World`s 8 Most Expensive Mobiles

1. Goldvish Le million Price: $1,000,000 This is the most expensive mobile phone in the world according the Guiness Books of Records. The phone features a blinding 120 carats worth of VVS-1 grade diamonds. If $1 million is too much for you, the Geneva-based Goldvish also offer several other diamond-encrusted 18k gold models in a choice of rose, yellow, or white, starting at a more reasonable $25,600. Image: Goldvish Le million

2. Vertu Signature Cobra Price: $310,000 Vertu is now taking orders for the Signature Cobra, designed by French jeweller Boucheron, but you better be quick as only eight are being made. The Cobra will feature one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, two emerald eyes and 439 rubies. Vertu will also be offering a 'cheaper' version, ruby free, at $115,000. Image: Vertu Signature Cobra



3. Sony Ericsson Black Diamond Price: $300,000 The mobile has Quad-band with Wi-Fi, an Intel 400Mhz processor and a touch sensitive 2? screen. It has 128mb memory and comes with a 2Gb SD card for external storage and a 4 megapixel camera.




4. Vertu Diamond Price: $88,000 The Diamond is Vertu's premium range of high-end mobile phones. As the name suggests, the handsets features diamonds encrusted in a platinum base. Only 200 of the handsets are being produced. Image: Vertu Diamon




5. Motorola V220 Special Edition Price: $51,800 Austrian designer Peter Aloisson has taken a standard Motorola, studded it with 1,200 diamonds and added a keyboard inlaid with 18 carat gold. The outcome is simply spectacular. Image: Motorola V220 Special Edition





6. Gold Edition Nokia 8800 Phone Price: $2,700 If you have $2,700 to spare, you can now buy the Nokia 8800 in 24K gold. The handset includes a 0.5 mega pixel SVGA camera, 64 MB of internal memory, 64 voice polyphonic rigntones, FM Radio, Mp3 Player, video recording and 180 minutes' talktime. The Gold Edition includes a special edition box and charging dock!





7. Mobiado Professional EM (wood) Price: $1,900 The Mobiado Professional EM, is a wood-clad upgrade of an earlier Nokia-based phone that includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Bluetooth. According to Mobiado, it's the first production phone with titanium buttons. Only 200 are being made and each one has its number engraved on the back.



7. Mobiado Professional EM (wood) Price: $1,900 The Mobiado Professional EM, is a wood-clad upgrade of an earlier Nokia-based phone that includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Bluetooth. According to Mobiado, it's the first production phone with titanium buttons. Only 200 are being made and each one has its number engraved on the back.
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8. Bang & Olufsen (Samsung) Serene Price: $1,250 Bang & Olufsen hooked up with Samsung to design the sleek but unconventional Serene. The phone has a built-in motor to assist you in opening and closing the phone. It's not very practical, however, as it requires a special screwdriver to access the battery and the SIM card. Its circular keypad will take some getting used to. Also, for some strange reason the maker has positioned the camera lens on one side of the device, which will make it difficult to align snapshots via the viewfinder on the display.

Nokia N80 review

The much-delayed Nokia N80 is finally coming close to being released, and Sogi.com have managed to get their hands on one for a full-featured review. The N80 is a stunning technological show-stopper from Nokia, cramming in an extraordinary array of features. WiFi, Bluetooth, UPnP, 3 megapixel camera, 3G, VGA video camera, MP3 player and support for up to 2GB of storage are just some of the features of this amazing phone.

Read more on the Nokia N80 review after the jump.

Nokia N80 review

Of all the features the Nokia N80 supports, UPnP may be the most exciting. With UPnP, the N80 can be used to stream music and video directly between hi-fis and TVs, making the N80 the ultimate remote control.

At the click of a button, you can stream your music files through your hifi (as long as it too supports UPnP), or display your pictures and videos on your TV.

Nokia N80's camera

As can be seen from the photo above, the N80's 3 megapixel camera gives superb results, and even manages to take good photos at night (a feat unheard of with current camera-phones). It also sports a useful macro mode, taking shots as close as 15cm, whilst the video capabilities of the N80 are unusually smooth.

Connectivity

The Nokia N80 is a 3G phone, enabling users to browse the web, transfer files and use email using a high speed mobile connection. More impressively, though, is the N80's support for WiFi, enabling the user to do the same over a high speed WLAN connection when within range of a hot spot.

Web browser

The Nokia N80's web browser is pretty special to. Rendering web pages on a mobile phone has always been tricky, but Nokia's latest browser sports Mini-Map, a neat feature which renders the whole web page on the mobile phone, and lets the user scroll around and zoom in to whichever area of the site they like the look of. This enables the user to see the whole screen at once, as they would on a desktop, so they can get a feel for which part of the site seems interesting. Once the user's found the part they want to read, they simply press '8', and the site zooms in to the area of interest.

And so much more!

If all this doesn't whet your appetite for the N80, then how does Microsoft Office support sound, or a GPS add-on with full sat-nav functionality. The Nokia N80 is one amazing mobile phone, and may just be my next mobile phone!

