BlackBerry Curve 8520 pros:
+ 256MB Flash Memory
+ 512MHz processor with 128MB RAM
+ Excellent keyboard
+ Good size and feel
+ Optical trackpad is good once you get used to it

BlackBerry Curve 8520 cons:
- In-call sound quality disappoints
- Plastic parts seem not durable enough
- no GPS

Design:

The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 measures 109mm x 60 mm x 13.90 mm (4.29 x 2.36 x 0.54 inches) and weighs 106 grams with battery. The front of the BlackBerry phone is dominated by the 3.4-inch display and the very comfy keyboard. While at the first glance the phone does not look much different from any other BlackBerry phone you can see that it features an optical trackball which is also quite comfortable when you get used to it. The keyboard layout is as usual, but what can you expect from a full QWERTY phone. The top of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 houses media control buttons along with the standard 3.5 mm audio jack and microUSB charging/data port. Both sides of the BlackBerry phone have convenience keys, but the right side houses also the volume rocker. The back of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 features only the 2 megapixel camera lens without flash.

Performance:

The screen displays 320 x 240 pixels and is bright, vivid and has good direct sunlight legibility. The battery performance is, as usual in BlackBerry, also above average in this class of cell phones.
The phonebook has practically unlimited capabilities and so you can store hundreds of contacts with multiple fields for custom ringtone, photo, address, email and plenty of other information.
As most modern phones the BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with a very good organizer in which you can find several very useful applications such as calendar, memo and tasks apps, calculator and voice note recorder.

Multimedia:

The 2 megapixel built in camera in BlackBerry Curve 8520 preforms quite well producing good quality photos with sharp images and nice color. However, due to a relatively small image size the photos cannot be used for anything other than emails, or business meetings.
The music player in BlackBerry Curve 8520 supports a bunch of file types and has good sound quality. The included headphones are of rather poor quality, yet as the BlackBerry Curve 8520 features the standard 3.5 mm audio jack you can use a much better headphone set. As usual, you can sort your music library by artist, genre, album and so on. The album art is, of course, displayed.

Menus / ease of use:

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 runs the latest version of BlackBerry proprietary software and so the user interface has modern icons and very good look overall. The menu structure is quite straightforward so new users should have no difficulties using it. Thanks to the fast procession and a lot of memory everything works very smoothly. Moreover, the OS is highly customizable and you can find plenty of additional programs on the Internet.

• Memory

256MB Flash Memory

• Expandable Memory

Hot swappable Micro SD (located behind battery-cover). SDHC
supported

• Display

High resolution 320×240 pixel color display
Transmissive TFT LCD
Supports over 65,536 colours
2.46″ (diagonally measured)

• Camera

2 MP camera with Fixed focus, no Flash, 5x digital zoom

• Video Camera Format

Normal Mode: 320 x 240 pixel; MMS Mode: 176 x 144 pixel

• Keyboard

35 key backlit QWERTY keyboard

• Ringtones

32 Polyphonic – MIDI, MP3, SP-MIDI, WAV

• Wi-Fi

802.11b/g enabled

• Bluetooth

Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR

• Media Player

BlackBerry Media Player

• Ports

Micro USB port allows charging and data synchronization of the device with a USB “A” to micro-USB “B” cable

• Network

Quad-Band: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
Quad-Band: 850/ 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz EDGE networks

Other recently reviewed Cell phones:
HTC Touch Diamond 2, HTC Touch Pro 2, Nokia 6303 classic, Samsung M7600 Beat, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic

HTC Touch Diamond 2 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM support
+ Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver
+ 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
+ 5 MP auto focus camera with excellent image quality
+ 3.2″ 65K-color WVGA display
+ Latest TouchFLO 3D
+ Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz CPU and 288 MB RAM
+ Dedicated graphics chip
+ Stereo FM radio with RDS
+ Touch-sensitive zoom bar
+ MS Office Mobile document editor
+ Opera 9.5 web browser
+ microSD card slot

HTC Touch Diamond 2 cons:
- No standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Fingerprint magnet
- Not so good sunlight legibility
- Questionable build quality
- No TV out port
- No magnetic stylus

Design:

HTC Touch Diamond 2 measures 107.85 X 53.1 X 13.7 mm (4.25 X 2.09 X 0.54 inches) and weighs 117.5 grams (4.15 ounces) with battery. When compared with the HTC Touch Diamond you can clearly see that the front panel was changed a bit. The hard button are now smaller in order to accommodate a larger screen. The gem patterns disappeared so the new HTC phone does not resemble a diamond so much. So, now the front panel in the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is dominated by the 3.2-inch screen displaying XVGA resolution. Above the display there is the earpiece, the secondary video-call camera and the ambient light sensor. Below the screen you can see the touch sensitive zoom bar along with the four hardware keys. The top of the HTC Touch Diamond 2 houses the power key, whereas on the bottom you can find the stylus compartment along with the miniUSB port. The left side of the HTC Touch Diamond 2 features the volume rocker and the right side the loudspeaker grill. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated camera key. The back has no diamond-like finishing and the only thing you can see there is the 5 megapixel camera lens.

Performance:

The screen on the HTC Touch Diamond 2 shows very bright and vivid image, yet in direct sunlight it disappoints as you can hardly see anything. The battery performance in the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is quite satisfactory. The menus look very well and the transitions and effects are smooth. The built-in accelerometer allows the HTC Touch Diamond 2 to rotate given menus automatically. Moreover, the HTC cell phone has an interesting feature thanks to which you can mute the phone by turning it face down. There are no problems with signal reception or in-call sound quality.

