Reviews

HTC Magic review

Can it really be a year ago today that I sat down and penned my 1^st review of the revolutionary new Google Android operating system that was showcased on the all new T-mobile G1? In conclusion I really liked the G1 and was impressed with OS more than the design and function of the device itself.

Now that Vodafone has jumped in on the act and released the exclusive HTC Magic, will it live up to my expectations and prove to be a competitor for that Apple phone as well as others on the market?

The HTC Magic

What’s in the brick shaped box?

You can see by Matt’s HTC Magic unboxing video that the box is definitely small and not overly feature packed.

• HTC Magic
• A white USB to HTC styled miniUSB sync charge cable but AC adaptor
• miniUSB connected stereo headset
• Pouch
• Warranty card, but no Disc’s or manuals.

Tight in this day and age…

Specification of the HTC Magic.

• Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz
• Operating System: Android
• Memory: – ROM: 512 MB – RAM: 192 MB
• Dimensions: 113 x 55 x 13.65 mm ( 4.45 x 2.17 x 0.54 inches)
• Weight: 118.5 grams ( 4.18 ounces) with battery
• Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution
• Network: – HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz, up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds – Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Device Control: Trackball with Enter button
• GPS: Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity: – Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate – Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g – HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
• Audio supported formats: AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG
• Video supported formats: MP4, 3GP
• Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
• Capacity: 1340 mAh
• Talk time: – Up to 450 minutes
• Standby time: – Up to 420 hours
• Expansion Slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• AC Adapter: Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 47/63 Hz
• DC output: 5V and 1A
• Special Features: – G-sensor – Digital Compass

HTC Magic Overview

There is nothing on the top at all.

The left hand side there is only a single up/down volume rocker.

HTC Magic left side

Once again nothing on the right hand side, not even a camera button.

HTC Magic right side

The bottom houses the microUSB connector for headset/ charge cable etc.

HTC Magic bottom view

On rear of the device you can find the 3.2 megapixel camera with no flash or portrait mirror, there is also a small hole at the bottom allowing access to the lanyard holder.

HTC Magic rear view

The front of the phone as a flush fitting HVGA 320×480 3.2” touchscreen, under which can be found, a central trackball, flanked by 6 buttons, 3 on the left which are a ‘home’ and ‘menu’ button above a green answer key. The right hand 3 are a ‘back’ and ‘search’ button above a red end/ power key.

HTC Magic front view

Highlights

• Great, clear and responsive screen
• Battery
• Widgets

Lowlights

• Camera

Software

By far the reason to buy one of these phones or should I say an android phone is the open source applications, as I raved about in the G1 review, these devices come pretty basic in terms of applications that are loaded, don’t get me wrong, the specification is pretty well up there, but it’s not until you start to add stuff from the ‘Market’ that this whole experience becomes worthwhile.

Standard things like Google maps works really well as expected, but get involved in the search function of the market and you will be there for hours, I guarantee, a friend of mine who HATES mobiles was hooked in minutes and kept him quite during a recent drive to Derby.

Anything from a colour-blindness test, to a mortgage calculator, Barcode scanners, RSS feeds direct from the BBC, Yahoo, tracyandmatt, games and so on and so on, the list is, not quite endless but definitely expanding! Add to this, things like aHome and widgets and now you are opening all kind of worlds. There is so much to add and adapt that I really can’t explain all the possibilities suffice to say you will enjoy the experience and add all the thing that interest you personally.

The speed of the GPS is a pleasant surprise. Although there is no dedicated Sat Nav software the fixes on Google Maps and things like the GPS guided weather forecast is very positive and easy to use.

Overall the upgrade from Android 1.1 to Android 1.5 Cupcake is a positive move in the right direction.

Review

The phone is not good in white, for me, I much prefer the look of the black and as Matt mentioned in the video review that is an issue in the quality of the casing, as this one already is showing signs of a hard life. The screen is exceptionally easy to mark and is not easy to clean, which proves an annoyance especially in a smudged, bright light.

The shape and dimension of the unit is good, it is a good compromise between a decent screen without being too big to pocket and use on a regular basis, all the rounded edges and lack of peripheral buttons make it easy to handle and use with finger touch. That said there were definitely times when I missed not having a stylus, as there is only the option to have the HTC QWERTY keyboard, and although it is useable and more than adequate, I would have like to see other options such as keypad or compact keyboard, to be developed no doubt?

Call quality and texting are easy to do as the screen is so responsive, and that dialler is well spaced and clearly laid out to be finger friendly especially when rotated into landscape, despite from the occasional lapse of a Vodafone signal, all worked well. I have not noticed a dedicated 🙂 button on a keyboard before, :-).

The screen itself is great, it is sharp and clear as you would expect from a HVGA and the accelerometer onboard is also a step up over the G1. It is also very responsive and in certain instances gives a gentle buzz to feedback that the touch has been registered. Such things as when moving icons or folders off the main screens, there is a gently buzz and the menu tab at the bottom of the screen turns immediately into a trash bin for easy removal.

Once again as with the G1 I find myself using the trackball quite a lot and although not a great fan this one is very responsive and pleasant to use.

Unfortunately the HTC grade of camera is up to the usual standard, it is OK but not the best and could really have done with the addition of flash and other now standard expectations such as face recognition and so on, I am looking forward to see how the new Samsung Galaxy camera with the Android OS will compare.

I have been away for a few days and left the Magic at home, alone, the surprise was that when I got back even with applications like the weather, Twitoid, and RSS notifications running and updating at regular intervals, the device was still up and running and had over a third of the battery left. It appears that the battery life coupled with this system is a winning formula, Vodafone claim 420 hours standby.

The specification is pretty good as well meaning that web browsing and connectivity options allow good speed and plenty of options, through wifi, HSPDA etc.

Conclusion

So here I am again finding myself enjoying my time with the HTC device and Android OS, I really do like the total package and the only slight downside for me is the connection with Vodafone, there is a real bright future to look forward to and the developments already mean things are good now.

Would I buy the HTC Magic? Of course not, why would I, with the like of the HTC Hero around the smallest of corners and also as I mentioned the Sammy on its way, the Magic is a very good piece of kit and I do like the directions these devices are going in, but please, a whole year for another model and then a few all at once?

It appears that the Magic is going to be priced out of the market with the option to buy, other, newer models almost immediately, and that is a real shame.

Edit: Now they can be seen at around the £350 mark it makes it a lot more interesting, wait for the Sammy and the Hero though and see where we are then.

Review by: Steve

Sanyo Xacti WH1 Review

I really enjoyed reviewing the Sanyo Xacti HD2000 so of course I was excited when Matt sent me the Xacti WH1. It’s a quite affordable camera and its main feature or selling point is that it is waterproof (up to 3m) with an IPX8 (full water submersion) certificate. Let’s see how it measures up.

The Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1

What’s in the box?

• Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1
• Battery
• Hand strap
• Mains charger (UK 3 pin and European 2 pin connections)
• USB cable (proprietary connection to the camera)
• Composite audio and av cable (connects to the proprietary socket on the camera)
• Manuals
• CD with Xacti software, instruction manual and ArcSoft Panorama Maker 4

Check out Matt’s unboxing video for more information.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 specification:

• Effective Pixel Count
  Photo : Approx. 1.10 megapixels // Video :Approx. 0.97 megapixels (in HD), Approx. 1.10 megapixels (in SD)
• Sensor
  C-MOS sensor, 1/6 inch, approx. 1.10 megapixels
• Recording media
  SD Memory Card (Up to 32GB SDHC Memory Card) Internal memory approx. 43MB
• Recording file formats
  JPEG (DCF 1, DPOF2, Exif Ver2.2 3standard)
• Resolution (Pixels) – Still
  2M: 1600 × 1200 (Pictrise) 1.1M: 1184× 888 0.9M (16:9): 1280 × 720 (16:9) 0.3M: 640 × 480
• Resolution – Continuous Shots
  2M: 1600 × 1200 1.1M: 1184 × 888
• Resolution – Movie Clips
  HD-SHQ: 1280 × 720 (30fps 9Mbps) TV-HR: 640 × 480 (60fps 6Mbps) TV-SHQ: 640 × 480 (30fps 3Mbps)
• Lens
  Focus distance:f=2.5 – 75.0 mm F=1.8(W) – 4.3(T) Auto Focus 7 groups, 10 elements(2 aspheric elements, 3 aspheric surfaces)
• Photo range
  Standard: 50cm – ?(wide), 1.0m – ?(tele)Super macro: 1cm – 100cm (wide)
• Shutter speed
  Photo:f=43 – 1290mm x30 Video: f=43 – 1290mm x301/2 – 1/1000 sec.(Flash: 1/30 – 1/1500 sec., Lamp mode : Max. 2 sec.)
• Digital zoom
  1/30 – 1/10000 sec. (High-sensitivity mode and Lamp mode: Max.1/15sec.)
• Focus
  Auto (Photo:9-point AF/Spot AF, Video:Continuous area AF) Manual 22 step
• Sensitivity
  Auto(ISO 50~200)Manual ISO 50/100/200/400/800/1600/3200, Switching System)
• Exposure correction
  ±1.8EV (in 0.3EV steps)
• Digital Image Stabilizer
  Multi-calculation electric image stabilizer
• Other functions
  Red-eye correction in Photos/Contrast correction in photos/Wind noise reduction
• Self timer
  2 sec./10 sec.
• White balance
  Auto : Full auto TTL / Manual : Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, One-push
• LCD monitor
  2.5 inch Low-temperature polysilicon TFT colour wide screen LCD Approx. 150,000 pixels (7-level brightness, 285-degree rotation)
• Interface
  AV output (Video:HDMI/Composite Video, NTSC/PAL; Audio:Stereo) USB2.0 (high-speed mode)
• Dimensions/Volume
  58.7(W)×62.8(H)×112.4(D)mm (maximum dimensions, excluding protruding parts), Approx. 327cc

