Treo 650 : Humble in Appearance, Reliable Performance

Price : US$ 600 or Euro 446

The Good : Built-in camera and small Qwerty keyboard, USB, Supports SD/MMC, infrared, Bluetooth, Quad-band, touch screen

The Bad : No Wi-fi

Palm launched the upgraded version of the successful Treo 600, the PalmOne Treo 650. With its stable Palm OS, this device is an ideal partner if you search simple gadget with simple and easy to use software.



With the presence of camera, you can capture pictures and transfer it to another device such as laptops or PCs through infrared and bluetooth. The picture quality is adequate though not very excellent. The internal memory of 23 MB is relatively small, but you buy the device included with 128 memory card, so the memory is relatively okay for you.

The lack of Wi-fi is something that Palm must correct in future versions, because Palm users are traditionally very techie and need that Wi-fi so much. Palm Treo 650 runs fast with the processor's clock speed reaching 312 MHz. Its 65,000 colors display also shows bright and crisp images and texts.



Compared to other devices, the SonyEricsson P910i offers a slightly better choice. It has bigger display and deeper colors, 262,000 colors compared to Treo's 65,000 colors. SonyEricsson P910i also offers memory extension with its Memory Stick Duo. Another considerable alternative is O2 XII mini, with similar price. You have more memory (64 MB) and 1 megapixel camera, but no keypad. Yet the O2 has Windows Mobile system, so for you Palm-fanatic, it's not a very sexy device.

Conclusion :
Palm Treo 650 is ideal for you who looks for a device that's dependable and can handle various office documents, and equipped with a standard camera. Yet the device lacks Wi-Fi and bluetooth is not functioning optimally. You can buy additional Wi-Fi SD card though. All in all, for Palm device, yes, Treo 650 is one of the best in the market now. But if you are open to Windows and Symbian devices, you can consider O2 XDA Mini and SonyEricsson P910i.

Click here to find available PDA-phones in Amazon

Motorola MPx : The New Breed of PDA-phone

Price = US$ 912 / Euro 749

The Good = Flexible form (QWERTY-PDA and Flip phone), Windows Mobile System, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Infrared, USB, touch screen, supports SD and MMC, 1 Megapixel camera

The Bad = Complicated keypad notations, relatively heavy and bulky, no video recording, still expensive



Motorola had launched its newest PDA-phone the Motorola MPx. It is currently only available in UK and Hongkong through online shops. The specification is awesome. You can have lots of features in one device. In fact, this is a new breed of PDA-phone. Other maunfacturers only launch touch-screen pad-form PDAs (such as Palm or Pocket PC) with or without small hunt-and-peck Qwerty keyboard. Another device from Nokia, has full Qwerty keyboard but without touch screen. The MPx combines the good features. Touch screen, flexible (and automatic display-adjustment!) form, which you can switch between Qwerty mini-laptop and Flip pohne.



You can do all your business with the full set of Microsot Pocket Office bundled into the Windows Mobile system. It has touch full connectivity. Bluetooth for your file sharing with nearby devices. Wi-fi for your wireless connectivity, to support you whether in office, or when you're surfing leisurely in hot-spot enabled cafes. Even the infrared is here! Wonder why Motorola never put infrared in its previous devices. Well, it doesn't hurt to have that IR, anyway.



Having the itch to capture some precious moments with your significant other? The Motorola MPx's camera with 1 megapixel resolution will surely help you. Some photo clicks, and then you go home, and beam the pictures to your PC or laptop, set one of it as wallpaper. Nice.

But, this device is.. expensive. You can have other less-powerful but still awesome devices with fewer dollars. Consider the rival SonyEricsson P910i. Currently its price is around US$658 or Euro 501. It has everything Motorola MPx has (even better camera), except the full Qwerty and Wi-Fi.

Or how about the O2 XDA II with similar price? It's nice and sleek, has all the feature except <1 Megapixel camera, and also brings keyboard (though not very comfortable to use). Another device within that price range is the Nokia Communicator 9500. But with lack of touch screen and pointing device, the communicator is not a good alternative for heavy PDA-users.



