music and to launch the FM radio.

The phone has a 3.2 mega pixel camera packed in and although not fantastic the quality of the camera is surprisingly good compared to other Walkman phones, however the lack of a flash or even an LED is a disappointment, video recording is also supported but the quality is nothing to write home about but OK for capturing those spur of the moment situations.

Featuring the letter W in the devices name is key to how Sony Ericsson market there Walkman phones, so incase you had not guessed the W980 is a Walkman phone, but can it rival others in the market and maybe more importantly for Sony Ericsson can it really challenge a dedicated MP3 player. Well first of all a good news bad news situation, the good news is the W980 comes with 8GB of internal memory straight from the box for you to fill it up with all your favourite media however when you have filled it up I’m afraid that is it, the bad news being then that the W980 has no support for additional memory which is not as big a disappointment as it would be if the internal memory was any smaller however given that Sony Ericsson are attempting to take on dedicated MP3 players with memories of over double that of the W980. That said 8GB is not a bad size and still allows for many of your multimedia files of which the W980 supports many, MP3; ACC; ACC+; eAAC+; WMA; protected WMA; WAV. All files are easy to find whether it be through the phones menu screen on the touch screen navigation on the front of the device. The FM radio is another little feature which has been included on a number of Walkman phones and one that is always a great one to have.

Features & connectivity wise the W980 are certainly acceptable but not fantastic, Bluetooth is of course included and is always useful for a Walkman phone with file transfers etc. A problem I have had with Sony Ericsson phones in the past and the W980 continues this trend is the size and position of the proprietary connector, the fact it is on the side of the phone does lead to the phone being less comfortable in your pocket , although a small issue for many if at all I do think it would make more sense to locate it on the top or bottom of the device or introduce a standard headphone jack. The features of the phone besides the obvious multimedia capabilities include the standard games etc. include the Walkman features such Video DJ, Music DJ & Photo DJ, as well as the extremely useful track ID. Battery life is quoted at 210 minutes talk time and 300 hours standby which is not fantastic but as with any mobile this will vary depending on the use of the phone.

Conclusion

Overall the W980 from Sony Ericsson is a decent addition to the Walkman range with a number of features and functions it is a great phone for music lovers. Despite this there is little to set it apart from its competition and indeed the other Walkman phones in the range. The lack of support for external memory is certainly a disadvantage when trying to compete with dedicated MP3 players. I imagine given the somewhat limited memory of the W980 it may put hardcore music lovers off however as I said 8GB is certainly not a bad memory and will surely be plenty for many to store all their tracks and multimedia files, making it a perfect mobile for younger music fans or indeed those looking for an all round multimedia led device.

Review by: Nick

[ Post Tags: Sony Ericsson, W980, Walkman Phone, feature phone, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Nokia N79 review

You may have seen my Nokia N85 review recently. The N79 and N85 are basically the same phone in different cases. The N79 is a mono block phone; the N85 is a Dual Slider. The two of them came to us as pair to review, so rather than simply repeat ourselves here we thought we would highlight the differences for you. And since they are built on the latest Nokia S60 Operating System, in this review we look at the advanced email connectivity in a bit more depth.

The Nokia N79

Unless mentioned below the Nokia N85 and Nokia N79 specifications are the same:

The main differences between the two are:

• N79 is a Mono Block / Bar phone, the N85 a Dual Slider
• N79 supplied with 4Gb MicroSD, the N85 supplied with 8Gb MicroSD
• N79 supplied with 3 different coloured back plates.
• N79 not supplied with TV Out Cables.
• N85 has dedicated buttons for Media Player/ Game Play.
• N79 has a standard backlit screen, not OLED.

What’s in the box?

The phone, a 4Gb MicroSD card. Mains charger, USB data cable. Ear phones, wired remote controller for the MP3 player. Manuals, software DVD, and an Activation code to enable one Trial game to the full game. Blue, green and bronze Xpress-on smart covers. Check out Matt’s Nokia N79 unboxing video for more information.