General:

Front – The lens can be seen here which is contained within a waterproof cover. The flash can be seen here below the lens as well as the microphone holes on both sides (as it’s a stereo microphone)

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 – front view

Side – From the left you can see the latched cover which houses the AC adaptor socket for charging the camera. Next to this is the loud speaker and then there is a start/stop recording button. You can also see the zoom rocker button on the top of the camera here.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 – side view

Screen – The screen is a 2.5 inch low-temperature polysilicon TFT colour wide screen LCD Approx. 150,000 pixels (7-level brightness, 285-degree rotation)

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 – screen view

Bottom – The enclosure for the battery can be seen here on the bottom of the camera. As expected, the cover has a rubber seal around it to keep the enclosure waterproof.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 – bottom view

Connections – The SD card compartment, USB and HDMI connections are sealed under a cover. The latch at the top shows when the cover is closed properly as there is a red strip that shows if it is not sealed properly.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 – connections view

Controls – At the back of the camera are all the controls. The still photo capture button is on the left, then the video start/stop recording button, the record/play mode button is in the middle, and you can also see the menu and set/select button. There is also the up/down/left/right button surrounding the set/ok button.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 – controls view

Highlights:

• Solid/sturdy build
• Affordable price
• Compact size
• Controls easy to use
• Good battery life
• Stereo microphone
• Face chaser

Lowlights:

• Video quality underwater is poor
• Not full HD
• Only 2MP quality stills
• No video light

Review:

The Sanyo Xacti range seem to have been a hit and the reviews that you read reflect this. The WH1 is another member of the Xacti range so it does seem a little strange that it’s not got the typical pistol grip. There is a reason for this, and this is that the WH1 has been designed for sports (of the wet variety!). The hand strap which attached to the camera keeps the WH1 quite securely on your hand whereas the pistol grip design relied on, well. your grip!

As you can see from the pictures, the model have been given to review is a very bright and shocking yellow colour! Mind you, after thinking about it, it’s a sports camera which can be used under water. then it seems quite fitting. Ok, it’s still bright! But there are also two other colour options – Silver or blue and black.

The Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1

The built of the Xacti WH1 is robust and nicely compact. Seems quite a durable piece of kit that would withstand a few bumps.

The controls on the WH1 are even more straight forward than previous Xacti cameras. The buttons are big and spaced out enough so there is much less chance of pressing the wrong button. This is idea when in an active situation as you don’t have to concentrate too much on the controls. There is also the start/stop recording button on the side of the camera which I guess is for ease is you are holding the camera in a different position.

The video quality settings offered are HD-SHQ: 1280 × 720 (30fps 9Mbps) TV-HR: 640 × 480 (60fps 6Mbps) TV-SHQ: 640 × 480 (30fps 3Mbps). Unfortunately it doesn’t offer full HD of 1080p but the 720p generally gives a decent quality of footage. In good lighting the video quality is very good, and with the 30x optical zoom you can get some great footage. In low lighting the quality struggles. the camera could really do with video light.

As mentioned, the WH1 is waterproof. So of course I had to try out the camera under water. and that’s what paddling pools are for. aren’t they? I tried taking footage when it was nice and sunny and then when it was overcast. When it was bright and sunny the footage was quite impressive and clear, but the overcast footage (which I thought would be more realistic if you were using it for something like snorkelling in the sea as the light is generally dimmer) was pretty disappointing. The quality seemed to be lost in lower light.

The inbuilt microphone is a stereo one. This picks up sound clearly but not underwater. But of course, you can expect sounds underwater to sound quite muffled.

As with previous Xacti cameras you are able to take still pictures whilst recording video by just pressing the still capture button. This is definitely a function that still impresses me.

This leads me onto the still image quality. Quiet disappointingly the Xacti WH1 only offers a 2MP resolution which is even lower than the average camera on a phone. You can still get good clear pictures with it (but again, not in low lighting although there is a flash) but don’t expect to get any large prints from it. On the plus side, the WH1 is quite affordable and the lower MP camera may be the reason for this.

One feature that stands out is the great battery life. From a full charge the camera lasts over 3 hours

Conclusion:

Although I was somewhat disappointed with the still shot quality I think that Sanyo have made a durable and reliable video camera that you would feel confident taking up the ski slopes, going snorkelling, or even just being able to take great holiday footage by the pool without worrying that it’s going to get wet and break. The fact that it takes an SD card means that there are no moving parts on the data storage side of things, so a lot of movement won’t damage your precious footage.

It’s compact size and simple controls layout makes it extremely easy to use. I have no complaints about the LCD display. It’s clear and bright and the size of it is fine.

I guess you would just have to take into consideration what scenarios you would want to use your video camera in as this is definitely one of the the most affordable waterproof cameras on the market but there are many higher quality and affordable normal video cameras out there.

Reviewed by: Emma

Nokia N97 review

Introduction:

First announced late last year the Nokia N97 has been eagerly awaited by both Nokia and smartphone fans alike. The flagship N-Series handset certainly looks to be a major contender in the “top of the range” category.

Has the wait been worth it?

The Nokia N97

The ten second review:

Device – Nokia N97

Price – £469.99 inc. VAT

Summary – A powerful Symbian S60 device with a slide out qwerty keyboard.

Best of – 3G/HSDPA, QWERTY Keyboard, 3.5mm Headset Jack.

Worst of – No office document editing without paying for an upgrade.

What’s in the box?

• Handset
• Battery
• Stylus
• Charger
• USB Cable
• In Line Headset
• Software Disc
• Manual

Refer to Matt’s Nokia N97 unboxing video for more.

Nokia N97 Specification:

• 2G GSM 850/900/1800/1900
• 3G HSDPA 900/1900/2100
• Size: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9mm
• Weight – 150g
• Display – TFT Touchscreen, 16M Colours
• Size: 360×640 Pixels, 3.5 Inches
• Proximity sensor for auto turn off
• Accelerometer sensor for auto rotate
• Full QWERTY Keyboard
• Handwriting recognition
• Vibration, MP3 Ringtones
• Speakerphone with stereo speakers
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 32GB Storage, 128 RAM
• Card Slot (up to 16GB)
• GPRS
• HSCSD
• Edge
• 3G – HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• WLAN
• Bluetooth
• V2.0 microUSB
• Camera – 5MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus, LED flash, video light.
• Video – VGA @ 30fps. Secondary camera VGA @ 15fps.
• OS – Symbian V9.4, Series 60
• Messaging – email, push email, SMS, MMS, IM.
• Browser – WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS Feeds.
• Radio – Stereo FM with RDS, Visual radio, FM transmitter.
• Colours – White/Black.
• GPS with A-GPS support, Nokia Maps.
• MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC + Music Player
• WMV/RealVideo/MP4
• TV Out
• Voice Command/Dial
• Video & Photo Editor
• Flash Lite 3
• T9
• Battery – Li-lon 1500 mAh
• Stand By – Up to 432h (2G), 408h (3G)
• Talk Time – Up to 9h 30min (2G), 6h (3G)
• Music Play up to 40 h

General:

On the top of the handset are the power switch and also the 3.5mm headset jack.

Nokia N97 top view

The bottom of the phone has no switches or ports but the microphone can be seen.

Nokia N97 bottom view

The left hand side contains the USB port and the sliding lock switch.

Nokia N97 left side

The right hand side houses the camera button and the up/down volume rocker.

Nokia N97 right side

The front of the device contains several features. On the top is the speaker grill, the front facing camera and the ambient light and a proximity sensor.

The bottom has the send and end keys as well as a dedicated menu key.

Nokia N97 front view

Highlights:

• QWERTY Keyboard
• HSDPA/WiFi
• 3.5mm Headset Jack
• Finger friendly

Lowlights:

• Touch screen scrolling
• No office document editing without an upgrade

Review

Having not owned a Nokia for some years now I was extremely interested in seeing how the N97 compared to other similar handsets on the market. Without doubt it will be compared to the HTC Touch Pro2 and the SE Xperia X1 but is there a place for another sliding QWERTY device?

Handling the N97 for the first time I was impressed with the build quality. The phone felt very rugged/sturdy and although quite a tall device it sat nicely in the hand. The menu, camera and volume buttons are made of metal and are all raised from the plastic casing making using them a pleasure. The send and end keys are both touch sensitive and very responsive. As the screen can be locked this sensitivity is not an issue. What is an issue however is the lock/unlock button. It is a sliding plastic button on the left side of the device and using it is extremely awkward. When using the phone one handed I can not find a way to unlock the screen that feels natural. The way you have to slide the button feels just odd and to make things worse I found that often it did not work and had to be slid again. Sometimes upon unlocking it would take a couple of seconds for the screen to activate. Not the end of the world but I would find it annoying if using the N97 permanently.

