HTC Magic Mobile Phone Review

Looking for an alternative to the iPhone? Well, this Google Android powered handset could be for you. Check out my review of the HTC Magic... this was a keeper for me and is my current mobile phone. With so many mobiles phones on the market, the fact that I chose to keep this one is a real accolade.

Part two of the video covers the camera, Android Market and YouTube. You can view this second part here.

Product: HTC Magic
Price: £289.99
Supplied by: Etechex Ltd

HTC Hero - Android Goodness - The Full Review

For my regular readers, you will have already seen my video footage of the HTC Hero. It was a fun time, to finally try and give up my iPhone for an alternative platform. For all of you who haven't seen the video footage, you will find it on my YouTube Channel or throughout this review.


To kick things off, I must say that I was very impressed with the build quality. This is a sleek mobile phone, with a distinct angle near the microphone and of the unit. People cutely refer to this as 'the chin'. The design is an acquired taste, but I think that most people will find it endearing. The size is also very nice. Although not much smaller than an iPhone, it has some nice bevels and curves, so feels a lot smaller, and dare I say it 'more mobile phone-like'. This is also down to the slightly smaller 3.2-inch (320x480) screen. However, this sort of size is ideal for general use and also looks very good for web and movie browsing too. In the box you get a handsfree kit, USB cable, wall charger, quickstart guide and the Hero itself. We were lucky enough to get sent a white unlocked version from Clove Technology. This has an ultra smooth finish with a teflon coating (the white is the only colour to have this). The special coating is meant to repel greasy fingerprints... in my tests it certainly did.

 

Out of the box, setting up the Hero is very simple. This handset runs on the Google Android platform. As such it is very friendly to you, if you use Google's services, such as Gmail. Luckily I do, so tapping in my account settings had me up and running with my email in about 90 seconds. To say I was impressed with the ease of this initial setup is an understatement.

How this differs from other Android based handsets is the user interface (UI). The manufacturer (HTC) have developed an overlay UI called 'Sense'. Basically, this makes everything look nicely designed, all the screens match and you get a nice funky keyboard too. They also developed their own Twitter application, so at setup stage you are also prompted for your Twitter account. You can leave this for later on, but I popped in my details and it all went swimmingly well.

With the Hero up and running, you are presented with your home screen. Swiping ones finger across the screen reveals a further six screens, so that's seven in total, that can be customised. You can put shortcuts to applications, plus a whole load of widgets. Widgets are like tiny applications, for things like the weather, clocks, music, Twitter, etc. What makes this a pretty astonishing achievement is that they all 'live update'. So, flicking you finger across to your email widget, shows you your latest emails. The speed of the Hero is pretty good. With a small amount of widgets, there is hardly any lag. If you fill up every screen with a live widget, then you will notice some slowdown. Having said that, any phone that is running loads of processes will exhibit this too.
The internet is really nice to use, with HTC tweaking the standard browser. You get great performance, support for flash (albeit not 100% of flash works, maybe 90%). Plus you get multi-touch. So you can pinch and zoom your way around the internet in style.

 

The camera on this baby is a 5-megapixel offering. There is no flash, but it performs pretty well without it. Very low light situations will mean you get grainy pics. In room light the camera performs great, with good detail. Outdoors it produces well exposed photos, that are very colourful too. Video is not so good, mainly due to the low resolution, but how often are you really going to use it for video? At first (and I mention this is in the video), I was not a great fan of the one-push photo taking. You don't push down halfway with the trackball to focus, then the rest of the way to take the photo, as you would expect. It is all in one action. You push, the focus then locks on and the Hero takes the photo, all in one action. The reason I did not like this at first is because of my passion for photography. It just didn't feel natural. However, now I have got used to the idea, it makes sense. You can hold the mobile more steadily, without fiddling with the buttons to much. A firm push on the trackball and the Hero does its job.

I mentioned the widgets earlier in my review. Well, there really are loads. HTC have done a wonderful job in making the Hero stand out from the crowd. The weather widgets look wonderful. The music widget also looks great and performs well too. I won't list them all here, check out the fourth part of my video coverage below to see what the Sense UI has to offer.

