Archive for the 'Phones' Category
Ratings
Pros
- Crisp, bright screen
- Loud external speaker
- Responsive multi-touch screen
- Excellent camera
- Free turn-by-turn GPS with Street View
- Solid and speedy Verizon network
Cons
- Flash crashes often and drains battery excessively
- Multi-tasking slows down system and drains battery
- Difficult pin-point cursor control in text
- Navigation not fluid and intuitive as iPhone
- App selection good but needs improvement
- Difficult to view screen in sunlight
The Bottom Line
Let’s face it, the iPhone has set the standard for smartphones and the first question asked while reviewing the HTC Droid Incredible was, “Is it better than the iPhone?” That question is not a yes or no answer, read the full review, but I will say this much: the HTC Droid Incredible is a stunning phone and does many of its functions superbly and if you are stuck on Verizon or do not wish to leave it, then the HTC Droid Incredible is the phone you should get.
Recommended
Yes (Strong)
Full Review
Google’s Android operating system has come a long way since the first device, the T-Mobile G1. Playing catch-up is never easy and that’s what Google has been doing for the last 18 months with its LINUX mobile OS it acquired a few years ago with the iPhone. Out of the gates, Google didn’t look to be a threat to Apple’s superior phone but just after a few seconds on the HTC Droid Incredible one realizes quickly that this Droid isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile.
Ratings
Pros
- Motoblur very functional
- Consolidated or separated messaging
- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
- Multi-Touch screen
- Decent battery life for light users
- Never froze or bogged down
Cons
- Awkward in your hand
- Price is too close to much more capable phones
- Screen still slightly in the way of top QWERTY row
- Unacceptable battery life for moderate to heavy users
- Screen could be larger
The Bottom Line
While this phone did all I asked it to, I did not ask that much of it. And I am certain that I would spend a few extra bucks to get a much more capable phone, like the HTC Incredible.
Recommended
No
Full Review
Motorola is marketing the Devour as a less-expensive alternative to it’s big brother, the Droid. It has lower camera resolution, no flash, a smaller display, and less memory. The operating system is also not as speedy, but that did not bother me with what I was doing. The Devour does have the pull-out keyboard, which is a plus for those who don’t using a touch screen for typing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ratings
Pros
- Hotspot capability
- Multi-tasking
- webOS
- Speedy Internet connection (EV-DO)
- Nice form factor
Cons
- Painfully slow boot-up
- Price is a bit high
- Multi-tasking (bogs system after a while)
- Limited application selection
- Hotspot requires additional costly monthly charge
The Bottom Line
No matter how many rumors one keeps hearing of a Verizon-based iPhone, as of now, there isn’t one. Instead of dreaming and waiting for something that may not happen for some time, an alternative is the Palm webOS-based phone. The Pixi, the baby brother of the Pre, comes with a keyboard below the screen and does all the stuff the Pre can. While it’s no iPhone, the Pixi is also no joke. Palm made a fine phone in the Pixi and Verizon made it a Plus with the Hotspot ability.
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
Palm introduced the Pixi last year through Sprint soon after it wooed the world with the Pre. The candy bar format smartphone now gets a Plus added to its name and Palm is hoping that it, and the Pre, sale like candy. But is the added Wi-Fi Hotspot ability enough to satisfy your sweet tooth?
Ratings
Pros
- Best interface we’ve seen
- Excellent iPod player
- Google Maps integration for POIs
- On-screen speed limit indicator
- Logo-based POIs for easy identification
- Superb traffic alerts and up-to-date information
Cons
- Worse routing we’ve seen
- POI and highway icons too small to easily view
- Limited internal POI database
- End-point address not display
- Does not support suite numbers in Contacts and mis-routes
The Bottom Line
Navigon MobileNavigator has everything going for it from a beautiful interface, to a well integrated iPod player, to top notch traffic information, down to Google Local Search. The irony is its failure, routing! Time after time, MobileNavigator failed to route us to our destination in the quickest manner. Until Navigon can correct this, for $90, we can’t even begin to recommend this for your iPhone.
Recommended
No
Full Review
SvenOnTech first came across Navigon about three years ago with its stylus — yes stylus! — based PND unit and gave it a try after seeing its pleasing interface with POI icons that were logo of the place of business. What we found after a week of use was some odd routing behavior. Most of the issues were in the country and we wrote it off to that fact. Improvement would surely come in the coming years. So when SvenOnTech receive MobileNavigator for the iPhone, I was curious to see how it would take me home, literally. Was Navigon able to fix its PND deficiency or would I roll my eyes and ask, “Why?”