Where the N97 really excels is when the sliding QWERTY keyboard is opened. The sliding movement is smooth and feels effortless. Once open the screen is automatically tilted at an angle. Although a nice touch I personally would prefer the option of altering the degree of the tilt like on the Touch Pro2. The mechanics of the slide are fantastic though!

The keyboards on the N97, TP2 and X1 are all very different which gives potential buyers a nice choice of preference.

The HTC Touch Pro2 has a five row keyboard making typing a lot more like using a PC or Netbook. The SE X1 has four rows and the Nokia N97 only has three.

Although out of the above devices the Nokia has the least rows of keys it does have a nice unique feature which may help you decide whether to buy it or not. On the left hand side of the keyboard is a D Pad. This enables you to scroll up, down, left and right on the screen and then press the centre of the pad to select the on screen item. This can eliminate having to touch the screen at all when using the phone. You might say “well it’s a touch screen device so why wouldn’t I want to touch it”. Through experience with this handset and similar ones, I can say that when using the slide out keyboard it feels awkward having to stretch your thumbs to the screen to select an item. Using the D-Pad will also be a lot more accurate.

The keys on the N97 do the job very well. They are raised slightly and are of a good size. The main disadvantage on the N97 keypad is the placement of the spacebar. Due to there being only three rows of keys Nokia have put the spacebar on the bottom right hand side of the keyboard which when typing feels very unnatural. On all PCs and other slide out QWERTY devices the spacebar is in the middle of the bottom row. Using the handset for a few days will get you used to this placement but initially it feels a bit strange.

The screen on the N97 is bright and the colours are rich. It is very responsive but if you are expecting a similar experience to some other touch screen devices such as the iPhone, Omnia or Touch HD you will be slightly disappointed. Scrolling on the N97 is certainly not as smooth. You cannot flick the screen to scroll but instead have to drag your finger/thumb up or down constantly keeping pressure on the screen. As the items on the screen move they tend to jump rather than slide up or down. Again this will soon be overcome by experience but this too feels a bit weird!

If you have used a Symbian phone before then the UI will be fairly familiar. The home screen has the option of adding widgets which make accessing your most used applications fast and easy. A lot can fit on the screen. At the moment on my test device home screen I have a clock, date, WiFi mode, sms, web, maps, music, Facebook, email and my four favourite contacts. All the widgets are of a decent size and this makes the home screen very finger friendly.

The menu button beside the send & end keys will quickly let you access all the other features on the device. This button is positioned fantastically for both landscape and portrait mode.

Like most Nokia devices the battery on the N97 is of good quality. It will certainly see you through a couple of days average phone usage. The N97 has the same size battery as in some other similar windows mobile handsets and I found I had better battery length with the Nokia.

The 5MP camera is pretty good and is by far better than on some other flagship devices. Images are crisp and bright and in low light conditions the LED flash becomes invaluable. Using the touch screen to change the camera settings is simple and I found it a nice camera to use. The video quality was also not bad but not good enough quality to view full screen on a PC.

Viewing the images and videos on the handset was great on the 3.5 inch screen. The video playback was really helped by the loudness of the N97s speaker. This can sometimes be an issue with some phones but not this one!

The pre installed music player is reasonable but nothing special. I was actually a bit disappointed in the quality of the music. I initially used the supplied headset (which has an amazing control pad attached) but quickly switched to a pair of Samsung earphones which improved the sound slightly. The quality wasn’t bad but I thought that as Nokia have recently released the xpress music devices it may blow me away. How wrong I was! On a good point you can fit a hell of a lot of music tracks on the N97. With 32GB storage and the option to add an additional 16GB microSD card it’s as good as you can get at this moment in time.

One thing that really got on my nerves about the N97 is that you cannot edit documents without paying for an upgrade. I would have thought that as the device has a full QWERTY keyboard Nokia may target business users. Maybe Nokia think business users can afford to pay the upgrade fee???

Web browsing on the N97 was enjoyable. The pages rendered quickly and the tap to zoom feature served its purpose. It certainly wasn’t as smooth as the iphone or some of the HTC devices but it worked and I had no issues with it both using 3G and WiFi.

Some people have recently been talking about having problems with a few features on Nokia devices. I certainly have not experienced any concerns so far. Signal strength was as good as on my other handsets. Sending and receiving text messages was no problem and syncing the device to my PC was no issue. I thought the software was very nice and I certainly preferred it to some alternatives.

Finally I must mention the stylus that comes with the device. It’s a strange looking thing and to be totally honest I think Nokia should not have bothered. Not because of its design but because you don’t need it. As the screen is so finger friendly I didn’t use the stylus once!

Conclusion:

Just as I was finishing writing this review I saw on the internet that a software update had been announced. For all those people that have experienced some unstable programs on the device I think your problems will now be over. Why manufactures can’t get it right first before launching a product baffles me but that’s just the way it is.

Nokia have made a great job of the N97. Previous N-Series handsets have had a bit of stick about build quality and I think that Nokia have taken these comments on board and created a decent product.

Is it the best of the bunch when compared to other top of the range devices – No, but die hard Nokia fans will love it. If you want the best camera phone then it’s not for you. If you want the best business device it’s also not for you. If you want the best multimedia device look elsewhere. These comments are not meant to sound negative but they are meant to be fair. The N97 is in my opinion the best Nokia has yet offered and users of the phone will be very happy with there purchase.

Review by: James

Acer X960 Review

Acer got on the smartphone bandwagon earlier this year and have released their ‘Tempo Smartphone’ range. I’ve been given the Acer X960 to review. It looks quite good, but I’ve heard quite a few mixed views and opinions about it. So, I’ll get on with the review to make up my own mind about it.

The Acer X960

What’s in the box?

• Acer X960 handset
• Battery
• Stylus
• USB cable (mini USB connection on the handset)
• Screen protector
• Quick guide manual
• CDs (User manual, Windows Mobile ‘Getting Started’ software, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 trial)
• Mains charger (mini USB connection to the handset)
• Stereo headphones/handsfree (mini USB connection)

More information can be found in Matt’s unboxing video.

Acer X960 specification:

• Operating System – Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Processor – Samsung S3C 6400 mobile processor 533 MHz
• Memory – ROM: 256MB/RAM: 128MB
• Display – 2.8" 480×640 pixel TFT Touchscreen
• Operating Frequency – GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
• HSDPA / UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
• microSD
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• MiniUSB
• Built-in GPS receiver (SiRFstar III)
• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, flash, video; secondary VGA videocall camera
• 1530mAh Lithium-ion Battery
• Dimensions – 106.4 x 59 x 13.7 mm
• Weight – 131.5g

General:

Front – There is the VGA front-facing camera for video calls, the speaker for phone calls, 2.8 inch TFT touch screen, call and end buttons, dedicated GPS button, D-pad with select key in the centre and a home/back button.

Acer X960 – front view

Right – Here you have the stylus, dedicated camera button, microSD compartment and the power button.

Acer X960 – right side view

Left – Eyelet for a lanyard or wrist strap, up/down rocker button for volume (and zoom for the camera), reset button, and select/ok button (user defined).

Acer X960 – left side view

Bottom – The mini USB connection and the microphone hole are all that in on the bottom of the phone.

Acer X960 – bottom view

Back – On the back you can see the 3.2MP camera, flash, self portrait mirror and speakers (for audio playback and speakerphone). The back cover houses the battery and sim card.

Acer X960 – back view

Highlights:

• Sturdy build
• Haptic feedback
• Decent pictures with camera
• LED Flash for low light pictures
• Built-in speakers are of a good quality

Lowlights:

• Bulky build
• Quite a heavy handset
• Touchscreen very slow to respond
• Acer user interface over Windows Mobile OS

Review:

I was thought I would be quite impressed with the Acer X960. Although you can see straight away that it’s quite a chunky phone to carry around, its bulk gives the impression that it is going to be packed with high quality and high spec features. It’s definitely on the weighty side but it does feel sturdy and robust. The handset has a black body and chrome edging which looks ok. Matt mentioned the E-Ten look still sneaking in here (Acer purchased E-Ten last year) which you can definitely notice. Moving away from the E-Ten design to a fresh new one might have given this phone a bit more appeal.

The Acer X960

The screen is 2.8 inches which is a generous size and the quality of the display is pretty good. I did however find that the display was quite hard to see when out in sunlight. I guess this is quite a common annoyance of many phones but I found the X960 particularly bad for this as the screen is quite reflective. There is no accelerometer (which would change the orientation of the display as the phone was rotated) which is a shame as it would have made the most of the 2.8" inch screen.

If you watched Matt’s unboxing video you will have seen that the phone takes quite a time to start up for the first time. Unfortunately it actually takes quite a long time every time you start up the phone. Obviously not as long as the first time as it is initialising and installing apps but don’t expect to be able to make a quick phone call or text if the phone has been switched off! Ok fair enough. you just don’t switch it off unless you really need to.

One of the main features that you will see with this handset is Acer’s user interface which has been placed over the Windows Mobile operating system. I’ve read other reviews on this and it seems that there are varying opinions about it. It has three desktops (or ‘home’ screens) which you just slide across the screen to get to each one. It is designed as an office desk with items on it which represent shortcuts to applications such as the calendar, email, etc. 