Multimedia:

The HTC Touch Diamond 2 comes with a music player which strongly resembles the Apple iPod so it is visually attractive. As there is no standard 3.5mm audio jack on the HTC cell phone you are stuck with the headphones you get in the box. Fortunately, the sound quality is more than decent and you can really complain here. The stereo crosstalk, dynamic range and noise levels are very good and so the overall sound quality is very good.
The video player in the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is the standard Windows Media Player which is simply poor. You can of course find something else on the web and you will even have to if you want to watch DivX/XviD videos. When you run the videos you can notice that they look very well on the bright and large screen.
The HTC Touch Diamond 2 can also take 5 megapixel photos in up to 2592 x 1944 pixels. The camera has very simple interface and so taking pictures is really easy. In bright light the image quality is very good with plenty of detail and natural colors. As the HTC Touch Diamond 2 has no flash photos in darker light will not look so good. You can also record videos with the HTC cell phone but only in VGA resolution at 15fps.
Browsing the Internet with the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is a real pleasure as you get the Opera 9.5. The browser is fast and has a bunch of useful features, such as find on page. Zooming, panning and scrolling are smooth and thanks to the high resolution of the scene even the most elaborate pages look really good.

Menus/ease of use:

The HTC Touch Diamond 2 comes with the updated ToouchFLO 3D interface. It works really well and looks equally good and although it misses the capacitive touchscreen you can hardly see it. The home screen in the HTC phone features a clock and a few tabs which have different purposes. So there is one called home which is responsible for call logs, People tab shows you your contacts, whereas the messages tab allows you to write SMSs, MMSs. Emails have a separate tabs, as does the Internet. There is also one for photos and videos and one for music so generally operating the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is very easy and pleasant even though it runs Windows Mobile. All in all, the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is a very decent phone considering its price and specs.
Selected HTC Touch Diamond 2 features and specifications:

• Processor

Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz

• Operating System

Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional

• Memory

ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288 MB

• Display

3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution

• Network

HSDPA/WCDMA:
Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)

• Device Control

TouchFLO™ 3D
Zoom bar

• GPS

Internal GPS antenna

• Connectivity

Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

• Camera

Main camera: 5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera

• Audio supported formats

AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
Video supported formats
WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI

• Battery

Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1100 mAh

• Talk time:

Up to 300 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 340 minutes for GSM

• Standby time:

Up to 500 hours for WCDMA
Up to 360 hours for GSM

• Video call time: Up to 150 minutes

(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

• Expansion Slot

microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

• AC Adapter

Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

• Special Features

FM Radio, G-Sensor

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

HTC Touch Pro2, Nokia 6303 classic, Samsung M7600 Beat, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75

Overview:

HTC Touch Pro2 is a very powerful cell phone featuring a fast processor and a dedicated graphics chip to make working with it a real pleasure. Additionally, the HTC Touch Pro2 has great connectivity, built in GPS receiver with A-GPS, excellent web browser and Office document viewer and editor right out of the box. Of course, the HTC phone features also a music player and a built-in camera.

HTC Touch Pro2 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and HSDPA 7.2Mbps
+ 3.15 MP auto focus camera
+ 3.6″ 65K-color touchscreen WVGA display
+ Revamped TouchFLO 3D Home screen and gesture controls
+ Dedicated graphics chip (64MB RAM reserved for graphics)
+ Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS
+ Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz CPU and 288 MB DDR SDRAM
+ Standard miniUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
+ Five row full QWERTY side-sliding keyboard of brilliant ergonomics
+ TV out
+ Excellent video playback
+ MS Office Mobile document editor
+ Opera 9.5 web browser

HTC Touch Pro2 cons:
- Poor camera performance
- Considerable size and weight
- Lack of standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Average sunlight legibility
- No flash for the camera

Design:

HTC Touch Pro 2 measures 116 X 59.2 X 16.65 mm (4.57 X 2.33 X 0.66 inches) and weighs 178.5 grams (6.3 ounces) with battery. Although is might seems that touchscreen devices have quite limited design options somehow the HTC Touch Pro2 is able to stand out from the crowd. The front panel is dominated by the 3.6” touchscreen, whereas the back houses the 3 megapixel camera lens and a second microphone used for improving sound quality during phone calls by muting background noise. The right side of the HTC Touch Pro2 features the hot swappable memory card slot. The left side houses only the volume rocker. On the bottom you can see the miniUSB port and the stylus compartment whereas on the top of the HTC cell phone the power key.

Performance:

Unfortunately, the HTC Touch Pro 2 has troubles displaying nice image in bright daylight. It’s really quite surprising considering that the HTC phone is a high end smartphone. The battery performance in the HTC Touch Pro2 is more than satisfactory with 50 hours of standby and over 8 hours of talk time. When you slide the phone open you will see the comfortable full QWERTY keyboard which provides good feedback and has excellent ergonomics.

Multimedia:

The HTC Touch Pro2 comes with a very good music player which resembles iPod Touch a bit as it has something similar to the Cover Flow. You can sort your music library by artist, genre, compose, or make your own playlists. As there is no 3.5m standard audio jack you will have to use the headphones that come with the HTC cell phone. The general audio quality is commendable, with good frequency response, acceptable noise level and dynamic range.
The HTC Touch Pro2 also comes with a video player supporting mp4 and 3gp files so you will have to install additional software to run DIvX and XviD. The videos look very good on the bright and large display.
The HTC Touch Pro2 also features a 3 megapixel camera capable of taking 2048 x 1536 photos. As the camera has no flash you will be unable to take photos in darker areas and with no dedicated camera key you have to start it from the menu. Although there are several features for the camera the overall image quality disappoints. The photos might have good amount of detail but the colors look unreal. Moreover, the camera tends to oversharpen and produce too much noise.
As the HTC Touch Pro2 features Opera 9.5 web browser and good connectivity browsing the internet with the HTC Touch Pro2 is a real pleasure. The web sites are rendered just like on your computer and with features such as find on page and a virtual pointer it is easy to find desired information quickly.

Menus/Ease of use:

HTC Touch Pro2 runs on Windows Mobile with the HTC’s TouchFLO interface. The entire user interface is touch optimized and has 3D home screen with multiple tabs. Each tab has a different purpose and so you get one for your favorite contacts, one for text massages, one for music player, Internet, calendar, photos and videos and settings. Such a menu division makes it really easy to operate the phone with a single swipe of a finger. Of course you can customize your tabs so suit your needs more. As the operating system in the HTC Touch Pro2 is Windows Mobile i think everyone knows what to expect from it.