Nokia N81 the most attractive Nokia yet

True to their word, Nokia have made a raft of announcements today, the most eagerly awaited of which is the new Nokia N81.

The N81 is a great-looking slider that doubles as both a music phone with a whopping 8GB of storage, as well as a games phone, with support for Nokia's new N-Gage gaming service.

In addition to 8GB of storage, the Nokia N81 also comes with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, 3.mm headphone jack, and full integration with the new Nokia Music Store and N-Gage gaming service.

What this means is that you can browse, buy and download music and games over the air without the need for a PC.

More details and pictures of the Nokia N81 after the jump.

Better still, the new service can sync your tunes between your phone and PC, copying both tunes and playlists to both devices, so you don't need to worry about having two disparate collections scattered between your home and your mobile.

More on Nokia's new music service later, though. Let's get back to the phone!

The N81 is a great looking device - EngadgetMobile rate it as one of the most attractive Nokia's they've ever seen. It's a slider device with a D-Pad in the middle of the controls, which not only offers the usual up/down/left/right combos, it also doubles as a touch sensitive ring (similar to the iPod).

It also comes with a new 3D user interface, which is obviously designed to counter the iPhone's new interface. Although not touchscreen (though touchscreen Nokia's are due to come out next year), it still marks a great departure from Nokia's existing interface, and is yet more evidence of the disruption the iPhone is causing to the mobile phone market.

Even if the iPhone were to fall flat on its face, its legacy will be reflected in every new mobile phone on the market from now onwards!

LG Chocolate Phone KG800 Review

LG Chocolate Phone KG800 Review

The LG Chocolate is a range of designer phones developed by LG, who recognized the trend towards phones with more style but less features, and thought they'd jump on board. The result is a series of phones that really do look the biz - minimalist looks, some cool designer features, and phones that can be willingly shown off to anyone in view.

The LG KG800 Chocolate phone, reviewed here, was first announced back in March 2006. As befits a designer phone, it's low on features - for example, you only get a 1.3 megapixel camera - but where it does shine is with the technology used to enhance its looks.

Multimedia Features

The LG KG800 is a designer phone, and so isn't designed to come with a whole host of features. As such, you get a standard 1.3 megapixel camera, video camera and MP3 player, and not a lot else. Well, apart from the usual plethora of mobile phone goodies, such as WAP2.0, SMS/EMS/MMS, Email, polyphonic ringtones and Java, but they're as expected on any mobile phone as wheels are on a car!

That said, the MP3 player is a bit above average, as LG throw in a remote control to access and play your tunes, as well as equalizer and decent sound quality. The only downside is that the KG800 only comes with 128MB of RAM, and there's no way to expand this.

The LG KG800 is a slider phone, and sliding the phone open reveals both a mobile phone keypad and the camera, complete with portrait mirror. The camera settings let you choose white balance, timer, and the flash, but not a lot else.

LG Chocolate Style

Despite having minimal technical features, it's the style aspect of the KG800 where it will be chiefly judged, and here it really execls. Even its packaging is super-stylish. According to LG, it's designed to look like a box of chocolates (a bit like life then...or is that another metaphor?!). According to CNet UK, "it is, without reservation, the best-looking box that has ever graced a mobile phone reviewer's table. Like a Japanese paint box, this black rectangular packaging looks like it was made to hold fine badger-hair brushes, not a mobile phone."

Which is a good start for a designer phone, but what about the phone itself?.

Fortunately, LG have that covered, too. Reviews across the web unanimously describe the KG800 as superb-looking, and it's won two design awards (the iF Design Award and the Red Dot Design Award). It's excellent design has also carried through to commerical success: when tested in Korea, LG shipped 300,000 KG800s in just three months - that's 7% of the entire Korean market!

Key to the KG800's style succes lies with its heat-sensitive red touchpad on its outer surface. When not in use, the outer case of the KG800 is entirely black, with no buttons to be seen, and the screen blending in with the black case.

This, incidentally, is what distinguishes a Chocolate phone from it's non-edible counterparts - Chocolate phones are designed to look like bars of dark chocolate (i.e. dark, bar-like, and without obvious mobile phone elements such as buttons and screens).

It's only when a call or text is received, or the user presses their fingers over the phone's touchpad beneath the screen, that the buttons become apparent. Glorious red glowing icons at that, which really make the phone stand out from all of its rivals. The touchpad is heat and touch sensitive, so it's only enabled when a human finger (or some other part of a human anatomy) touches it.

Other Features

The LG KG800 Chocolate phone comes with tri-band GSM connectivity and GPRS support. As befits a style phone, the KG800 Chocolate phone is super-thin - just 15mm thin, and weighing only 16g. There's also a white version of the KG800 on sale as well, which presumablty reflects white chocolate. No sign of the caramel or chocolate truffle versions yet, though (more's the pity....mmmmm, chocolate truffle!)

LG Chocolate Phone KG800 Reviews across the web

The LG Chcolate Phone KG800 reviews across the web all state what a good looking phone this is. However, there are caveats, as it's let down in certain areas where a bit more attention to detail would have made it close to perfect.

