Nokia 5610 Xpress Music

Nokia 5610 Xpress Music

Product summary

+ve's: The Nokia 5610 Xpress Music offers a satisfying music-centric feature set and admirable performance. The design is well-constructed and easy to use, and it offers a brilliant display.

-ve's: The Nokia 5610 Xpress Music's navigation toggle was stiff and its keypad was slippery. Its memory card slot is in an inconvenient location, and the camera's functionality is limited when using the flash.

conclusion: The Nokia 5610 Xpress Music offers a nice higher-end alternative to the Nokia 5310 with a flashier design and upgraded features. It's a good performer, too.

Specifications: Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ; Talk time: Up to 360 min ; Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player / FM radio ;

Apple i-Phone 3GS

Apple i-Phone 3GS

Product summary

+ve's: The i-Phone 3GS finally adds common cell phone features like multimedia messaging, video recording, and voice dialing. It runs faster; its promised battery life is longer; and the multimedia quality continues to shine.

-ve's: The i-Phone 3GS call quality shows no improvements and the 3G signal reception remains uneven. We still don't get Flash Lite, USB transfer and storage, or multitasking.

Conclusion: The i-Phone 3GS doesn't make the same grand leap that the iPhone 3G made from the first-generation model, but the latest Apple handset is still a compelling upgrade for some users. The i-Phone 3GS is faster and we appreciate the new features and extended battery life, but call quality and 3G reception still need improvement.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 600 min ;
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player / GPS receiver ;

Nokia N-97

Nokia N-97

Product summary

+ve's: The Nokia N-97 features a touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and 32GB of internal flash memory. The smartphone also offers 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS and comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera.

-ve's: The N-97's touch user interface isn't well integrated and can be inconsistent and confusing, especially compared with the competition. We would have preferred a capacitive touch screen instead of resistive.

Conclusion: While the Nokia N-97 is packed with features and offers the freedom of an unlocked phone, its clunky touch interface, sky-high price tag, and outdated operating system make it hard to recommend when there are better touch-screen smartphones on the market.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 400 min ;
Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player ;

RIM Blackberry Tour 9630

RIM Blackberry Tour 9630

Product summary

+ve's: The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 offers world-roaming capabilities as well as Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The smartphone offers a great design that combines a sharp display and an easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard in a fairly compact size.

-ve's: The smartphone lacks Wi-Fi. The Web browser falls short of the competition, and there's a bit of shutter lag on the camera. You can't save applications to a media card.

Conclusion: With a winning design and fast performance, the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 is one of Verizon Wireless' top smartphones for both business users and messaging fanatics.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 / CDMA2000 1X 1900/800 ;
Talk time: 300 min ;
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player / GPS receiver

HTC touch Diamond 2

HTC touch Diamond 2

Product summary

+ve's: The HTC Touch Diamond-2 boasts a sleek design with a larger and sharper display than its predecessor. The enhanced TouchFlo interface makes navigation easier. The Windows Mobile smartphone also features Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, and good general performance.

-ve's: No U.S. 3G support yet. The onscreen keyboard is a bit cramped and the smartphone lacks a standard headphone jack. Call quality could be better.

Conclusion: The HTC Touch Diamond-2 brings some notable improvements over its predecessor and promises to be a powerful touch-screen smartphone when it finally arrives in the U.S.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Product summary

+ve's: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers a sharp touch screen and compact design, it also features a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G support.

-ve's: The user interface needs some work including the input and navigation methods. The Nokia Music Store is not yet available in the United States.

Conclusion: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers an attractive design and feature set, but the touch-screen phone has some shortcomings compared with the competition.

Specifications: Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 540 min ;
Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player ;

HTC Touch Pro2

HTC Touch Pro2

Product summary

+ve's: The HTC Touch Pro2 features a sharp, spacious touch screen and an easy-to-use full QWERTY keyboard. The Windows Mobile smartphone also includes conference call management tools for business users and offers good call quality. It also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

-ve's: The smartphone is heavy and bulky. No U.S. 3G support on this version and it's expensive. Onboard memory is low, and we would have liked an upgraded camera.

conclusion: With a feature set to match its large size, the HTC Touch Pro2 will be a great device for power and business users once it finally hits North America and adds U.S. 3G support.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 510 min ;
Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player / GPS receiver ;

Nokia E63

Nokia E63

Product summary

+ve's: The sleek Nokia E63 offers a full QWERTY keyboard and full e-mail capabilities. The Symbian smartphone has integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G support. It's also one of the more affordably priced unlocked phones.

-ve's: The smartphone lacks integrated GPS, and call quality could be better. The camera doesn't produce the best pictures, and there's no side-mounted volume rocker.

conclusion: The Nokia E63 offers a more wallet-friendly price tag compared to other unlocked smartphones and does so without sacrificing too many features; we just we wish the call quality and camera were better.

Specifications: Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 660 min ;
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player / FM radio ;