BLACK BERRY BOLD 9700...!

With the previous Bold model about a year past its original release, the Blackberry Bold 9700 came out at a perfect time. With sleeker looks and more powerful hardware than the previous model, it's just the right device to put RIM firmly in the thick of the business smartphone market.

Physically, the handset looks nothing like its predecessor. The new body is more svelte and compact, with an aesthetic that should appeal to both genders. Not only is it more pocketable than the previous Bold, it's also slimmer than this year's popular Tour. With classy looks, appealing lines and a great feel in the hand, it's an easy winner in the design department.

The downside to the compact frame is that the 9700's screen is smaller at 2.44 inches (compared to its predecessor's 2.75-inch). Display, at a 480x360 resolution, is brilliant, with crisp lines and vibrant colors. Navigation array, 35-key QWERTY keypad (crammed, but large and comfortable, buttons) and the rest of the physical controls work admirably. UI is similar to the previous device's, save for some slight refinements in OS 5.0.

As a phone, the quad-band handset manages excellent call quality on both ends of the conversation. Voices sounded clear, with nary the sign of any distortion. The speakerphone mic picked up voices very well on our end, although speaker quality was just average. Battery life has a rated talk time of 6 hours, which should be good for a couple days of regular use.

With a powerful 624MHz CPU, the smartphone runs very fast. Coupled with speedy 3G, performance of connected apps is downright snappy. Browser has received much improvement over RIM's previous versions (faster Javascript, CSS and Google Gears). Despite their efforts, however, the browser still lags behind other smartphones, marked by very slow-responding navigation.

The Bold 9700 comes with the usual Blackberry smartphone features, including a souped-up messaging and productivity suite, aGPS and Bluetooth. There's the excellent Blackberry Enterprise Server, of course, which supports Exchange, Domino and GroupWise. There's also an attachment viewer, a bevy of pre-installed messaging clients and Documents To Go.

Unlike many of Blackberry's previous releases, the phone comes with both 3G and Wi-Fi, allowing you more chances of staying connected wherever you end up (yep, it's a world phone too). The Wi-Fi service even comes with UMA, which lets you make unrestricted calls over data lines without running up your minutes.
The media player is decent, with a good range of supported formats. The 3.2 megapixel camera was a huge step-up from its predecessor, managing excellent photo quality, while providing for a good range of editing options.
Overall, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is an excellent business phone, especially for frequent travelers who could use both the 3G and Wi-Fi support. The browser, while decent, is the handset's only low point, one that we expect RIM to work on during the next year.

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NOKIA 5800 XPRESSMUSIC...!

 

Introduction / Preview : Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, a mobile device for music that brings innovative new features to the mass market. Delivering on Nokia's vision to provide the best total music experience possible, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be among the first devices to support Comes With Music, Nokia's groundbreaking service which offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue. videos and photos. The Media Bar also offers a direct link to the web and to online sharing. Because the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic supports Flash content, individuals can surf the entire web, not just pieces of it. In addition, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers all the music essentials, including a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory for up to 6000 tracks and support for all main digital music formats, and a 3.5mm jack. Built-in surround sound stereo speakers offer the industry's most powerful sound.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a S60 5th Edition device with a resistive touch screen and tactile feedback. The device has variety of input methods: stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and UI control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini qwerty keyboard, handwriting recognition). Use the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to connect to mobile broadband using WLAN or HSDPA (3.5G). Supported WCDMA frequencies depend on the region where the device is available. Find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps. 
When it comes to music phones, people all over the world want a device that is a great music experience - with more memory, loud and powerful speakers, easy synchronization - and must still work well as a mobile phone with direct access to important contacts and content. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic delivers on all counts and allows consumers to access and share content. 

Media Bar, Contacts Bar - putting people first
Taking advantage of touch screen technology, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic introduces the 'Media Bar', a handy drop down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment, including favourite tracks, 
Ensuring a seamless music experience, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic also provides easy access to browse and purchase tracks from the Nokia Music Store, where applicable, while the newly updated Nokia Music PC software allows for easy drag-and-drop transfer of songs and management of any music collection. 