CNet UK, for example, in their LG Chocolate KG800 review, say that "we're in love with the look of it, but the touchpad can be awkward to use and it's a shame about the lack of expandable memory." They also go on to criticize the T9 text input system, which is fiddly, the lack of a speakerphone, and the buggy PC software. Like I said, all minor niggles, but evidence of LG focusing overly on the design at the expense of the details.

GSMArena, in their comprehensive LG Chocolate KG800 review, report that "as far as our opinion goes, we have rarely seen so beautifully designed mobile phone," but add the caveat that "Generally speaking, the phone has claims of being capable of a whole lot of stuff and indeed, we proved that it is capable of them but pitifully, it manages to perform them on the level of a poor student working on a mid-term paper." Ouch!

Mobile-Review have another comprehensive LG Chocolate KG800 review, and they too love its looks, but feel it's let down by some niggles. They state that "even though we won't guarantee you amazements or admiring gazes from other people in the street, we assure you of receiving enough covert glances...", and conclude that "while the KG800 looks marvelous and will appeal to those, seeking for fresh ideas in design and not paying much of attention to the manufacturer's size or image. And this phone fits all these criteria."

Conclusion

The LG KG800 Chocolate Phone is one of those phones you'll buy based solely on its looks. It has annoying niggles that mean its other features, such as MP3 player, camera, and even its touchpad, can't be used without causing you some ergonomic annoyance. If it was a standard phone, this would be kill the KG800 stone dead in the market, as a phone that doesn't work too well, doesn't sell too well!

But it's not a normal phone - it's one of the best looking mobile phone on the market today, and people will buy it purely for its looks. And be honest - unless you bought a dedicated music phone or smartphone, how often do you actually use your phone's MP3 player, or do anything else on it other than text or use voice? For those of you who want a phone as a phone, and better still, a phone that will really turn heads wherever you go, the LG KG800 Chocolate phone is for you.

LG KU990 Viewty Review

After spending the last year or so focusing on designer phones, such as the LG Chocolate and LG Shine, LG are repositioning themselves in the high-tech arena once more, and the new 5 megapixel LG Viewty camera phone is the first phone to be released as part of their new strategy.

Of course, LG have released a 5 megapixel camera phone before in the shape of the LG KG920, but that had no autofocus and was pants. The LG Viewty, on the other hand, looks to be glorious.

Read more on the LG Viewty review after the jump.

First, the big news. The LG Viewty does indeed come with a 5 megapixel camera, but thanks to autofocus, xenon flash and the ability to adjust ISO levels and white balance, it's actually an extremely usable 5 megapixel camera capable of taking some really good photos.

The pictures aren't as good in low light conditions as the Sony Ericsson K850i, as the flash isn't as good, but then the K850i's flash is the best on the market at the moment. Apparently the Viewty's flash is as good as the Nokia N95's, so we're still talking pretty decent, and the phone's great for outdoor shots.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Viewty, though, is its video recording abilities. It can take video at a whopping 120 frames per second, which means you can take slow motion shots, like in the video below. As you can see, the quality is superb, and you won't find a phone capable of taking slow-mo shots like this anywhere else on the market at the moment.

There's also a YouTube button, which lets you upload your video to YouTube with one click. Of course, uploading video is a slow old process given the size of video files, particularly those taken at 120 fps, but luckily the LG Viewty comes with HSDPA, letting you upload your pics at a rapid 3.6Mbps.

In keeping with the latest vogue, the LG Viewty comes with a touschreen, with just three hardware buttons (send, end and cancel). The Viewty's is apparently very responsive, though naturally prone to fingerprints, and the interface is extremely easy to use.

It also means the phone looks superb, with a cool touchscreen on one side and a professional looking camera on the other.

The Viewty also comes with its own proprietary browser, which apparently is better than many browsers out there, including those from dedicated browser companies such as Opera. Like the iPhone, you can browse a web page, then zoom inot and out of it using the touchscreen.

As well as a touchscreen, the Viewty shares other features of the iPhone including the ability to browse your photos by flicking through them with your finger. Seems the iPhone really has forced other manufacturers to consider their user interfaces and LG have risen to the challenge impressively.

Indeed, everything about the LG Viewty is impressive. It looks great, has a tonne of features, a genuinely usable 5 megapixel camera and a superb video recorder. It'll also let you play DivX movies on a microSD card, comes with an MP3 player, 3D shoot em game, and battery life lasts for two days.

CNet conclude by saying that "The LG KU990 Viewty is an impressive phone, particularly when you consider that LG hasn't made that many high-end camera phones. It's doesn't beat the Canon Digital IXUS 70 but it is comparable with a three-year old average standalone camera.

If you want to take relatively high-quality photos and videos then the KU990 is definitely worth checking out. Alongside the good camera, easy-to-use touchscreen interface and HSDPA (3.5G), we think LG has made one of its best phones yet."

This Christmas really is set for the battle of the 5 megapixel cameras, and with the LG KU990 Viewty, LG have a strong contender on their hands.

n70..Pics..

Here are some Nokia N70 pictures, showing the N70 off in its best light. As you can see, not only does the N70 look good, it's extremely versatile too - just check our its keyboard add on!