Should Apple be worried? With so many people going the iPhone way, I don't think that they should panic. However, they definitely need to listen up. The iPhone OS is elegant and fluid, but when you sit down and think about it, maybe it is too simple. You brush your finger across pages and pages of icons. That's it, they are just icons. To check your email, you need to touch an icon. When you have finished, you need to come back to the home screen. Then to check your Twitter, another icon... finger cramp could soon ensue. With the HTC Hero, you have all of this information on your home screens. Swipe your finger to another screen and the information for your emails, tweets, weather, bookmarks and music is instantly there.
A lot of people rightly state that the App Store is fantastic. So many free applications and games, easily accessed, easily installed. Some paid apps are pretty cool too. Whilst this is true, the 'Android Market' offers a superb collection of freebies and paid for applications already. Give it another six months and I think it will really excel. Searching, downloading and installing things is so so easy. So this argument doesn't stand.
The HTC Hero is an excellent mobile phone. It offers great build quality and design. The user interface works fine if you don't overload it. The Android platform is quite frankly superb. If you need a smartphone for your emails, internet and social networking, the Hero is highly recommended.
Price: £391
Supplied by: Clove Technology
Contact: 01202 552936

 

Nokia E75 Mobile Phone Review

With the mass introduction of all these smart mobile phones, with touchy feely screens, should we really overlook this classy offering from Nokia. With its business centric design, it might not appeal. Check out the video review though, as a user friendly keyboard could be a boon to all you text toting users out there.

Product: Nokia E75 mobile phone
Price: £335 RRP
Supplied by: Nokia UK
Contact: 0800 331 6021

Nokia N95 8GB Mobile Phone Review

In a world that is filling with touch screen mobile phones very quickly, I take a look at a well established fully featured handset in the shape of Nokia's N95. It might not have a touch screen, but it is packed full of goodies. Check out the video review below.

Product: Nokia N95 8GB
Price: Varies depending on contract (£339.99 sim free)
Supplied by: Nokia UK
Contact: 0800 331 6021

Sony Ericsson W890i Review

I love my iPhone, there is no denying that. To compliment it, I was really looking for an ultra-thin mobile phone with loads of features. One essential feature on my list is Skype, as I am a bug user of this application. The latest mobile in my hands is a Sony Ericsson W890i, purchased from Hutchison 3G or 'three' as they are better known. The cost to me is £15 per month for 300 minutes/texts, plus 300 bonus 3-to-3 minutes. The handset was an additional £3 per month, so a total of £18 per month.
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Sennheiser VMX100 - posh bluetooth ?

When I got my iPhone it was not via the normal channels. Because I needed to test accessories with it before the UK launch I had to import one. To say I love it is an understatement, so when looking for a suitable bluetooth headset it had to be something special. For some reason the Apple headset did not appeal to me, and the regular slew of Motorola offerings were dull to say the least. Then Sennheiser sent me their gorgeous VMX100 bluetooth headset. Whilst waiting for the delivery man to knock on my door, I read up on the specifications and looked at images just oozing quality. Then the baby arrived, so the story begins...

The VMX100 is beautifully presented, you often hear me talking about how awesome it is to unbox Apple products, well this is a very similar experience. It is available in black or titanium colour finishes. The titanium version that I was sent looks really cool. Upon opening the box and removing the headset, you are presented with tiny boxes containing the included accessories. These being the USB charger cable (so you can charge on your Mac or PC) and the main plug, which accepts the same USB cable for charging. The included Quick Start guide shows you how to turn on the headset and pair it with your mobile phone. So simple, that I was up and running in under one minute.

The headset is a one piece design, with an answer/end call button, a rocker switch for volume, but no on/off switch. This is the really cool part, to turn on and off, you simply swing the microphone out, fit the headset to your ear and voila, you are in action. The swing out mechanism is really smooth and also moves on the other axis to allow it to fit comfortably on your ear. Nothing actually pokes into your ear canal, so no rubber sleeves to contend with, and I must say this was a welcome change and very comfortable in use.

Where the VMX100 justifies its price tag is with the dual microphone technology, that claims to give crystal clear sound. Well, once connected to my iPhone, I must admit that the clarity on the calls I made was nothing short of superb. On the receiving end, the earpiece was very clear indeed, and when at the other end of the call, the microphone delivered impeccably with no distortion or hiss at all. Full credit to Sennheiser on this one, I was very impressed.