The best Non-windows alternative so far is the versatile Treo 650. It's more convinient to use, cause you don't need to flip the phone to open the keyboard, and frankly, Palm is the most stable operating system for mobile devices right now. By the way, Treo is also cheaper, hovering around $650 also.

Conclusion:
Motorola MPx is a new breed PDA phone that combines touch screen, Qwerty keyboard, 1 Megapixel camera phone, memory extension slots, Windows Mobile and its office apps, and perfect connectivity through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and infrared. Sure, it's expensive, but frankly, it's the most powerful device for its price, right now. May be you'd better wait several months to let the price slip to more convinient level for your wallet. But if you can't wait to get the feeling of this new breed of Motorola, then don't hesitate, buy this sophisticated device.

Click here to find available PDA-phones in Amazon

Siemens CX70, The Beautifully-Designed German Cellphone

Price (approx., without contract): US$ 202 / Euro 154

The Good : cool, beautiful design, 9.5 MB memory, infrared, USB port, external flash, push-to-talk, changeable cover, memory extension

The Bad : no bluetooth



After stumbling last year with their outdated phones' features, Siemens tried to regain its position with Siemens CX70. It has good physical look and brings quite handsome features.

The display is quite big and bright. It has TFT 65k colors technology with 132 x 176 pixels. Siemens CX70 also carries built-in VGA camera and 9.5 MB memory to store images and other data.



The good thing about Siemens CX70 is that you can buy a flash card to boost the memory capacity. Other good features of are Push-to-talk compatibility that enables you to save money. USB post also works well.

The closest competitors of Siemens CX70 are Motorola E398, SonyEricsson K500i/K508i, Samsung X600, Nokia 6610i, and Nokia 3220. Motorola gives you huge 64 MB T-Flash card and 3D surround speaker, features that are non-existent in Siemens CX70. The lack of bluetooth function in Siemens CX70 makes it a little bit difficult for us to share data from and to other devices.



SonyEricsson K500i gives you 12 MB memory and 3D gaming engine. Samsung X600 offers sleek phone with rotate camera, but with no connectivity to transfer data/images except through GPRS or cable data. And finally, Nokia 6610i is a poor try from Nokia to upgrade its 6610, so it's not recommended. Nokia 3220 is good if you look for a stylish phone, but it has no memory extension.

According to the completeness of features, we can rank the phones as follows: Motorola E398 is the most feature-rich, then (2) SonyEricsson K500i, Nokia 3220, Samsung X600, and the least is Nokia 6610i.

Conclusion:
Siemens CX70 is a considerable alternative for you who look for beautiful physical design and Siemens' phones well known reliability. It brings less feature than the sporty Motorola E398, but is a good choice, if we reconsider the presence of USB port, infrared and memory extension capability.

Siemens CX70 full specs
Dimension:
4.25 x 1.81 x 0.7 inch
10.8 x 4.6 x 1.8 cm

Weight:
90 gr / 3.17 oz

Network and connectivity:
- GPRS class 10
- Infrared
- USB port

Entertainment:
- Games

Memory:
- 9.5 MB internal, extension-capable with flash card

Special features:
- Beautiful physical design

Samsung SGH X-120 : Amazingly Realisitic Screen Savers, But Lacks Connectivity

Price (approx.) : US$ 149.53 / Euro 112.64

The Good :
Amazingly realistic screen saver, brilliant 65k colors OLED display, cool light effects.

The Bad:
No infrared, no bluetooth



Though not one of the latest phone from Samsung, SGH X-120 deserves a review because of its outstanding display quality. With 65k colors OLED technology, the display shows superb clarity.

The screen savers will astonish you, because it's very real, just like mini video files. Various screen savers are so beautiful, such as the moving frog and the leaves. You will be able to please your eyes and soul a little bit, with these screen savers.