Nokia 6500 and 6500 Slide - mid-range phones with N-Series features

Nokia have announced the new Nokia 6500 Classic and 6500 Slide mobile phones.

Both phones offer similar features, but with different form factors.

The 6500 classic is a standard candybar design, while the 6500 Slide is, er, a slider!

Pitched at the mid-range, this pair of phones actually have some pretty nifty features that you'd expect to find on a Nokia N-Series phone.

Quad band GSM and dual band 3G come as standard, while the 6500 Slide even features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens.

More details and pictures of the Nokia 6500 mobile phones after the jump.

Nokia 6500 Classic overview

The Nokia 6500 Classic is a standard candybar phone with the traditional Nokia look and feel. Nokia reckon it's a thing of superb craftmanship, though, with a case crafted from 360 degrees of anodized aluminium, and diamond polishing being used on the bevelled display aperture. Just looks like a normal Nokia to me! For thin-phone lovers, it's only 9.5mm thin.

More impressively, the 6500 Classic comes with 1GB of internal memory as standard, which should help the phone hold more pictures, music and video clips than its competitors.

The 6500 Classic is also equipped with a USB cable that not only syncs the phone with your PC's applications (email, contacts, playlists etc.), it also enables the 6500 Classic to be used as a high capacity flash drive, as you can transfer files of any type between phone and PC.

Nokia 6500 Classic Specifications

Main features

• Sleek, seamless case crafted from 360 degrees of anodized aluminum
• 2 Megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom and dual LED flash
• Extra-large 1 GB internal memory for music, images and more
• Unified MicroUSB port for charging, data and audio
• Music player supporting MP3, AAC, eAAC+
• Video player
• Hands-free speaker
• Bluetooth
• Dual-band 3G technology

Technical Profile:

• System: WCDMA 850/2100, GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
• User Interface:Series 40 platform
• Dimensions:109.8 × 45 × 9.5mm
• Weight:94g
• Volume:47 cc
• Standby time:Up to 12,5 days
• Talk time:Up to 5,5 hours
• Display :QVGA 320×240, up to 16.7 million true colors.
• Battery:BL-6P Battery (830 mAh, Lion)

Connectivity

• Data Services:WCDMA
• Max download 384 kbits;
• upload 128 kbits
• GPRS multislot class 32, up to 53.6 kbps
• EGPRS multislot class 32, up to 296 kbps

Camera

• Resolution of images: 1600 × 1200 pixels
• Resolution of videos:QCIF (176 × 144 Pixel)
• Image capture:JPEG
• Video capture:MP4

Nokia 6500 Slide Overview

The Nokia 6500 Slide is the better phone of the two. Although thicker than the 6500 Classic (16.5mm compared with the 6500 Classic's 9.5m), the 6500 Slide features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, VGA-quality video recording (640 × 480), TV-Out for viewing your pics and videos on the telly, and built-in apps such as Flickr and Adobe Photoshop.

The 6500 Slide also supports microSD cards up to 4GB in capacity.

Summary

What's really impressive about these two phones is the quality of their features, despite their mid-range price. For example, both phones come with QVGA screens capable of showing 16 million colours, as well as supporting quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G.

If these phones were released last year, they'd come with N-Series branding for sure. What we're seeing, then, is Nokia's advanced technology used in its high-end N-Series phones trickling down to its lower range phones over time, which for the consumer, is excellent news.

Motorola KRZR Preview./....

Motorola recently announced its new Motorola KRZR mobile phone, and PhoneDaily have managed to get a sneak preview. The phone itself is pretty unremarkable - actually, it's very unremarkable - but you can't deny it looks good. OK, it looks like a RAZR, but it's still good looking.

More pics and details of the Motorola KRZR preview after the jump........

Motorola KRZR preview

Interestingly, PhoneDaily point out the differences between the KRZR K1 (GSM/EDGE edition) and the KRZR K1c (CDMA EV-DO edition).

The K1, for example, sports a 2 megapixel camera, whilst the K1c only a 1.3 megapixeller. The KRZR K1 has a 260k colour TFT screen, whilst the K1c has only a 65k colour screen. Neither are exactly pushing the limits of technology!

Intriguingly, despite its lower spec, the KRZR K1c is a full 1mm (yes, a whole millimeter!) thicker than its brother (17mm for the K1c - 16mm for the K1).

Finally, the KRZR's user interface (both phones share the same interface) is apparently quite good and intuitive. You can manage your pics easily, play your Java J2ME games (they both come with Block Breaker Deluxe) and sync your contacts list with your PC via the built-in USB port (though oddly, the K1 has its USB port on the right, whilst the K1c has it on the left!).

Conclusion: the Motorola KRZR K1 and K1c are good looking mobile phones, but their features are already dated. Go for the K1 if you can (though obviously this will depend on whether your network supports GSM/EDGE or CDMA/EV-DO) - or better still, go for something else entirely!

Sony Ericsson C905 CyberShot phone - full details, pics and specifications....