Claims of 100 hours of standby and 5 hours of talk time were also pretty much spot on. I would go so far as to say that the standby time is considerably greater, whereas the talk time for myself was around the 4 to 4.5 hours mark. The only area where I felt let down was the reception range. Although nothing is quoted on the manufacturer website, other headsets I have tested have managed up to 10 meters before audio started breaking up. The VMX100 struggled to get anywhere near this. At around 3 meters there was slight break up in audio, and if I went beyond 5 meters or added a wall into the equation, it was not a nice experience. This is not a deal breaker though, as most of the time your mobile phone would be in your pocket or on the dashboard in the car, so never more than a couple of meters away.

Would I spend my hard earned cash on the Sennheiser VMX100?
If it were my money, then yes, the VMX100 is very good at what it does. The design and comfort are pretty much spot on. The audio clarity is excellent and in day-to-day use I had no real problems with it. If you want something that stands out from the crowd, the VMX100 is a good choice. If your budget is tight, there are plenty of other bluetooth headsets on the market. They might not be as good, but they do the same job, so unless you are going to call Mariah and ask her to sing to you, then you could save some of that hard earned cash.

Product: Sennheiser VMX100 Bluetooth Headset
Price: £80.00 headset only : £100 black headset, car power lead, hard case.
Amazon: £79.89
Supplied by: Sennheiser UK
Contact: info@sennheiser.co.uk

Boomtube H201 - iPod & MP3 speakers

When you are looking for iPod speakers, you really are spoilt from choice. It ends up being a decision to either go with the big name brands or take a risk on something a little different. Think Outside have certainly tried to break the mould with their Boomtube H201 speakers, which we take a look at here.

Out of the box, things look pretty good, mainly because the unit has some weight to it. The finish is pretty darn good too, with a nice brushed aluminium paint effect. The main tube houses the inputs, outputs and bass/volume controls. This same tube also contains the subwoofer unit. The satellite speakers actually twist and attach to the main tube, which is handy if you are off on your holidays and need to take the Boomtube with you. Of note, you also get a handy carry pouch supplied as part of the package.

I want to get a quick negative out of the way, before returning to the units performance. The way the little speakers attach to the main tube, and the carry pouch supplied, really shouts "portable" to me. The problem is you need a mains power supply. If only Think Outside had included a battery compartment, this would be a really neat all-round package.

With that moan out of the way, back to how this little baby sounds. There is no dock, so you connect your iPod (or any other MP3 player, even a PSP) via the supplied mini-jack cable. Turning the unit on and playing some music was a bit under-whelming at first, but fear not, you just need to tweak that bass control. The Boomtube delivers 40-watts of power and believe me, this little device can really deliver some loud volume and awesome bass. Whilst it is not very refined (audio buffs look elsewhere) for parties and the like, this really could be the answer.

Overall, I was impressed with the Boomtube. It delivers a great sound and goes very loud. The lack of battery power is a big shame, but if you can overlook that, then this is a very well made and extremely power compact speaker system.

But wait, you say there is no batteries compartment… complete and utter nonsense. Think Outside built in a rechargeable lithium ion battery, which one charged delivers about five hours of music. Well, I guess I am off to the local park to shake the local community into submission. The Boomtube H201 rocks both the house and outside the house too.

Product: Boomtube H201
Price: £99.99
Supplied by: Think Outside
Contact: Widget UK Ltd. 0845 055 0005
Link to UK supplier

Samsung X830 Review - tiny MP3 mobile goodness

The Samsung X830 definitely tries to buck the current trend of smart phones that (try) to do everything. Personally, I have been caught up in the task of finding myself the ultimate mobile phone, something for emails, music, computer connectivity, web browsing, the list is just endless. With all this going on inside my mobile often ends up being a bit brick or slab-like.

When the X830 arrived in the office and I opened the box, the first impression, after picking my jaw up off the floor was "Where's the phone". This thing is tiny, a really beautiful handset. About the size of a Milky Way (the edible kind) the front sports a thin upright screen with a 128 x 220 resolution. Underneath the screen is a click wheel, which physically rotates for navigating the menus. It also acts as a 4 way directional button, with a fifth button for selecting items in the middle.
The left side of the handset has a hold button, for preventing accidental clicks whilst listening to music. On the right are the volume buttons, plus a nice hard plastic cover that swivels around to reveal the earphone and charging sockets.
The back of the phone sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, with 4x digital zoom, night mode and various other effects.

