Samsung Galaxy S III

One of the most anticipated handsets of the year, the Samsung Galaxy S III replaces the best-selling Galaxy S II that came to market a year ago.

The Galaxy S III is an Android 4.0 smartphone with a large 4.8" 720 x 1280 pixel HD AMOLED display,  on the back is an 8 megapixel camera and there's also a 1.9 megapixel unit on the front for video calls. And the good news for Samsung fans is that the Galaxy S III should be available in Europe from the end of May.

Frustratingly, Samsung haven't given been very clear about the processor configuration, but we are lead to believe that is has a quad-core 1.4GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM and a dedicated graphics processor. The Samsung Galaxy S III comes with 16 or 32GB of flash plus a microSD slot (with a 64GB version promised), and in some regions the S III will support 4G connectivity.

All the usual Android features are here, plus a load of Samsung add-ons for social networking, taking pictures and media sharing. As you would expect, there's WiFi, Bluetooth and microUSB connectivity, plus support for GPS and GLONASS navigation, and the Galaxy S III supports NFC as well.

Sensors aren't usually very interesting on Android devices, but the Galaxy S III packs a barometer, digital compass, accelerometer, gyrometer, proximity sensor and an RGB light sensor. NFC communication means you can use the Galaxy S III for things like contactless payments, and you can even do clever things like multicasting media on your local wireless network.

This is a good looking handset, available in either black or white. The Galaxy S III is very slim at just 8.6mm thick, and the overall weight of 133 grams is very reasonable for a device with a screen this big. Inside is a very large 2100 mAh battery, which has 25% more capacity that the S II.

The Galaxy S range is the handset that all other Android smartphone manufacturers try to beat, so you can assume that Samsung's rivals will be looking at the S III very closely. We don't have any guidance on price at the moment, although you can expect it to be reassuringly expensive.

Source : Mobile Gazette

Nokia Asha 305 and Nokia Asha 306

Two closely related and very low cost touchscreen phones, the Nokia Asha 305 and Nokia Asha 306 are aimed at emerging markets and consumers on a budget.

The differences between the Asha 305 and 306 models are slight. The Nokia Asha 305 is a dual-SIM handset with a hot-swap capability that allows you to change SIM cards without turning off the phone. The Nokia Asha 306 removes the dual-SIM capabilities and includes WiFi instead, making this Nokia's cheapest ever WiFi-enabled phone. Neither phone is 3G capable, although the WiFi connectivity on the 306 means that you can access the internet quickly when connected to a suitable wireless network.

These are Series 40 feature phones rather than smartphones, but you can download new applications from the Nokia Store including 40 free EA games that you can keep. The Asha 305 and 306 support Facebook, Twitter and come with a media player with an accelerated web browser designed to minimise download costs and work more quickly on the 2G connection.

On the front is a simple 3.0" 240 x 400 pixel touchscreen. The panel is of the older (and cheaper) resistive type rather than the easier-to-use capacitive displays that you see on more expensive devices. The closely related Nokia Asha 311 does have a capacitive screen, but it costs about 50% more.

On the back is a basic 2 megapixel camera capable of very rudimentary video recording. There's an FM radio, a microSD slot, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. The standard sales package includes a 2GB memory card and a stereo wired headset.

Inside both handsets is a 1110 mAh BL-4U battery which Nokia claims gives up to 14 hours talktime and 22 days standby time. The Asha 305 and 306 measure 110 x 54 x 13mm and weigh a little under 100 grams.

The Nokia 305 should retail for €63 before tax and subsidy, it will be available in silver white, red, mid blue and dark grey colours and should hit the market during Q2 2012 (which effectively means by the end of June).

The Nokia 306 is a little more expensive at €68 before tax and subsidy in the same colour schemes as the 305, and Nokia say that it will be available during Q3 2012. These are both very good looking handsets for the money, and they certainly look more expensive than they actually are.

Source : Mobile Gazette

Will people pony up for a prepaid iPhone?