The Sony Ericsson C905 CyberShot phone has at last been made official. Sony Ericsson's latest super camera phone is a technological tour de force, designed to take on and beat the best that Nokia's N-Series can throw at it. Not for Sony Ericsson a measly 5 megapixels - the C905 comes with 8.1 megapixels. Connectivity? While the average Nokia N-Series can manage Wi-Fi, HSDPA, USB and Bluetooth 2.0, the C905 features all that and throws DLNA into the mix too, enabling your phone's pictures to be beamed directly to your (DLNA-compatible) TV wirelessly at the touch of a button.

You also get a-GPS, built-in Google Maps, and a tonne of fancy-ass camera-specific features, too, making any N-Series phone look like an iPhone (well, at least in the features stakes anyway!)

Full specification and many more pictures of the Sony Ericsson C905 camera phone after the jump.

Sony Ericsson C905 CyberShot camera phone overview

The C905 is a hugely impressive piece of kit. Most top-end camera phone these days come with 5 megapixels, but Sony Ericsson decided to top the lot with a stunning 8.1 megapixels' worth. OK, so megapixels on their own mean nothing, but in marketing, size matters, and any camera phone with more megapixels than the competition is already off to a head start.

Along with megapixels, though, the Sony Ericsson C905 also offers the following features to enable you to take much better pics:

• Xenon flash
• Auto focus
• Face detection
• Smart contrast
• Image stabilizer
• Red-eye reduction
• BestPic™
• Digital zoom - up to 16x
• Photo fix
• Photo flash
• Photo light
• Picture & Video blogging
• Geo-tagging
• Photo feeds
• PictBridge printing

That's quite an array of features. According to reports from engineers who've had a chance to play with the C905, the pictures it takes are stunning (well, at least for a camera phone anyway). Sony Ericsson don't just release phones with features that are there purely for marekting purposes - their features are the real deal, and with 8.1 megapixels and this array of features, you can be sure that the C905 will leap straight to the top as the best camera phone on the market (though we will, of course, test this out in the future!)

It's not just the picture-taking abilities of the C905 that are great, though. Sony Ericsson have really thought about what should go into a great camera phone, so you get one-touch picture (and video) blogging to any of a variety of web sites, from Fickr to your own blog. You can even geo-tag your blog using the C905's built-in a-GPS unit.

Speaking of which, the combination of a-GPS and Google Maps makes the C905 an excellent Sat-Nav phone as well. In fact, with the combination of superb camera taking abilities, GPS, and unrivalled connectivity, the Sony Ericsson C905 is this year's Nokia N95: a truly superb high-end phone that blows the competition away.

Over to you, Nokia!

Sony Ericsson C905 Specification

Key features

• Complete digital camera experience on a phone – true digital camera styling and an 8.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flash
• Outstanding picture quality – complete with face detection auto-focus, smart contrast and image stabilizer
• From baby’s first steps to an amazing sunset; store them all on the 2GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2®) included
• The USB adaptor (CCR-70) provided in-box allows for easy transfer of your photos to-and-from your PC.
• View high-quality pictures on the phones impressive 2.4” scratch-resistant mineral glass display
• Share your memories – send your photos wirelessly from your phone to your TV via Wi-Fi™ (using DLNA), or connect with wires using the TV-Out Cable ITC-60, also announced today
• Upload photos to your own online blogsite or print your photos with fantastic resolution up to A3 size
• Much more than a camera phone - GPS-enabled for geo-tagging of photos and navigation support.

The Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot™ release date will be Q4 2008, and will be available in three colours (Night Black, Ice Silver and Copper Gold). It will support the following networks:

GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 2100.

Technical specification

Camera

• 8.1 megapixel camera
• Xenon flash
• Auto focus Face detection
• Smart contrast
• Image stabilizer
• Red-eye reduction
• BestPic™
• Digital zoom – up to 16x
• Photo fix
• Photo flash
• Photo light
• Video light
• Video recording
• Video stabilizer
• Picture & Video blogging
• Geo-tagging
• Photo feeds
• PictBridge printing

Music/Entertainment

• Album art
• Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Media player
• Music tones (MP3/AAC)
• PlayNow™
• TrackID™
• 3D games
• FM radio
• Java
• Video streaming
• Video viewing

Web/Internet

• Access NetFront™ Web browser
• WAP 1.2.1
• WAP 2.0 XHTML
• Web feeds

Communication and Messaging

• Video calling
• Speaker phone
• Polyphonic ringtones
• Vibrating alert
• Email
• Exchange ActiveSync®
• Instant messaging
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Sound recorder
• Text messaging (SMS)

Design

• Auto rotate
• Navigation key
• Picture wallpaper
• Wallpaper animation

Connectivity

• GPS and aGPS
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Modem
• Synchronization
• USB mass storage
• USB support
• Wi-Fi™
• DLNA™

In-Box:

• Stereo portable handsfree HPM-62
• 2GB Memory stick Micro™ (M2™) card
• Memory Stick Micro USB adapter (CCR-70)
• Media Manager software
• USB cable DCU-65
• Hand strap
• Battery

Sony Ericsson K800i review

The following Sony Ericsson K800i review is a little different from other mobile phone reviews across the Web (and certainly different from other reviews I've done here at Mobynerds). It's a long-term review, showing what the Sony Ericsson K800i has been like to use over the course of six months.