Getting inside the phone is wonderful, you rotate the whole front in a clockwise motion, to reveal the keypad. The swivel action is fantastic, you will be playing with it for hours. It snaps out in a nice vertical position every time, obviously a lot of thought went into this. The keypad is a nice size, with two additional soft keys and a clear button that doubles to activate the camera.

The menu system carries on the brilliant design of the handset. Although you can change the colour scheme, the default duotone, red and white, is really effective. You can move through the menus either by clicking the wheel in the appropriate place or by rotating it. The main screen menu gives you access to a call log, applications, messages, camera, phonebook, browser, files and your settings.
I won't delve into every menu here, but should mention the two great java based games you get. First up is Cannonball, which is a modern day pong type game. It has nice colourful graphics and is surprisingly addictive. The second game, Forgotten Warrior is a mini RPG game with a platform flavour. Seems like Apple's influence is everywhere, the first item I found was a iKey! Well, the graphics are nice and colourful and it kept me amused for a good half hour at a time…  

Now onto the biggest feature, where the X830 really excels. This tiny tiny little phone houses an MP3 player, plus the ability to record and playback MPEG4 files. The music side of things supports MP3, ACC, AAC and WMA files. You get 1GB of built-in memory, so plenty for carrying around a couple of days worth of tracks. In closed mode you simply press and hold the centre button to get into MP3 mode. The display tells you the track title, duration, time played, and number of tracks in current selection. In the background the display shows you exactly what the click wheel and centre button will do the the track (eg. play, pause, skip). You can select your tracks by recently played, mot played, artist, album, genre, podcasts, or by playlists. The built in speaker does a very good job for playback and actually goes quite loud. However, it goes without saying that things sound a whole lot better though the earphones.
With the screen rotated into the open position, you can also play back your music tracks accompanied by a nice visual display, which is very colourful and effective.

So, the camera is pretty good, with nice clear outdoor images. Even indoor snaps (see Excite Truck) are acceptable. The screen, although small, is bright and nicely detailed. The user interface is brilliant and a joy to navigate with the scroll/click wheel. Where the phone intends to excel, it really doesn't disappoint, the music playback is awesome. All this is wrapped up in an ultra cool design. If you are looking for something a bit different, that does all the above with style, plus makes a very usable mobile phone too, then the X830 is the way to go. Well done Samsung, if you keep releasing handsets like this my piggy bank will empty pretty quickly.

Product: Samsung X830
Supplied by: Samsung UK
Contact: 0870 726 7864

 

Tovo t450g - Mobile & Wireless Calls

The Tovo t450g is a new offering from Mobiboo Europe which promises easy switching from a mobile network and a VOIP access point. So, in much the same way as all the Skype handsets that have been appearing, this handset adds mobile capability to the equation.

Now, don't let that Skype comment throw you off track, this handset does NOT run Skype. Instead it connects to a wi-fi router or hotspot and routes the call through this via the Tovo network. The handset is supplied sim-free, so you can put your current card in it and dial away as normal. Big savings are promised from the handset, but this assumes that you are happy to make most of your calls via VOIP, and that you cancel your BT landline (not a requirement, but it is in the savings equation).

The handset itself is OK, not really that impressive, sort of a step back. Yes, the connectivity technology is there, but the screen is a bit of a let down and the camera is only a 0.3 megapixel affair. You do get a charging dock in the box, along with a USB cable and earphones, which go some way to making up for the mediocre handset.

Call quality over a normal mobile connection is very clear and over VOIP is more than acceptable, so I can see a place for this in the market. I think that to make full use of it, you need to be dedicated to making the most of the VOIP calls. You can connect to any open wi-fi hotspot, or any Mobizone, Cloud, or looseconnection hotspot, of which there are many dotted around the UK.
The biggest draw for anyone (including myself) would not be the handset, but the potential savings. A sim free handset will set you back £169.95, but gets you a very cheap pay as you go package, costing just 2p per minute for local and national calls. Tovo-to-tovo calls are free, plus you can tag on Mobiboo Dashboard to your service, which gives you a service similar to Skype for a fixed yearly charge.

