Plemix

With the previous Sony Ericsson W-series phone, I always feel like I have to give up a good camera for a better music package. But this time SE W902 tries to merge the Walkman and the Cybershot with a 5 mega-pixeller. The package of W902 is bundled-up with the w902 phone, a battery, an HPH-77 Handsfree, a data cable, a charger and a user's guide.

The design of the W902 does remind me of some classic candy-bar phones from several years ago, especially with the prominent keyboards. Sony Ericsson tried to add a little twist to it by adding a rugged edge on the right to avoid slipping, perhaps.

I like the keyboard very much as the keys are jutting out to achieve the best of tactility. The space between rows is wide enough. The d-pad and control panel are of the shape of three-interlaced circles, signature and well-liked design of W-series. The keys are very touchy.

On the back lies the camera. The cover looks like scales of reptile which makes it look tough, like a gear terminator or Batman would use!

W902 is the first W-series phone to have a first 5 mega-pixel camera. It is also equipped with autofocus and LED flash. It also inherited the user-friendly camera interface from Cyber-shot phone. Nice one!

The music key on the top gives access to the Walkman 3.0 application and Shake control. You can change tracks and shuffle your whole playlist with a simple flick of the hand while pressing down the Walkman key.

The music control keys are lined up on the right which I do not quite understand because you can mis-press them easily when you are holding the phone.

Although Sony Ericsson hails that the new HPM-77 headset can you luscious sound, I would still like to have a 3.5mm jack, especially for a Walkman phone.

In addition to the 25MB internal memory, there's a M2 card slot for up to 8GB of memory extension. The fact that you have to remove the cover to access it kinda annoys me.

The interface is excellent. By the way, in addition to the 4-row grid, you can set the menu page to icon-rotation which I find more pleasing.

There is build in accelerator for auto screen rotation and shake control.

W902 I would say is a good enough phone. Looking ok but not especially handsome, sound quality is top-notch but is kinda diminished because you can't use your 3.5mm earphone. The camera performs but not like the trouper that a C905 is.

LG KT610 comes save the day with its consumer-friendly price tag. It enters the niche market of QWERTY Symbian communicator to compete head on with the Nokia’s E-Series. LG means business this time.

LG KT610’s package is packed with the phone itself, a battery, a stereo handsfree, a travel charger, a USB cable and a user guide.

Compared to other communicator-style phones, LG KT610 is rather small and light, with a dimension of 108.9 x 53.9 x 17.2mm and weighs only 125.5 gram. It fits really well in your pocket. Truly portable I’d say.

When it’s closed, LG KT610 reminds me of an old-school cell phone from the 90’s last century with its humongous keypad and tiny display. It does not go to the realm of elegant sleek and space-age looking wide-green phone, but still I think it is stylish with its nostalgic feeling. Of course you don’t have to worry about the tactility of the exceptional large keys. The D-pad and the controls are also very finger-friendly. But the D-pad can only allow scrolling up and down, it could be a roadblock for texting if you don’t want to swing out for the QWERTY keyboard.

The external display is only 1.45”. It is extremely small and the picture quality is not exactly good. However, it is enough for merely handling calls and playing music.

The construction of the phone is surprisingly good for a communicator at this price range. There are two stereo on either sides of the screen. I think they can be made smaller for room to fit a bigger display. The desktop items can be customized to suit your needs, the shown default ones are pretty frequently used too.

The 2.4” internal screen does a decent job. Unlike other LG models, it works well under broad daylight. The menu is clearly listed in four rows, very conveniently for navigation.

The QWERTY keyboard is a four-row full one with number keys, just like any other expensive communicators. The tactility of the key is excellent.

LG KT610 can be locked at two positions, the 120-degree position which is good at desktop as we have seen at previous pictures and fully flat position which is good at hands.

There is a MicroSD slot which allows an extension of memory up to 8GB.

The camera is only 2MP, since it’s not a camera phone, considering the high-end E90 has just a 3 mega-pixeller, it is not that bad. The camera comes with night mode but no flash! I wonder how this could work. One thing to notice is that when you hold the camera horizontally for shooting, your fingers could block the camera easily.

LG KT610 is definitely a functional communicator with even HSDPA, and GPS (but no Wi-Fi), it does not look sophisticated or high-end (it’s not what KT610 aims at anyway), but it is an over-achiever for a phone of this low price.

 

Video Review

Those who have been following Sony Ericsson closely will immediately recognize the abnormality surrounding the Sony Ericsson F305. The F series is a completely new series of “gaming” phones, how does the new comer perform? Let’s find out now.

The package is typical enough: the phone, a battery, a handsfree, a travel charger, 2 back covers and a strap plus a user’s guide.

The body may be miniature but it doesn’t make concession on the game controller (D-pad). The D-pad is reasonably large with very good response. Using the D-pad reminds me of the comfort of using a quality game controller. Good job on this, Sony Ericsson!