Prepaid's hefty upfront cost may turn people off, but there is potential to save money down the line.

The iPhone is hitting the prepaid market in a big way with Cricket and Virgin Mobile offering Apple's marquee device. But can anyone afford it?

The key dilemma for a prepaid iPhone is exactly what makes the market so strong: the lack of a service contract. Consumers love the ability to jump in and out of a service, but that freedom comes at a price in the form of a higher upfront cost for the phone.

For the iPhone, that's a particularly tough pill to swallow. Cricket, owned by Leap Wireless, is charging $500 and $400 for the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, respectively. Virgin Mobile isn't even bothering to give any discounts, offering the two models for $649 and $549.

Now, for anyone willing to pay for a prepaid iPhone, the savings are tremendous. At Virgin Mobile, where the cheapest plan is $30 a month, the total cost over two years would be $1,369. At Leap, it's $1,868.99 (its plan offers unlimited calling). In comparison, AT&T and Verizon's closest comparable plans would cost $2,359.75 over the life of the service contract (they both offer slightly more minutes than Virgin).

So if you're not much of a talker, the Virgin plan is a nice bargain.

Still, the cost of the phone will still be a barrier of entry to many in the prepaid world. Most prepaid customers typically fall into lower income brackets, suffer from credit issues, or both. An expensive iPhone probably isn't the wisest purchase to make for many of these customers.

"The $399 and $499 price points have historically been nearly irrelevant in the prepaid landscape," J.P. Morgan analyst Philip Cusick said in a note issued last week. "Customers will need to come up with the full price on the day of sale. This is not something that traditional prepaid customers can usually do."

Prepaid executives have said in the past that their customers have been increasingly willing to pay more for phones, particularly flashier Android devices. Some are willing to forgo other necessities for a flashier mobile device.

The prepaid carriers like it because it creates a bit of buzz to draw in customers. Given the price tag, it would likely keep customers locked in despite the lack of a contract. No one is going to give up the service after shelling out $500 for a phone.

Still, the iPhone is pricier than anything else in the prepaid world. The most expensive phone in Virgin's current lineup is the HTC Evo V 4G, a rebranded version of last year's Evo 3D that costs $299.99. At Leap, the most expensive phone is the Samsung Vitality for $199.99, which is discounted by another $100 if ordered online.

You get what you pay for with Virgin's plans. Despite being a unit of Sprint, it doesn't get the same access to unlimited data. Customers get 2.5GB of data before Virgin throttles, or slows down, the wireless connection.

While most of the other carriers have had the iPhone 4S for a few months, the prepaid players are just getting the iPhone now. Presumably, this will be the first time that prepaid customers will have access to the iPhone. But why buy one now when the next iPhone is right around the corner? It may be better to wait a few months to see what options are available.

Fortunately for iPhone users, there's a healthy resale market. A used iPhone 4S fetches for $389.48, while a used iPhone 4 sells for $245, according to listings found on eBay.

So if you can stomach the large upfront cost, there are some excellent benefits down the line. But shelling out as much as $649 would make anyone -- prepaid or in a contract -- reconsider whether an iPhone is really worth it.

Source: CNET by Roger Cheng

RIM Announces BlackBerry 8130 Pearl 2 for CDMA Networks

General News
Written by Humberto Saabedra

RIM has officially launched a webpage for the forthcoming BlackBerry 8130 Pearl 2 as well as announcing new features in a press release.

The new smart device will feature upgraded software with improved font rendering, HTML browser (with a zoom feature similar to iPhone's Safari or Opera Mini 4) and support for parsing RTSP/3GP media links within the browser to view streaming video sites such as YouTube's mobile version.

The feature set of the phone is also improved over the original by featuring a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash and zoom over the original 1.3 megapixel unit, media player with the ability to edit playlists directly on the device, microSD slot with SDHC support, voice activated dialing and control, 3.5mm standard headphone jack, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio support, and GPS support (the Verizon unit will reportedly have GPS disabled).