Nokia N79 Specification:

• Dimensions: – 110 x 49 x 15mm
• Weight: 97g
• Battery: – Talk Time: 330 mins
  – Standby Time: 406 hrs
  – Music Playback: 29 hrs
  – Video Playback: 264 mins
  – Capacity: 1200 mAh
• Display: – 240 x 320 pixels/2.4 inch (Main)
• Network: – GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
  – WCDMA: 900/2100 HSDPA (Dual-Band)
• Camera: – 5 mega-pixels (auto-focus) (Main)
  – 0.3 mega-pixels (Secondary)
  – 20 x Digital Zoom
  – Dual LED Flash
  – Red Eye Reduction
  – Geo Tagging
• Video: – Hi-Resolution VGA Video Recording
  – 30fps Video Recording
  – 8 x Digital Zoom
  – Video Light
• Music: – Supported formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ & WMA
  – FM Stereo Radio
  – Visual Radio
  – Nokia Music Store
  – Nokia Podcast Support
  – Nokia Music Manager Support
  – Windows Media Player Sync
  – 3D Effect Stereo Speakers
• Ringtones: – Monophonic
  – Polyphonic (64)
  – MP3
  – AAC
  – Talking Ringtones
  – Video Ringtones
• Messaging: – SMS
  – MMS (with video)
  – E-mail (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange)
• Memory: – Phone Book (unlimited)
  – Dialled Calls (30)
  – Missed Calls (30)
  – Received Calls (30)
  – 50MB (internal)
  – microSDHC (external)
• Connectivity: – microUSB
  – Nokia 3.5mm AV connector
  – Bluetooth (2.0)
  – Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
  – GPRS Class 32
  – HSDPA (3.6 Mbits)
• Navigation: – AGPS

Full specification can be found on the Nokia website.

General

On the front the N79 has the standard 12 key phone pad plus 7 function buttons and the Nokia NaviWheel.

Nokia N79 front view

On the left side a mini Nokia charging socket and a cover protecting the memory card slot and MicroUSB socket.

Nokia N79 left side

On the right side, speaker grills, volume control and camera button.

Nokia N79 right side

On the top the power button, a manual slide to enable and disable the keyboard lock and a multifunction 3.5mm socket that accepts standard stereo headphones or Nokia’s remote control (supplied) or the Nokia TV Out cable (not supplied).

Nokia N79 top view

On the back the 5Mpixel camera and the twin LED flash/video light. The whole back cover removes to change the battery and fit the Sim.

Nokia N79 back view

Which to choose?

It’s really personal preference here. Both phones are nicely made and look great. The N79 has different coloured back plates which also automatically change the colour of the display theme, so if you fit a green back cover, a little connection on the cover sets the phones display theme to a mostly green style to match, some people will love this, some people will just think it’s a nuisance to keep extra bits of phone around the house… I liked the red one, but it wasn’t supplied with our test phone. It is possible to buy a red or silver one separately from Nokia’s website.

The N85 certainly looks dark and impressive when closed and the extra few Media Player buttons helped when using it as a MP3 player, but despite the slick lines of the N85, personally I preferred the simplicity of the mono block N79 over the Dual Slide action.

Price difference? Web prices for the N79 are about £20 less than the N85, but the N79 has a smaller Memory card, a standard backlit screen rather than the N85’s OLED and doesn’t ship with a TV Out cable.

Review

These phones aren’t just pretty fashion items; they really are advanced pieces of engineering. The S60 Operating system is common to the N96 flagship model and even the N97 Communicator. So the GPS receiver is an Assisted Global Satellite Positioning receiver (AGPS) meaning it’s integrated with the phones internet connectivity to give faster response and more features to the Mapping software. The N-Gage games can network with other players over the internet. The phone itself and many of its applications can update with bug fixes and or new features directly from the Nokia website.

All very good! But for me, I was interested to see what it could do with email. I send and receive a lot of email, and these days most of it from my phone. In my computer support role I have seen many people moving to mobile email in one form or another. It’s clear, as devices improve and data charges fall that this trend will escalate in the coming months. Currently though I see comparatively few Nokia phones used for remote email, strange as years back it was Nokia that first wowed us with the early Communicators and their fold up QWERTY keyboards. I still have one somewhere.

The N79 (and N85) support POP and IMAP email which are the basic email account formats. They don’t (yet) support HTML email, like Hotmail and Yahoo. Though Yahoo may have a POP option for a few pounds a year. I couldn’t see a Blackberry client either; some non Blackberry phones have a software upgrade to allow use with the Blackberry email system. The other main email format is Microsoft’s Exchange Push Email which works like a Blackberry, keeping a synchronised copy of your work emails, contacts and calendar on your phone. When you update (or add) a contact on your phone it instantly and seamlessly updates your office Outlook address book. It works the other way around too and with your email and calendar entries. For people that work out of the office this quickly becomes an essential communication and management tool.