Selected HTC Touch Pro2 features and specifications:

• Processor

Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz

• Operating System

Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional

• Memory

ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288 MB

• Display

3.6-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution
Adjustable tilt screen

• Network

HSPA/WCDMA:
Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency, HSPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)

• Device Control

TouchFLO™ 3D
Zoom bar

• Keyboard

Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard

• GPS

Internal GPS antenna

• Connectivity

Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)

• Camera

Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera

• Audio supported formats

AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
Video supported formats
WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI

• Battery

Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1500 mAh

• Talk time:

Up to 390 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 510 minutes for GSM

• Standby time:

Up to 750 hours for WCDMA
Up to 500 hours for GSM
Video call time: Up to 160 minutes
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

• Expansion Slot

microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

• AC Adapter

Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

• Special Features

G-Sensor
Straight Talk™
Noise-cancelling dual microphones and speakers

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

Nokia 6303 classic, Samsung M7600 Beat, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte

Overview:

Nokia 6303 classic features 2.2-inch screen, stereo radio with RDS and standard 3.5mm audio jack. Nokia 6303 classic is a genuine classic with plenty upgrades to make it more modern, yet it lacks a dedicated shutter release button, 3G, multi tasking and an office document viewer. Still, depending on your priorities the Nokia 6303 classic might be just the right phone for you.

Nokia 6303 classic pros:
+ Good battery life
+ 2.2″ 16M-color QVGA display with excellent sunlight legibility
+ S40 user interface, 6th edition
+ microSD card slot (4 GB supported, 1GB included)
+ 3 megapixel camera, autofocus and LED flash
+ VGA video recording at 15fps
+ Stereo FM radio with RDS
+ Bluetooth (with A2DP) and microUSB port
+ Standard 3.5mm audio jack
+ Plenty of preinstalled applications

Nokia 6303 classic cons:
- No 3G
- No smart dialing
- No office document viewer
- Memory card slot under the back cover
- No dedicated shutter key
- Poor image quality
- No multi-tasking

The design:

Nokia 6303 classic measures 108.8 x 46.2 x 11.7 mm and weighs 96 grams. On the front of the Nokia phone you can see the 2.2-inch screen and above it the ambient light sensor together with the earpiece. Below the display you will see the D-pad, and some knobs on its both sides. The top of the Nokia 6303 classic houses only the power button, whereas the slightly curved bottom is home to the standard 3.5 mm audio jack, microUSB port, the charger plug and the lanyard eyelet. The left side of the Nokia 6303 classic has no interesting features, whereas the right side houses the volume rocker. The back do the Nokia cell phone features the loudspeaker grill, 3-megapixel camera lens and the LED flash.

Performance:

Nokia 6303 classic has pretty and responsive menus. Moreover, the phone can store up to 2000 contacts with multiple fields not only for the phone number, but for additional information such as birth date, email, image, custom ringtone and so on. The signal reception and in-call voice clarity are excellent as always in Nokia cell phones. The call log stores up to 20 last dialed, received and missed calls. The messaging is comfy and trouble-free.
Nokia 6303 classic has no office document viewer which is a pity as I think most of its potential buyers would welcome that feature. The cell phone also does not have any multi tasking support which might make using some of its applications quite time consuming and not so user friendly.

Multimedia:

Nokia 6303 classic comes with a traditional music player supporting all the most common music files. There is only one there of the music player, but the more important thing is the equalizer and the Nokia 6303 classic has 5 equalizer presents which is just fine. The general audio quality is commendable, with good frequency response and outstanding intermodulation distortion test results.
The 3.2 megapixel camera in the Nokia 6303 classic can take photos in up to 2048 x 1536 pixels. Although there are plenty of manual settings and scene modes the general image quality disappoints. Additionally, the flash is quite poor and as the lens has no cover it might get scratched easily. The Nokia phone can also record movies in VGA resolution at 15 fps so the movies are hardly useable.
The Internet browsers, on the other hand, is a very good application in the Nokia 6303 classic. The web pages are rendered just like on your computer, however flash is not supported.

Menus/Ease of use:

The menu structure in the Nokia 6303 classic is quite usual so you should not expect any novelties. The menu is well designed and very responsive which makes it fun to work with. There are six ringing profiles and the flight mode which does not requite SIM card to be in the phone. The menus are customizable and as the phone comes with five different themes everyone will something suitable.

Selected Nokia 6303 classic features and specifications:

• Screen

2.2 Inch 16.7 Million Colour TFT QVGA Screen (320 x 240 Pixels)

• Imaging

3.2 Megapixel Camera
8 x Digital Zoom
Dual LED Flash
Flash (On, Off & Automatic)
Auto Focus
Full Screen Viewfinder
Capture (Still, Sequence, Self Timer & Video)
Colour Tone Mode (Normal, Sepia, Greyscale & Negative)
Video Recording (15 FPS)
4 x Digital Zoom
Video Player
Video Colour Tone (Normal, Sepia, Greyscale & Negative)
Wallpapers
Animated Screensaver

• Messaging

SMS (Text Messaging)
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
Email (IMAP, POP & SMTP)
Email with Attachments
Predictive Text

• Sound

Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, H263 & H264)
FM Radio RDS
MP3, AAC & Polyphonic Ringtones
Video Ringtones
3.5mm Stereo Headphone
Audio Recording

• Entertainment

Java™ Games
Downloadable Games
Organiser
Phonebook
Contacts with Images
Calendar
Alarm Clock
Call Waiting, Call Hold & Call Divert
Missed, Received & Dialled Call Log
Handsfree Speaker
Conference Calling (6 Contacts)
Vibrating Alert
GPS Receiver
Nokia Maps Application

• Connectivity

Bluetooth®
Micro USB
EDGE
GPRS

Network
Tri Band (GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900)

• Internet

Opera Mini Browser
Nokia Mobile Search
HTML, XHTML & WML Browsing

• Memory & Talk Time

64 Mbytes Memory with 1 Gbyte MicroSD™ Memory Card supports 4 Gbytes
7 Hours Talk Time
450 Hours Standby

Other recently reviewed Cell phones:

Samsung M7600 Beat dj, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Sony Ericsson W508

Overview:

Samsung M7600 Beat dj features 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen, GPS receiver with A-GPS support, DivX and XviD video compatibility and 3.2 megapixel camera. Moreover, the Samsung phone has accelerometer for screen auto rotation, microSD memory card slot and radio with RDS. Still, its most recognizable feature is the unusual, yet very functional design.

