Samsung is bringing a new phone equipped with Mobile TV to South Korea, the SCH-B710. While Mobile TV is just taking its first baby steps here in the States, in South Korea it’s been going strong for some time now, so they’re already on to a second generation of phones capable of streaming DMB signals.
This new phone actually offers picture-in-picture viewing on the phone. Yes, on a screen so small you can barely watch one show you’re now able to watch two at the same time. Generally speaking, the South Korean consumer electronics market is a look into the future of our own tech landscape, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility for us to be able to watch both 30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on our phones simultaneously at some point. Finally!
The Good: Gorgeous design; compact, handy size; simple operation; FM radio.
The Bad: Average screen display; keys lack depth; mediocre feature set; no Bluetooth; small onboard memory.
The Bottom Line: Once you fall in love with its design, its average features probably won’t matter to you anymore. Just make sure you don’t need more from your mobile.
The Good: The LG CU500 is the first carrier-offered HSDPA phone in North America. It’s a quad-band world phone with a great slim design, external music buttons, and a camera with a rotating lens. Features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, an audio player, a Micro SD memory card slot, a speakerphone, and access to exclusive content, courtesy of Cingular Video and Cingular Music.
The Bad: The LG CU500 has two superskinny function buttons on the side that are difficult to press; we also didn’t like that you have to remove the battery in order to get to the Micro SD card slot.
The Bottom Line: The LG CU500 is one of the fastest phones we’ve ever tried, with swift downloads and impressive video streaming speeds. The feature set is impressive; the picture and audio quality are great; and the slim, attractive design is a bonus.
The Good: The Sony Ericsson P990i is the crème de la crème of Sony Ericsson smart phones, with a sleek design that incorporates a QWERTY keyboard coupled with the latest in mobile technology. Features include a 2-megapixel camera, a music player, a business card scanner, video recording, and support for 3G/UMTS and for Wi-Fi networks.
The Bad: The Sony Ericsson P990i is a little on the bulky side, and the QWERTY keyboard may be too small for some people. The price is also prohibitively high.
The Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson P990i may be the perfect smart phone for tech-minded consumers, but its exorbitantly high price may put a lot of people off.