Nokia also provide two other ways of managing and synchronising phone data, the first is Nokia PC Suite which allows transfers by USB cable or Bluetooth. This software’s good and integrates with Outlook well, the limitation is that your phone and PC must be relatively close to each other.

Recently Nokia have introduced OVI, again a system for personal users that synchronises email and contact information, but this time “Over The Air” (the mobile phone network) in a similar way to the Direct Push or Blackberry services.

I didn’t test the OVI system as it’s only a few weeks out of Beta testing, and when I spoke with Nokia engineers there were enough ums, errs and pauses to tell me to wait a while until it matures J

I didn’t test the POP or IMAP setup either as they are simple enough to expect them to work first time.

So Exchange support! The phone doesn’t ship with the Exchange Direct Push software; it’s a free download from Nokia. I downloaded mine directly through the phones web browser, and it was installed in minutes. No problem there. Then into the Exchange setup. You would need information from your business technical support department at this stage, or the hosting company if you are using a third party Hosted Exchange setup. Armed with this though a reasonably competent end use should be able to setup their own phone. You may also need to install a SSL Security Certificate (a small file), again not really difficult, your office tech support would supply it, then just copy to the phone by a USB connection or onto the MicroSD card, and double click from the phones file manager to install.

Once that’s all entered you should see all your Contacts start synchronising, followed by the last 3 days of emails and your Calendar entries.

I had a glitch at this point in that I had to manually allow the synchronisation each and every time it checked for emails. I had a quick chat with Nokia’s first line support, although they wouldn’t let me talk directly to the Exchange trained support team they did ask questions for me and then offer to check my Certificate settings if I cared to send it in. As this was for review purposes I declined. But that’s not bad response for free support these days.

Having got my phone syncing how did it fare? The phone remained responsive enough even with a few thousand Contacts downloaded into main memory. However it only brought the first few lines of the Notes fields over, other systems will bring half a page of text at least. And although the screen was very sharp and high definition, the text size remained so large that reading emails or even long email addresses was a tedious process of scrolling backwards and forwards.

Conclusion

Nice phone. Clever phone. If I didn’t use a lot of mobile email I would look seriously at one myself. Though the N85 seems slightly better value given the higher spec screen and the extras.

The phone and its Direct Push software did what is said on the label, but the text to screen ratio and absence of a QWERTY keyboard or touch screen made it too cumbersome for practical email use, in my opinion. Nokia’s N97 Communicator no doubt overcomes this problem, but is quite a lump compared to other offerings out there.

Dear Nokia Wish list: How about a N85 device with a slide out QWERTY?

Review by: Daniel des Baux

[ Post Tags: Nokia, N79, Symbian, smartphone news, reviews, unboxing video, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Apple iPhone 3G review

The iPhone. You may have heard about it!?

INTRODUCTION

Here at TracyandMatt, we’re always quick on the uptake, so wasted no time getting o2 to send us an iPhone. Hmm. Anyway, here it is, and I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by the added features. It’s not a major leap forward, but is their enough to warrant an upgrade?

The Apple iPhone 3G

What’s in the Box?

I’ll not go into too much detail but in summary, it’s typical Apple. By typical Apple, I do of course mean that plenty of effort has been put into making the entire product, including the packaging, a design marvel. OK – it’s a box, but it sure looks nice.

GENERAL

So, a little history lesson. iPhone was released 29^th June 2007 in the USA, and worldwide launches followed soon after. The iPhone 3G was released July 11^th 2008 with a lower pricing structure, and more features.

I reviewed the original iPhone for TracyandMatt around a year ago and tried to cut through all the promotional stuff associated with it, and find out if it was any good. It was.

So to the iPhone 3G. At 115.5mm x 62.1mm x 12.3mm, its slightly bigger than its predecessor, but doesn’t really feel it. The black plastic back is actually an improvement over the scratch-happy shiny metal finish. As it’s curved, in the hand the 3G variant feels smaller with no noticeable difference in weight either.

Little has changed design-wise, but we’ll start with the usual tour around the device. The front is still taken over by the excellent widescreen display, which when turned off, appears as a complete blank surface. At the top there is the speaker/earpiece, and at the bottom the single ‘home’ button takes its customary place, just like the original.

iPhone 3G front view

The back of the phone, as I’ve stated already, is in black plastic, with a silver apple logo, and iphone designations. The 2mp camera is also in the same place – top left.

iPhone 3G back view

Things changed a little when we take a look at the top of the iPhone. The main silver power button is similar, as is the sim card slot, but there is now a none-recessed 3.5 earphone jack – woo!

iPhone 3G top view

On the bottom of the hand set you’ll find Apple’s proprietary sync/charge cable socket. This is exactly the same as the previous iPhone and other iPod products. Either side we have a loudspeaker which plays audio when then headphones are not connected.

iPhone 3G bottom view

The left hand side of the device has a toggle switch at the top – used to turn vibrate mode on and off. Below that we have some VERY welcome hardware volume controls – a rocker switch system which works very well.

iPhone 3G left side view

iPhone 3G right side view

SOFTWARE

In truth, outside of standard firmware updates, small improvements etc, there isn’t a lot added in terms of standard software.