Samsung M7600 Beat dj pros:
+ MicroSD card slot (up to 16 GB), 8 GB card in the box
+ Outstanding design
+ Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support, Google Maps
+ Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
+ Standard 3.5mm audio jack
+ Office document viewer
+ 2.8″ 16M-color AMOLED touchscreen display of WQVGA resolution
+ 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
+ Proximity sensor for auto screen turn-off
+ Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
+ DivX/XviD video support
+ Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM recording
+ Smart dialing

Samsung M7600 Beat dj cons:
- No virtual on-screen QWERTY keyboard
- Limited Flash support in browser
- User interface is quite laggy
- BeatDJ app could’ve been better and more responsive

The design:

Samsung M7600 Beat dj measures 111 x 51 x 14 mm and weighs slightly less than 100 grams. The phone is made of high quality plastic and thanks to its rounded edges it really stands out from the other phones, even the Apple iPhone. The front of the Samsung M7600 Beat is dominated by the 2.8” display showing 16M colors in WQVGA resolution. Above the display you can find the video call camera together with ambient light detector. Blow the screen are the Call and End keys as well as the Back button. The right side of the Samsung M7600 Beat houses the microSD memory card slot and the camera key, whereas the left side features the connectivity port, the volume rocker, lock slider and the lanyard eyelet. The back of the phone hosts the 3 megapixel camera lens together with the LED flash and self-portrait mirror.

Performance:

Making phone call with the Samsung M7600 Beat is a real pleasure. There are no reception issues and the in-call sound quality is top-notch. The battery performance is good and the biggest issue with the Samsung M7600 Beat might the sometimes laggy interface. Although there are predefined folders for different multimedia files to be stored in the Samsung M7600 Beat you can easily move all the files and the Samsung phone will handle them without any effort. Reading files from the memory card is fast even if you use a 16 GB cards.

Multimedia:

The Samsung M7600 Beat is a music DJ so it not only has great music player but also a quite nice music mixer. When you run the BeatDJ application you will see a few buttons controlling Samples, Filters, REC and Scratch and so if you play some music you can also mix it on your phone. Although there are only ten filters and 20 samples it may be quite good fun.
When you run the music player on the Samsung M7600 Beat you can not only browse your music library by artist, genre, album and so on, but you can also choose an equalizer preset, or create your own, custom equalizer. You can also go for the 5.1 virtual surround and Bang and Aloofness audio amplifier. The general sound quality in Samsung M7600 Beat is very good.
The 3.2 megapixel camera in the Samsung M7600 Beat can take photos in up to 2048 x 1536 pixels and record movies at VGA resolution at 15 fps. The camera interface is entirely touch optimized and so it is easy and pleasant to use. As you get plenty of settings such as white balance, shooting modes and so on the image quality is more than decent.

Menus / ease of use:

Samsung M7600 Beat features the TouchWiz user interface which along with the unusual Samsung phone design makes a really good impression. The homescreen and the icons have been refreshed and look modern and appealing. The main menu is displayed as an icon grid while the submenus are shown as a list of items. The general impression of the UI is very positive, yet it is sometimes a bit laggy and may be annoying in the long run.
Selected Samsung M7600 Beat features and specifications:
Display Resolution

• 240x400px

Display Color

• 16M

Display Technology

• OLED

Input / Navigation

• Touch Screen Display

Vibration

• Available

Ringtones

• MP3
• 72 Channels Polyphonic

Connectivity
Compatible Networks

• UMTS 900
• UMTS 2100 (3G)
• GSM 900
• GSM 1800
• GSM 1900
• GSM 850

Positioning System

• Integrated GPS

USB

• v2.0

Bluetooth

• v2.0

Audio Output

• 3.5mm Audio Connector

EDGE

• Class 10

HSCSD

• HSCSD Support

GPRS

• Class 10

Software
Operating System

• Proprietary

Java

• MIDP 2

Hardware
External Memory

• microSD

Internal Memory

• 50MB

Sensors

• Accelerometer

Camera Resolution

• 3.15 Megapix

Camera Flash

• LED

Video Recording

• Available

Battery

• 960 mAh

Estimated Price

• 512.20 to 628.50 US$

Other recently reviewed mobile phones:

LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Sony Ericsson W508, BlackBerry Bold 9000.

Overview:

Samsung S7350 Ultra s features a built-in GPS receiver, very good connectivity and a 2.6” 16M color TFT display. The phone is capable of displaying high resolution video with DivX and XviD support. Additionally, the Samsung S7350 Ultra s can easily view MS office documents so it seems it is equally good for works and for leisure.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s pros:
+ Large 2.6″ 16M-color TFT display of WQVGA(400×240) resolution
+ 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and plenty of other features
+ Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
+ D1 video at 30 fps and slow-motion video recording
+ Built-in GPS with A-GPS support
+ Hot-swappable microSD card slot (support for up to 16GB)
+ Accelerometer sensor
+ DivX and XviD support
+ Quad-band GSM and dual-band (900/2100 MHz) UMTS with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) support

Samsung S7350 Ultra s cons:
- Initial memory card initialization is quite slow
- No full-featured voice-guided navigation software
- Video recording quality isn’t good
- Inadequate flash performance

The deign:

Samsung S7350 Ultra s measures 109 x 50.5 x 12.6 mm and weighs 108 grams. The front of the Samsung phone is dominated by the large 2.6” screen. Below the screen you can see the d-pad surrounded by four controls. When you slide the phone open you will see the comfortable alphanumeric keyboard. The top of the Samsung S7350 Ultra s is completely bare, whereas the bottom features the microphone pinhole. The right side of the Samsung phone houses the camera key and the microUSB port. On the left side of the phone you will see the volume rocker and the lanyard eyelet. The back of the phone is plain when it is closed but when you slide the Samsung S7350 Ultra s open you can see the 5 megapixel camera lens, LED flash and the self-portrait mirror there. The overall built quality of the Samsung S7350 Ultra s is very good and seems durable.