Can I recommend the Tovo t450g? Well, it is not for me, but that is because I have a mobile I am happy with and use Skype for the rest of my calls. However, if you want a no fuss handset, that combines a mobile phone with a wireless VOIP handset, then yes, give it a try. You are not getting the latest and greatest in the design stakes, but you are getting the latest in technology.

Product: Tovo t450g
Price: £169.95
Supplied by: Mobiboo Europe Limited
Contact: info@mobiboo.com

Recharge4 Review - Extend Gadget Battery Life

The ReCharge4 from Exspect promises to deliver a smart battery that recharges a lot of different devices. Ranging from mobile phones to MP3 players, claiming to extend battery life up to four times. Read our review below to find out if it really does deliver on its' promises.

The ReCharge4 might be mistaken for something that has been done by so many other manufacturers, but even within the first few hours of use, I was convinced that this little device had been really well thought out. The package consists of the ReCharge4 battery unit, which has a power input on the base for recharging its internal 4800mAh lithium-ion battery. On the top right of the unit is another socket, where you plug an extension cable, it is this cable that you then attach the various tips that in turn plug into the device you want to charge or use.
On the front of the unit is a small button and a line of green LEDs. If you press the button it shows you how much juice is left in the Recharge4. It takes around six hours to initially charge it to full power. In my test it was showing a full charge after three hours, but I left it plugged in for the full six hours to be on the safe side.
To finish the package off, you get a mains adapter for recharging the internal battery and a small cloth pouch for carrying everything around…

So, I had a fully charged ReCharge4, now for the test. I had a Motorola L7, Nokia 6280 and a Samsung D600, both with completely flat batteries. The Motorola went first and after connecting the charging lead, I plugged in the supplied Motorola tip and then put this into the phone. You are supposed to press the button on the front of the ReCharge4 to initiate charging, but I found that this was not necessary as the L7 started charging straight away. After three hours the L7 was fully charged and only two out of the eight LEDs on the ReCharge4 had gone out. Because I am clever at maths, I guess that means a quarter of the capacity had been used. The Nokia 6280 also fully charged in around 3.5 hours and the Samsung charged to almost full capacity before the Recharge4 unit ran out. This was pretty impressive, to be able to fully charge two mobile phones and almost a third from such a small device.

There are three versions available for mobile phones, MP3 players, or portable gaming devices. The main unit remains the same, it is just the tips that are supplied that changes. For example, the mobile phone version comes with tips for almost every Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung offering. The MP3 version comes supplied with tips suitable for the Apple iPod, Creative, iRiver and MP3 players that charge via USB. These small tips are available separately, so you can buy the most suitable main package and then add a few individual tips for specific devices.

In summary the Recharge4 is a very well designed, compact, and useful device. The asking price represents pretty good value for money. Combine this with the fact that you can add new tips for your new devices and you have a useful device that will help power your gadgets for many years to come.

Product: ReCharge4
Price: £39.99
Supplied by: Exspect UK
Contact: info@exspect.co.uk

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Review

The Nokia N800 internet tablet landed on my desk today, and having previously tested the N770 I was a little excited to see what had changed and/or improved. More importantly, would I now find a use for the device, when last time around I was left mystified as to how useful it would be for my day-to-day use.

Out of the box the design has improved a great deal. Gone are the slab-like looks of the previous incarnation and you can say hello to some smooth curves, a nice contoured back and a pleasant silver finish to the front. The buttons are a bit odd, sort of set off-centre, and a little non-tactile, but you won't find this a problem, as they are not used too much. The touch screen is the same as before, a glossy finish, very high resolution (800x400) and everything is really colourful, bright and pin-sharp (more on this later). Around the back of the unit is a small flip out stand, which is great for when you are watching videos, and also useful when you set it on your bedside at night to wake you in the morning. A small hole on the top right side of the unit holds the triangular shape stylus, and on the top left side is a click-n-pop-out web camera, which is a nice touch.