The first row of apps – SMS, Calendar, Photos and Camera are all pretty much identical to the original iPhone release, and the same goes for the YouTube and stocks apps. Maps – powered by google, has probably seen the most change, and now supports the new built in GPS module, as well as traffic information where available, and Street View.

Continuing through the menu – with the Clock app, Calculator and Notes all seeing little change. The settings area again has seen minor changes, but the App Store is where the real excitement happens. While it may have its faults, the App Store is the new gateway to ‘real’ software on your iPhone. Bye Bye web-apps? I hope so.

I could spend all day talking about the useful software available in the App Store, it is huge. I found a (London) tube status program MASSIVELY useful on a trip to the capital, and the National Rail Enquires application is also a must-have for the traveller!

You’ll also find a large supply of free and paid-for games, and the most poinless-yet-genius app yet – iPint.

Highlights:

• 3G – Yes it should have been there in the first place, but ignoring that, it’s a must have.
• GPS – I could just repeat myself – but at least its here now. Seems to work well enough in Google Maps, and ‘local’ apps.
• It’s an iPhone – As John stated in his HD Touch review, whether other phones are better or not, you still get to tell people you have an iPhone.
• App Store – Its simple, quick, and fairly cheap. Possible the best install experience of any device. Ever.

Lowlights:

• Battery Life – its still not quite enough. I have a background of using really terrible early Windows Mobile Smartphones, and I don’t mind charging every night. But these days… surely Apple can do better than this?
• It’s an iPhone – No not a copy and paste mistake, but you are locked to Apple, to what they want to allow you to install. Well… unless you are extremely naughty and break it out of jail!

REVIEW

I have to admit I was pretty impressed with the original iPhone, despite being of a Windows Mobile background. Apple are truly masters of the UI experience, and the iPhone OS’ look and feel is unchanged from the original. The new plastic back panel could have ended up looking cheap, but Apple have in fact improved on the original instead. The iPhone still looks expensive, still feels well built and still attracts attention from friends/colleagues when you feel like showing off (with a review device you don’t own perhaps!)

At first glance, besides the minor handware mods, you might think there isn’t a lot to see here over the original, but you’d perhaps be wrong. 3G and GPS are features that many people would say should have been on the EDGE iPhone, but that could well be said about phones released by Nokia and HTC. The GPS chip was reported early on as being very weak, but in my experience was pretty reliable. I don’t know whether this is down to a software update since launch, but I really can’t complain at all.

The 3G is interesting. Unfortunately in most of my experiences, I felt the iPhone was still pretty slow to download webpages, despite having a seemingly stable 3G connection. My Nokia N95 8GB sat next to the iPhone was much quicker. I’m not sure why this was the case – or whether it was a fault. On wifi I saw no such slowdown, and struggle to explain why I struggled on 3G.

The major software upgrade on the iPhone 3G, or rather software version 2 for both 3G and original, is the App Store.

The App Store is effectively a new area of the itunes store, just like Music, Videos, TV Progammes etc. Apps are downloaded for free, or paid for, on the same apple ID account that you use for other areas, and if you have credit card details saved, you can quickly download applications on the device. You can also run up a nice bill!

Despite this being a review device, I put my hand in my pocket and took one for the tracyandmatt team in order to test the whole process. As I already have an apple ID, I started up the app store client onboard the iPhone 3G and quickly found a sort-of-but-not-for-legal-reasons Mario Kart clone. I think the whole game was around £1.29, which seemed reasonable when you consider the cost of java games on other platforms. I was asked for my password, and the app started downloading – literally onto the main menu screen. A progress bar appears on the menu icon, and when complete, the icon becomes coloured and the process is complete. Tapping the icon launches the game like any other app.

It’s a shame that Apple couldn’t have improved some of the existing apps though. SMS is still threaded, which is nice, but it’s also still extremely limited. No MMS, no copy/paste and no forwarding etc. It’s a nice experience, but needs more options and features – and fast.