Ratings
Pros
- Best routing we’ve seen
- Great menus system
- Fast start-up
- Wealth of information on navigation screen
- iPod pausing during voice instructions
Cons
- Horrible iPod interface
- Dated map interface
- Limited POI database
- No Internet-connectivity for POIs
The Bottom Line
TomTom has a strong history of being one of the best in the GPS industry and as the first to the iPhone, it took the market lead. But with a dated interface and lack of Internet look-up of POIs that the other guys have, TomTom may have a tough sale at $60. It’s saving grace may be the fact that it routed us better than any other GPS app we have tested.
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
I’ve been a fan of TomTom navigation products way back to the start of the millennium dating to our first review of its Palm OS navigator in 2002. Yes, this isn’t the first time TomTom has brought GPS to a “PDA”. (Remember that acronym?) We all first learned of TomTom’s navigator when the second generation iPhone, the 3G, came to the world with the ability to run third-party applications. Unfortunately, it would take over a year before one was able to download it from the App Store. Now that we have it, is it as good as a TomTom dedicated device or is just a little better than the nearly decade old Palm OS version? Truthfully, there is no short answer as to how good TomTom for the iPhone is. Like all the other GPS applications for the iPhone, it has it’s lacking and it has its strengths. Take a ride with me as we make a turn-by-turn review of TomTom’s navigation for the iPhone.
Pros
- Powerful customization
- Support for iPhone Push Notification
- Informative notification screen
Cons
- No support for user ringtones
- Some rules do not work correctly
- Inability to deactivate during specified times **
- Weak tone selection
The Bottom Line
Ratings
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
The iPhone has been the biggest thing to rock the cellular phone market since it went cellular and it just keeps getting better. Sure, it had some major short comings, such as lack of MMS, Cut-n-Paste, and applications support upon its release; however, Apple has all but corrected the majority of the follies. But nothing’s perfect and if you’re one that relies on your ear to prompt you to look or not look at your iPhone for things, then we have an email trick you’ll love to hear…and see.
Pros
- Good battery life
- Stable operating system
- Push email
- Feature rich
- Good sound
- Easy to use keyboard
Cons
- Built-in browser
- “Pearl” wheel moves cursor/selection slowly
- Menu navigation can be tedious
- No out-of-the-box Mac support
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a good, reliable, email power-house smartphone at a good price, then you may not have to look to far. The Curve 8330 is stable and a reliable phone for any corporate or Internet using user that needs to always be connected…both via voice and data.
Ratings
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry started as an email communicator and grew into a smartphone. It has slowly been chipping away at Nokia and Microsoft’s market share and continues to increase that share year after year. It’s because of advancements like those found in the Curve 8330 that allows BlackBerry to continue to be delighted with its strong sales figures.
SvenOnTech received its Curve 8330 from Verizon and gave it a good using. Now, I’ll be honest, we’re iPhone users here at SOT HQ, but we went to a hypnotist to erase any memory of our use of the Apple made phone for this review. You’ll be reading a pure and untainted review. 
Seriously, we tested the Curve with as much as an open mind as possible.
The candy bar form factor is much like the other smartphones out there, half screen and half “thumb board”. Fairly new to the 8330 is the “pearl” ball-like mouse in the center instead of the scroll-wheel found on the side of the older units. Flanking its right and left are two buttons. The left side contain the Answer/Call button as well as the BlackBerry function/menu button. On the other side, you have the Return/Back and Hang Up/Home key. The right side of the body consists of volume keys (up/down) as well as the camera button. This button both invokes the camera and snaps the pictures. The other side has one button, for the voice dialing, along with one mini-USB for charging and data connection along with a jack for the hands-free headset. The top has a single button, the mute button. No buttons can be found on the bottom but rather a small hole for the mic. The back of the unit consists of an LED flash, camera, and a mirror (for self-taking portraits.) Three metal leads for charging are found on the bottom of the back of the Curve.
Okay, with all that out of the way, we can dive into the phone itself. When a button is pressed on the front, you are greeted with the menu screen. A single row of icons line the bottom with an information screen on the top. Time, date, new emails, missed calls, and such are found here. To the very top you’ll find signal strength and battery condition. Moving the ball around allows you to navigate the icons. Pressing the BlackBerry menu key brings up three more rows of icons and allows you to drift down further to see more items if needed. Ranging from email, games, settings, multimedia, productivity applications, to Verizon specific applications such as its GPS-like VZ Navigator, you’re always an easy roll from any application. Because of the ball, you’re able to always safely get to any part of the phone with a single hand. Pressing down on the ball opens a selected item.
The two main strengths of the Blackberry, email and phone use, are easily navigated to by either simply dialing a phone number from the thumb board or by rolling the ball to the email icon and pressing down. Making and receiving calls is very simple and requires little effort from the user. That should be the goal of all smartphones. Browsing your mail is just as easy and very manageable on the Curve’s email interface. The long list of SvenOnTech’s email was readable and using the ball to navigate and open a message was a piece of cake. Rich text or HTML formatted messages are stripped of its formatting and laid out in a very to easy read format. Reading, composing, and reply to email was never a difficult task. With push-email, the BlackBerry was always fresh with messages where even my iPhone struggled to keep up with emails from yesterday!