Sony Ericsson K800i overview

The Sony Ericsson K800i has proved to be a great all round package after 6 months of use. The K800i is one of Sony Ericsson’s first respectable cyber-shot camera phones with a 3.2 mega pixel camera that works well with almost every shot. The Xenon flash works far better than any other LED flash used on other camera phones, capturing good shots in the dark, although the flash can get lost in big open rooms. There is a setting for any environment that you could be in, from beach to sports; however I have never found an opportunity to use these and so they are often forgotten about. The picture quality is excellent and is superior to any other 3.2 mega pixel camera phone, producing photos that can easily be viewed full screen on a computer monitor without any pixellation.

One problem with the camera is the auto focus, which sometimes isn’t very automatic. Like most auto-focus mechanisms on cameras and camera phones, to get the best results you must push the shutter half way down and wait for it to focus before taking the picture. However, on the K800i this isn't exactly a quick process, and the response can become annoying especially if trying to shoot sports or wildlife pictures.

Music on the Sony Ericsson K800i

Although the K800i isn’t part of Sony’s Walkman series oh phones, it still has a reasonably good MP3 player, which I've come to use so often that it's now replaced my separate mp3 player. The sound quality is good enough not to complain about and several equalizer settings are included if you are that picky. If like me you just use the player to play a random selection of songs then this is perfect as you can just push play and let it get on with it. A nice feature is that it fades the music out for incoming texts and phone calls and then continues from where the song left off once the phone call has finished.

One downside, though, are the headphones that have to be used (theres no standard 3.5mm audio jack input), which are large and cumbersome and often fall out of your ear because of their weight. If you decide not to use the headphones and play music through the internal speaker you will be impressed at the volume that can be achieved while still keeping the quality.

Using the K800i's keyboard

The first thing that strikes you about the K800i is the noticeably small keypad. This certainly takes a while to get used to, especially if texting is a main priority. Once conquered, though, it can be used well with the main central control stick to navigate through the menus. Sony Ericsson’s T9 predictive text is a useful facility if you like to send quick, short texts as it learns quickly what you regularly type; however I don’t tend to use this as I spend far too long having to teach it abbreviations (you can turn T9 on or off by holding down the star key).

Built-in applications on the K800i

One of the most used features that the K800i has provided me with has to be the organiser and calendar function. With the option to set reminders, I have saved myself from forgetting to do many important jobs while having to juggle with a hectic lifestyle.

As far as Web browsing is concerned, having 3G on the phone can prove useful if you regularly find yourself away from a computer and need to quickly use Google, for example. However, like all phones, this is only useful if you have a mobile phone tariff that offers a large amount of data transfer each month. I don't have such a plan, unfortunately, and so have only used the browser once, which I found to be a rather expensive way of eating away at my credit! The same goes for video calls, a feature that I have never used; it feels as if it is mainly intended for a business situation and looks as if it could work well in this scenario.

Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity the K800i does well, having infrared to send media to ‘Bluetooth-less’ devices as well as having Bluetooth to connect to other phones and even computers, thus enabling you to quickly send pictures you have just taken to different devices. Bluetooth can also be used to provide a mobile Internet connection for computers, which is great for when you are on the move. Unfortunately, the USB connection to a computer is limited as Sony Ericsson have still not fixed a problem with installing the software on Windows Vista, making it hard to transfer data between the phone and PC – one important function that is required for quickly transferring music to the phone!

Looks and design

If you are looking for a slim, petite phone the K800i isn’t ideal. You can tell how they have struggled to fit the 3.2 mega pixel lens in as it protrudes from the back, unlike other camera phones which have flat backs. It is also a fairly heavy phone, but you soon get use to this, although you will have to wear a belt to stop it weighing your trousers down [don't most people's trousers fall down without belts anyway?! - Ed]. Although the phone does come with 64mb internal memory I strongly recommend buying a M2 memory card as it enables you to store far more songs and you won’t have to worry about running out of room for photos.

In terms of battery life, I have found, like most phones, if you are using all kind of applications like taking photos and listening to music the battery life can deteriorate fairly fast, so be wary if you have a low battery. Fortunately it charges incredibly quickly using the mains charger - fully charging the phone within an hour, far better than my old phone!

Summary

If you are looking for a great 3.2 mega pixel camera phone with great added features such as MP3 playback, then the Sony Ericsson K800i is definitely for you. This all-round package will not let you down with excellent reliability, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is keen to take a few photos here and there. However, if you are looking for a wow factor and like to be up-to-date I strongly recommend buying a newer model such as the Sony Ericsson K850, which has a 5 mega pixel camera! I will certainly be buying Sony Ericssons in the future due to the very few downfalls that I have encountered with the K800i.

Nokia E51 business phone announced

Nokia have announced the new Nokia E51, a small, compact smartphone designed specifically for the business market. The E51 is designed to provide all the features needed in a business environment, and to make it as easy as possible to access those features.

To this end, there's a user-configurable homescreen, enabling the user to place icons to their most-frequently used applications; One Touch keys to such applications as email, contact, calendar, etc.; and easy integration with a wide range of business email applications.