Amazing light effects emanating from the keypad like the ones found on aeroplanes' body, definetely strengthen the phone's excellent style. Yet, when we dig inside the phone, we realize that it brings -sadly- only basic functions. No camera, no bluetooth, and there isn't even infrared. Only phonebook, games, and other basic features. Even GPRS is somewhat difficult to use.



Within the similar price, Nokia 6610, 6100, and Samsung X430 may become better alternatives for you. Although both Nokia 6610 and 6100 only have meager 4096 colors display, both already possess excellent GPRS and infrared.

Samsung X430 is a clamshell phone that brings high quality 65k colors UFB display. It also has GPRS and MMS, but no infrared and bluetooth. Sepaking in terms of functionality, Nokia 6100 and 6610 are better options. But for fancy display lovers, surely Samsung SGH X-120 is one of the best you can find.

Conclusion :
For you who look for the best display in the low-medium price range, Samsung SGH X-120 is one of the best. Yet for better functions, consider Nokia 6610 and 6100. Samsung X430 is also a good clamshell alternative.

Samsung SGH X-120 Full Specification :
Dimension:
4.09 inch x 1.77 inch x 0.59 inch
10.4 cm x 4.5 cm x 1.5 cm

Weight:
80 gr / 2.82 oz

Network and Connectivity:
- GPRS Class 10
- EMS and MMS

Entertainment :- Games
- screen savers
- digital camera
- MP3 player (audio) and MP4 player (mini movie)MP4 (Avi)

Special features :
- Cool light effects
- Very realistic screensavers

Nokia 9300, The Smaller Size Communicator

Price : US$ 768.81 / Euro 578.06

The Good :
smaller and lighter Communicator, big outer buttons, generous 80 MB memory

The Bad:
no camera, expensive



Nokia 9300 is the simplified version of the glamorous and feature-rich 9500. First of all, no camera. This is surely a disappointment, because with expensive price like that, we can have another cellphone with camera! Lots of types already provide very good quality camera, such as SonyEricsson S700, SonyEricsson P910i, etc. Within the Nokia brand, Nokia 7710 with touch screen and big landscape touch screen can also be a good option.

The only difference in the Nokia 9300 is its generous internal memory of 80 MB, and the smaller and lighter size. Basically you can expect good performance of its office applications, the full connectivity system (GPRS, bluetooth, infrared), which is a must for this expensive phone.



The shape is a bit girly, and I think women are more appropriate users of Nokia 9300. However, you might want to shop around in stores near you to have a look. Compatibility with Microsoft Office files is good enough.

Conclusion :
This phone is too expensive. You can more features (more functions and benefits) from other brands with similar price, such as the professional-look SonyEricsson P910i, the imaging expert SonyEricsson S700, or even the smart O2 XDA II Mini. The only winning factor of Nokia 9300 is its smaller and slighly artistic design, with lots of internal memory and full connectivity.


Nokia 9300 Full Specifications :
Dimensions:
1.35 x 5.1 x 1.39 cm
0.53 x 2 x 0.54 inch

Weight:
167 grams / 5.89 oz

Network and Connectivity:
- Triband, GPRS Class 10
- Bluetooth
- USB port
- Infrared
- E-mail (POP 3, IMAP4, ActiveSync)

Entertainment :
- Speakerphone
- Java Virtual Machine (J2ME) enabled for games
- MP3 player
- Video player MP4 (Avi)

Memory and Processor :
- 80 MB memory
- MMC Slot

Special features :
- Qwerty keyboard
- Office applications
- Smaller size

SonyEricsson J200i, Low-End Phone With Crystal Clear Ringtones

Price : US$ 96.77 / Euro 72.76

The Good :
Cheap, lightweight, nice design, excellent ringtone speaker, infrared, GPRS

The Bad:
No MMS, STN display with only 4,096 colors, small memory



SonyEricsson throwed in a very competitive low-end phone, the J200i. It brings the most clear and loudest polyphonic ringtone with its big speaker. The design is also nice and a little bit similar to the sporty SonyEricsson K500i.