Some people like it, and some don’t. It’s a simple to use interface and quite a good idea, but I think it looks very dated and there is no option to customise what is on display so I’m not that keen on it. Of course, being a Windows Mobile device you can expect all the usual features too, which can be accessed through the Start menu.

Whilst checking out the features through the menus it became apparent that there was one huge thing letting this phone down. The touch screen. It can be very slow to respond and even sometimes doesn’t respond at all so I found myself having to select options more than once. This became quite frustrating so I found myself checking other people’s views again (just in case it happened to be just the review model I had). It seems that I’m not the only one who experience this issue.  A definite improvement required here as this really lets the phone down. To add to this, the stylus is too small and flimsy so I felt less inclined to use it. This unfortunately lead to ‘fat thumb/finger syndrome’ where wrong options are accidentally selected as the icons and buttons are very small.

This leads me on to text input. A nightmare without the stylus!! The soft QWERTY keyboard is near to impossible to use without the stylus, and when you do use it, inputting any text takes twice as long because you will find yourself taking the time to make sure you press the right letter. and then wait for it to respond to your selection. There are other input methods like handwriting recognition but again, not that user friendly.

There is a good range of connectivity – HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and SiRFstar III GPS. Quite impressive for high speed web browsing but the unresponsive screen and fiddly zoom in and out on the browser really puts you off.

The X960 comes with a 3.2MP camera and LED flash which you can take stills and video with. The interface used for the camera isn’t that impressive and there is a bit of a shutter lag. A 3.2 MP camera is quite common amongst smartphones and you can normally take a decent picture with them (mainly in good lighting). For some reason taking decent still pictures with this 3.2 MP camera on the X960 is really difficult and the pictures seem slightly blurred. This is a shame as the quality of the pre-loaded pictures are brilliant and really show off the display quality.

I was glad to see that there was an LED flash as the last few phones that I’ve reviewed didn’t have one which meant that low lighting picture were pretty much out of the question. But, I found another issue here that taking photos with the flash gave off coloured (greenish yellow tinge) photos. Video quality doesn’t seem much better. The size of video is pretty small, and if you move quickly or are shooting a faster moving object the quality goes right out the window.

Windows Media Player is used for music and video playback. The inbuilt speaker on the back is actually pretty good for a phone loudspeaker. So, you can playback music using the loud speaker, or use the stereo headphones that come with the phone. The X960 would benefit from a 3.5mm jack so that there was the option to use your own headphones but the packaged ones aren’t that bad.

Video can be played back in landscape mode when Windows Media Player is set to full screen. As mentioned before, there is no accelerometer to do this automatically.

Phone call quality is good (of course network coverage would affect this) and the quality of the loud speaker means that when using the speaker phone mode the sound is loud and clear.

Conclusion:

I was really disappointed with Acer’s X960. I expected Acer to enter the world of Smartphones with a handset that would have everyone wanting more. OK, I guess I did want more – but more from the phone!

As with all gadgets there are always features that people like and don’t like, which is just personal opinion. An example here would be the user interface Acer have place on the phone. Not my cup of tea, but others like it. But i think there is one thing that has completely let the X960 down which I can’t imagine any one would like, and that is the very slow responding touch screen. It’s frustrating to say the least and completely takes the enjoyment of using the phone.

Acer need to hit the Smartphone market with a fresh idea and steer away from the E-Ten design as it’s already starting to look old. There is definitely potential to we’ll have to wait and see what will appear next!

Reviewed by: Emma

LG Cookie (LG KP500) Review

Matt mentioned that LG seem to be coming up with some popular touchscreen handsets. Well it seems that LG have created a much more affordable touchscreen handset with the LG Cookie KP500. The Cookie comes in a range of colours and has a fair amount of features.

A lower price raises questions though. The main one being, “Has quality been compromised?”.

Hopefully through this review any questions you may have will be answered and we’ll see if the LG Cookie is worth considering.

The LG Cookie (LG KP500)

What’s in the box?

• LG Cookie KP500 handset
• Battery
• USB cable
• Mains charger
• User guide
• CD rom
• Screen protector

More information can be found in Matt’s LG Cookie unboxing video

LG Cookie specification:

• Dimensions: 106.5 x 55.4 x 11.9 mm
• Weight: 89g
• Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Display: Colour TFT 3" touchscreen, 240 x 400 pixels
• Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
• Memory:  48MB internal
• MicroSD slot (up to 8GB)
• Camera: 3 megapixel
• Multimedia: MPEG4/3gp video player
• MP3/WMA/AAC player
• FM Radio with RDS
• Stereo Bluetooth 2.1
• USB 2.0
• MicroSD card slot up to16gb
• Document Viewer (MS Office, Doc, PDF)

General:

Front – Colour TFT 3" touchscreen, call, menu and end button (the end button is also the power button). The speaker at the top is of course for calls but also doubles up as the loudspeaker (for speakerphone, music, etc.)

LG Cookie (LG KP500) – front view

Right – To the left of the picture you can see the stylus which slides in along the bottom of the phone. next is the dedicated camera button, then the screen lock/unlock button, and lastly the microSD card compartment.

LG Cookie (LG KP500) – right view

Left – The LG proprietary connection is located here. This is used for charging the phone and is also where the earphones/handsfree is plugged in. The other thing that can be seen here is the up/down rocker button for the volume (and zoom for the camera)

LG Cookie (LG KP500) – left view

Bottom – With this view of the bottom of the handset you can see the stylus in more detail. Matt mentioned on the unboxing video how it is different from most handsets as it fits in across the width of the phone.  The only other thing on the bottom of the phone is the microphone hole.

LG Cookie (LG KP500) – bottom view

Back – The back of the phone is quite plain. You can see the 3MP camera here but unfortunately there is no flash.

LG Cookie (LG KP500) – back view

Battery compartment – With the back cover off you can see the battery compartment and see where the sim card is situated.

LG Cookie (LG KP500) – battery view

Highlights:

• Slim design
• Large 3″ screen
• Quite lightweight
• Handwriting recognition

Lowlights:

• Slower texting with the touch screen keypad
• No flash
• No Autofocus
• No 3G
• No WIFI

Review:

The LG Cookie KP500 is a nice size and weight, and its slim design makes the phone look and feel more expensive than it actually is. The screen is quite impressive and the display is sharp, clear and bright. If you’re not used to LG’s operating system, navigating through the menus can take a bit of getting used to. The LP500 offers two ‘home screens’, one where you can place widgets such as a sticky notes, or mini music player, and the other where you can place shortcuts to your most used contacts. You just need to slide your finger or the stylus across the screen to get to each ‘home screen’.

LG Cookie (LG KP500)

The touchscreen itself great to use. It responds well and has haptic feedback through vibration and beeps (which you can switch off if needed). There is a built-in accelerometer which rotates the display according to which way up the phone is held. Unfortunately I sometimes found the accelerometer a bit slow to catch up after I had rotated the phone.

I’ve read quite a few consumer reviews of this handset and it seems that quite a few people find texting a absolute nightmare. I wouldn’t completely agree with them but I can definitely see their point. When the phone is held up in portrait mode it offers a T9 phone keypad but you can also choose from other input modes such as multitap and handwriting recognition. I found the handwriting recognition very impressive.Of course, to use this you need to use the stylus which is not everybody’s cup of tea. The T9 keypad is ok but it takes longer to text than using a phone with buttons. If you try to type too fast you end up typing a load of rubbish!

When the phone is in landscape mode you are presented with a full QWERTY keypad but the letters are tiny and the stylus is a must! ‘Big thumb syndrome’ kicks in when you try and use your fingers!

The sound quality during calls is good and making calls is simple. As mentioned earlier, the second home screen features shortcuts to your most used contacts (you can customise this). When a contact is selected small shortcut icons appear giving you options of calling, texting, etc., which is quite a handy feature really.

You may notice that there is no front-facing camera (so no video calls). This is due to the fact that the Cookie does not support 3G. It is a quad-band GSM handset with GPRS and EDGE only. 

Whilst on the subject on connectivity, as well as no 3G the Cookie does not have WIFI. So browsing the web can be a bit tedious with the slower speed.

The sound quality through the loudspeaker during music playback is average for a mobile phone. I would assume that this handset would normally come with stereo earphones/handsfree but this review model didn’t seem to have any with it. So, unfortunately I can’t comment on earphone sound quality.

Something to point out to the music lovers out there – The Cookie also only has a proprietary plug for headphones and not a standard 3.5mm socket so no opportunity of using your own earphones.

The music player it easy to use, and with the widget you can place on the home screen it is easily accessible without having to scroll though menus. There is also an inbuilt FM radio which may appeal to some of you. Again, I unfortunately couldn’t test it out as no headphones came with this review model. As you may know that with many phones the packages headphones act as the FM antenna as well so without them the radio is obsolete.

The picture viewer and video player show off the great quality of the display that the LG Cookie has. Just a shame that the slow to catch up accelerometer let the handset down here as waiting for the orientation of a picture to change after rotating the handset got a bit frustrating. But just keep in mind that this is just my personal experience and I may just have been unlucky with the handset provided.

