Plemix

The Nokia XpressMusic 5800, also known as the first touch screen phone from Nokia, has arrived! Featuring probably the best hardware (HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS) for a music phone, the Nokia 5800 is set to rival the N series in terms of functionality! The new touch-enabled S60 operating system is said to carry the hope of Nokia in advancing its share in the smartphone sector. Does it have enough muscle for a smartphone? Let’s find out now.
The package is full of stuff! Not only does it contain the phone, a battery, a charger, two styluses, a headset, a video-out cable, a connectivity cable, a carrying case, a wrist strap with “guitar pick stylus”, a user’s guide and a mini DVD…it also comes with a stand! The stand is perfect for movie-watching because it keeps the phone steadily tilted for the best viewing angle.

The Nokia 5800 remotely resembles the Apple iPhone 3G and the Samsung i900 Omnia due to its big screen. The phone is somewhat thicker at 15.5mm, however.

The home, answer/reject buttons are the only buttons on the front surface. Obviously Nokia (and Samsung) learnt from the Apple iPhone that even a touch-screen phone needs some physical buttons to quickly answer or reject calls.

The back cover is covered with rubber to add more friction to it. I like the straight cover very much.

The camera on the Nokia 5800 is nothing short of impressiveness. The 3.2MP camera has Carl Zeiss “certified” optics, dual-LED flash and auto-focus. Photo quality is superb with pretty accurate exposure and color.

The 2MP camera comes with neither a flash nor auto-focus but it has night mode and burst mode (maximum 9 shots in a row) to make up for it. The camera is on par with other budget model.

On the top of the phone there are the power button and the 3.5mm earphone jack, which is typical for the XpressMusic line of phone. The phone also comes with a stereo speaker.

The 2008 Innovation Award goes to Nokia for the most challenging SIM removal design. If you have accidentally destroyed the user manual (that happens a lot to me), there is a simple guide to climb Mount Everest on the back of the battery slot.

When you have successfully “pushed” the SIM card out, you can “pull” it from the left side of the phone. By the way, microSD card is a lot easier to remove!

No smartphone is complete without a stylus, Nokia 5800 is no exception. The exceptionally long stylus does not have any metal to reinforce its strength, so be careful with it

The built-in accelerometer can detect the orientation of the phone, simply hold it horizontally and it will switch to the landscape mode (shown here).

The virtual keyboard aims at making the best use of the 3.2” screen. The small white area in the upper middle section displays what you have typed so far. Of course, big is not always powerful (like the SPB keyboard found on WM machines) and I hope Nokia can come up with a more effective input method that doesn’t require users to switch to-and-fro between the program and keyboard.

It seems to me that the new S60 system isn’t making the best use of the screen. There are a lot of “free spaces” on the home screen. It would certainly help if Nokia can make the icon and clock larger by default.

Being one of the XpressMusic phones, the Nokia 5800 does not disappoint in music function. The very capable music player, 3.5mm phone jack and music enhancement features are all there.

The Nokia 5800 does not disappoint. It has a friendly price tag, good touch screen and well-controlled thickness. The backward support of older S60 applications is very welcomed, too. I would recommend this phone without reservation.

 

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Video Review

Hmm, nobody would seriously think LG will come up with a keyboard phone, right? But it did just that, and did so at an “outrageously low price”! At about 1/3 of the cost of HTC Touch Pro and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, the LG KS360 provides the same slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a miniature body. Of course, it does not run Windows Mobile, but then not everybody needs WM. Does it have enough features to survive? Or is it just another phone with an attached keyboard? Let’s find out now.

The package comes with the phone, a battery, a handsfree, a USB cable, a (nice) travel charger, a CD-ROM and a user’s guide.

The phone looks like an ordinary slide-phone with an exceptionally large screen (2.4”). The color scheme is not the prettiest with red and green buttons clashing with the black and white body. My guess is that LG doesn’t want it to compete with its own expensive, all-black stylish models.

The front cover has enough buttons to control your everyday task (11 of them!). On my part, I would want a larger screen instead of more buttons.

The keyboard is rather…atypical. The keys are reasonably large with ample space between them to reduce the chance of pressing the wrong key. The disadvantage of having large keys and ample spaces is that LG cannot accommodate too many keys on the keyboard. The space and enter buttons are a tad too small as well. The screen changes to landscape mode when the keyboard is slid out. The keys are not as good as the latest Blackberry, but they are reasonably reactive and have a good feel to them.