First time we hold and use the phone, the SonyEricsson flavor definetely appears. Screen color and brightness is pretty good. But it's hard to see it under sunlight. As usual you can also choose to customize your display with provided themes.

The strikingly competitive feature of J200i is the loud and clear ringtone speaker. You can hear the phone rings loudly even in the crowd or nousy environments. The infrared is nice, particularly for transferring ringtone files into the phone. Yet with only limited memory of 600 kb, it's a pity that we can't copy a lot of ringtone files or images to the J200i.



Compared to other brands, SonyEricsson J200i has some stronger points and weaker ones. Competing brands with similar prices are Nokia 3100, Panasonic G50, SonyEricsson Z200, SonyEricsson T290i, Siemens M55, Samsung X100, Samsung C100 and Motorola C380.

Of course, Samsung brings better display with their phones, but less infrared compatibility. Siemens M55 is actually a classic phone with its charismatic design. Nokia 3100 is pretty basic and "dull". SonyEricsson Z200 still offers stylish clamshell, although somehow outdated, while the new SonyEricsson T290i offers simpler design and smaller size. Motorola C380 excels in design and has bigger memory, but with very pale display.

Conclusion :
SonyEricsson J200i is a nice low-end phone. If you really love SonyEricsson candybar with a nice set of basic features, including infrared, GPRS, clear ringtones, then the J200i may suit you. But why don't you look around for the coming SonyEricsson J300 and other brands mentioned before? You might want to change your mind if you've searched for other brands or types with similar prices.


SonyEricsson J200i Full Specifications :
Dimensions:
10.1 x 4.3 x 1.9 cm
3.97 x 1.69 x 0.75 inch

Weight:
74 grams / 2.6 oz

Network and Connectivity:
- GPRS Class 8
- Infrared

Entertainment :
- Basic games

Memory :
- 600 kb

Special feature :
- Very loud ringtones

SonyEricsson T290i, Cheap and Small Phone That Brings Good Value

Price : US$ 95.16 / Euro 71.54

The Good :
small, cheap, light weight, handsfree ability, voice memo, infrared, GPRS class 8

The Bad :
No MMS, small STN display, small memory

Here comes the cheap and functional SonyEricsson T290i. Compared with its bigger brother, the loud ringing SonyEricsson J200i, the T290i brings more compact size, yet with more functionality. It has handsfree ability to let you busy while talking, voice memo, infrared and GPRS.



Compared with previous model T230, of course the new T290i brings much more features and functions. This phone is ideal for you who wants basic phone but with some connectivity. The voice memo and handsfree can also be very useful if you are too busy. You can record some short voice memos and play them back, rather than write them.

We can compare the phone with other small phones, such as Panasonic G50. G50 gives you a very small phone with color display. But it has less features than T290i, so you'd be better of with T290i.



Conclusion :
Frankly speaking, SonyEricsson T290i may be one of the most versatile cheap phone right now. Where else can we have handsfree, voice memo, GPRS, and infrared with lower price than T290i ? You might also look at other alternatives, such as S.E. K300 or J300, the bright display Samsungs, or the professional-look Motorolas.

SonyEricsson T290i Full Specifications :
Dimensions:
10.1 x 4.4 x 1.9 cm
3.97 x 1.7 x 0.75 inch

Weight:
73 grams / 2.57 oz

Network and Connectivity:
- GPRS Class 8
- Infrared

Entertainment :
- Basic games

Special features :
- Handsfree
- Voice Memo

O2 Xphone II

O2 Xphone II

Price : US$ 439 / Euro 330.69

The Good :
full connectivity, nice design, Windows OS is user friendly, mini SD card slot, USB port, VGA camera for recording

The Bad:
no touch screen





You will notice the big screen of O2 Xphone II when you hold it in your hand. The solid grip is a nice physical feature to prevent the phone slipping out of your palm. It has lined-up keys that actually are not very comfortable to use. I think the previous model's (O2 Xphone I) is slightly better in keypad.