The 3MP camera is a bit disappointing. Photos taken in good light seem to give a pretty good quality picture. The same goes for video capture – the light needs to be good. But with the absence of a light or flash. well you probably get the picture (no pun intended!). With such a nice 3″ screen it seems a shame that the view finder for picture taking doesn’t make the most of it. Instead is is cropped into a smaller section. The other annoying thing that I noticed was an unfortunate lag time between pressing the shutter/camera button and the picture actually being taken. Took a few shots of the floor before getting the hang of the lag time as I moved the camera away too soon! So, definitely no scope to catch anything in motion because more than likely by the time the picture actually takes you’ll just get a picture of where that moving subject was 2-3 seconds ago!

There are a fair amount of things you can do with a picture after taking it such as applying different effects like blurring, cartoon and mosaic, and also adding text, stamps, and frames. It’s just a shame that you won’t get that many good pictures to play about with!

The internal memory is only 48MB which is really not much at all. The memory is expandable though through the use of a MicroSD card. The official specifications show that the handset will support a memory card up to 8GB, but if you have had a look and listen to Matt’s unboxing video you will know that it does actually support up to 16GB.

Conclusion:

The LG Cookie (LG KP500) has been a strange handset to review. Reading through my review again I seem to have been really negative about most aspects of this phone! I feel that cutting the price here has compromised the quality of the features. But just to confuse matters, I actually liked the LG Cookie for some reason. I’ll try and sum this up some how!

If you are a gadget lover, need 3G, WIFI, or want a good camera phone then you may want to take a rain check on the Cookie.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for an affordable touchscreen phone to use mainly for calls and aren’t bothered about gadgets and fancy features, then this may be the phone for you. Making/receiving calls is easy and the sound quality is clear and loud enough. The Cookie looks and feels great. It has a clear and bright display and a pretty good touch screen.

Reviewed by: Emma

LG Viewty Smart Review

With another fairly major phone release happening on Friday, the all-new LG Viewty Smart (LG Viewty II) needs to be pretty special just to lift it above the waves created by the 3GS and the Pre.

The LG Viewty Smart

The ten second review:

Device – LG Viewty Smark (aka LG Viewty II)

Cost – £369.99 (Inc V.A.T) SIM Free

Summary – A slim powerful handset with good screen and excellent 8MP Camera.

Best of – Sensitive touch-screen, 8MP digital camera with flash, DivX and Dolby support.

Worst of – User interface has some quirks.

What’s in the box?

You can view Matt’s LG Viewty Smart unboxing video, but to recap:

• LG Viewty Smart phone
• Userguide
• AC Charger
• Handsfree wired kit, with inline remote
• USB datacable
• GC900 Software Kit with quickstart guide

LG VIEWTY Smart specification:

• Dimensions: 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4mm
• Weight: 102g
• Battery:
  – Talk Time: 4 hrs
  – Standby Time: 350 hrs
  – Capacity: 1000 mAh
• Display:
  – 800 x 400 pixels/3 inch
  – Touch Sensitive
  – Haptic Feedback
• Network:
  – GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
  – WCDMA: 900/1900/2100 (Tri-Band)
  – HSDPA (7.2Mbps)
• Camera:
  – 8 mega-pixels (auto-focus)
  – Digital Zoom
  – LED Flash
  – Schneider-Kreuznach Lens
  – Image Stabilization
  – Geo Tagging
  – Smile Shutter
  – Multiple Face Detection
  – Panorama Shot
  – Continuous Shot
• Video:
  – Hi-Resolution VGA Video Recording (DVD Quality)
  – 120fps Slow Motion Video
  – Supported formats: MP4, 3GP, H.264, H.263, DivX, XviD & WMV
  – Video Streaming
• Music:
  – Supported formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA
  – Windows Media Player Sync
• Messaging:
  – SMS
  – MMS (with video)
  – E-mail (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4)
• Memory:
  – Phone Book (1000)
  – Dialled Calls (40)
  – Missed Calls (40)
  – Received Calls (40)
  – 1.5GB (internal)
  – microSDHC (external)
• Call Features:
  – Hands Free
  – Caller ID
• Connectivity:
  – Bluetooth (2.0)
  – Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
• Navigation:
  – AGPS
  – Google Maps
• Features:
  – Accelerometer
  – Office Document Viewer (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)
  – PDF Document Viewer
  – TV Out

General

The Viewty smart is very similar in style to its older brother, but LG have really gone to town in updating the look and feel both of the software, and the styling of the hardware. The front of the device borrows the iPhone’s almost blank panel – though the screen is slightly recessed. A LG logo sits above the screen, and the main speaker above that. A chrome silver bar completes the top edge, but does not function as a button. A similar silver bar at the bottom of the front panel DOES act as a button – and seems to function similar to the iPhone home button. Put simply – it generally takes you back to the main menu.

At 12.4mm, it’s pretty slim, and a 3-inch 800×480 screen looks pretty tasty. However since the phoen is 56mm wide and 109mm long, a large frame/bezel makes the screen look pretty small.

LG Viewty Smart front view

There isn’t really a definate bottom edge to the phone, but you will find the microphone vent. The bottom edge curves immediately into the main silver back which, like the original Viewty, looks like a standard LG digital compact camera. I quite like the effect, and helps to view the Viewty (sorry) as a serious imaging device, as well as a phone. Looking face on, in a landscape fashion, the LG logo sits to the top-left, and lens system to the top-right. A very small LED flash is located to the bottom-right of the lens, and the camera-style is finished off with logos to the bottom left, including Div-x and dolby (err..).

LG Viewty Smart bottom view

LG Viewty Smart back view

Moving to the right hand side, back in ‘portrait’, you’ll find from top to bottom, the data/headset port, protected by a plastic cover, an up/down rocker switch and finally the camera focus/capture button.

LG Viewty Smart right side

On the left hand side, there is a micro-sd slot for external storage – protected by a plastic cover – but ‘hotswappable’, and a strange button which took a while to figure out. It appears its a quick access to the ‘multitasking’ menu – which lets you quickly switch between different open applications, or close them all down with one press.

LG Viewty Smart left side

Finally the top of the device, hardly defined like the bottom panel, is home to the Power switch, which doubles as the keylock as well.

LG Viewty Smart top view

The software itself is a nice effort from LG, brightly coloured screens and a ‘cube’ system that probably owes a lot to HTC’s efforts elsewhere!

Highlights:

• Sharp Screen
• Lightweight
• 8mp Camera

Lowlights:

• Small screen in a large bezel
• Minor UI niggles

Review

Clearly when you glance at the the Viewty Smart specsheet, you are immediately drawn to the massive 8mp camera. Obviously megapixels do not make a great camera, but from the few samples I’ve taken, it does seem a high quality lens, and the picture quality does seem pretty impressive. We don’t normally include sample photos in our reviews – but I’ll have a word with Matt and see if we can get some uploaded later in the week.

Moving to the phone itself, and surprisingly in the middle of nowhere in which I live, the Viewty managed to get, and hold, a far better signal than any of my recent review devices, or my trusty N95.

Tapping out a text was extremely hard work in portrait mode, but a breeze in landscape. The keyboard appears to work on “key-up” rather like the iPhone, and also shows you the button pressed while the ‘key’ is depressed. While the portrait version is too cramped, turning to landscape feels just about spot on. Tactile feedback in the form of a short buzz also helps to aid touch typing, although that’s never gonna be easy on a touchscreen.

The S-Class interface serves its purpose well enough, and is helped by one of the best touchscreen’s I’ve seen on an LG device. Its extremely sensitive, and the software seems able to cope well. Although it certainly isn’t as slick as Apple’s mobile O/S, and possibly that found on the Palm Pre, its better than most of the other ‘iPhone beaters’. The most annoying aspect of these devices have been the slow sluggish menus and features. The viewty doesn’t completely fix this, but its got closer than anything else.

Rather annoying LG have stuck to their guns and unhelpfully provided a completely non-standard headphone port. Considering this phone, rightly or wrongly, will be compared to many other ‘fashion’ phones, as well as music-orientated devices, it seems a massive faux pas to set such a limitation. You can plug your earphones into the remote control section of the handsfree kit – which doubles as an 3.5” adaptor, but in my experience, and a quick straw poll, people don’t tend to carry these with the phone in most cases. I thought device manufacturers had finally got the message with standards, but clearly not. Despite this, the music player software is decent enough, and sound quality is pretty good. It’s important to note that this is an all round phone, not a specialist music device like those from Nokia or Sony Erikkson, but none the less, it manages to cram in most of the features you’d find on these devices.

With so many upmarket features on a slightly cheaper handset, you might be waiting for the performance issues, but in reality these isn’t much to state. It’s a lot faster than the original Viewty, but then that been out a long long time now – and used (another) LG o/s. Maybe a better benchmark would be more recent S-Class devices such as the Arena. To sum up? It’s faster than the lot, both in the menus and the apps. The camera functionality is much better with the extra power.

Memory or lack of it will be an issue for some, and others will love the micro-SD slot which gives you the freedom to pick and choose your specs. 1.5gb is a little paltry though, just a few albums and yours snaps should be enough to see you searching for a micro-SD card!

As stated earlier the handset has built in Div-X support, and numerous other formats which cover most bases. Playback is smooth and the screen is high quality, if possibly a little bit small for movie watching or longer vids.

