The Good: This is a well featured phone incorporating a 2 mega pixel camera with flash and portrait mirror, music player, two sets of speakers and an integrated GPS. Navigation controls are cramped but easy to use; and both the external and internal displays are clear and crisp.
The Bad: Neither the camera nor music player is anything exceptional. Pictures are blurred and grainy, with a noticeable lag time when changing between camera settings. Music sounds tinny, with distortion apparent at higher volumes.
The Bottom Line: This is a well rounded phone, which, whilst not likely to win any awards, nevertheless has a number of useful features for both the business and leisure user. The dedicated button to send calls to voicemail and stereo speakers are a nice touch. However, the mediocre camera and music player is a bit of a let down. All in all, this is a good buy for the average user; however there are models on the market with a bit more style and panache.
The Good: Like many other phones on the market, the Sanyo M1 is stuffed with lots of multimedia applications. Among those highly functional apps are a two megapixel camera, Sprint’s new push-to-talk service, a music player, and EV-DO support. If you like video, there is also access to streaming content. The M1 also has 1GB of internal memory, more than enough for most users.
The Bad: Sanyo M1 has plenty of features, but it isn’t exactly the best looking cell phone. The design is large and boxy, while the screen is sometimes difficult to see in bright daylight. Pictures from the camera leave a little bit to be desired in regards to picture quality.
The Bottom Line: Sanyo’s new toy is a power packed phone that can do a ton of things. It isn’t a pretty piece by any means, but its highly functional nature and huge number of features make it a great phone for people who like lots of extras.
The Good: Samsung has certainly succeeded in creating a stylish cell phone. The overall design looks good and is compact enough to provide quite a bit of convenience. In addition to that, customers have raved about the improved call quality of the phone. For those that love Bluetooth, there is integrated Bluetooth technology included within this phone.
The Bad: Samsung tried to go big with a VGA camera on its M300, but the camera produces poor quality with its pictures. One of the biggest problems associated with this phone is the low speaker phone volume. In addition to that, the relatively small amount of internal memory (8MB) is too low for most folks.
The Bottom Line: The Samsung M300 is a little basic, but it gets the job done. For those just looking to make cell phone calls with a good looking phone, this is a good choice. For those people who demand a little bit more out of their phone, there might be a better option elsewhere. Overall, it is a good choice for people who don’t need a great camera phone.
RIM today announced the BlackBerry 8830, RIM’s first device to combine CDMA technology with GSM for global roaming. The 8830 is also RIM’s first CDMA device with the company’s new generation of hardware, featuring a thin design (0.55 inches), four-way trackball navigation, and a microSD memory card slot. Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint will offer the phone. The 8830 provides EVDO high-speed data on CDMA networks and GPRS data on GSM 900 / 1800 networks overseas. Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, media player, and a large QVGA display round out the feature set. Verizon Wireless announced it will offer the 8830 starting May 14 for business customers. Sprint will launch the 8830 in July, offering it with unlocked GSM so customers can use cheaper SIM cards when traveling, or the included Sprint SIM card to keep their own phone number.