The onscreen keyboard is identical to that of the original software, which works well enough, but is a little bit squashed – and hard work if you are typing out an email or text in a rush.

The landscape does make an appearance within the Safari browser – and it’s a revelation. I found myself able to type much much quicker, and with a lot more reliability. Please Apple – allow us to use the landscape keyboard in the email and SMS applications. There is a free application available on the app store that allows a user to type out a message with the landscape keyboard, and then copy it into the mail app to send. A useful workaround, but this is really something Apple need to get on top of, and give users a proper solution.

As an iPod, it’s still the best you can buy – barring storage space issues. The screen is still lovely, and for playing video’s its pretty much unbeatable. The new built in speaker actually performs quite well – especially for listening to online radio where quality is not always great anyway. It’s also great for playing this weeks favourite track to mates etc. Compared to other ‘loudspeaker’ options its very good – which is amazing considering the size of the iPhone vs, for example, the N95 with its stereo speakers.

CONCLUSION

In summary – I love this, like I loved the original. I’m a sucker for design, but I need usability as well – which is why (and I can hear the abuse already) – I don’t like mac’s. However the iPhone has both in buckets, and when my contract expires in a few months time I have a tricky decision – iPhone 3G or HD Touch.

The iPhone 3G is most definitely the most desirable, and probably the most polished. The HD Touch though fixes nearly all the items on my missing-from-iphone list. It’s a tricky one, but there is no doubt in my mind – the iPhone 3G is a great phone, and a good update. I await this years iPhone HD(!?) with interest.

Review by: Mark

O2 XDA Zest review

New on the scene and the latest in the XDA range, we find the XDA O2 Zest. Can it live up to O2 claim that ‘The Xda Zest is a sleek, slim and stylish phone bursting with friendly features.’?

Firstly this is not one of the much followed and much awaited new devices, if fact I had never heard of it until that regular contact where Matt is looking for a review to be done. This is one of the only XDA type devices not to be made by HTC, being a derivative of the Asus Galaxy 7.

The O2 XDA Zest

I have been playing with the Zest for a week or so now, and these are my thoughts so far…

First looking inside the neat looking and unusually tidy box you’ll find:

• the O2 XDA Zest
• A spare stylus
• A three part AC adaptor
• USB to mini USB cable to sync and charge, also used with the above adaptor
• A stereo headset with mini use connector
• An unusual ‘Y- cable’
• A quick start guide and CD, warranty card
• Included in this test unit, the optional Co-pilot micro card and SD adaptor 14 day trial.

The AC adaptor and ‘Y – cable I will cover shortly.

O2 XDA Zest specification:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• Marvell TavorP 624MHz processor
• Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• UMTS/HSDPA
• 2.8” 65K TFT VGA 480X640
• 3 Megapixel camera
• 256 MB Flash Memory ROM
• 128 MB SDRAM
• MicroSD slot (up to 32GB support)
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• GPS
• 1300 mAh Battery
• 102×60.5×16.5mm

GENERAL

Taking a wander around the Zest on the top there is the power button and the housing for the non telescopic stylus.

XDA Zest top view

The left hand side is the home to a covered external GPS connector, and a single button, up and down volume rocker

XDA Zest left side

On the right hand side is a dedicated camera button and also a screen and manual key lock switch.

XDA Zest right side

The bottom of the Zest there is only the miniUSB connector, reset hole and strap holder,

XDA Zest bottom view

Around the back the simplicity continues with only the 3 Megapixel camera and speaker slot,

XDA Zest back view

And finally on the business end of the phone is, from top to bottom, an LED indicator light next to the front facing VGA camera for video calling etc., the earpiece and the 2.8” flush screen.

XDA Zest front view

Below which is 4 illuminated, when touched buttons, one for the Start menu, one ‘OK’ and the normal green send and red end keys. In the middle of which is housed the up/down/left/right directional, navigation key and enter key.

The device itself is unusual, in that it is very shiny, very black and very plastic. At first it feels quite nice to the touch and the metal accents set it off quite nicely, however after a very short amount of time you realise that it is slightly too wide, as well as slightly too thick and therefore makes it uncomfortable to hold. When set against my Diamond it is slightly shorter, nearly 10mm wider, and 5mm thicker. To me it does look dumpy and squat, yet thick and chunky, not the best start.