Conclusion

LG are getting pretty good at phones. It’s hard to forget they are still a relative newcomer. The original Viewty and its off-spring have been close to being decent devices, but always had a few issues. The Viewty Smart is a massive upgrade on the original, and LGs other S-class devices, with a fantastic camera and an all-round feature list which will keep most users happy.

I’d like to see more memory built in, but I’m also aware many people much prefer the freedom of a micro-SD slot, so I can’t knock it too much for that reason alone. I enjoyed using the device and the landscape keyboard is a marked improvement over previous LG attempts – although appears to have borrowed heavily from apple. There are a few UI issues in places, and it will be well worth keeping the device firmware up-to-date should LG see fit to correct them.

It’s unfair to compare mid-range devices such as this with the high-end, high-spec lot, but its testament to the quality of the Viewty Smart that we try to. A nice improvement, and a great mid-range price for a decent handset.

Review by: Mark

[ Post Tags: LG Viewty Smart, LG, unboxing video, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

ATP GPS PhotoFinder mini review

The ATP PhotoFinder Mini – photo geotagging made simple.

30grams, 16 hours continual usage, external display, simple one button operation, with docking station!  No, it’s not a phone, but a “geotagger” for normal cameras!

When Matt asked me to review this device, I was all over it like a 12 year old boy that had just found his dads stash of “private” magazines.  As some of you know from my previous reviews, I live in Malta. It’s a small country just off Sicily, about the size of a postage stamp and in the winter, has just under half a million people living there .  In summer, the population normally doubles!  It is a country full of heritage and has been attacked by pretty much every race that ever existed.  In short, it’s one of the most ideal places in Europe to take some really cool photos.

What’s in the box?

• ATP Photofinder Mini (with built-in lanyard clip)
• Docking station / card reader with LCD display.
• Multilanguage “quick start” guide
• 18 page user manual
• A 1 month free voucher for a Locr Pro account (more on this in the review)
• Multilanguage Manuals on in PDF format on CD

  The Official Press Pack Photo. (cards not included, and LCD screen by the looks of it!)

(Approximate) Specifications  of devices: 

GPS PhotoFinder Mini

Multi-Function Docking

Now.  Call me a bit suspicious, but when a device lists languages supported as English, then Japanese,then Traditional & simplified Chinese it normally means the device was manufactured in the reverse order.  It also pretty much guarantees that the user manual is going to be worth reading for spelling / grammarly reviews mistakes alone.  Boy was I not disappointed.

The first thing that struck me on the device, was even before I had opened the packaging.  Those little “we have changed our mind, or something wasn’t quite right when we designed the box” cover up stickers.   Noticeably, they were covering the operating temperature.   It seems that the website, and the original box claimed the device could operate at -20 degrees Celsius.  ATP amended that to 0 degrees C, and extended the range up by 10 degrees to 70C.  OK, not a deal breaker. You may not be able to take a picture, but at least you will know where you are when the fireball has died down.

I will warn you now, if you do not understand sarcasm, or “British” humour, then watch some Monty Python, and read this tomorrow.  It will all make sense in the morning.

The GPS module itself is actually so simplistic in design it scares the hell out of me.  It has one main power button, 3 LED’s,  a MMC Micro slot, with a 128mb card in it, and a rubber cover covering that and a mini USB hole.  It also has a rather nicely designed and sturdy Lanyard clip, with a well made heavy duty connector weaved, stitched, and covered also in rubber.  It’s Mirror black and silver design is appealing, and it looks just like a Bluetooth GPS mouse that we all used to lug around before HTC / TomTom / Garmin started to build them into their devices.

Sitting in its dock!

The cradle on the other hand is a bit plasticy, although it does have a fair bit of weight, and has a neat storage bit underneath for its USB cable.  I say neat, because it is also utterly useless, as you have to lug around a power supply. The cradle takes SD, MMC, MS and CF cards, and does work as a MMC Micro reader as well when the GPS unit is plugged in.  The display on the front of the unit is backlit, and easy enough to read.  understand NO, read yes!

Storage for the USB cable, but you still need power to make it work!

How it works is simple.   The little GPS device records your position with the date and time every 10 seconds.  Then, when you get back to the docking station, it “reads” the time stamp on the photo’s, and inserts the geodata into each shot.  In theory…

At this stage I want to show you the “getting started guide” because that’s what I looked at on the box.  It’s printed there as well.

Simplicity in every way. switch on, take photos, plug card and unit into base, done..

Having received a few new devices over the years, and being a bloke, I don’t read manuals much. The box illustration lulled me into a false sense of security, and I wandered out, in the blistering heat, and gave it a road test!

OK.. So that was the plan and in true Murphy’s Law fashion, a couple of things didn’t go quite right!  First of all, I was doing a photo shoot for a client, one that involved me travelling almost all over the island in a single day. The prefect opportunity for testing.  Unfortunately, the customer didn’t agree to me using the device for testing, and I wasn’t allowed to keep the SD card that I had shot all my photos on.  (I was wondering why he handed me a brand new 8gig SD card when I started the shoot and asked me to use that!)

So, back home and suffering form heatstroke, I dumped my laptop and other kit, put on some shorts, grabbed my camera bag and the Photofinder, and headed out for a quick trip VIA water ferry to Valetta.  Knowing that it would take me about 90 minutes return trip using public transport, It would be an ideal time frame to get some good shots.  180 photos later, I was back home.

SO..  plug in device, insert card, press synch, set time zone, await result and upload into Picasa.  Easy as pie..

Great English! 😉

That was the error I got almost continually.  no MAPPING FILE, Pease remove it!  This naturally caused me to scratch my head in frustration..  What is a mapping file, where should it be  and what should I remove?  I tried again, I swore, got on my messenger to Matt, re-read the manual, swore some more, scratched my head a bit then went on search of the website (and if anyone mentions PEBCAK, I will hunt you down!) A search through the site archives showed me a “technical manual” and FAQ, not surprisingly missing from the manuals, and then a reference to a wonderful firmware upgrade “in a few weeks” but with no date!.

I only mention this as a warning, and I have to post it.  I rarely pick a product apart so much, however..

Does the Photo Finder support CompactFlash or xD flash cards?
The Photo Finder supports all memory cards as long as they’re formatted using a FAT/FAT32 file system. For SD(HC) and Memory Stick cards, there is a built in card slot. For other memory card formats such as CF and xD, a standard USB reader (sold separately) can be directly plugged into the Photo Finder using the USB adapter cable (included).
??  where?  I have taken pretty detailed photos, so if you can see where a standard USB card reader can be “slotted in” please tell me! More importantly there was no cable to do this!

It takes a long time to acquire a signal from the GPS satellites?
It may take a long period of time to track a location depending on the positioning of the GPS satellites.  For the first time if it was placed at the area well exposed to the satellite signal, the device requires approx. 13 minutes (theoretically 12.5 minutes) to receive or update ALMANAC. Refer to trouble shooting guide when the signal is not received well.
Gotta love that clear concise English!

Is the Photo Finder compatible with Mac OS and Windows?
The Photo Finder will work in conjunction with any operating system which supported your photos without geotagging.
The Photo Finder actually logs and geotags without the use of a PC so there aren’t any compatibility issues with operating systems.
Tell that to my MONSTER of a PC, that the ATP Photofinder managed to bluescreen! (Specs & details below!)

Does the Photo Finder support RAW formats?
Unfortunately, the Photo Finder currently only works with JPEG type photo files.  ATP is currently researching the addition of RAW type format support.
OK..  point and shoot compatibility at least ! Shame I shot all my 180 odd photos in RAW, as I always do.

How long can the Photo Finder log GPS data for?<
With the built in 128MB storage, the Photo Finder can log up to 550 hours of location data.  This storage is also recycled so that you always have 550 hours of the most recently logged data.

At this point, I would like to draw your attention to the specs again! Do I notice a small discrepancy here?

Operating Time:  More than 16 Hours

How much more?  534 Hours? BTW  That’s 23 days, in a device that weighs 30 grams!  OK.. So you can basically have a holiday, and shoot a lot of photos, then synch everything when you get home, as long as you brought the charging cable.

Is there anyway to export the GPS logs from the Photo Finder?
ATP is working on a new firmware version which adds the ability to export route data using KML files.  KML files can be opened with Google Earth to view your logged routes.  This will allow for not only geographical viewing of your photos, but also the paths on which you took them.  This version should be released within a few weeks.
This worked on the firmware that I was using.  I GOT the log file, on my SD card, but not the geotag!

The ATP Photo Finder will not power on:
Open the battery cover and re-insert the battery.
The battery may not be inserted properly.
Check the rechargeable battery to see whether it is charged or not.
Now I pushed, pulled, twisted, tweaked,  breathed on and generally said every magic spell I know to open this fabled Battery cover.  It was no-where to be seen, or documented!

The ATP Photo Finder cannot connect with my PC and card reader:
You may be running on a low power batteries. Please replace the battery with new or charged ones.   ??? WTF?
Please check and make sure the USB cable is correctly connected in both ends.
Please ensure to use the alkaline battery (1.5V ) instead, as it is better than rechargeable battery. (1.2V) ???????
You may have used a card reader that the ATP GPS Photo Finder does not support.

How is that supposed to fit in there?

Frustrated, I did what any tech guru does in this precarious position.  I searched for firmware, and found some!

At this point I would like to brag a little!