Performance:

Unfortunately, the Samsung S7350 Ultra s has a TFT screen which does not assure very good direct sunlight legibility. The battery life of the Samsung phone, on the other hand, is very good. The phone supports MicroSD memory cards up to 16 GB, however the initialization of the card takes too much time. It can be an issue if you change the cards very often, but if you use only one card I think you can live with that.

Multimedia:

The Samsung S7350 Ultra s is an excellent device for browsing the Internet. Thanks to the large screen and a good browser all the pages are displayed fast and just as you would see them on your computer. As you also get features as find on page, minimap and virtual pointer browsing the web with the Samsung S7350 Ultra s is a real pleasure.
The Samsung S7350 Ultra s has very good music and video players. The music player displays album artwork and has a few equalizer presets to choose from. More importantly, is has a very good sound quality. The video player supports DivX and XviD videos which you can watch in portrait and landscape modes.
The camera is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera capable of taking 2560 x 1920 photos. You get a whole bunch of features for the camera including a few shooting modes, face detection, color effects and smile shutter. The image quality is very good and if you are not a professional photographer it will surely be more than enough.

Menus / ease of use:

The Samsung S7350 Ultra s has the Samsung proprietary, flash based user interface. The overall impression of the interface is quite good as it looks nice and is customizable. You can set the wallpaper, choose from a few themes and run several applications at the same time. Samsung S7350 Ultra s is one of the first Samsung phones to feature the Search as Spelling which might be knows to people using Sony Ericsson W508, or Sony Ericsson T707 as smart dialing. The phonebook in Samsung S7350 Ultra s is quite capable: it can store up to 100 contacts with multiple fields. You can also assign ringtones, to contacts, or groups of contacts, add a caller’s image (you can even add a video here). All in all, the Samsung S7350 Ultra s is a very capable phone for a reasonable price.
Selected Samsung S7350 Ultra s features and specifications:
Screen

• 2.6 Inch 16 Million Colour Screen (240 x 400 Pixels)

Imaging

• 5 Megapixel Camera
• LED Flash
• Auto Focus
• Smile Detection
• Camera Geo Tagging
• Picture Album
• Video Player (MPEG4, H263, H264, WMV9 & DivX)
• Video Record (30 Frames per Second)
• Second Camera
• Video Calling
• Picture Wallpaper

Messaging

• SMS (Text Messaging)
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
• Email
• Predictive Text

Sound

• Music Player (MP3, AAC & WMA)
• FM Radio RDS
• Polyphonic Ringtones
• MP3 Ringtones

Entertainment

• Downloadable Games
• Java™ Games
• Organiser
• Phonebook
• Organiser
• Calendar
• Clock
• Alarm Clock
• Calculator
• Speaker Call
• Call Log
• Document Viewer
• GPS Receiver
• AGPS Function

Connectivity

• 3G HSDPA
• Bluetooth® with A2DP
• USB
• GPRS
• EDGE

Network

• Quad Band (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900)
• HSDPA 900 & 2100

Internet

• WAP 2.0
• XHTML & HTML Browser

Memory & Talk Time

• MicroSD™ Memory Card Support
• 4 Hours Talk Time
• 350 Hours Standby

Other recently reviewed mobile phones:

Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Sony Ericsson W508,  BlackBerry Bold 9000, Sony Ericsson T707.

Overview:

The Samsung S7220 Ultra b offers 2.2-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel digital camera with great image quality and built-in GPS receiver. Moreover, as you can see in the pictures below the phone has interesting design and a comfortable keyboard. Thanks to the built-in accelerometer the menus, photos and videos are automatically rotated and multitasking assures that you can listen to the radio while browsing the web with the Samsung S7220 Ultra b.

Samsung S7220 Ultra b pros:
+ Quad-band GSM and dual-band UMTS with HSDPA support
+ microUSB v2.0, charging through USB
+ 2.2″ 256K-color AMOLED display of QVGA resolution
+ 5 megapixel autofocus camera with plenty features
+ Office document viewer
+ Built-in GPS with A-GPS support
+ Stereo FM radio with RDS
+ Hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
+ Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
+ Accelerometer sensor
+ Basic Java multitasking

Samsung S7220 Ultra b cons:
- Small and fiddly soft keys
- No camera lens protection
- No full-featured voice-guided navigation software
- Inadequate flash performance

The design:

Samsung S7220 Ultra b measures 114 x 46.3 x 11.8 mm and weighs only 90 grams. The front of the phone is dominated by the 2.2-inch AMOLED display below which you can see the D-pad and the alphanumeric keyboard. On the right side of the Samsung S7220 Ultra b you can see the microUSB port, as well as the camera button, whereas on the left side you will see the volume rocker. The back of the Samsung phone features the 5 megapixel camera lens and the LED flash. The lens has no protection whatsoever, but it is slightly embedded. The overall built quality of Samsung S7220 Ultra b is very good.

Performance:

The 2.2 inch display in the Samsung S7220 Ultra b is bright and colorful, yet in direct sunlight it is often difficult to see the details. Samsung phones often have this disadvantage. On the other hand the battery life is quite good. The signal reception and in-call sound quality are very good and that is probably still the most important feature of phones so generally the Samsung S7220 Ultra b does not disappoint. The Samsung phone supports microSD memory cards up to 16GB.