The keys are pretty small but they should be enough for making a call and texting. I hope I don’t have to use these small keys in any action game, though.

The D-pad has a weak glow, which should make gaming in a dark room a bit easier. The central button has a coarse surface to help locating it accurately.

This design reminds me of the Motorola keyboard, if you have seen any MOTORAZR model before you should be able to recognize the similarity in design.

The 2MP camera is hidden inside the back cover. As you may know, the phone comes with “2” back covers. They do not differ too much from each other and I doubt the necessity of having 2 similarly designed covers. As a backup, perhaps?

The M2 slot is covered by soft plastic, which allows you to change card easily without opening the cover.

The 2” display leaves us something to be desired. Since it is a gaming model, one would naturally want a much bigger screen. Luckily the bundled games go along with the screen pretty well.

Shown here is one of the bundled games. The motion sensor inside can detect your movement so instead of pressing the up and down keys you can actually “swing” the phone as if you are doing some real fishing. There is also a bowling game that utilizes the motion sensor.

Sony Ericsson F305 is a pretty successful phone and its success is mainly attributable to the software. The bundled games are fun to play with (watch the video!) and the motion sensor provides a new way of mobile gaming. However the screen size and resolution make it quite hard for serious, prolonged gaming. If we look at the price tag though, many of its short comings can be forgiven.

 

Video Review

I have been waiting for this for so long! HTC was quite busy in the second half of 2008 and the HTC Touch HD (also known as T8282) is probably the finest phone from HTC. Featuring a killer spec of 3.8” WVGA (480 x 800) screen (largest, most pixel-rich currently), fastest CPU from Qualcomm, behemoth-like 288MB ram, 5MP auto-focus camera and HSDPA connection, is it worth every penny on its price tag? I can’t wait to find out now.

HTC is quite generous with the package, the box itself is cool and we get a pouch and an extra stylus. The “commons” include the phone, battery, charger, handsfree, USB cable, 2 stylus (1 extra), screen protector, 2 CD-ROM and 1 user’s guide.

On its first start-up, the bundled programs are installed and configured. There is no need to do any manual installation yourself. You don’t even need to use the bundled CD-ROM.

That’s all the keys we have on the phone. Besides the usual Answer/Reject, there is also a home screen that brings back the TouchFLO 3D and a back key for going to the previous page.

Traditionally HTC uses a USB-to-3.5mm adapter for handsfree. To make it more music-friendly HTC threw in a 3.5mm jack for our favorite earphone. The power button can toggle the power-save mode and the full function mode.

The mini-USB port is here, although it looks a bit different than the standard mini-USB port you can use standard cable with no problem. The stylus on the bottom right corner is magnetized so that it “clips on” the phone automatically at close proximity. Pulling out the stylus also wakes up the phone from power-save mode.

The Qualcomm 7201A CPU is no longer the fastest CPU out there. The Marvell CPU found on the Samsung i900 Omnia is the new speed champion. Rumor has it that the TouchFLO 3D is customized for the Qualcomm CPU and that it would be hard to switch to Marvel. Anyways, you shouldn’t notice the speed difference in most cases and the HTC Touch HD is very responsive most of the time.

The bundled application suite is quite nice. You can open PDF files, zip files, and made long voice recording without hunting for 3rd party software.

The keyboard is a pain! While it enlarges the key after each press like the iPhone 3G, the crowdedness of the keys make it very easy to mistype. Luckily there are 3rd party input methods like TouchPal and Tengo that can bring back the speed in typing on the HTC Touch HD.

The TouchFLO 3D interface also serves as a photo-viewing tool. The speed is acceptable but I would rather use the bundled Pictures and Videos software for any serious viewing.

By rotating the screen by 90 degree you can view the photos in landscape mode.

Microsoft owes a great deal to Opera for its excellent Opera Browser. It is a fast and reliable Internet browser that supports zooming and iPhone-like operation. It is just as good as the Safari browser found on the iPhone and I am glad to know that HTC included it for free.

The “G-Sensor” is an accelerometer that can detect the orientation of the phone. Here’s the calibration screen for it.

"Since its internal storage is only 512MB, using a microSD card is unavoidable. The slot is hidden beneath the battery so you need to turn it off, change it, wait about 1 minute before you can access the content. Just this time only, I think HTC made a correct choice. I wouldn’t want to find a microSD card slot on the gorgeous, one-piece body.

The HTC Touch HD comes very close to perfection. The screen is simply beautiful, TouchFLO 3D is finally smooth enough to use, 3.5mm jack is a belated but welcomed move, thickness is well controlled at 12mm and the 5MP, auto-focus camera is great. Minor glitches include difficulty in changing card, lack of flash and slow auto-focus speed, but they are not serious enough to prevent from being the WM phone champion."

Video Review