The keyboard comes with a blue backlight to make it easier to type on at night. The number keys are shaded in grey to make them easier to identify. Don’t worry, you don’t have to slide out the keyboard to make calls, there’s an on-screen number pad for that purpose.

The 2MP camera comes with neither a flash nor auto-focus but it has night mode and burst mode (maximum 9 shots in a row) to make up for it. The camera is on par with other budget model.

The LG KS360 uses a plastic cover to protect the microSD card slot. Since there is not much internal memory in the LG KS360, you will probably need a microSD card (optional) to store your photos and music.

See the “number short-cuts” (press 6 to enter “My Stuff”, 5 for “Messaging”…etc)? You may wonder why a touch screen model needs that kind of shortcut and here’s an ironic answer: the touch screen is for dialing number and nothing else. It seems that LG is too busy with other stuff that they don’t bother adding touch support to their ported operating system. So, back to the D-pad we go!

Here’s the virtual number pad mentioned before, the keys are very large so you can easily press the number without looking at it. The screen has a pretty good response, too. I don’t miss the physical number pad after using the digital one, so you know how good it is!

The LG KS360 truly deserves a class of its own. Of course it is not a WM phone or a BlackBerry and it doesn’t have the savvy Wi-Fi and 3.5G (and GPS, if that matters), but who says a business phone “needs” them? You can send and receive email on a 2G network within a minute, because it’s just a few KB of data! LG was right to go for the cheaper 2G antenna and added what is essential to a business phone – a keyboard. Good job, LG!

LG KS360 Video Review

Another HTC device has arrived! The HTC Touch 3G is the middle class of the newly announced trio. Can it squeeze into the already-crowded WM phone market? Let’s find out now.

The package includes the phone, a battery, a charger, a data cable, a handsfree, a user’s manual plus 2 styluses (one backup).

Like other Touch models from HTC, the oval-shaped HTC Touch 3G has just the right size to fit in your hand. The flush screen design can be found on this phone (but curiously, not the HTC Touch Viva). This design allows users to touch all 4 corners of the screen without difficulty but it exposes the screen to more pressure.

The usual D-pad and Answer/Reject are still there on the HTC Touch 3G. I hope HTC can come up with a new arrangement of the keys because the very same arrangement can be found on countless HTC models!

On the back of the phone you can find the 3.2MP camera. The lack of auto-focus makes the increased pixel count somewhat meaningless.

The usual necessities of a smartphone cannot be better hidden. To access the card slot or reset button you need to remove the cover. Luckily the phone is reasonably stable so you don’t have to reach for the reset hole very often.

HTC has added Comm Manager, Connection Setup and Advanced Network to help manage the wireless options on the phone more efficiently. But you still need to know some basic about networking to take full advantage of this phone.

Here’s the revamped TouchFLO interface by HTC. It looks a lot nicer than the old TouchFLO and can do many of the tasks of TouchFLO 3D (except Stocks quote) found on more expensive HTC models. The overall speed is great, and you can do many of the day-to-day tasks through this interface (eg: launching the most frequently-used program, as shown here).

Careful readers will notice that you can have the HTC Touch Diamond at Plemix at a similar price. Which one should you get? The HTC Touch 3G has a faster interface (TouchFLO) while the HTC Touch Diamond has a VGA screen (big difference), an accelerometer, and a nice body design. Both have HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, same CPU and RAM. If you want an absolutely speedy phone and no hassles then the HTC Touch 3G is for you. Power users may want to tap into the potential given by the VGA screen on the HTC Touch Diamond though.

HTC Touch 3G T3232 Video Review

LG’s new KC 910 is named after the impressionist painter Mr. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It tries to identify itself as a piece of art of technology. Can LG 910 make it to the hall of fame and impress us just like the painter did? We will find out.

LG KC910 has a bulky package. There you find the Renoir phone, 2 batteries, a leather case, a charger, a stereo handset, a USB cable, a screen protector, a phone strap and a CD ROM.

LG KC910 definitely remind me of its predecessor LG Viewty (But I guess every full touchscreen device with a 3-inch wide TFT display would more or less the same). The metallic finish is gorgeous. (I mean LG is always in line with the posh trend) Although LG KC910 has an ambient light sensor to adjust the brightness of the screen, the beautiful mirror surface can still be a little challenging under broad daylight. The phone fits into my hand quite well too.

Below the display, we find the call keys and the key of application quick access. I quite like the crystal box design of the key.