Multimedia:

The music player in Samsung S7220 Ultra b looks quite nice, but more importantly it offers a very good sound quality. The album art is displayed and you can sort your music library by artist, album, or genre. You can also choose from a few different equalizer presets and different visualizations.
The video player is quite poor and it supports only MPEG-4 videos in up to VGA resolution so if you want your mobile phone to show all kinds of videos you’d better consider buying a Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH.
The 5 megapixel camera in Samsung S7220 Ultra b does a really good job. The photos look sharp, with plenty of details and well rendered color. The maximum resolution is 2560 x 1920 and the camera has a bunch of features such as face detection, smile shutter, geolocalication, as well as plenty of effects. However, the video recording feature in Samsung S7220 Ultra disappoints as the phone is capable only of recording QVGA videos at 15 fps.

Menus / ease of use:

The entire user interface in Samsung S7220 Ultra b is very similar to the good old Samsung menu so you should know what to expect. There are three different flash based themes to choose from and all of them look really well. The main emu is displayed as a grid but the submenus are displayed as a list with adjustable the font size.
The Samsung S7220 Ultra b phonebook can store up to 1000 contacts with multiple fields where you can put name, several phone numbers, or a note. You can also group contacts and add specific ringtones to contacts, or entire groups.
The phone, of course, has a bunch of timesaving applications.features such as the calendar, to-do application, timer, stopwatch and an alarm clock.
Selected Samsung S7220 Ultra b (aka Samsung Tocco Ultra) features and specifications:
Usability

• Display Resolution 320x240px
• Display Color 256K
• Display Technology OLED
• Input / Navigation Navigation Joystick / Button
• Numeric Keypad
• Vibration Available
• Ringtones MP3
• Polyphonic

Connectivity

• Compatible Networks HSDPA 2100 (3.5G)
• HSDPA 900
• GSM 900
• GSM 1800
• GSM 1900
• GSM 850
• USB v2.0
• Bluetooth v2.0
• EDGE Class 10
• Radio FM
• RDS
• GPRS Class 10

Software

• Operating System Proprietary
• Java MIDP 2

Hardware

• Processor Speed Proprietary
• External Memory microSD
• Sensors Accelerometer
• Camera Resolution 5 Megapix
• Camera Flash LED
• Video Recording Available

Ergonomics

• Dimensions 114×46.3×11.8mm

Weight 90g

• Form Factor Candy Bar

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

Sony Ericsson T707, BlackBerry Bold 9000, Sony Ericsson W508, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Nokia E75, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH.

Overview:

The new Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is yet another iPhone-inspired mobile phone, yet it has something that the iPhone lack, namely an alphanumeric keypad. The Samsung phone features also 8 megapixel autofocus camera, built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS, accelerometer for screen auto rotation and preinstalled document viewer.

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH pros:
+ Commendable build quality
+ MicroSD card slot (up to 16 GB), 1 GB included
+ DivX/XviD video support
+ Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
+ Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
+ 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, wide dynamic range and D1 video@30 fps
+ 2.8″ 16M color AMOLED touchscreen display with 400 x 240 pixel resolution
+ Anti-scratch screen surface
+ Proximity sensor for auto screen turn-off

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH cons:
- Slowish user interface
- Limited options for third-party GPS navigation software
- Slow initializing of large microSD cards
- No virtual on-screen QWERTY keyboard
- No Wi-Fi connectivity

The design:

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH measures 110 x 51.5 x 12.7 mm and weighs 127 grams which might make it seem a bit to big, but you have to remember that it is a slider with an alphanumeric keyboard. The phone has an appealing design and is available in two different cases. The front of the cell phone is dominated by the 2.8” 16M color touchscreen covered by an anti-scratch surface. Below the screen you can see three buttons: Call and End, as well as Back button. You can also slide the phone open to see the alphanumeric keyboard which so many users still prefer to the touchscreens. Above the display is the earpiece and next to it the video camera and the ambient light sensor. The right side of Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH features the camera key, display lock and the microUSB port, whereas the left side houses the volume rocker. Both the top and the bottom of the phone are completely bare. The back of the Samsung cell phone houses the 8 megapixel camera lens, LED flash and a self-portrait mirror.

Performance:

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH has no issues when it comes to making phone calls. The reception is good and so are the voices. The battery of Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is supposed to last for about 4 hours of talk time, or 350 hours of standby. The phone supports up to 16 GB memory cards and comes with a 1 GB memory card in the box.

Multimedia:

The Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is capable of sending all types of messages. Setting up an e-mail is not as easy as on the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, or Nokia E75, but when you enter all the necessary information everything goes smoothly. What I liked about the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is the fact that is supports up to 5 MB e-mail attachments and that is has a document viewer right out of the box.
The music player in Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH does a really good job. You can sort tracks by author,  genre and album. There are a few equalizer presets, but you cannot add any new ones. The audio quality is very good and the player is optimized to work well with the touch-interface. Moreover, the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH has a radio with RDS, so there is relay little more you could expect.
The video player in Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH supports both DivX and XviD videos which look really great on the large screen.
The 8 megapixel digital camera in Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH can take photos in up to 3264 x 2448 pixels. The camera has plenty of interesting features and good lens thank to which the quality of images is really good. When it comes to video recording the Samsung cell phone does not disappoint. It can record in up to 720 x 480 resolution at 30 fps, or in QVGA resolution at 120 fps. The quality of videos is comparable to the quality of photos, which means it is really great.

Menus / ease of use:
The interface in the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is visually appealing, customizable and generally well thought out. However, it has the annoying tendency to lag at times. Apart from that it seems that everything works fine. There are plenty of widgets to put on your homescreen, auto rotation and some nice animations. If it wasn’t for the lags the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH could easily compete with current leaders, such as for instance the iPhone.
Selected Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH features and specifications:
Network

• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
HSDPA 900 / 2100

Display

• OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors,240 x 400 pixels, 2.8 inches

Memory

• microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB, up to 4 GB, 80 MB built-in

Camera

• 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, wide dynamic range, Video WVGA@30fps, Videocall camera

CPU

• No

OS/Platform

• proprietary

3G

• Yes, HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps

Features

• - Accelerometer sensor
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Scratch-resistant surface
-Stereo FM radio with RDSr
- GPS with A-GPS support; optional navigation software
- DviX/ XviD/ MPEG4/ H.263/ H.264/ WMV9 player
- MP3/AAC/WMA player
- Organizer
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Voice memo/dial
- T9

Messaging

• SMS, MMS, Email

Data

• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE, Bluetooth,USB

Battery

• Standard battery, Li-Ion 880 mAh
Stand-by Up to 350 h
Talk time Up to 4 h

Dimension

• 110 x 51.5 x 12.7 mm

Price

• About $500

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Sony Ericsson W508, BlackBerry Bold 9000, Sony Ericsson T707.