Highlights

• Sharp clear screen
• Very quick and responsive
• Very stable
• Good camera
• Loaded with user features

Lowlights

• Uncomfortable to hold and use
• Poor sound quality
• Over complicated

Software

I will try and explain my highlights and lowlights here, they do contradict themselves, for the reason that, if you are used to Window Mobile and SpB Mobile shell, this device has the lot, well at least O2’s customised versions. The highlight is that it gives you loads of choice in the way of ‘Today’ and other screens, the downside or lowlight is that for me it completely overcomplicates the issue. I may have been missing something but deciding to rotate the screen to use the Sat Nav turned into a 5 minute ordeal flicking through menus to find out how to do this and when I did finally get the hang of it, you can only turn 90 degrees clockwise and then back again not left hand/right hand. I use my phones with the buttons on the right when in landscape, as I am right handed, not on this phone not an option without adaptations.

That said there are is plethora of menus, sub-menus to keep you entertained, if you are new to windows mobile, I think this phone could well put you off in terms of its complexity.

Software wise it is pretty standard 6.1 with the addition of O2’s menus.

Pick a screen any screen…..

The included 14 day trial of CoPilot 7 worked well and showed off the capability of the sharp clear screen and the very capable processor.

Review

This device for me has been one of the hardest one to review, not knowing a lot about it in the first place and not having chance to get used to it beforehand, it has proved to be very good in some areas and not that good in others.

As already mentioned the screen is a major plus point the 480×640 is a gem, I did find though, that despite being calibrated, I quite often missed the lines I was trying to tap and ended up hitting the line above. At first I thought it was me, but as it happened regularly and despite recalibrating more than once, I conclude it could be down to the appearance of a decent gap between the actual screen and the screen covering. The camera is pretty good and has to be considered better than average in its sector, and I must admit it got better when I realised that it has a small plastic lens protector in place, underneath the cover, when sent, so don’t forget to take it off!

I really like the screen lock switch that shuts the phone down, having been used to this on my Asus P526; I really don’t know why more devices don’t include this as standard, so no accidental button presses or call answering here, as the phone is locked down completely. One really small point here is that, for me, although I do like this feature it is slightly too close to the stylus housing and quite often while trying to remove the stylus, without looking, found I was trying to pull out the switch instead, but a nice inclusion anyway.

The charger is a slightly strange affair, I think it might have been a slow day in the design office when they dreamt this up, it is made up of a block into which you insert the miniUSB cable, and then attach one of the 2 regional plug adaptors which have fold out terminals, very strange, I can’t help think they have been over designed and if done to save space, have failed. What’s wrong with a standard wall charger?

The next anomaly for the Zest is the inclusion of the ‘Y – cable’ this connects to the miniUSB port on the bottom of the unit and acts as a splitter to allow connection of both charge/sync cable as well as the headset. I have not seen this before and although I get the idea and can see why it have been included, I remain unconvinced, it is a good idea, but surely a simpler solution would be to include a 3.5mm socket instead, the Zest is certainly thick enough to house one!

The processor is great, it is an unheard of Marvell TavorP 624MHz, which works very well and definitely one of the better ones about, it certainly pack a punch in delivering speed. The phone I also found to be software stable, it is only while writing this that I realised I have not reset the Zest, at all, since I have been playing with it.

The gripes I have with the XDA is that the battery is not fantastic, it tends to drain quite freely, lasting about a day with moderate use, less with heavy use. It reminds me of the diamond, and this is neither devices’ best feature.

The calls quality, I found also, was not great, the speakers either internal or loud sounded crackly and not at all pleasant, it does get better with a good and clear reception, but in bad conditions it did not fare well at all, one of the worst I have heard for a long time, maybe particular to this test device though?

Conclusion

I have to admit and you can probably tell this is not one of my favourite devices that I have tested over the last few years, it has the potential to be very good and hopefully I have highlighted some really strong plus points. Overall, for me, the strange, uncomfortable size and the negatives, mentioned already, outweigh the positives, and for that reason this is not on my Xmas list.

Don’t get me wrong, it is quick, stable, and full featured, and hopefully the faults that I found are test device specific. The overall spec and screen coupled with that processor do make it very good value for money. Just not for me.

Review by: Steve

Nokia N85 review

At first glance the Nokia N85 looks like a smaller brother to the N96. In most of the important areas it is, so should you choose the N85 over the N96?