The device is expected to launch in November according to RIM, though no firm date was given in the release.

Review: Motorola RIZR Z8 / MOTORIZR Z8

The Motorola RIZR Z8 is an ambitious product. It takes the ultra-slim RAZR phone into the high-end world of the 3G smartphone. This is a phone that has the same kind of features as the brick-like Nokia N73, yet it's hardly any thicker than the original RAZR phone. It's Motorola's first Symbian phone since 2005, and the most highly powered of its current range of phones.

Physically, the Z8 is a development of the RIZR Z3, being a slimline slide phone. It's slightly thinner than the Z3, at just 15mm, but is wider and longer. The shape of the phone is unusual, as the rear edge of the phone is angled slightly when opened, giving it the appearance of a clamshell. It's an interesting design twist, making the phone easier to grip and more comfortable to hold to the ear than a conventional slider. The screen is excellent, being a bright TFT display with an amazing 16 million colours and one of the highest resolutions around. At 2.2 inches across, it's a very good size too - significantly larger than that of the RIZR Z3. The keypad is slightly cramped, but gives good positive feedback and isn't a problem to use unless you have very large fingers.

Technically the Z8 is far more advanced than the older generations of RAZR phones. It's a 3G phone with a high-speed HSPDA data speed of 3.6 Mbps, making it possible to download video, music and emails at broadband speeds. It also enables high quality video calling, using a full VGA-resolution second camera running at 30 frames per second for a flicker-free video calling experience. A 2 megapixel camera is provided for high resolution still photography, and this is equipped with a flash for low-light photography. The camera is fixed focus though, so cannot compete with the camera of the Nokia N73 or Sony Ericsson K810i, which both have autofocus cameras.

Musically, the Z8 is very well equipped. The media player supports music in MP3, AAC, AAC+ & AAC Enhanced formats in high quality stereo. The music player handles playlists and shuffles, and can synchronise with your PC via high-speed Bluetooth or USB 2.0. There is support for a wireless Bluetooth stereo headset (not supplied) or a conventional stereo headset. The media player also supports video playback of course, and in fact the phone is supplied with a MicroSD memory card containing The Bourne Identity (one of our favourite films!). The Z8 supports memory cards with up to 4 Gbytes capacity - sufficient for around 1,000 songs. On top of that the onboard user memory is a very generous 80 Mbytes.

We've already mentioned the high-speed HSPDA data access (3.6 Mbps), available in 3G regions. With 2G, EDGE is supported with download speeds of up to 236.8 kbps. An Opera web browser is supplied, with full mobile HTML support and the phone can handle email too. The phone is quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) so is usable worldwide.

As a Symbian phone, there is potentially a wealth of third party applications available, making the Z8 more like a mini-laptop than a phone. One word of warning though - Symbian systems lack the simplicity, speed and robustness of a simple phone interface. Fortunately the Z8 is equipped with plenty of RAM, but even so the Z8 does have a tendency to freeze or shut down.

The most similar competing phone is possibly the Nokia E65, which is also a 3G Symbian slide phone, but with more of a business focus. The Motorola RIZR Z3 is a budget version of the Z8, lacking the 3G and smartphone capabilities. The Motorola MAXX V6 is a 3G clamshell phone that shares many of the features of the Z8, but isn't a smartphone. If you want the best Motorola currently available, then the Z8 is probably the phone for you, but be aware that a 3G Symbian phone demands more from its owner than a normal phone! Be prepared to spend time learning how to use the phone, and we aware that the operating system isn't 100% robust. You can get the Z8 free on contract with a free memory card from Dialaphone.


