Recently in Phones Category

Over the weekend, Nokia announced that they have just shipped the 1 million Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phones making it one of their more successful phones to date. Even though it hasn’t been released all over the globe, impressive sales in particular regions like Hong Kong, Moscow and no doubt, the Philippines as well has helped the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic attain this feat at such a short amount of time. This, in turn, will no doubt raise even more comparison to Apple’s equally successful mobile phone, the iPhone. So, is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone the real iPhone-killer? While on paper the 5800 XpressMusic phone does lord it over the iPhone in terms of specs and most importantly the price, it caters to a different segment of the market and to be honest, I personally find the ‘touch’ experience is nowhere near that of the iPhone. Remember, even though the 5800 XpressMusic runs on the S60 OS, it’s still a music phone first and foremost. The iPhone, on the other hand, tries to offer a more modern alternative to the conventional smartphone and for the most part, succeeds in doing so. As far as sales go, I have no doubt that the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone can match or even surpass the iPhone, but in terms of performance, they don’t even belong in the same playing field. If Nokia probably came out with an updated E9x phone that featured a touchscreen, maybe then we can seriously compare the iPhone with Nokia. So what about the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone then? It is what it is; a highly successful touchscreen music phone from Nokia.

iPhone users will now have an option as to what browser to use when surfing the web as Apple has approved 3rd party internet browsers to be featured on the App Store. Among the first batch of approved internet browsers, the Edge Browser (shown in the picture) stands out as it provides full screen browsing and, more importantly, is free. If anonymous surfing is your thing, the Incognito browser will come in handy, but it’ll set you back $1.99 to use it. The Webmate browser, meanwhile, provides tabbed browsing and costs less than the Incognito at just $0.99 to download. With this latest turn of events, we’re now a bit more optimistic of the chances that we will one day see Mobile FireFox and Opera Mini become available on the iPhone.

Sony Ericsson fans will be happy to know that a new Cybershot phone as well as a Walkman phone are confirmed to debut this year. The Sony Ericsson C510 is a 3.2-megapixel Cybershot phone that comes with a 2.2-inch TFT scratch-resistant display, Bluetooth, Google Maps, direct YouTube upload, slide-in lens cover, and 100MB internal memory. It likewise features Smile Shutter, Face Detection and Photo Fix. It’ll be available in the 1Q of this year in two color options: Radiation Silver and Future Black. Price is yet to be known, but it expected to be more on the affordable side. Meanwhile, the W508 is the new Walkman phone to watch out for. It's a clamshell that features a 2.2-inch internal scratch-resistant display, a 1.1-inch monochromatic OLED external scratch-resistant display, 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, NetFront browser, 100MB internal memory and a 1GB Memory Stick Micro as part of the package. Of course, since this is a Walkman phone, you can expect TrackID, Mega Bass, Shake Control and SensMe to be present as well. It’ll be available in Q2 of this year with a yet to be known price. While these two may offer very little in terms of groundbreaking features, they certainly have the looks and styling to succeed in the market.

If you think that this is just a concept device, then be prepared to be amazed because you’re completely wrong. LG has decided to come out with the GD910, the first ever 3G-capable watch phone that likewise boasts of having a touchscreen display, front-facing camera for video calls, Bluetooth, and HSDPA connectivity that maxes out at 7.2Mbps. While I highly doubt you'll be able to take hi-resolution pictures using this, the GD910 does make for a pretty handy 3G modem that you can pair with your laptop through Bluetooth and will definitely be an interesting conversation piece at gatherings. Details pertaining to its availability and price will probably be revealed at CES 2009 where it is expected to make its grand debut. As for the here and now, it has definitely caught my attention though I really wouldn’t consider getting one if it does go on sale in the local market. How about you guys? Will you buy the LG GD910 watch phone if it becomes available locally?

With the start of a brand new year, Samsung is ready to get rid of the old and offer up something new for their loyal customers; the S8300. This slider is set to replace their current flagship phone, the Soul U900. While it does look slightly less impressive in terms of design as compared to its predecessor, it does feature the same anti-scratch and anti-fingerprint coated duraluminum material used in the Soul. On the features end, I have no complaints whatsoever with its rumored specs. With a 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, 8-megapixel CCD camera with autofocus, optical joystick and 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, how can you go wrong with that? Of course, everything can’t be considered official just yet until Samsung makes the grand reveal which will either happen in CES this month or at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. Rest assured, we’ll give you guys posted once we get the latest info on their new flagship phone.