Pros
- Turns iPhone or iPod touch into external storage
- Easy to use
- Edit Notes within application
- Inexpensive
Cons
- Doesn’t play video inside iPhoneDrive application
- Inability to search Notes, SMS, or Call Log
- Can’t delete Notes
- No way to install Ringtones
The Bottom Line
If you have gobs of room, or just a wee-bit, on your iPhone or iPod touch and would like to use that as a storage device like you can with regular iPods, then you’ve just found your app, baby!
Ratings
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
Since the release of Apple’s first successful entry in the mobile phone market, there has been many cries for missing features. One such feature is the ability to mount the iPhone (and now the iPod touch) as an external drive like the ClickWheel-based iPods do. Three firmware upgrades later, the sniveling continues.
Ecamm, makers of some great software (we love Call Recorder for Skype) that many of you are probably already familiar with, have come to the rescue! Wiping the tears from our blood shot eyes, Ecamm has created iPhoneDrive which allows users to move files to and from their iPhone and iPod touch. But it does more than that, in short, it lets you access the devices music, videos, podcasts, photos, Notes, and for the iPhone, SMS and Call Log. You can back up your data off the phone for later use which is great if you’d like to keep track of your text messages and call logs. Ecamm makes this well priced application so much more robust than just a drive transfer application, it seems silly to just call it iPhoneDrive.
One thing we liked about iPhoneDrive is it’s easy to use interface. Keeping with the already well-known iTunes look, iPhoneDrive sections off your device into Data, iTunes, and Photos. The Data section contains the Files area where it creates a folder (iPhoneDrive) and gives you access to that and other folders on the phone or iPod. Data is where you’ll also find access to Notes, Call Log, and SMS. You can also edit any of your notes from within iPhoneDrive. Yes, we said edit. Finally, Notes are now useful. The iTunes section lists all the same stuff you’d see in iTunes’ Devices section of your phone or iPods sync’ed data. Lastly, Photos gives you access to the cameras pictures and your photo library. Read the rest of this entry »
Pros
Good phone and sound quality, excellent reception and signal strength
Cons
Doesn’t have the best battery life, has tendency to act up every so often, somewhat bulky.
The Bottom Line
Overall, good device, excellent phone volume, sound quality, and reception. Maybe not the best smartphone on the market, but a good investment overall.
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
Let’s begin with the keypad and navigational buttons. To put things simply, I have pretty big hands and thumbs so it’s sometimes difficult to use the tiny keyboard on this little guy. I found myself using the back-space button many times when typing in a contact name or a websites address. The number pad is located off to the left of the keyboard and to dial a number you have to hit the ALT key first. I found it much easier to use the on screen dial pad since the keys are bigger and it has great response and accuracy.
The enter button in particular was probably the most difficult to use. It’s kind of a weird shape, it’s not flat, but rather it has a round shape to it, sloping up to a point in the center. It’s gotten a little better since I’ve had the phone for a while, but at first I could never hit that enter button head on and my thumb would slide off and hit one of the directional buttons sending me to some random folder I didn’t want to open. So basically, the point of this story is that if you have hands that are somewhat on the large side, it might take you a while to master the Treo’s keypad. Once I was a little better at using the keypad (though I still have difficulty) I found it fairly easy to use single handedly. For the most part, finding contacts, settings, calendar, and Internet Explorer is all pretty simple. All the things you need can be found on the drop down start menu.
The Treo’s LCD screen is great. It provides very clear, sharp viewing quality and it’s easy to see where you are going when navigating through folders and settings. It has also held up very well against scratches. OK, OK, I’ll admit I have dropped it on accident twice, but the screen hasn’t suffered at all, which actually impressed me quite a bit. Read the rest of this entry »
Pros
Slim, light, solid feeling, great sound quality, and excellent signal strength.
Cons
Instable Bluetooth connection and poor battery life.
The Bottom Line
The Motorola Q does what no other smartphone does and that is bring a big package of features into a small form factor.
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
It’s been nearly a year since I first laid my hands on the Motorola Q smartphone at CES. When I did, I was quick to dismiss it and moved on in the DJ music driven Motorola booth bathed in blue lights. But here I am now writing a review on a phone running Microsoft’s Window Mobile that brings to mind; never judge a book by it’s cover. In other words, don’t be so quick to judge something at a trade show.