The Nokia N85

The N85 is a superbly made dual slider phone. From the phones packaging Nokia’s main sales pitch is a serious games device – with a phone built in. And it is – with games specially adapted from leading game publisher EA Games. Coupled with a bright OLED screen and dedicated game controls. However it also sports voice assisted A-GPS Satellite Navigation, a state of the art 5Mpix Still camera with Carl Zeiss optics. Video capture at DVD quality 30 frames per second. Supplied in the box are Audio/Video cables to allow game play or picture and video playback through your TV or projector. Email and WWW support via WLAN or 3.5G HSDPA through your mobile phone provider. And if that wasn’t enough a simple to use MP3 / MP4 player. The main difference between the N96 and N85 is simply less onboard memory, but with 8Gb MicroSD as standard, the more pocket-able size of the N85 is certainly going to draw converts.

What’s in the box?

The phone, a generous 8gb MicroSD card. Mains charger, USB data / charging cable. Ear phones, wired remote controller for the MP3 player. A 3.5mm to Phono cable for TV out. Manuals, software DVD, and an Activation code to enable one Trial game to the full game. Check out Matt’s Nokia N85 unboxing video for more information.

Nokia N85 Specification:

• Form: Two-way slider
• Dimensions: 103x50x16.0mm
• Weight: 128 g
• Volume: 76 cc
• Display Size: 2.6"
• Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
• Up to 16.7 million colors
• Active Matrix OLED technology
• Numeric keypad Cover keys (S60 keys, Multimedia key, Send/end keys) Short slide keys (media control/zoom/gaming) Navi™wheel
• Dedicated media/zoom/game keys
• Dedicated camera and volume keysCover keys
• Multimedia key
• Navi™Wheel
• Voice commands
• Intelligent key illumination
• Micro-USB connector with mass storage class support, High-Speed USB 2.0
• 3.5 mm AV connector
• BL-5K 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Talk time (maximum):
  – GSM 6.9 h
  – WCDMA 4.5 h
  -VoiP 9 h
• Standby time (maximum):
  – GSM 363 h
  – WCDMA 363 h
  – WLAN 172 h
• Browsing time with packet data (maximum): 5 h 42 min
• Video playback time (maximum): 7 h
• Video recording time (maximum): 2 h 54 min
• Video call time (maximum): 2 h 42 min
• Music playback time (maximum): 30 h
• Gaming time (maximum): 7 h
• microSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 8 GB
• 74 MB internal dynamic memory
• 78 MB internal NAND flash memory

For the full spec see http://europe.nokia.com/support/products/n85/specifications

General:

On the face of the phone are 8 buttons and the Nokia NaviWheel.

Nokia N85 front view

On the top the power button a 3.5mm socket that doubles as a standard 3 pin headphone socket (very welcome) and the 4 pin TV out socket. Next to that the Micro USB charger / data connector. Its encouraging to see Nokia standardising on the Micro USB charging plug as this will soon mean most mobile phones chargers will be interchangeable. Eventually they would not even need to be shipped with new phones.

Nokia N85 top view

On the left side is a lanyard loop and the MicroSd card slot.

Nokia N85 left side

On the right side stereo speaker grills, volume control, a slide button to lock/unlock the keys and the camera button.

Nokia N85 right side

On the back the slide cover for the 5Mpixel lens and twin LED lights for flash or video lighting. The back cover unclips to access the battery and Sim card.

Nokia N85 back view

Review

This phone is known as a dual slider, that’s to say the top half of the phone slides up, and down to reveal various controls. Sliding either way automatically unlocks the keypads. Sliding the face up reveals a conventional 12 key phone pad, which was quite adequate and pleasant enough to use. By default sliding answers and ends voice calls. Sliding down reveals 4 keys that double as media player controls or dedicated gaming controls, depending upon the program running.

The top face and key pads are gloss black with a flush screen giving a very smart look. While the sides and back are finished in chocolate bronze.

If enabled the Orientation Sensor will auto rotate the screen to landscape mode and back simply when it senses the phone turned in ones palm. This feature works well enough to be kept turned on.

Nokia NaviWheel was disabled by default, when we turned it on we found out why, it was too temperamental to be of any use plus it has limited functionality compared to the standard 4 way control. Interestingly the NaviWheel on the N79 we are reviewing works much more responsively.

nGage gaming:

If playing games is your thing you are going to love this phone. It’s not a PlayStation or an Xbox, but it is far advanced from most mobiles phone games. Very playable with bright clear 3D graphics. FIFA 08, Asphalt3 Street Rules, and Brain Challenge are just some of the games pre-installed for you to try. More are available for download. One activation code is supplied in the box which allows you to fully licence any one of the games.