It looks like LG has finally decided to hop onboard the dual-SIM bandwagon with the announcement of their new touchscreen phone, the KS660.

This new touchscreen mobile phone comes with a decently-sized 3-inch WQVGA display, a whopping 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and flash, 50MB internal memory and support for microSDHC card for additional storage. Unfortunately, while it does manage to support to SIM cards, it doesn’t come with either WiFi or 3G which is a real deal-breaker considering how sexy it actually looks. Don’t get too excited about it just yet as it is currently confirmed to be hitting only China and Russia at the moment. Similarly, the LG KS660 is already confirmed to be skipping North America and Western Europe, but we have yet to hear if it will also be bypassing Southeast Asia.

Nokia’s got a new 8800 iteration on their hands, and this time, it's clad in 18-carat gold and white leather.

Dubbed the Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, this fine-looking piece of mobile telecommunications equipment comes with brilliant 2-inch OLED display (think N85), 3.2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz), WCDMA 2100MHz, 4GB internal memory, and runs on the S40 5th edition FP 1 platform. Those interested in getting this luxurious phone will have to wait a little longer, though, as price and availability info is yet to be announced.

Consumer Reports has released their January 2009 issue, and based on their study, the Samsung BlackJack II is the no. 1 smartphone as far as the US market is concerned. This QWERTY-equipped Windows Mobile-powered mobile phone managed to beat not only the T-Mobile G1, but also the more popular iPhone 3G. Actually, neither of the two even made it to the top five which was composed of the T-Mobile Wing, Motorola Q9C, T-Mobile Shadow, and BlackBerry Pearl Flip. The first Android-based phone and iPhone both were tied at 6th place. I guess this just goes to show that consumers still value form, function and price over design and hype. Of course, this listing applies to the US and being in the Philippines, we definitely have our own set of smartphones to choose from. My personal top five picks for local market are as follows (in no particular order): 1. Nokia E71 2. Samsung BlackJack II 3. iPhone 3G 4. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 5. Motorola Q9 How about you guys? What’s your mythical five smartphone line-up?

If you think the global economic crisis is discouraging mobile phone manufacturers from launching uber-expensive devices for the time being, the recent unveiling of the Samsung Ego GT-S9402 clearly shows that they’re not that affected by it that much. This new phone model from Samsung features an 2-inch QVGA AMOLED display, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, image stabilization and face and smile detection, FM radio, tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth, 1GB internal memory expandable via microSD card, and is also a DuoS which means you can use two SIM cards on it at the same time. Except for the camera, the specs look pretty average, but what truly makes this model special and expensive is its use of liquidmetal composite alloy which is touted to be much better than titanium in almost all aspects. It may not be a Vertu, but the S9402 definitely provides a more luxurious option to Samsungs already impressive line-up of phones. It’s expected to cost 1200 EUR or roughly P75K when it becomes available. With such a steep and hefty price tag, I highly doubt you’ll be seeing this in the regular mall stores if ever it does make it to the local market.

Operating system options are usually associated with laptops and desktop computers, but one mobile phone manufacturer is giving consumers the same option as far as their mobile phone is concerned. The QiGi i6 may look like a typical imitation phone, but does more than just rip-off one of HTC’s more popular models. Buyers have the option of getting either a QiGi i6 with Windows Mobile installed on it or the Android OS under the hood. Aside from the added freedom to customize it with your preferred OS, it comes with a 2.8-inch touchscreen, 2-megapixel camera, a fast 624MHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and support for up to 4GB additional memory via microSD card. No 3G on this baby, but I guess the inclusion of WiFi will probably suffice in its absence. Here’s a video showing off how well Android works on it. With its huge similarity to the HTC Touch and considering that it's coming from a relatively unknown mobile phone manufacturer, I highly doubt this will become commercially available through the regular channels (read: mall stores and telecom offerings). However, we can't discount the fact that it's the first device to give consumers the freedom to choose which OS they want installed on their phone. It's highly unlikely that the big names in the industry will follow their example, but it would be nice it they did, don't you think so?