Features of the Motorola RIZR Z8 / MOTORIZR Z8 include:
3G Symbian smartphone
2 megapixel camera with LED flash and 8x digital zoom
Video camera (30 frames/second)
3G video calling (using second VGA camera)
Display: TFT, 16 million colours, 320 x 240 pixels (2.2 inches)
Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC Enhanced formats)
Hands-Free Speaker Phone
Speaker independent name dialling / voice commands
Speed dialling
Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, Email
Pre-loaded games
Caller ID with image
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB 2.0
Memory: 80 Mbytes plus MicroSD card (expandable to 4 Gbytes)
Opera HTML web browser
Data: GPRS Class 10, EDGE, HSPDA (3.6 Mbps)
Quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) plus 3G (WCDMA 2100)
Size: 51 x 110 x 15 mm
Weight: 112g
Talktime: up to 5 hours (3G)
Battery standby: up to 16 days
Music Playback: up to 12 hours

Review: Nokia 6300

Nokia's slogan for the 6300 is "Simply beautiful - beautifully simple." The beauty comes from the sleek, classic design with stainless-steel surfaces, and the simplicity reflects the fact that this is an all-round kind of phone: not a smartphone, not 3G, but including all of the functionality that most people want. Sounds like a winner! Could Nokia finally be getting back to what it used to do best - a phone that does just what you want and does it well?

Certainly the phone looks good when you pick it up. It's like the early 6-series Nokia's: exclusive- and expensive-looking, practically designed with a good sized screen and functional keypad, yet updated for 2007 with a 5-way navigation button and high quality colour display. The size is perfect: it's very slim (just 11.7mm) and not too wide, and the weight is enough to make it feel solid and substantial, but not so much that it feels heavy. The keypad is a decent size and is easy to use. The display is exceptional: a high resolution 240 x 320 pixel display with an amazing 16 million colours. On the outside the 6300 ticks all the right boxes.

On the inside, the phone is equipped with all the features that a typical user would expect. The camera is 2 megapixels with an 8x digital zoom and with a video recording function. Enough for casual photography, but not brilliant. There's a music player and an FM radio. A standard Nokia headset is included in the sales package and support for a Bluetooth stereo headset is included. Memory for storing music is limited, with just 7.8 Mbytes of user memory, however you can expand the memory to a maximum of 2 Gbytes by buying a microSD card, which will give you as much memory as an iPod Nano. Both Bluetooth and USB connectivity are supported, and the phone has GPRS and EDGE for fast data downloads. Battery life is excellent. The user interface is a standard Series 40 interface, that Nokia users will be used to, but with the latest enhancements. It's basically a very easy phone to use, with everything well thought out and some real attention to detail.

This is our favourite Nokia phone for a long time. It really is beautiful - quality just oozes out of the phone when you pick it up. The metallic finish completes the look, although this may show scratches if not treated carefully. Ergonomics and user-friendliness are good. The strange thing is that Nokia built their reputation with phones like this, but what have they been doing these past few years with their funky but unusable fashion-phones and their buggy brick-like smartphones? Welcome back Nokia! It was worth the wait!

Still not convinced? Here's a fact: the 6300 is the only Nokia phone ever to be rated 5 stars by our users (out of 100 reviews in total). So what are you waiting for? Go buy it! You can already find some fantastic deals online for the 6300. For instance Dialaphone are offering the 6300 free at less than half-price line rental and with a choice of free gifts ranging from a free memory card to an LCD TV. You'll probably find that a deal like this works out better than upgrading on your existing contract. On Pay as you Go you can pick up the 6300 from the Carphone Warehouse for just £79.95, which seems like a fantastic deal for such a good phone.


Features of the Nokia 6300 include:
2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom
Video camera (176 x 144 pixels)
Display: TFT, 16.7 million colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2 inches)
Music player (MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, H.263, H.264 formats)
FM stereo radio with Visual Radio
Integrated loudspeaker
Voice commands and voice recording
MP3 ringtones, 64-voice polyphonic ringtones, video ringtones
Messaging: SMS, MMS, email, Instant messaging, Nokia Xpress audio messaging
Push to talk
Java games
Personal organiser with calendar, To-do list, and notes
Contacts (up to 1000)
Alarm clock and countdown timer (normal and interval timer)
Memory: 7.8 Mbytes plus microSD card slot (expandable up to 2 Gbytes)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB
Flight mode
WAP, GPRS Class 10, EDGE
XHTML web browser
Vibration alert
Triband
Size: 106 x 43 x 12 mm
Weight: 91g
Talktime: 3.5 hours
Battery standby: up to 14.5 days (350 hours)