The innovative 'Contacts Bar' lets consumers highlight four favorite contacts on their home-screen and, through a single touch, track a digital history of recent text messages, emails, phone logs, photos and blog updates. 
For the best screen resolution available on a mobile phone, the 3.2" widescreen display brings photos,video clips and web content to life in vibrant color and true clarity. With a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and recording, the device is ideal for VGA qualityvideo recording and playback. 

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic also features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and, with a single touch, images or videos can be shared via a favorite online community, such as Share on Ovi, Flickr, or Facebook. Music playlist song titles can also be shared through Bluetooth, MMS or online sharing. 

Music for the masses
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic supports 60 languages worldwide, which covers nearly 90 percent of the world's population. As people around the world use their phones in different ways, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers a variety of input methods including a virtual alphanumeric keypad, a virtual computer-style QWERTY keyboard, a pen stylus and for true music enthusiasts, a plectrum are all available. 
Additional features include Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, and USB 2.0 High-Speed. 
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available worldwide beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008 for an estimated retail price of 279 EUR before taxes and subsidies. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic featuring Comes With Music will be available early next year. Pricing details to follow. 

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I MATE (JASJAR )...!

Design

If portability, aesthetics, and usability of phone functions are of significant importance to you when purchasing a PDA, you may as well close this browser window now. The JASJAR is not for the stylish teen or those with simple needs; it's a business tool designed specifically for mobile professionals. For most, one look at the device is sure to be a dead giveaway of this fact -- it's an eye-sore, to be frank.

It weighs 285g and meas

ures 81mm by 127.7mm by 25mm; given the fact that it's equipped with a 62-key QWERTY keyboard and swivelling touch screen, we're unsure whether to call it a miniaturised laptop PC or a smartphone. Regardless, one great aspect of this design is that data entry ranks among the best we've seen from a device of this size. Punching out long e-mails and word documents is extremely comfortable, thanks to the relatively large keys.

In addition to the keypad, data can also be inputted using the stylus and 3.6-inch touchscreen. Yet pulling out the stylus when you only need to accomplish a simple task can be a chore, so there's also a number of handy shortcut keys. Volume, camera, voice dial, calling and power buttons all make an appearance and, thankfully, they're all located in logical positions.

The swivelling screen allows the device to be closed with the screen facing either internally or externally. The former provides protection against scratching, but if you plan to use the phone feature you'll want to have the screen facing outwards, as the speaker and microphone are located here. It's also worth noting that the JASJAR will automatically switch between portrait and landscape modes depending on the position of the screen.

Features

One of the most impressive aspects of the JASJAR is its 3G network support, as smartphones aren't commonly 3G-capable. The device also sports tri-band GSM/GPRS (900/1800/1900) connectivity, 802.11b Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Infrared, making it easily the most connected PDA/smartphone device we've encountered.

It's got two integrated cameras -- one 1.3-megapixel offering (with flash/focus light) on the back, and a secondary CIF (352x288) camera on the front for video conferencing. The second camera complements the 3G connectivity option nicely, as it provides a compelling application for making use of the additional bandwidth provided by a 3G network.

If you're not impressed yet, you will be when you hear that the device's 3.6-inch display boasts a resolution of 640x480. There's plenty of screen space to work with, and we didn't have any issues reading the display while outdoors.

Under the hood is a powerful set of components, including a speedy 520MHz Intel processor, 64MB of RAM and 128MB of flash ROM. Should you require more space to store your files, there's also an SD expansion slot.

Like most current smartphones, the JASJAR runs Windows Mobile 5.0, and thus comes bundled with pocket versions of Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), Outlook, Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger. Your files and tasks can be synchronised with your desktop PC using ActiveSync, which also allows you to install any third-party Java applications.

Of course, push e-mail is supported as well. If your JASJAR isn't updated to include this feature, be sure to check out our DIY guide on the subject for detailed information on how to do this yourself.

Performance

We apologise for labouring the point, but we must re-iterate that we found the JASJAR to be unsuitable for use as a primary mobile phone. Unless you're comfortable using a Bluetooth headset, you'll soon tire of the device's size, weight and unorthodox design.

We found the processor and RAM to be adequate, and there's little delay when loading up applications. The JASJAR's battery provides around eight hours of talk time (slightly less if you're on 3G) and around 250 hours of standby time.

Despite its unsavoury aesthetics, the JASJAR is an ideal companion for the mobile professional that needs to input large amounts of data on the go.

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