That is a screen shot of my PC specs.  Yes, you are reading that right, I have 12gig of RAM.  It is the fastest processor on the market, and I have the fastest graphics card on the market to match! It rates a 6.5 on Windows 7, and only rates 5.5 on Vista due to an older 500gig hardrive!  The little ATP, weighing in at 30grams managed not only to cause an “out of memory error”, but ultimately caused a bluescreen!  Very annoyed that Matt put me through this torment of seeing a BSOD for the first time on my PC in over 6 years, I decided not to risk anything else on my machine, and use my laptop.  Guess what..  same thing!

So..  I started problem solving.  Out comes the GPS device from the cradle, and I decided to connect directly.  Works fine, shows me the MMC card as a card reader.  Perfect.  Lets have a look at the card contents, open explorer. Blue screen ensues.  I decided to buy myself a MMC micro reader,  and format the card.  Quick check of the manual.—–

Ok. cool. There is a format menu on the cradle.  Format again, after being forced to do a hardware test.  This time it works.  The GPS device, now void of all information again greeted me with blinky lights!  YAY!

You may be wondering why I went to all that trouble?  You need to load the firmware on the MMC Micro card to actually flash the device.

Device flashed, and apparently working, I looked down and realised it was 1am!  I had got home at 7:30pm.  Taking photos can wait until tomorrow!..

Day 2:

Camera charged, GPS module charged:  out into the wild I go.  Get home, plug in the card into the docking station and realise that I forgot to change the camera format to Jpeg!  DOH! Spend 2 hours trying to convert to jpeg whilst keeping the original time stamps, fail miserably.  go to bed.

Day 3:

Couldn’t be bothered to end my day on a low note: so left the device at home!

Day 4:

SUCCESS!

Yes I finally managed to crack the damn problem!  I set the camera to Raw + Jpeg, went out and tested it.

Important is that you do actually test!  Don’t go running out and doing a 3 hour shoot.  I had to set the sync to GMT +2, I think because of British Summer Time rules even though i tried with +1 first.   If i had been out for more than an hour, it would have screwed everything up!

However, I was NOT impressed with the accuracy that i received from the GPS module.  My Touch Pro2 has GPS built in, and does provide me with a more accurate fix of my position.   http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/albumMap?uname=jugglesXP&aid=5344277372419381921#map  has all the details of the very boring photos that I took!

Have a peek at that Picasaweb map, and you will see what I mean.   I was deliberately sticking to an area about 500 meters from my house.  I wanted to see how accurate it was before I take it out on an Island test tomorrow.  It only recorded 2 of the 6 locations as individual.

http://www.panoramio.com  displayed this a lot better!

Pointer is where Google says I am, Red dot is where I was!

When i left it on, but sitting on my front room table for a few hours, this is what it recorded..

However, it is much better when travelling, Download my little tour file from www.freelanceitmalta.com/TandM.kmz

So. My verdict..

Great little toy when it works.  I would have LOVED a USB version, that plugged into your PC / Mac and had a software that installed.  I think for the first time in my life, this is a product I actually think would be great with a program bundled with it.  The installer should do a couple of things..

Allow me to download the GPS data directly.
Set the time zone
See the pictures in a nice interface!
Tell me what the heck that error message means!

For geotagging photos with “ease” the ATP is not great.  For logging where you were on a trip.  Its the bees knees!”  Oooh..  and just in case someone from ATP reads this, please outsource your user manuals to a company that specialises in writing them in English!  Cant wait for the RAW support though!  I did mention one thing right at the top, the Locr Pro “one month free” voucher..   Seriously guys..  It has a “value” of less than 2 dollars.  You could have saved yourself the hassle.

Posted by: Piero (MVP)

LG Arena (KM900) review

LG KM900 Arena review

LGs latest addition to there touch screen devices seems to be off to a flying start but does the new Arena live up to the hype?

First announced at Mobile World Congress back in February the LG KM900 Arena is not LGs first touch screen device but it is the first with the new S-Class UI, so let’s see how it compares with other touch screen devices on the market.

The LG Arena (LG KM900)

What’s in the box?

• Handset
• Battery
• Data Cable
• Wired Headset
• Charger
• User Manual
• Software Disc

Have a look at Matt’s LG Arena unboxing video for more details.

LG Arena Specification:

• 3” 16M-colour capacitive TFT touch screen of WVGA resolution (480×800 pixels)
• S-Class Touch UI
• Quad Band GSM/GPRS/Edge support
• 3G with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps)
• WiFi & GPS with A-GPS
• 5 Megapixel autofocus camera with Schneider-Kreuznach optics, LED flash, geotagging
• Di (720×480 pixels) @ 30fps, QVGA fast motion video and QVGA slo-mo video
• 8GB built in storage
• Hot swappable microSD card slot
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack and TV out
• USB mass storage
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Accelerometer for screen auto rotate
• Multi-touch input
• 3D Hardware accelerator
• DivX and XviD support
• FM Radio with FM transmitter
• Office document viewer
• Smart dialling

General

Opening the box first impressions were generally positive. On the bottom/front of the device are the send and end keys. Between them is a shortcut key which takes you to the 3D cube. This lets you scroll between the four available customized home screens.

On the top/front of the device is the front facing camera (for video calling) and the powerful speaker.

LG Arena front view

On the rear of the handset is the 5MP camera lens and also the flash for low lighting shots.

LG Arena back view

The left side of the Arena only contains the USB port. Unfortunately LG are still using there proprietary connectivity port and not a more standard MicroUSB or MiniUSB. On the up side, the port does have a nice sliding cover instead of a removable rubber cover like on many other handsets.

LG Arena left side

The right side of the device contains a dedicated camera button for a quick launch and also an up/down volume rocker.

LG Arena right side

The top of the handset houses the 3.5mm headset jack and also the on/off power switch.

LG Arena top view

The bottom of the Arena is plain, featuring no controls or ports whatsoever.

Highlights

• 3G HSDPA
• Built in GPS
• Superb Video Recording
• 3.5mm Headset Jack

Lowlights

• Feels very plastic and low quality

Review

My initial thoughts when I first handled the LG Arena was “oh no, this feels horrible”, however when I turned the handset on I was pleasantly surprised. The screen is extremely vibrant and the haptic feedback makes using the touch screen relatively easy.

The four different home screens make finding what you want quick and smooth.

Although the phone is not of the best build quality all the buttons are extremely responsive and do the job well.

Having 3G made web browsing fast but the browser itself is not the best. It supports pinch zooming (like the iPhone) but it is very jumpy and hard to get the exact zoom you require.

By far the best features on the Arena are the multimedia ones.

The video camera is superb. I have used many high end smartphones and none of them can match the video quality of the Arena. If there was one thing that really impressed me about the handset it was this!

Sample Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6xkEn1C15A

The 5MP camera does a great job and produces good quality bright vibrant images.

Viewing photos on the phone was also a pleasant experience. Switching to landscape mode allows you to swipe forward and back through the images and the pinch zooming works a treat here.

Listening to music was fantastic. The speaker on the Arena sounds amazing and this was before I even figured out that I could switch on the Dolby option. This made the music even crisper and as a rock fan it was nice to be able to clearly hear the bass. Once the wired headset was connected the sound quality was good enough to give any other handset/mp3 player a run for its money.

From LG’s website:

Take great quality photos with the 5 megapixel camera that includes Auto Focus and a 4x digital zoom and capture quality images.

Enjoy a truly cinematic experience with a 3" WVGA screen (480 x 800 Resolution) which gives you four times the   clarity of most mobile phones. Accessing your favourite film has never been easier thanks to the DivX/Xvid Video Playback.

Play your music more powerfully with Dolby Mobile for Music to experience a superior sound quality. Plus, take advantage of the 3.5mm jack, for connecting high quality headphones. Finally, the LG Arena allows you play your music in multi-formats meaning all of your music – MP3, AAC, AAC+, RA and WMA).
Play your music where ever you want with the fantastic FM Transmitter. Plus, enjoy internet access with lightning fast   Wi-Fi connection and a PC like internet browser.  Venture off the beaten track with the integrated A-GPS feature and tag locations of great photos with Geo-Tagging.

Massive 8GB of storage (expandable to 32GB with a Micro SD Card) there’s plenty of room for loads of photos, music and  videos.

Conclusion

So does the LG Arena live up to the hype?

A lot of people have compared the LG Arena to the iPhone, but personally I don’t think that Apple have much to feel threatened about. Although the Arena does everything it says on the box the user experience is not as good as on some other handsets (including the iPhone).

As a fan of touch screen devices I was not expecting the Arena to be a great handset to use but it pretty much ticked all the boxes. Although I won’t be going out to buy one I honestly feel that if I had to recommend a phone to someone who did not need a business handset then the LG Arena would certainly be a contender.

Well done LG. A pretty good effort.

Review by: James

Post Tags: [LG Arena,LG KM900,touchscreen phone,tracyandmatt.co.uk]

O2 XDA Guide review

To start this review I would just like to say, the XDA Guide is like revisiting an old long lost friend, being a long time XDA Orbit user and being more than happy with it, I was interested to see if the new revitalised version can prove itself in this competitive market.

The O2 XDA Guide aka HTC Touch Cruise 09

As Matt mentioned this device appears at the moment to be released as an exclusive to O2, so is there enough reasons to warrant switching over to them? Edit: I notice they are starting to appear on the web now as well.