Back to the 800x400 pixel widescreen, and you will not be disappointed, unless you are a fussy bugger like me, as the backlighting is not very even, with noticeable dark patches down the right hand side. To make up for this shortfall, the screen is really nice and sharp, with colours that are really vibrant. The clarity of text is pin-sharp, which is great for viewing websites and emails. The coating on the screen is impressive too, it seemed really scratch resistant. The gloss finish is not what I would say is really high gloss, so reflections are not really a problem. Brightness is adjusted via and on-screen slider, and for most of my tests and use I found the setting to be good around the halfway mark.

The back of the unit has a cover that comes off nice and easily, underneath this you install the battery, and there is also room for one SD memory card, which can be up to 2GB in size. Also around the back is the stand, which when not in use fits nice and flush to the unit. Lifting the stand out also reveals the second memory card slot, which again is for an SD card up to 2GB, so the N800 supports a total of 4GB which is pretty impressive. During our tests we used Secure Digital cards supplied by Transcend UK (more on this later). Notice that I did not mention a sim card slot, well this N800 is no mobile phone, which would have made this a world beating device in my books.

Buttons on the top include one for powering the unit on and off, plus a +/- zoom button, which is great when surfing the internet. There is also a full screen button, which does what you would expect, it hides all other on-screen icons and just shows the web page you are viewing. If you are playing a video back, then this same button hides all the Media Player controls and plays the video full-screen.

The main use of the N800 is as a fully connected bluetooth and wifi internet communication device. If there is no wireless hotspots around, then you will need to connect the N800 via bluetooth to your mobile phone. Checking your emails, looking at internet sites, instant messaging (with GoogleTalk), RSS news reading, and internet based chat (again GoogleTalk) is really where this device excels. I had my email account set up in no time, and connected the N800 via my wireless network in about five minutes. Looking at internet sites was also pleasant, with the nice clear high res screen serving up the content in a very nice stable Opera based browser.
Internet based chat is also possible with the Gizmo project, which I already use, so I downloaded the N800 version and again was making calls over my wireless network in no time at all. Gizmo also supports text based chat, so this became my application of choice. Gizmo works in a very similar way to Skype, but for some reason I prefer the latter. The goods news is that Skype is coming to the N800 mid-2007, and I think this will boost sales a great deal.

Playing back some media files was also surprisingly good. MP3 files played back really smoothly, with the built-in speakers doing a good job. Other formats supported include AAC, WAV and WMA. Video playback was really clear, though with some content a little jerky, though I put this down to some files being encoded with a higher bit-rate than the N800 was designed for. Overall though the playback was more than acceptable, almost on par with the Sony PSP, but not quite as good an experience. I did notice a considerable improvement when playing back video files from the high-speed Transcend SD Card. We had two versions of SD card to test, an 80x and a 150x card. Both performed admirably, with the 150x showing quick save times and helping the N800 deliver the video files with less stutters. Video formats supported include MPEG-1, MPEG-4, AVI, and H.263. Streaming internet radio (M3U and PLS) is also supported and a nice feature, though I could not seem to set internet radio as a wake up alarm, which would have been great.
You can also view photos on the device (BMP, GUF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF) and the screen really does a grand job. Remembering that this is not a dedicated image viewer, the quality really will impress.

So, just how useful will someone find the N800? Well, that depends on what your day-to-day activities entail. For me, I am glued to my laptop, and wherever I go, my laptop follows. So I would find that the N800 would be left behind, so it is not for me. If you find that you only attend meetings or do business where you can always use a laptop, then save your pennies.
On a positive note, if you are a business man, or find yourself out and about, but still need to check your emails, or fancy making use of VOIP based calls with Gizmo or the forthcoming Skype, then the N800 is a real boon. If you are already into the Skype scene then the N800 could save you a fortune, once this app becomes available. The RSS news reader also allows you to subscribe to your favourite feeds, so you will never miss that latest headline. On top of all the communication uses, you also get a great MP3 and Video player, plus some built-in games, and a community of open source developers making great apps for the device.
For £279 you can buy an N800 direct from Nokia, which is a pretty good price, you really do get a lot for your money. Whether or not you can make use of such a device is up to you, but even if you only use half of them, I would still say it is good value for money.

Product: Nokia N800
Price: £279
Supplied by: Nokia UK