More details of the Nokia E51 after the jump.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Nokia E51, though, at least for businesses, is the way it integrates tightly with existing business communication services, enabling the user to use one device to access email, voice mail, and a plethora of corporate phone options, including extension dialling, hold, transfer and conferencing.

You can even route calls over your company's IP network, ensuring you cut down on phone costs (particularly with international calls).

In summary, the Nokia E51 isn't particularly innovative, but for business use it'll be a hard phone to beat, as it does exactly what businesses want it to do, and does it extremely well.

Full details of the Nokia E51 smartphone

From the press release:

Nokia today bolstered its Nokia Eseries portfolio of business devices with the introduction of the new Nokia E51 device. The slim and elegant Nokia E51 adds greater simplicity, faster access and tighter integration to key applications, while maintaining the smartphone capabilities and stylish design that customers have come to expect in a Nokia Eseries device.

An all-round device, Nokia E51 is ideal for business professionals who require reliable, real-time access to business and people, need to manage time effectively and value a single device that is easy to set up, maintain and use.

Nokia E51 users with Nokia mobility solutions can experience mobile telephony, mobile email and messaging, office phone functionality, and cost savings - with the convenience of one phone number, one voice mailbox, one dial plan - in a single device.

"Business users increasingly need one device that they can count on to work productively and which offers them the level of efficiency that brings more freedom and balance to their personal lives," said Antti Vasara, senior vice president, Mobile Devices Unit, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia. "With the new Nokia E51 device, we are responding to this need with a business smartphone that combines the latest advances in business mobility and a classic, stainless steel design, at a price that makes it perfect for company-wide deployments."

While expanding the rich functionality that business users require, Nokia continues to simplify the use of its business devices via the following:

• A home screen including user-selected icons to the most used applications
• One Touch keys with one-click access to key functionalities including email, contacts, calendar and the home screen
• Set-up wizards offering step-by-step guidance for setting up email accounts, configuring
• Internet calling and accessing wireless local area networks
• Integration with a wide range of business email solutions, including Nokia Intellisync Wireless
• Email and Mail for Exchange to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server, and consumer email
• Streamlined email reading experience with easy access to attachments
• Dedicated Email key on the front cover, indicator light for new email, and a preview window to the latest email on the home screen to help keep up with email when on the move

Nokia E51 also extends business value to end users and businesses through its ability to integrate tightly with corporate telephony systems (PBX) through Nokia Mobile Unified Communications solutions such as Nokia Intellisync Call Connect for Cisco and Nokia Intellisync Call Connect for Alcatel. These solutions deliver desk phone calling features - such as extension dialing, hold, transfer and conferencing - to a single, mobile device. Companies can also reduce their international call charges by routing the call over the corporate IP networks.

"Nokia and BT share a vision that business mobility adoption will thrive when our collective customers and their respective end users, derive productivity improvements from mobile enabled applications," said Rakesh Mahajan, global director of mobility at BT Global Services. "For the BT Corporate Fusion solution, we chose the Nokia E51 for its classic Nokia business smartphone features and design, its ease of integration into our solution, and its affordability, making it more appealing for widespread use within companies of all sizes."

Nokia E51 is also ideal for any user wishing to leverage broadband connections to access mobile Internet telephony from homes and hotspots. For example, Gizmo, a Voice over IP (VoIP) application, is available for Nokia Eseries customers free of charge, enabling users to make and receive inexpensive calls from their mobile phones and chat or talk with friends who are online. Gizmo application is available to Nokia Eseries customers through the Nokia Download! application on their mobile phone.

In addition to increased features and functionality for business use, Nokia E51 lends itself well to personal use and offers a polished look for both business and personal use. The thin, stainless steel device is equipped with personal applications, including:

• FM radio, music and multimedia players
• 2 megapixel camera
• Nokia browser, serving as the gateway to a variety of Internet services including interoperability with Windows Live, providing mobile access to most popular Windows Live services including Hotmail, Messenger and Spaces, available through the Nokia Download! application
• Via the Download! application access to Yahoo Go! WidSets, and a number of travel, personal productivity and entertainment applications

Nokia E51 is the latest offering in the industry-leading Nokia Eseries portfolio of business optimized devices that support companies' business mobility strategies by protecting their investments in workforce mobility. Joining the ranks of Nokia E90 Communicator, Nokia E61i and Nokia E65, the Nokia E51 device enables business users to collaborate, communicate, and operate whether they are conducting business from their offices, working remotely or traveling - while also keeping in touch with their personal lives.

The Nokia E51 release date will be the fourth quarter of 2007 for an unsubsidized retail price of approximately 350 EUR.

Nokia N82 - an N95 in sheep’s clothing

As promised, time finally to start discussing the plethora of new announcements from the mobile phone world that annoyingly happened just when I lost Internet connectivity! First up is the new Nokia N82, which as well as being announced by Nokia this week, has also been released by the company in time for Christmas.