O2 equipped the Xphone II with upgraded system, the Windows Smartphone instead of the older Windows for Pocket PC in Xphone I. Yet there are no significant improvement in features and processing speed of the new system. May be Microsoft needs more time to tweak the system.

Inside you will find lots of small softwares, to do your office or business works. Office softwares, MP3/MP4 players and Internet browser will surely help you. MP4 players enables you to play video in the phone. Better buy big mini-SD card if you wish to play any video, because videos need ample storage.



System stability is average, particularly if you use multiple applications at the same time. Clearly, for managing your office or business, XDA or other full-blown PDAs are much better options. One thing that makes Xphone II excels is its design. It is very simple yet elegant and attractive.

Executives or small business owners might find this phone a little bit useful. But, Xphone II is not the biggest bang for the buck. For similar price (around US$ 439 / EUro 330.69), you can choose Xplore G88 with Palm system and touch screen, or Motorola E680 with Linux system (well known for its stability) and fancy features, such as 3D surround speaker, bigger screen, and built-in FM radio. Other "pure" PDAs can also be a good alternatives.

Conclusion :
O2 Xphone II surely is a beauty. It is a nice upgrade from the older Xphone I. WIth the camera and its video capability, equipped with mini-SD card, full connectivity and USB, Xphone II can help you when no PDAs are around. But without touchscreen, really the Xphone II is quite uncomfortable to operate. And you might want consider other PDA-phone or PDA if you need more powerful and versatile business assistant.

Dimensions:
4.45 x 10.75 x 1.8 cm
1.77 x 4.23 x 0.7 inch

Weight:
102 grams / 3.50 oz

Network and Connectivity:
- Triband, GPRS Class B, multi slot class 102
- Bluetooth
- Mini-USB port
- Infrared IrDA & SIR
- Wireless modem
- E-mail (POP 3, IMAP4, ActiveSync)

Entertainment :
- Polyphonic ringtones
- VGA camera with video recording
- Speakerphone
- Java Virtual Machine (J2ME) enabled for games
- Video player MP4 (Avi)

Memory and Processor :
- Mini SD Card Slot
- TI OMAP processor
- 64 MB Flash
- 32 MB SDRAM

Operating System :
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Smartphone Edition SE

Motorola V878

The Good :
TFT 65k colors display, flash camera, beautiful design

The Bad :
No bluetooth, no infrared, no memory extension slots



Motorola adds another product to its legendary V-series cellular phones : Motorola V878. It is indeed physically beautiful. The color of the flip cover is very nice. You can also feel the light weight of Motorola V878 when you hold it in your hand.

The most attractive feature of Motorola V878 is the flash camera. It works well to add some brightness to your taken pictures, though you can't expect the flash works well if you take your pictures to far from your object. The display quality is also very good. Motorola seems far exceed Nokia in providing bright displays. But Samsung is still undefeatable in display technology. Motorola V878's display brightness is worth the price.

Yet there are some weaknesses with Motorola V878. It has no bluetooth and no infrared. This means you have only very very limited means of transferring data into or from another phones/devices. You can only use cable data to transfer data with computers, which is quite cumbersome. The lack of memory extension slots also hinders your capacity to store a lot of pictures taken with the phone's camera.



Considering other phones can be tricky. There are many other alternatives. From Motorola brand, you can choose Motorola E398 with superb 3D speaker and installed 64 MB T-Flash memory extension card plus 5 MB internal memory. These features are extravagants that Motorola V878 does not posses. But the design of Motorola E398 is not very good, 'cause it's a pretty basic candybar design.

Other alternatives are from Samsung, with Samsung E700, P510, and E310. Samsung's phones shows brighter display colors and crisp than Motorola. You might also consider Nokia with is N-Gage and N-GageQD, and Nokia 3660.

Conclusion :
Style and pretty basic smart features combined? That's Motorola V878. Bright display, cool physical design, flash camera, all you have. But if you don't mind about style, Motorola E398 or Nokia 3660 offers more functions than Motorola V878. There are also a stylish alternatives : Samsung E700 and E310.