The supplied TV out cable simply plugs in to the Video and Audio sockets commonly found on many TVs or projectors and allows the play back on both the phone screen and the TV at the same time. Sound is also piped through the TV sound system.

The quality looks a bit fragmented at large resolution, especially on a 42” LCD, but it’s still quite playable. Likewise videos and photos can be shared on the large screen.

See www.ngage.com for specific games information.

The games are cheaper than major console games but seem to be locked to the phone – not a user account. So loosing or upgrading your phone means you will need to buy them all over again. This is similar to buying a DVD and only being allowed to play it on one player, ever. It seems Nokia have shot themselves in the foot with this one, as people actually like to collect things, DVDs, games etc. but if they know the game will expire along with their annual phone contract, they may think twice before buying. My guess is Nokia have realised but are unable to change the licensing at this stage. A better solution would be Apples model where music and films are licensed to a user account.

FM Transmitter – Pre set one of your radio stations to match the N85 and playing your favourite tunes in the car is a breeze.
I like this feature. Because while I know I can burn my music to CDs for the car or put them on USB sticks etc etc In reality I only ever get around to syncing music with my phone, and only because I plug it into the PC for various other reasons. So it was great, with just a few buttons clicks, to switch the Media player on the phone to transmit my sounds straight to the car stereo via the FM radio. It also means if I’m travelling in a friend’s car, (who may not have my great taste in music) in seconds I can simply tune their radio to 107.9FM (or whatever I have set the N85 to) and we can cruise in the groove. Sound quality was very good with my car setup, better than standard radio quality. But I did have to find a place on the dash where the reception was crackle free – I have found this with all FM transmitters I have used (on iPods and MP3 players), I think it’s because the transmitter is so close to the car aerial.

It also works just as well with home HiFi’s.

Camera:

Forget the Megapixels, Nokia cameras were notoriously poor a few years back. Any camera expert will tell you that it’s all in the lens, hence to up their reputation they invested in branded Carl Zeiss optics and Tessar™ lenses, this model performed as well as any Sony Ericson I have tried before.

I also think N85’s 5Megapixel CMOS is plenty – until larger lenses are fitted to phones there doesn’t seem much point in 8Mp other than larger files sizes.

It has 2 very bright LEDs which act as flash for the camera and light for the video. Overall it works very well. Easy to switch on/off and between still and video mode. The video is not going to give you the same results you get from a dedicated video camera but it is good enough to capture memories to treasure. As with many phone cameras it was a little slow in low light, resulting in quite a few blurred images, still you can always take more with 8Gb memory to play with.

aGPS

The built in A-GPS (Assisted – Global Positioning Satellite receiver) receiver works well with the supplied Nokia Maps. A 3 month trial of the voice assistance is included. There are also options to purchase traffic congestion and speed camera alerts. Many of you will also download and install Google Maps which also works well with it.

Email support:

As standard the N85 supports POP3 email. It will also support Microsoft Exchange Push Email by downloading the Mail for Exchange client from Nokia.com. Although personally, I feel any phone bought for serious email support should have a qwerty keyboard of some description, I also know many people who find Exchange support really useful as it gives them the ability to monitor their business emails real time, plus a live copy of their office Contact list and Calendar. So adding a new contact or appointment in their phone instantaneously updates their business Outlook and vice versa. The data is synchronised over the air (OTA) via the mobile phone network. This is very useful but requires a data charge from the mobile provider. Data charges are also incurred with A-GPS, so this type of phone really needs a prepaid data tariff of some kind.

OLED Screen:

The N85’s screen is 320×240 pixel resolution which is fine for a screen size of 2.6inch. It is also extremely bright and clear due to the high contrast Active Matrix OLED (Organic LED) display. OLED is the latest screen technology providing excellent picture quality with lower power consumption, in a few years all TV screens will use this technology, currently though it’s far too expensive to produce in larger sizes.

Highlights

• Full featured phone
• Excellent display and graphics
• Small size
• Well made

Lowlights

• Questionable licensing of games
• No qwerty keyboard
• Slow camera in low light

Conclusion

This little power packed Nokia has a lot going for it. Even though I struggle without a qwerty keyboard I have warmed to it in the last few weeks. Its small size has got me hooked. It’s a well made and satisfying to use device.

As a entertainment phone its definitely a serious contender. Coupled with the reasonable camera, Satellite Navigation and Exchange Push Email support it can easily satisfy today’s most demanding user.

If you need the features but don’t want to lug around a house brick, this could be the phone for you.

Review by: Daniel

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