Motorola put a fine looking unit together in the name of the Q. Running with the same formula that brought it such success for the ultra popular clam-shell phone, the RAZR, engineers at America’s number one cellular phone company made the thinnest and lightest smartphone for 2006. But, was Motorola able to bring the same great phone guts that made the RAZR so good into the Q? With over three months of this little guy strapped onto my belt, I was able to ask that question time and time again. The answer surprised me and it may surprise you. Read the rest of this entry »
Pros
Windows Mobile 5 makes improvements that make this a smarter smartphone and the slide out keyboard is the most usable built-in set of keys on any PDA yet. The camera is amazing for such a device as well.
Cons
Same old Verizon story, DUN profile removed from Bluetooth, Wi-Fi deactivates phone voice use (though there’s an easy registry hack to stop that,) battery life, and a plain and simple crappy speaker.
The Bottom Line
Now that Verizon has been removing the DUN Bluetooth profile for a year, most are use to it. So that’s not a huge disadvantage but the poor battery and speaker may be. If you’re looking mainly for a strong Windows Mobile unit with a phone you’ll use less than a stock broker on Wall Street, you’ll enjoy this smartphone, then.
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Recommended
Yes
Full Review
My first long lasting venture into the smartphone arena was the Samsung i730. I got it weeks before most of the general public did and I must admit, I was pretty full of myself. 
But the good Lord has His ways to deal with that and by the time summer had turned into a cold fall, my smug attitude chilled with the breeze that swept through my town. The honeymoon was over — and fast! So crushed was I with my first smartphone.
A few months later I learned about two new Windows Mobile 5.0 devices that seemed would correct all the problems of my Samsung phone. One was Palm’s first deviation from the operating system barring its name and the other was from the former Audiovox now UTStarcom. The later had the XV6600 in its portfolio and having used that for a whole four hours before sending it back, it was Palm’s offering I looked forward to. When I got to play with it at CES, I wasn’t impressed. It was the XV6700 that impressed me. Impressive enough that I didn’t even think twice about getting it over the Palm Treo 700w. Read the rest of this entry »
Pros
Combines the great power of the PocketPC and features of a phone into one great small unit.
Cons
DUN profile removed from Bluetooth, Wi-Fi deactivates phone voice use, camera-less, and no DUN profile. Oh ya, no DUN profile…
The Bottom Line
If you can overlook the lack of DUN profile and don’t care about losing your phone use while surfing via Wi-Fi, and the removal of the camera, then this is an excellent phone packed with many great features that will make you forget palmOne has a model called the Treo 650.
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Recommended
Yes
Full Review
When I first read about the Samsung i730 PocketPC phone last November, my jaw dropped. This was the phone to have! It had everything: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EV-DO, 1.3 mega-pixel camera, and a sweet slide-out keyboard. To top it all off, it was small and looked freakin’ killer. What else could one expect? Immediate release, maybe. Having just shelled out a pretty penny for my HP iPAQ hx4705, I wasn’t prepared to buy another PDA, but hey, if I could combine my Motorola V710 and iPAQ into one unit and forego any more teasing for having a geek belt, I was for it! But it would be months, actually over half a year before Verizon decided it was finally time to release South Korea’s most cutting edge phone to tech-savvy Americans who were all asking, “Was the wait worth it?” Read on, because it’s not a simple yes or no answer. Read the rest of this entry »
Pros
Nice and loud, very comfortable, sweet looks.
Cons
No mute button, deep bass, ear gel falls off, belt clip problems.
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a Bluetooth headset and want probably the best deal out, get this. I fully recommend it but will look forward to something better when it arrives.
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Full Review
The first time I put this on, someone told me I looked like something out of Star Trek. I said, “You mean like the Borg?!” “Yes!” So, you’ll immediately impress with it’s cool looks with this puppy.
But that’s not why I bought it. I wanted a good, LOUD, working Bluetooth headset so I could concentrate on my driving and not get tangled up by wires using the standard corded ear sets. I’ve gone through a long list of BT headsets to find the perfect one. This one isn’t perfect, but it’s the right one. After trying Motorola’s, SonyEricsson’s (two different models) and Plantronics;, this was the one to keep. All the other ones were just too soft to hear and use. Forget about using them on the freeway, road noise just made them unusable. So when I got this one, I didn’t have much hope for it. Read the rest of this entry »
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Pros
Small, light, bluetooth, excellent phone book, and that color screen.
Cons
Key lock unlocks when you get a call and slide switch on side is annoying.
The Bottom Line
Want GSM? Want Bluetooth? Want color screen? Want GRPS? Want the only phone that does that all? Get the T68 then!
Full Review
I’ve been a Nokia cell phone user for a long time. They were my first digital phones and I’ve pretty much stuck with them until this beauty came out. Now, it was hard to go with it since my wife had an Ericsson and I wasn’t impressed by it. So, I was a bit apprehensive at first. It was a head to head match between the Nokia 8300 family and this. Bluetooth is what tipped the scales for me. Read the rest of this entry »