Following on from the likes of the HTC Touch Cruise, TC2, 09 etc and Orbit 2. This device unofficially is being touted as the Orbit 3, or is that Iolite, call it what you will, here are my thoughts on the device.

Firstly, the Orbit 3, sorry, Guide box, it has to be said the box is huge! And comes in as a 15+cm cube. Fortunately this is to allow for the array of accessories that are included as standard. There are 2 separate boxes included in an outer wrapper, details and views of which can be found on Matt unboxing video.

What’s in the box?

In the 1^st Box, can be found:

• The Xda Guide
• A spare rather small and thin non telescopic stylus
• A mesh type slide in case
• MiniUSB connecting headset with inline controls for phone and player
• AC adaptor that connects via the USB charge cable, and includes a UK adaptor
• There is of course a MiniUSB to USB cable.
• CoPilot Live 7 installed on a 1gb microSD card and a registration card
• Quick start guides for the XDA and CoPilot Live
• CD ROM for ActiveSync, Outlook 2007 trial etc.

The 2^nd box contains:

• In Car charger for the cigarette lighter
• A windscreen suction holder complete with
• An XDA cradle for attaching to the suction holder

A very nice touch again from O2 to include the accessories as standard, I think someone must have nicked the screen protector though?!

Have a look at Matt’s O2 XDA Guide unboxing video for more.

O2 XDA Guide (HTC Touch Cruise 09) Specification:

• Processor – Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528 MHz
• Operating System – Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Memory – ROM: 512 MB/RAM: 256 MB
• Dimensions – 102 X 53.5 X 14.5 mm (4.02 X 2.11 X 0.57 inches)
• Weight – 103 grams (3.63 ounces) with battery
• Display – 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• HTC TouchFLO™
• 4-Way Navigation Wheel with Enter button
• HTC Footprints™ button
• Internal GPS antenna
• A-GPS capable (service provided by Google)
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for stereo wireless headsets
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
• HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one), full-speed USB 2.0
• 3.2 megapixel colour camera with fixed focus
• Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery Capacity: 1100 mAh
• Talk time – Up to 400 minutes for GSM
• Standby time – Up to 330 hours for GSM
• microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Includes proprietary in-car holder
• Photo geotagging

General

On the top there is the power on button and you can also see the stylus holder.

O2 XDA Guide top view

The left hand side is just the single button up/down volume rocker.

O2 XDA Guide left side

The bottom of the Guide is the miniUSB housing underneath which you can just make out the back cover release recess, and a mic.

O2 XDA Guide bottom view

The right hand side has…nothing….no dedicated camera button…just the rest of the stylus holder mentioned in the top.

O2 XDA Guide right side

The rear of the unit again kept really simple has a small lanyard hold at the bottom, a speaker slot and the 3.2 MP camera, again missing any kind of flash or self-portrait mirror.

O2 XDA Guide back view

On the front of the flush screen, is the 2.8” QVGA 320 x 240 (Yes QVGA, please in this day and age?) screen. Under which from left to right is a Navigation button to launch CoPilot and call button, when long pressed activates voice dialling, next to which is the 4 way navigation wheel and enter button, and finally on the right is a dedicated ‘Footprint’ button above the call end key, which when long pressed locks the screen.

O2 XDA Guide front view

Highlights:

• Great shape and design
• Included extras
• NaviPanel

Lowlights:

• Only a QVGA screen
• No screen rotation

Software

The Guide utilises the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which has the normal programs including a few extras such as Opera, Google maps, QuickGPS, Office Mobile, Windows Live and Messenger, Adobe, Footprints, Remote Desktop, RSS Hub, and You Tube, and of course TouchFLO.

The 2 main ones that make the XDA Guide standout more than most are the nifty NaviPanel and the Footprints, included in the TouchFLO application.

NaviPanel cleverly kicks in when you cradle the device into the supplied holder and presents you with 6 large button for quick and easy access to the handy functions needed while cradled. Straight away it asked if I wanted to connect with my Bluetooth car kit,

Once done it then presents a Footprints shortcut icon, covered next, a Phone launcher, and the other 4 buttons launch the CoPilot Live 7 in each area as indicated. Quite clever really and I wish I was clever enough to figure out how it does it, can someone enlighten me? Surely this has a multitude for other uses, like auto shut off and so on?

Secondly as Matt mentioned, ‘the new HTC Touch Cruise is the first mobile phone to offer HTC Footprints, an application experience that enables people to permanently chronicle their special moments by capturing a digital postcard on their phone. Once captured, Footprints provides the ability to take notes and an audio clip of that favourite restaurant or special place while identifying its specific geographical location. In addition to identifying each postcard with its specific GPS co-ordinates, Footprints also auto-names each postcard with its general location or area.’

In reality it is a nice little app for being able to add more details to your ordinary snaps such as Phone numbers, notes, voice note or to navigate to, this will probably work really well for the snap happy but for me I found relatively little use for it, and for me it seems strange to have a dedicated ‘Footprint’ button the front of the device, and not others more commonly used. However it does launch Footprints which at least launches the camera function.

Small note here about CoPilot which I have reviewed in more dept in the past, don’t forget to run QuickGPS and keep it up to date, I found that on the test device, without running QuickGPS at all the Sat Nav never did pick up any satellites and I had arrived at my destination unaided, following the update it lock on very quick and was really accurate too boot.

Review

As I mentioned my previous device of choice as the XDA Orbit, before that one last alteration which completely destroyed it, (Lesson: Don’t take these things apart if you don’t know what you are doing.) and eventually sold as scrap.

I wanted an all in Sat Nav, PDA, and phone etc.etc. which was why I had plumped for the Orbit. On removing the XDA Guide from the box straight away the improvements are immediately visible. At 102 x 54 x 15 mm it is a great size, smaller than the Orbit which was 108 x 58 x 17 mm. It fits well in the hand and the rounded, smooth, flat sides feel nice to hold and comfortable in the hand, big enough to be functional but not so big to be cumbersome.

The detail on the device make it look very smart and stylish, it is solid, polished and very positive in all aspects for me. One of the big failings or the previous model was the lack of memory, and that it only had a 200 MHz processor. Really good to see the major improvements on this device with its Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528 MHz and ROM – 512 MB, RAM – 256 MB upgrade.

A pet hate for both Matt and myself is the position of the reset button, why is it underneath the casing? I might as well take the battery out to reset, one day maybe…

O2 XDA Guide microSD card slot and reset button

On opening the XDA I found the SIM housing a bit fiddly to deal with as it is pretty much flush with the casing and difficult to slide the SIM out once inserted, however there is a small slot next to the camera which can be used to poke out the SIM with the stylus. Replacing the cover gives a good reassuring click as you snap it back on.

The microSD card although not hot swappable from the outside is easily accessed once the back is off, without the added burden of removing the battery.

For me also being an XDA Ignito user the screen is OK but I do prefer the VGA version that I have lived with for some time now, having said that it is completely useable and can be brightened by unchecking the ‘auto adjust backlight’. I had no complaints about the responsiveness of the unit in day to day use.

The next and biggest gripes with the screen are the missing accelerometer preventing landscape screen rotation, probably due to the NaviPanel mentioned earlier, and the shininess. I found that using the CoPilot in the position where I always cradle my Sat Nav was completely useless in bright sunlight, whilst recently on holiday I had to stick a business card in the holder to shade the screen so that I could see it. I also tried had to revert to the supplied holder which means due to the position of my cigarette lighter meant I couldn’t charge it!

The call quality was very good, except in particularly bad conditions, it was not the best in this area as I find other devices such as my Ignito manage slightly better, but the calls are loud and clear with the right conditions.

The cameras are quite well know as not a major strength on these types of HTC devices, it is functional and useable, but not the best, the pictures wouldn’t impress Matt and it certainly doesn’t replace a normal digital camera, I found that in low light there is a definite lack of quality and no flash to compensate, either.

For those who what to use this as an actual phone and texting machine, the phone functions are fairly Windows/HTC standard, the texting abilities are also the same, and one of the reasons I personally, prefer to use TouchPal as my input method of choice.

Conclusion

I have enjoyed having my old friend back, this has been one of the first devices that I have tested in a while, where a few of my colleagues have commented at how neat and tidy it looks, one of my technophobe friends even commented how easy it was to use! The beefed up spec and a few little quirks make this reliable device very easy to live with on a day to day basis, and the small form factor is an added bonus.

It seems that of the ones that are slowly becoming available on certain auction sites, the price is about right as well. If you can’t afford £500 for the Touch Pro2 then have a look at the XDA Guide.

Final personal point – A little off-topic but I would like to thank Tracy and Matt publicly for their generosity in sponsoring me on my upcoming London to Paris cycle ride. (9-13^th September)

I was really disappointed with the results of my recent appeal for cash on www.tracyandmatt.co.uk as I am riding for a great cause in ‘Make-A-Wish’ and could really do with some extra support from the rest of you, to date I have not had one other donation.

You can donate on my web page www.justgiving.com/steve-wilson, so come on guys, ANY amount will make a difference so please don’t be shy. (Sorry about the photo, it was a bad day, and I am getting better.)

Review by: Steve

[ Post Tags: O2 XDA Guide, HTC Touch Cruise 09, Footprints, Windows Mobile, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]