Overview:

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is a well designed music phone which can easily substitute a dedicated mp3 player. The phone offers great connectivity, very good audio quality, music light effects and much, much more for quite a reasonable price.

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic pros:
+ Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
+ Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
+ Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
+ 2″ 262K color TFT display of QVGA resolution
+ Ambient light sensor
+ Music light effects
+ Sleek body design and nice choice of materials

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic cons:
- No office document viewer
- No 3G
- No stereo loudspeakers
- No smart dialing
- No Java multi-tasking

The design:

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic measures 107.5 x 46.7 x 14.8 mm and weighs 88 grams with the battery. The phone is covered with shiny plastic which looks really great but is prone to get covered with fingerprints quite fast. On the front of the Nokia phone you will see the 2” screen displaying 256k colors in 320 x 240 resolution. Below the screen there is the D-pad and a comfy and responsive keypad. The top of the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic houses the standard 3.5m audio jack, microUSB slot and the charger plug, whereas the bottom has no ports, or buttons. The right side of Nokia 5130 XpressMusic houses the microSD memory card slot, whereas the left side houses the dedicated music keys and the lanyard eyelet. The overall impression of the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic’s build quality is very positive.

Performance:

As usual with Nokia phones there are no reception, or in-call sound problems with the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic. The phone has a capacious phonebook which can store up to 2000 contacts with multiple fields for information. The contacts can be organized in groups which can later on be used as call filters. The message editor is simple and setting up your email account takes only a few seconds with most email providers.

Multimedia:

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic has the standard (a bit old) gallery so do not expect miracles here. The phone has 16 MB of built-in memory, but as it ships with 1 GB memory card in the box you will be able to put some music on the phone right away. Although the manufacturer claims that the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic supports only 2 GB memory cards it seems that it can handle all cards.
The music player in Nokia 5130 XpressMusicis its most important feature and here the phone does not disappoint. The music quality is really great and you get a few equalizer presets. Additionally, you can sort the music by artist, album and so on so it is also easy to use. Thanks to the A2DP support you can use stereo Bluetooth earphones, or any other headphones as a matter of fact thanks to the 3.5 mm standard audio jack.

Menus / ease of use:

The menu structure in Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is the good old Nokia menu with no tweaks. There are a few viewing modes to choose from, yet there is no Flight mode. Lack of flight mode is strange for a music phone, all the more so because the competition (such as the Sony Ericsson W508, or Sony Ericsson T707) has no problem implementing it. Nokia 5130 XpressMusic lacks also a few other features found in some other phones, like smart dialing, multitasking, or office document viewer.
Selected Nokia 5130 XpressMusic features and specifications:
Display and 3D

• Size: 2.0″
• Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
• Up to 256k colours

Keys and input method

• Numeric keypad
• Dedicated music and volume keys
• Voice commands

Colours and covers

• Available in-box colours:
- Red
- Blue
Available colours may vary per region

Connectors

• Micro-USB connector
• 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector

Memory

• microSD memory card slot, hot swap, support up to 2 GB
• 1 GB microSD card included
• 30 MB internal dynamic memory (incl. Pre-loaded content)

Power

• BL-5C 1020 mAh Li-Ion standard battery
• Talk time (maximum): – GSM 6 hrs
• Standby time (maximum): – GSM 288 hrs
• Video playback time (maximum): 4 hrs
• Video recording time (maximum): 1 hr
• Music playback time (maximum): up to 21 hrs

Operating frequency

• Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Data network

• CSD
• GPRS release 4, class B, with GPRS multislot class 32
• EDGE GPRS multislot class 32
• TCP/IP support
• Capability to serve as data modem
• Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes

Local connectivity and synchronisation

• Bluetooth version 2.0
• Support for PC synchronisation with Nokia PC Suite

Call features

• Integrated hands-free speakerphone
• Number screening for messaging and calls
• Automatic answer with headset or car kit
• Any key answer
• Call waiting, call hold, call divert
• Logging of dialled, received and missed calls
• Automatic redial
• Speed dialling
• Fixed dialling number support
• Vibrating alert (internal)
• Side volume keys
• Mute/unmute
• Contacts with images
• Conference calling

Messaging

• SMS
• Speed dialling for SMS sending
• List of recently used numbers in message editor
• Multiple SMS deletion
• EMS picture messaging (send and receive)
• MMS version 1.3 message size up to 600 kb
• Automatic resizing of images for MMS
• Nokia Xpress audio messaging
• Common inbox for SMS and MMS messages
• Distribution lists for messaging
• Cell broadcast

E-mail

• Supported protocols: IMAP, POP, SMTP, OMA EMN
• Support for e-mail attachments

Web browsing

• Supported mark-up languages: HTML, XHTML
• Supported protocols: WAP 2.0
• TCP/IP support
• Opera mini browser
• Nokia Mobile Search

Photography

• 2 megapixel camera
• 4x digital zoom
• White balance modes: automatic, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent
• Colour tone modes: normal, sepia, black & white, vivid, negative
• Light sensitivity modes: high, medium, low, automatic
• Landscape (horizontal) orientation

Video

• Main camera
• Video recording at up to 176 x 144 pixels and up to 15 fps
• Up to 4x digital video zoom
• Audio recording formats: AMR
• Video white balance modes: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
• Scene modes: automatic, night, close-up, snow/beach, cine, old film
• Clip length (maximum): subject to available memory
• Video Player
• Video playback file formats: .mp4, .3gp;
• Landscape mode video playback

