There are lots of smartphones coming in the market regularly and the prepaid market is one of the fastest growing segments in the cell phone industry. Most of these phones are quite similar to Samsung SGH-T369 that we’ve got here. There are cheaper choices in the market too. This handset has a sturdy sliding mechanism with compact design and slide out full QWERTY keyboard. The hardware inside is pretty impressive too; you get good feature set like music player, microSD card slot, camcorder, etc. However, there are some problems with the design. For instance, the manufacturer gives a proprietary port for headphone jack and charging port and the memory card slot is located behind the battery cover. You will have to take off the cover to access the memory card every time. I would still recommend the Samsung SGH-T369 if you are looking for a prepaid phone because at a price like $79.99, the flaws are acceptable. You also get the playful T-Mobile's carousel interface  [...]

Nokia X3 Touch and Type runs on S40 platform and the device is not a full fledged smartphone like the N8 based on Symbian 3 OS. This means you won’t get some of the goodes like free turn-by-turn navigation through Ovi Maps and Exchange support. Otherwise, the phone is a feature packed device especially for its price and size. The messaging application on the Nokia X3 Touch and Type has support for Windows Live, Gmail, Ovi Mail and also other IMAP and POP3 accounts. I could easily set up my Yahoo and Gmail accounts on the phone without any problems. The mail app is pretty basic in functionality but still supports folders. This phone is far from an e-mail machine but you can still check your mails and reply whenever necessary. For faster communication, there is multimedia and text messaging, Twitter, Facebook and some instant messaging apps. Nokia X3 Touch and Type is a quad band world phone and give you speakerphone, conference calling, speed dial, vibrate mode and  [...]

Nokia 2610 is an entry level handset and it is covered by AT&T. Nokia initially rose to popularity because of its basic handsets like these. The company is concentrating more on high end phones these days but they do come back to their roots once in a while. The 2610 that I got in my labs is a very basic phone with no extra bells and whistles. Tech enthusiasts like me might balk at such bland phones but there are people who just want a phone for calling and nothing else. Such people hardly use the phone for anything else and hence hesitate to buy high end or even mid range phones. Nokia 2610 has a pretty basic candybar design and I must confess that there is nothing attractive about the phone as compared to other high end smartphones that I get from this manufacturer. The navigation array and the numeric keypad too are kept simple. I was disappointed to see that the handset doesn’t have any buttons on the sides, Nokia could have given  [...]

Nokia is the biggest cell phone manufacturer in the world and their phones famous all over except in the US. So the company has tried harder to make a smartphone that is as good as the iPhone or some of the most popular Android handsets in the market. Nokia sent me this phone in my labs for review and after going through it, I can confidently say that the features and performance has been improved a lot on this handset. But it certainly cannot compete with the mighty iPhone, especially in the US. Another turn off is that the Nokia N8 is offered only as an unlocked device and the price is whopping $549. The Nokia N8 is a quad band world roaming phone offering features like speakerphone, conference calling, speed dial, voice dialing, multimedia and text and messaging along with threaded chat view, and vibrate mode. The address book of the phone is limited just by the available memory and the SIM can hold 250 more contacts. A single entry takes multiple numbers, home and work addresses,  [...]

A lot of Android phones came in to the market last year and T-Mobile G1 was the first handset to start the Android bandwagon. It now has a successor with the G2. The predecessor came out two years ago which is like eternity in the world of technology. The T-Mobile G1 is a really good phone with premium design, fast performance and outstanding keyboard. This is also the first smartphone to run on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network which gives impressive speeds. I am not saying that this phone doesn’t have any shortcomings at all but this phone is still recommended if you are looking for a high end handset or a better Android experience than T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide or Samsung Vibrant. The T-Mobile G2 will cost you $199.99 with a two year service agreement with the service provider. You can get this phone either at T-Mobiles stores or electronic retailers like Radio Shack and Best Buy. I won’t say that the T-Mobile G2 is sexy; but it has more  [...]

Motorola has been pretty busy off late. They have already given us Motorola Droid Pro with Verizon and now this duo is back again with Motorola Citrus, an entry level handsets. It is actually the WX445 phone which we saw in July this year. This is an entry level phone so it is not disappointing to see that the handset will carry a dated Android 2.1 OS and Blur skin. We are also expecting the manufacturer to offer Froyo update for it soon. Motorola says that this cellphone will have a curved design which will feel good in the hand. The phone will have a on screen full QWERTY keyboard and will be available in both portrait and landscape modes for quick messaging. The full HTML Web browser preloaded on the phone will let you surf the Web while you are traveling. The display has a capacitive touch interface which will give you  [...]

This is not a new phone in my labs. Sprint and Verizon Wireless both sent me this device some time ago and this handset is quite similar to the other two. On the front, there is a really nice and colorful display. Below that, there is the navigation array which consists of the call, end buttons, the menu key, the optical trackpad which is really nice and useful. There is also the back button. The end button can also be used to switch the phone on/off. The keyboard below the navigation array of the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 is very roomy and typing on it is really easy. They give good tactile feedback and the buttons are well spaced away from each other to minimize mishits. On the back, the phone has a two megapixel camera. RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a world phone. This means you can use the handset on both CDMA and GSM networks. When in the US, you can use the local US Cellular CDMA network and if you  [...]

Android phones from LG are very rare in the US. They sell more in Asia but these phones are slowly coming in limelight here in the US. Our sources say that LG might bring the LG Optimus, its much hyped handset to the US by the name Vortex. These two phones are very much similar in terms of design. The only difference is that Vortex will have a Verizon logo on the front since it is covered by this service provider. LG Vortex, according to our sources, will have a 600 MHz processor which is slower as compared to 1 GHz processor found on most high end smartphones. However, 600 Mhz chip is not that bad either, you can still do multitasking on it easily. The display size of this phone will be 3.2 inches big which is big enough for watching video clips or movies when you travel in a bus or train. Other features on the phone include GPS, Bluetooth and FM radio. There are people who are very much fond of FM radio, they listen to it when they are bored with  [...]