Nokia 7270

The Good :
Artistic design, GPRS, EDGE function, FM radio, MP3 player, video recording camera, Infrared

The Bad :
No Bluetooth, no USB

Nokia 7270 is another flip phone with artistic twist from Nokia. It's an "upgrade" version of the preceding Nokia 7200. In fact all features of Nokia 7200 are installed in the new Nokia 7270. The upgraded functions are EDGE capability, video camera, and external color display.



This phone is physically beautiful. You can feel real artistic touch from Nokia, especially with the camera that is carefully located on the corner of the flip cover.

Although the external display is so so, the internal is quite bright with 65,000 colors. The lack of bluetooth will hamper your ability to share images or other data with other devices. Yet the infrared is installed so you can use it instead.

For similar price, you can choos alternative phones, such as Motorola E680, Nokia 6630, Nokia Communicator 9210i, SonyEricsson S700. For functionality, Motorola E680 and Nokia 9210i are much better options than the artistic Nokia 7270.

For imaging (picture taking), SonyEricsson S700 brings 1.3 Megapixel camera, so Nokia 7270's camera is practically no match compared to S700's. Nokia 6630 has more functions than Nokia 7270, but the product's physical design is bulky and somewhat awkward.

Conclusion:
For art lovers and those who want to stand out of the crowd-aesthetically, clearly Nokia 7270 is one of the best choices. Along with Noia 7200, Nokia 7260, and Nokia 7610, Nokia 7270 adds another artistic phone model to an already consufing "art-phone class". But for real functional value? You might switch to other types to get bigger bang of your bucks.

Nokia 6260

The Good :
Infrared, bluetooth, USB port, MMC slot for memory extension, VGA camera, supports push-to-talk, FM radio, MP3 player

The Bad :
A bit clumsy design

Well, well, well, another "Revolutionary wanna be" phone from Nokia has arrived. Ar first sight, this phone is of course impressive. Inside, this Nokia 6260 brings a lot of features. However, a clumsy design makes the phone a little less attractive.

Full connectivity is ready for you, with infrared, bluetooth and USB all possess good compatibility. MMC slot is also installed, which has been a standard feature in recent smart phones. If your service operator provides PTT, the Nokia 6260 also offers PTT feature to save your money for the phone bill.



FM radio, MP3 player, wow lots of functions embedded into this Nokia 6260. With its twisting, dancing (jumping?) design, surely this phone is cool. It's cool, except for one thing, the big physical buttons installed just below the display. You might disagree, but actually those buttons should've been eliminated and Nokia could use the extra space for bigger display.

The phone with very exactly same product form from Samsung, with its twisting and dancing phone, is the Samsung P730. It's a bit more expensive (around $50 more) than Nokia 6260, but does bring brilliant 262,000 colors display and more memory (64 MB). Yet the big center "ankle" in Samsung is not a really nice feature. Samsung should've hidden the swivel mechanism inside the phone's body, just like SonyEricsson does with its S700.



If you want to shop around, with roughly the same dollars for a Nokia 6260, you can choose between Samsung P730, Nokia 6670, Motorola A760, Nokia 7610, Motorola E680, Xplore G88, Siemens SK65, SonyEricsson P900, or SonyEricsson S700. These other alternatives don't offer fancy twisting features, but some of them do have more features, and significantly more. Consider the strong SonyEricsson P900 with its touch screen, or SonyEricsson S700 with megapixel and hi-quality camera. Or how about the feature-laden Motorola E680 with its 50 MB internal memory and also a touch screen? And the cheaper Motorola A760 also brings touch screen.

Conclusion:
For combining fancy twisting design and smartphone features, Nokia 6260 deserves a good credit. But for more features with similar price, you may want to shop around. If you really an innovative person, Nokia 6260 is for you. 'Cause people will always take a look with drooling face if you play around, twisting the Nokia 6260. So it's a nice phone if you're looking for style.