By any measure, the Nokia N82 is a stunning mobile phone - 5 megapixel camera, full Sat-Nav functionality, Wi-Fi and DVD-quality video recording are just some of the features its offers. However, if all this sounds a tad familiar, it's because all of these features are present in the N82's predecessor the N95.

Read on to see what the Nokia N82 offers that the N95 didn't.

So what does the N82 offer that the N95 didn't, and is it worth upgrading? Well, the most obvious difference is the form factor. The N95 had an innovative dual slide feature, where the keypad would slide out from one side while dedicated music keys would slide out from the other.

The N82, in contrast, sticks to the more traditional candybar form factor, with no sliding at all. That said, it's a good looking device, but it doesn't come with the attendant wow factor that the dual-sliding N95 offered.

The other differences seem to be software related. There's a new user interface, which has obviously been developed in response to the iPhone. The new interface features a 3D multimedia menu, and the orientation of the screen flips between horizontal and vertical depending on which way round the phone is being held.

There's also tighter integration with Nokia's Ovi family of Internet services, including the Nokia Music Store and the new N-Gage gaming service, making the N82 work more closely with Nokia's latest service developments.

Other than that, though, there seems to be very little else that the N95 doesn't already offer. If you bought the first version of the N95, then an upgrade would at least get you a thinner phone with more polished features and a better user interface. However, if you bought the latest incarnation of the N95, the glorious-looking black version with 8GB of memory, then there seems little point in upgrading.

Alternatively, if you haven't got an N95 already, then the N82's cheaper price of 450 Euros for an unlocked version is something of a bargain.

The Nokia N82, then, isn't just a successor to the N95: it is the N95, albeit in slightly different clothing. Still, that's not exactly a bad thing, given the amount of N95s that Nokia has sold, and the superb quality and feature-set of the phone.

Nokia N82 announcement

Nokia unveils the Nokia N82, the latest multimedia computer optimized for photography, navigation and internet connectivity. With the tools to discover the places and moments worth capturing, and the capabilities to capture and share them instantaneously, the Nokia N82 offers photography enthusiasts an enhanced camera experience.

Discover, capture and share
The Nokia N82 enables you to explore your surroundings and find your way with navigation and routing; document your adventures with the high quality imaging capabilities; and instantly share your experiences with one click upload to the web.

Featuring A-GPS, 5 megapixel camera, Xenon flash, Carl Zeiss optics and internet connectivity, the Nokia N82 also incorporates all the multimedia computer features common to Nokia Nseries. Like its predecessor the Nokia N95, the Nokia N82 is the latest epitome of a truly converged device that is not one thing but is many.

"The evolution of camera capabilities in mobile devices has been extremely fast over the past years. With the Nokia N82 we have reached such a superior level in image quality, speed and ease of use that not only does it outperform any other cameraphone on the market, but it's also a very credible alternative for single purpose digital still cameras," says Satu Ehrnrooth, head of Nokia Nseries Cameras Category, Multimedia, Nokia. "In addition to the high-end camera, the Nokia N82 also enables you to navigate and discover new places, enjoy your music, browse the web, play games, chat online and be part of the global web 2.0 community wherever you go. Thanks to the wireless broadband connectivity, convergence and yet again increased performance, the Nokia N82 is all you need in your pocket!"

Discover the world
The powerful A-GPS and preinstalled* Nokia Maps help you explore and locate new places, whether in another country or just around the corner. All Nokia N82 standard sales packages come with a free voice guided navigation trial*, and you can purchase additional features, such as city guides and longer subscription to the navigation.

With access to more than 15 million points of interest, you can locate and navigate to the most interesting sights, bars or restaurants wherever you are. You can also send map excerpts and routes to friends by MMS or save map screen shots to the gallery.

Capture your experiences
With a 5 megapixel camera, powerful Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia N82 delivers remarkably vivid photographs, even in low-light conditions. Fast camera activation, autofocus with a dedicated autofocus assist lamp, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture make it a truly convenient and credible tool for capturing and telling your life stories.

Thanks to the 2GB microSD card in the standard Nokia N82 sales package*, you can store up to 900 high-resolution photos or up to 84 minutes of high quality video on the device.

"The Nokia N82 gives the best ever camera and navigation experience in one stylish premium device. Just imagine what kind of possibilities this will open up and how much richer your every day life experiences can be! The sophisticated design and glossy looks appeal to men and women who are conscious of their style and want to impress with the latest in technology," Satu Ehrnrooth continues.

Share your stories
With high speed Wi-Fi connectivity and one-click upload to online communities, the Nokia N82 makes sharing your experiences and discoveries easy. When viewing a picture or video, simply one press of a button starts uploading it while you carry on using the device for other purposes.

Or you can impress your friends with multimedia slideshows - complete with music and effects - on the high resolution display or on a compatible TV.

The Nokia N82 comes with the new content driven 3D multimedia menu and includes a convenient orientation sensor that rotates the user interface automatically between horizontal and portrait mode. For quick and easy access to entertainment content, the Nokia N82 also supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services, including Nokia Music Store, N-Gage games** and Nokia Maps.

The Nokia N82 is available now in key markets with an estimated, pre-tax, unsubsidized sales price of approximately 450 euros.