Review: Motorola RAZR2 V9m for Sprint

Review by Michael Oryl on www.mobileburn.com

While the RAZR moniker might not demand the respect of users and the press that it once did, it is still one of the most successful lines of mobile devices ever - and certainly is the most successful that Motorola has ever offered. As such, it is no small thing to bestow a new family of devices with the label of RAZR2. That name draws some pretty lofty expectations from most people.

But here we have it, the new RAZR2 V9m for Sprint. This new EV-DO feature phone is thin, powerful, and offers a lot of modern day wizardry like streaming TV and touch controls with haptic feedback.

Physical Aspects

While it shares its lineage with the famed RAZR models of the past few years, the new Motorola RAZR2 V9m is a completely different device. It is better looking and more solidly, as well as thoughtfully, designed. The 120g (4.2oz) phone has many lovely details on it, including etched buttons that look quite pretty on the gnarled sides of the lower half of the clamshell. The rear of the device uses a new flush mounted battery cover that is coated with Motorola's grippy soft touch paint. The loudspeaker is located on the very bottom of the device, in the same 'chin' that is the home of the built-in antenna. The speaker has ports on the back and slanted bottom of the RAZR2, which helps ensure that it is unobstructed.

The front of the device, when closed, is where the new 2", QVGA resolution 65k color external display is located, directly beneath the lens for the 2 megapixel camera. The external display is huge when compared with most other handsets on the market. Its 3 touch sensitive buttons that are used in conjunction with the volume and smartkey buttons on the left edge of the phone allow users to control many features with the phone closed, including music playback and the Sprint TV service. The touch buttons are very easy to use thanks to vibration haptic feedback when they are pressed, but the display itself is lacking in color saturation. It is worth noting that the camera, smartkey, and volume buttons located on the edge of the V9m also provide vibration feedback when pressed.

Opening up the V9m reveals the large main QVGA resolution display, the flat RAZR-style keypad, and the massive metal hinge that is located between them. The main 2.2" display is capable of the same 65k colors as the external display, but it is far brighter and colorful. The display really shows off the improved look of the device's user interface. The keypad will be familiar to anybody who has used a RAZR or one of the many RAZR-clones on the market: it consists of a single flat metal panel with slightly raised rubber key separators. It works very well in spite of its ultra-thin design. Located above the alphanumeric keys are the two softkeys, dedicated back and speakerphone buttons, the green and red call controls keys, and a perfectly flat, 5-way d-pad controller. All work very well.

The large metal hinge in the middle of the device is one of the reasons that the RAZR2 design is so tough. I've seen Motorola reps slam them on tables, and had been told that they had even contemplated making a climbing wall out of them to demonstrate their strength. That same hinge, along with the V9's 103mm x 53mm x 12mm (4.1" x 2.1" x .47") dimensions, also make it a bit top heavy when opened up. The fairly strong spring in the hinge seems to slam the phone closed a bit harder than I would normally think prudent. The top of the flip appears to miss the thin rubber bumper that is located below the keypad during closing, which might account for the sense one gets that the phone is slamming shut. In any case, it certainly seems tough enough to take it.The only other complaint I have with the physical design of the RAZR2 V9m is due to the new micro-USB port that the phone uses for both charging and data/headset tasks. The micro-USB connector is a new type of connector designed specifically for mobile devices. It is thinner than the popular mini-USB connector that Motorola and others have been using for years. That part is fine. The cover for the V9m's port, however, is a pain to deal with. It is secured by two strips, which is good, but it is hard to open and darn near impossible to get out of the way far enough to easily insert a charger or cable. Speaking of which, the V9m does not ship with a mini-USB to micro-USB adapter or with a micro-USB cable.