Music and audio playback

• MP3 Music Player
• Music playback file formats: .mp3 AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, MP3, Midi, WMA, WAMR, MXMF
• Dedicated music and volume keys
• FM stereo radio with RDS support
• 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
• Nokia Music Manager
• Nokia Music Store support

Voice and audio recording

• Voice commands
• Voice recorder
• Audio recording formats: AMR
• FR, EFR, HR and AMR
• Digital stereo microphone

Personalisation: profiles, themes, ring tones

• Customizable profiles
• Ring tones: AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, MP3, 64- Midi, WMA, WAMR, MXMF (40 built-in tones)
• Video ring tones (2 built-in tones)
• Themes:
- wallpapers
- animated wallpapers
- organic wallpapers
- full-screen wallpapers
- screensavers
- animated colour screensavers
- colour schemes
- ring tones
- icons
- logos
- pre-installed themes
- changeable colour themes
- user defined themes

Other recently reviewed mobile phones:

Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Sony Ericsson W508, BlackBerry Bold 9000, Sony Ericsson T707.

Overview:
Sony Ericsson W508 is a new clamshell phone and in fact it is very similar to Sony Ericsson T707 which we recently reviewed. The two phones have similar specs, design and performance and the difference between them is that the Sony Ericsson T707 is more women-oriented. The W508 has Shake control, Gesture control and multi-tasking support.

Sony Ericsson W508 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
+ 3.15 megapixel camera
+ 2.2″ 256K-color TFT display with 240 x 320 pixel resolution
+ Secondary monochrome OLED external display
+ Touch sensitive external music control keys
+ Hot-swappable M2 card slot, 1 GB included
+ Walkman music player with Shake control and SensMe
+ FM radio with RDS
+ Gesture control

Sony Ericsson W508 cons:
- Camera with disappointing image quality
- Low-quality video recording (QVGA@15fps)
- No web browser screen auto rotate
- No document viewer/editor

The design:
Sony Ericsson W508 measures 93.5 x 50 x 14 mm and weighs 98 grams. Inside the Sony Ericsson W508 you will see the main 2.2” display working in QVGA resolution. The screen displays 256K colors and had very good sunlight legibility. Above the display is the video call camera along with the earpiece. The keyboard is very comfortable to use and the button are placed in a way that makes errorless writing almost certain. The left side of the Sony Ericsson W508 features the FastPort, whereas the right side houses the volume rocker and lock slider. On the front of the phone are music controls and the secondary display. Both displays are covered with scratch resistant surface, yet the external one is monochromatic. It is very handy and shows you time, battery information, network type and signal strength. Although the phone looks cheap it seems very durable.

Performance:
The Sony Ericsson W508 has quite a decent battery performance and good reception. Also the voices are always audible while making phone calls. The phonebook in Sony Ericsson W508 can store up to 1000 contacts with multiple fields for information. Although the name and surname are written in only one filed you can search contact by either of those and the phone knows what you intend to find. The Sony Ericsson W508 features gesture control which means that if you get a call the phone activates the front camera and uses it as a motion detector. So when you wave your hand in front of the cell phone the call is silenced. Messaging with the Sony Ericsson W508 is a pleasure and the phone supports push email. It also supports threaded messaging and you can view it as the so called conversation style.

Multimedia:
The Sony Ericsson W508 has the Walkman 3.0 music player and supports shake control. The music library can be sorted by artists, genre, album. The music player displays album art, or visual effects. The audio quality is really good so the Sony Ericsson W508 may be used as a MP3 player replacement. The phone has also radio with RDS and can remember up to 20 radio stations. Both the music player and radio may be minimized to work in the background.
Sony Ericsson W508 comes with the Access NetFront web browser which makes surfing the interned a real pleasure. All the websites are rendered very well and thanks to the virtual pointer and ‚find on page’ feature you can easily and quickly get to the most important information.

Camera / Image quality:
The Sony Ericsson W508 comes with 3.15 megapixel fixed focus digital camera built in. The maximum image resolution is 2048 x 1536 and there is no flash so don’t count on taking excellent photos in low light. Although the phone has no GPS receiver the cell inserts geolocalization information right into the photos. There is a bunch of manual settings such as white balance, color effects and shooting mode. In fact, almost entire camera interface and performance is identical to the recently reviewed Sony Ericsson T707.

Menus / ease of use:
The menu structure in Sony Ericsson W508 is quite standard. It has the usual theme-dependent icon layout. The entire User Interface is visually appealing thanks to the choice of a few flash themes and it works fast. This Sony Ericsson cell phone can also work in flight mode, yet it requires a SIM card. The Sony Ericsson W508, of course, comes with the usual time saving applications such as calendar, unit converter, timer, stopwatch. Additionally, you get the Walkmate – useful for sports-oriented people, AccuWeather and Music Quiz.
Selected Sony Ericsson W508 features and specifications:
Network

• GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• HSDPA 2100

Screen

• 256, 000 colors, TFT
• 2.2 inches, 240 x 320 pixels
• Auto rotate accelerometer sensor
• Scratch-resistant

Memory

• 1,000 x 24 entries: with multiple contacts storage per entry
• 30 (received, missed & dialed calls)
• Internal memory: 100 MB
• Memory Stick: Micro (M2) up to 16 GB

Data Service & Connectivity

• EDGE Class 10
• GPRS Class 10
• 3G 384 kbps
• Bluetooth v 2.0
• USB

Camera

• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels
• Video recording

Battery

• Standard battery, Li-Ion
• Talk time up to: 10 h
• Standby time up to: 400 h
• Video call time up to: 2 h

Others

• SMS, MMS, IM, EMS, Email
• WAP 2.0, xHTML, HTML (NetFront)
• Speaker phone
• Organizer
• Built-in hands free
• T9 function
• FM-Radio with RDS
• Walkman media player
• Image viewer & editor

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

BlackBerry Bold 9000, Sony Ericsson T707