Samsung Jack is the successor to Samsung BlackJack and the Jack is already famous with rock star Ozzy Osbourne flaunting it on your TVs during commercials. The new handset has some improvements compared to the previous one; it has a better camera and faster processor. This is a messaging phone, so care has been taken by Samsung to ensure that all your messaging requirements are fulfilled. The Jack is your for $99.99 with a two year contract and will lock horns with AT&T’s other ace, the Nokia E71x. We were equally impressed with both the phones. However, if you ask us to choose one, we will go for the Nokia because it has better keyboard whereas Jack has some downsides like slippery exteriors and a proprietary jack for charger and headset. The display of the phone is 2.4 inch big has 65k colors with resolution of 320X240 pixels. We thought the display was a bit small but it is bright and clear so text and pictures are clear. The home  [...]

Though the world has moved on to high end smart phones which sport lots of multimedia and messaging capabilities, there are still people who are not so enthusiastic about mobile phones. All they want is a device which can make call and send messages. A167 is a phone for such people. You can talk to people, text messages and take some photos with the low end camera on the handset. Being a clamshell phone, it has two displays, one on the lid and other one inside. The monochrome display on the lid gives a resolution of 96x96 pixels and it also gives you caller ID, signal strength, time battery life and date. The low end display doesn’t give a photo caller ID and neither does it work as a camera viewfinder. On the exterior of the phone, there is a volume rocker and a proprietary jack for putting headset and adapter. A single jack means that you get to use only one peripheral at a time. Asking for a 3.5 mm jack on an entry level phone like  [...]

Samsung SGH-T349 is a messaging phone, which sports the latest in-style 20 key QWERTY keyboard layout. Having a full QWERTY keyboard makes the phone quite big so it has been shrunk but still has great ergonomics while typing. We have seen this keyboard on BlackBerry Pearl's SureType and we loved it. This is a message centric phone, although great on messaging is low on other features. It has been made for business men who need messaging applications while on the move. There is no GPS or 3G however; there is a music player, Bluetooth and 1.3 MP camera. The handset is extremely cheap at just $15 with a two year contract. It is also available for $99.99 with T-Mobile’s Prepaid service. The display of the screen is 2.2 inch big and has support for 262,000 colors with resolution of 176X220 pixels. Although a bit small, it serves its purpose. The display is vibrant and bright with colorful animated icons on the interface of the menu. In the display, you  [...]

HTC Magic aka Google Ion is the second Android phone after the T-Mobile G1 and given what the G1 had to offer we were excited about what the next Android phone had in store for us. We were waiting rather impatiently for this phone and pounced on it as soon as it arrived in our test centers. This phone still has the user friendly intuitive interface and has lots of features on the inside. It does improve a lot on the previous G1 but still has a lot to be desired. The display of the gorgeous screen is 3.2 inch big and you get a 480X320 pixel resolution which gives you great photos, graphics and colors on the screen. You can adjust backlighting time and brightness on the device. You get three home screens for placing your icons for the applications that you use the most. You will have to swipe your finger across the screen to access these pages. Ion lets you add any number of icons to a page. The touch screen interface of the device was quite  [...]

We will put Sony Ericsson W995a in the category of one of the best multi media high end phone as it has 8.1 mega pixel camera, 3.5 mm jack, walkman player all under one roof. The media player has to be one of the best ones ever on a music phone. The W995a comes with a kick stand, which is not the best but still is great for watching movies. Other features include GPS, stereo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. We have seen such features on multi media phones but when you have a high end multi media handset which has such features in addition to the high end hardware, it is like putting icing on the cake. The display of the W995a is 2.6 inch big, it supports 16.7 million colors and gives a resolution of 320X240 pixels. Graphics, animation and photos look great on the display. The menu interface hasn’t changed, it is still standard Sony Ericsson the options of grid and list are the best among the four styles. We were a bit uncomfortable with navigation controls  [...]

E series class phones are made for businessmen just like the N series phones that are music centric and hence cater to the youth. Nokia has put quite a lot of features in to the E series to phone to lure people other than businessmen in to buying the phone but the slightly geeky design with the full QWERTY keyboard may make youth coy over purchasing such phones. We were disappointed with the average call quality and the cost of the phone (it is unlocked, here in US) however the phone is excellent for messaging. The QVGA display of the E75 is 2.4 inches big, diagonally and gives 16 million color output. It has light sensing technology which adjusts the light of the display based on the environment. This has been done to save the battery juice. You get two options for home screen, personal and business. The latter mode gives you quick access to the applications that you might need when you are in the office. The personal mode contains games, media  [...]

Blackberry devices have always been made with business class users in mind and this time, Blackberry has included a SIM card slot that automatically takes to global GSM network when you are out of the country. Bundled accessories with the phone include a microUSB cord, wired headset, SIM card, 1 GB microSD card, reference manual and travel charger. Verizon gave us international adapters with their Tour. This phone takes over from BlackBerry 8830 Word Edition from Sprint as a phone for the globe trotters. This new model promises to be better than the previous one owing to the constant improvement in technology. The handset is a dual mode phone which means it supports both CDMA and GSM networks, when you are in US it will use the Sprint’s CDMA network but when you are traveling outside it will change to international networks of GSM to make sure you are connected. You also get 3G abroad. You can choose the use any other SIM card incase  [...]