The back ties in with the professional high-end look of the phone. There lies the lens of the camera which is protected by a mechanical cover. However it is not automatic, you have to manually turn the ribbed ring to open the cover, which I find not very user-friendly. Like it shows in the picture, the phone is equipped with Dolby Mobile that provides powerful bass and spaciousness to your music. Too abstract? Okay, the sound is excellent.

On the right side situates the shutter key and the image stabilization key. For a phone that emphasizes its camera as a selling point, LG KC910 is surely a stunner hardware-wise. You have Schneider-Kreuznach certified optics, a Xenon flash, sensitivity up to ISO 1600, face and blink detection. One of the functions that I like the most is the touch focus. You can simply manually set the focus by tipping the point on the screen, you can get a lot more versatility in the composition of a photo.

The stylus is stylishly embedded in the corduroy-ish phone strap. Nice looking but I am not sure if I may drop it easily.

I love the menu a lot because the animation is … well very animated with vibration and smoothness. The reaction of interface is a bit slow compared to Samsung Pixon, but you would not probably notice it.

you can customize the bar the widgets at the bottom of the desktop by dragging them from the menu bar. Nothing new, but really useful.

KC910 has all the latest connectivity technology such as Wi-Fi, HSDPA, GPS and Bluetooth.

These are the photo samples that show off the excellence of the camera. The colors are vivid and the details are captured with clarity. If you look at the Kitty doll on the right, you can even see the texture clearly.

One thing to notice is that the flash can not be turned on by choice; the light sensor will do the job. We have yet to find out the accuracy of the sensor tho.

LG KC910 surely demonstrates LG’s expertise in impressing their customers with beautiful and chic designs. This time around LG has even done more in making KC910 a technology powerhouse that performs. I would surely say it is more than merely a love at first sight. The impression does last.

Following the success of Samsung SGH-F488, the Samsung M8800 Pixon has got everything even better! Let’s find out what’s new!

The package comes with the phone, a battery, a charger and a user’s guide. There’s also a strap and a camera pouch for maximum protection of this beauty. The handsfree is split into two: 1 adapter with mic and 1 earphone.

Like its predecessor, the phone is thin with a huge screen. This time Samsung increased the screen size to 3.2”, so it’s a bit elongated than the Samsung SGH-F488.

The answer, reject key and the central button are the only keys on the front surface. Don’t worry, the Samsung M8800 has one of the finest touch screen on this planet, you can handle most tasks with the on-screen menu and keyboard.

The back cover is not completely plain. The camera and the bottom part are slightly protruded. To open the back cover, press the button on the top of the phone.

The 8MP camera comes with auto-focus and a lot of scenes to choose. In operation it feels like a “real” camera. Regrettably it misses optical zoom, so it probably can’t replace your digital camera.

The card slot is protected by a cover which integrates with the body quite well.

Press and hold the camera button to engage in camera mode. This button doubles as the shutter button in camera button as well. The central button on the front surface is NOT the shutter button, pressing it will bring back the home screen only.

The widget now has more icons to play with. However, the most notable difference is speed. You can now switch between Widget and Menu mode smoothly, compared with the sluggish transition on the Samsung SGH-F488 this is a great leap forward!

Press the central button while you are talking on the phone will launch the screen below. The phone has some multi-tasking ability. You can open the contact book or messages while you are listening to music or talking on phone. But don’t expect it to run several Java programs at once!

Finally a phone with accurate exposures! All the camera phones I had tested before had some problems with exposure, but the Samsung M8800 Pixon has no problem with that.

The Samsung M8800 Pixon produces cooler pictures than other camera phones. This is not exactly a problem because Samsung is being more “true to the original” than other manufacturers, and I think that’s the right stance for a serious camera phone.

Look!~The photos are pretty sharp.

A shot with the flash on. It looks more moderate and perfect compared with those used in Motorola ZN5 which is blindingly bright and it causes some real annoyance to the one in front of the camera. But the one used in Samsung M8800 Pixon is adequate for most indoor shots. Good job in adjusting this, Samsung!

The phone is a great improvement from the Samsung F488! The screen, camera and speed have all got a healthy boost. The price is reasonable for a 8MP camera phone. Wi-Fi would be a nice bonus, but I think that will drive the phone to a higher price point. Let’s pray that Samsung will introduce more colors for this model (as it did for Samsung SGH-F488)!  

Samsung M8800 Pixon Video Review